NEWS FLASH: The Rock stars of the past have been replaced by a new breed of star. Gone are the days of youth talking about Eddie Van Halen’s god-like status and whether he is the greatest guitarist of all time. They have migrated to discussions around action sports and Tony Hawk’s Frontside Noseslide to Fakie. A strong example of this shift is the popularity of the film, Lords of Dogtown, and action sports video games. Lords of Dogtown tells the true story of local teens whose daring moves revolutionized skateboarding in the 1970s.

So has there been a shift from kickin’ Rock n’ Roll to Grinding Rail Slides? Many teens and young male adults in particular are certainly seeing through the corporate dominated music industry, and the plastic replacement Rock stars are making them sick (sick….not to be confused with positive use of the word). Music will always play an important part in youth culture but the industry is suffocating itself and losing touch. The music scene has also become dominated by DJ’s in youth culture, where music is sampled and re-mixed rather than built from the ground up.

Although the rock n’ roll gods and extreme sport icons are quite unique, we are seeing very strong parallels between the two genres. While one generation grew up dreaming of getting the call from Slash to replace Axl Rose, another generation dreams of sponsorship opportunities and being branded by Fox Racing. The point of course, as marketers it would be ill conceived to market to such a small segment of pro/expert extreme sport fanatics. Just as it would be a mistake to target rock stars when launching a music promotion. What are we doing then? We are leveraging the excitement around adventure / extreme sports and fueling the dream. Brand Association at its finest! We should also see a far more positive long term impact by associating brand’s with sports regardless of the actions of the athletes.

How do we reach this young adult/youth audience? Does your brand have the fuel? With so many options available to marketers advertising dollars are spread thin. We are seeing less advertising dollars being spent on TV and more online, with young adults spending more time on the internet. This has resulted in youth oriented brands investing in online advertising, blogging, social networks, promotions, and spending larger dollars on interactive websites.

Marketing budgets are moving away from expensive and ‘difficult to determine ROI’ traditional advertising contracts to the cost-effective and reportable online initiatives. This is in part due to marketing managers that are faced with increased pressure to provide metrics and report on the ROI generated from all marketing activities.

At Henderson Robb we believe that communicating to the younger audience should be done in new, fun and exciting ways i.e. contests and games. Media should be animated, interactive and all encompassing. We are confident that youth oriented marketing campaigns and sports sponsorships will continue to evolve and grow as youth and young adults continue to be granted more purchasing power.

Henderson Robb has been fulfilling this dream for our clients through our ability to introduce creative ideas that are strategically aligned with their brand. Henderson Robb represents the interests of Snowboard.com, Skateboardvillage.com, Freeskiing.com and SledClub.com. Click on these links to see what we are up to: McDonald’s Case Study; Nissan Case Study; Virgin Case Study.