Samples of copywriting work

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

European Youth Trend Report ‘09 Trendwolves

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

european youth trends

Lay-out: Büro Proper Design cover: Toykyo Productions Illustrations: Daan Rosseel, Gerard Leysen, Toykyo Productions, AR.T Designers & Architects and Büro Proper Photos: Dennis De Groot, Enric Ballo, Floris Dekker and Sébastien Martinez Barat With thanks to Trendwolves Maarten, Filip, Tom, Alex, Polle, Ellen, Andrew, Stefanie, Simona, Lynn and special thanks to Gino Delmotte and Joanna Desmet (BrandSpecies), Netlog and all young ones who have participated.

December 2008

All rights reserved. No part of this report may be reproduced, published or redistributed, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from Trendwolves NV.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Table of Content Introduction Consumption Elements of Youth Culture Talent Corner Trends and Businessopportunities Facts and Figures [about youngsters in] Europe

5

7 18 44 144 161 200

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Elements of youth culture.

Young people can no longer be defined as an age group, a culture, a music style, a picture, a story... A fragmented society has complex cultures. Young people regularly switch cultures and mix different cultures simultaneously. The combination of cultures is structured, but the choices within them are not. It is thus impossible to define young people in one single way. Trendwolves proposes 8 elements that facilitate the understanding of youth cultures: travel, skills, rebellion, looks, heroes, gathering, diy en connectivity.

These 8 elements are not all-comprising. They are constantly changing and not exhaustive. Young people might shine in one element and not pay any attention (be it intentional or not) to others. It might thus not be possible to give a young person a place in all 8. The different elements also cover common ground, where young people feel at home. Rebellion often happens in a gathering, if you travel you are often connected...

The different elements can give depth to these stories about young people in 2009.

44

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

LOOKS

45

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Looks Ask adults to introduce themselves and they spontaneously speake about their jobs and children, and show off their cars and houses. Young people refer to music and show off their clothes. With their clothes they can profile and distringuish themselves. Skills are worth more, not everyone has them and definitely for the young: looks are an easy tool. Looks are apart from a real life characteristic also an online phenomenon. The look of your personal website, blog or social networking page and your avatar communicate an impression of who you are. The background / wallpaper of your blog expresses even more about your mood, because it is quickly adaptable and low in cost. Online you don’t carry your history with you. Something that is not the case for a lot of quickly evolving fashion trends.

When questioned about the new year’s hopes and expectations, fewer and fewer teens respond they wish to make the world a better place for everyone, but strongly express their desire for Chanel sunglasses, Louis Vuitton shoulder bags, or Tommy Hilfiger shirts. The youth are becoming incredibly materialistic, fashion – savvy and luxuryhunters. Sales worldwide for the luxury market amounted to $150 billion in 2006, with youngsters emerging as most devoted consumers.

Starting from the 8th grade, despite having to wear uniforms at school, girls concentrate on premium accessories. At the age of 20 they already display a “history” of high-class purses: starting with a duffel-like Vuitton, they move on to an Yves St. Laurent carryall and plan a Prada for the Christmas party. A decade ago only mothers were carrying these status symbols, but today daughters alike are hungry for exclusivity.

Luxury accessories provide not only the pleasure of wearing a pricey item, but also the psychological added value of prestige, higher esteem from the others and high-status authority. The rule seems to say “one splurge bag per year”.

Although most premium items are fueled by mum’s and dad’s credit cards, youngsters save their pocket money to acquire a Tiffany collar, a cashmere sweater, or a €300 pair of jeans. Judging that all their revenues represent self disposable income, the ambition of owning a high-end item is easier to put into practice. Added to this, as opposed to

designer clothes, a first-class accessory can be worn daily thus justifying its price.

Teenagers and young adults inherit a different world nowadays: they are surrounded by more VIPs to look up to and to emulate. Celebrity TV shows, tabloids and fashion web sites feed the youngsters’ predisposition to luxury. Girls get inspiration from magazines like Cosmopolitan, Elle, Glamour, and attempt to recreate the outfits in “Sex and the City”, “Laguna Beach,” “The O.C.,” “The Hills”, “Highschool musical” and “My Super Sweet 16”. If Jessica Alba, who embodies girls’ beauty model, wears a monogrammed tote bag by Hersh, why wouldn’t they deserve one too?

Exploiting youngsters’ entrance in the luxury market, designer advertisers begin to use younger celebrities in their commercials: Scarlett Johansson for Louis Vuitton, Lindsay Lohan for Jill Stuart, or Justin Timberlake for Givenchy perfume in 2008.

