You can’t bottle it, you can’t Google it. What is the magic that creates a spark between brands and young people? How do you capture something that’s so dynamic it’s gone before you know it? Reporting from the front line of youth advertising, King Adz digs deep and gets to the core of what makes a successful campaign today: a big idea that forges a real connection with the audience.
The networked, multimedia era of Internet 2.0 has produced a new kind of advertising – Advertising 2.0. Not only is the medium no longer the message; the medium no longer has anything to do with it. Culture is merging with commerce, and the only way for advertisers and brands to connect with young people is to get involved with the cultures and subcultures that make up their world.
There are no tried and tested formulas. You have to speak the right language – audio and visual, real and virtual – in the right place. King Adz’s research has taken him across the globe: Europe and North America, Brazil, Russia, China, India, Hong Kong, South Africa and beyond. He has visited skate parks, clubs, gigs, and street art events. In each location he has talked to young people to find out what really fires them, and he has talked to the young advertising creatives who have succeeded in connecting with them.
Through 88 numbered topics, King Adz shares his unique insight into the cultures of young people worldwide, including viral video, augmented reality, girls and boys, sex and subcultures, as well as case histories of stand-out campaigns and brands (Vans, Stüssy, Levi’s and more). There are interviews with the 'legends' - ad execs who have cracked this notoriously tricky market – and comments throughout from creatives working right now around the world.