As teens cannot afford a head-to-toe luxurious wardrobe, the result is an eclectic look, a mixture of styles, a “supermarket” appearance. They continue shopping for €10 T-shirts at H&M, for €20 jackets at Jennyfer, but add a €500 Chloe Paddington purse in Paris. Therefore, a chic-mélange look is a common encounter today: still caring about comfort, youngsters wear baggy pants, vintage T-shirts from second hand stores, accompanied by a Gucci bag, or a Calvin Klein belt. The so-called “democratization of luxury” phenomenon

46

encourages them they are on the right track and do not risk to fall into bad taste traps. Learning the secrets of differentiation and individualism, mass fashion brands like Zara, Gap, Marks and Spencer’s have entered the luxury market by changing their marketing strategies, imitating scarcity and offering better price-value. Zara, for instance, creates exclusivity by rapid product spin: a product gets from the drawing phase on the shelf in two weeks. UK’s Marks and Spencer’s introduced limited clothes editions and invested enormously in fashion magazine ads like Vogue, Harpers & Queen, previously the sole apanage of topnotch brands.

Seeing Marks and Spencer’s logo next to Chanel or Hermes in Vogue undoubtedly makes a shift in the consumers’ perceptions. Consequently, the “democratization of luxury” enabled over-wealthy stars to combine a dress from Zara with a £5,000 watch from Chanel, and young fashion victims in front of TV sets to imitate.

Remember the British Telecom ad “It’s good to talk?” Today is even better to see and to be seen. To show off.

47

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

I buy a lot of things online, brands like Mishka. I like to wear clothes that are exclusive, not everybody has those clothes.

I hate to see other people walking around with the same clothes as me.

Some brands are really not well-known, but have beautiful things. A lot of brands are not in European stores yet, which is a pity.

The first time I consciously became aware of looks was when I first saw producer Pharell. He was just an upcoming star at the time and he was wearing Bathing Ape in all his clips and videoshoots, I immediately became a big fan of the brand. Shortly after, I found myself ordering Bathing Ape sweaters on the net. He really put that brand on the map.

I have an Obama t-shirt. For sure. Somehow it is a political statement I guess. I’ve been wearing it for a long time already.

I just hope they won’t commercialize them too much now that he’s elected. I don’t want to see all of my classmates with the same Obama shirt I have.

48

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

(Lars, 17, Antwerp)

I think I dress casual.

But it’s my own style though, quite classic, but every now and then with something more flashy, that catches the eye.

49

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

D.I.Y

69

70

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

DIY DIY or Do It Yourself is a concept that has been growing in popularity since the 70s with the punk movement. DIY refers to the customisation of existing products and the creation of products from scratch. DIYers use their own systems, not the existing structures. They organise their own gigs, have their own record labels, bring out music on CDs or even old-fashioned cassettes, they design their own clothing, knit, make their own arts and crafts and promote themselves via MySpace and YouTube.

“When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either” (Leo Burnett). Youngsters today are overwhelmingly daring and creative: handmade jewelry, self-designed clothes, Guinnessworthy gadgets. In a time of galaxy-wide commercial labels and skyrocketing advertising budgets, the young generation builds their own unique products. We often find youngsters in the student home, buried under self-education manuals, or in their personal labs, surrounded by an arsenal of scissors, rulers, screwdrivers, tape, glue, and – invariably - beer. The DIY virus turns them into hybrid consumer-manufacturers.

In the VALS model (Values and Lifestyles) launched by the Stanford Research Institute, which differentiates between Actualizers, Fulfillers, Achievers, Experiencers, Believers, Strivers, Makers and Strugglers, nowadays youngsters qualify as Experiencers. They are energetic, impulsive and enthusiastic consumanufacturers, craving diversity, the new and the offbeat.

The bottom line is improvisation, along with trial and error.

From minor innovations such as spider chocolate cakes to strikingly complex projects (the Batmobile back to life from a battered ‘78 Corvette, density foam and fiberglass), youngsters are exceedingly creative. In Romania, the capoeira group K-noi built their home-made musical

instruments in the spring 2008: berimbau, a percussion instrument, composed of a wooden 1.5 m bow, a steel string, and dried hollowed-out gourd fruit, together with a shaker instrument, caxixi, with seeds for the accompanying sound.

Improvisation leads the way: for Halloween gravestones, youngsters employ kickboards, for mike stands they use bottled water and jumper cable, for blankets they recycle computer keyboards. British artist Ben Wilson looks for black gum pavement spots in the streets to turn them into miniature drawings using colored chalk, and a number of painters solely work in previously chewed gum, protesting against gum pollution. No raw material is irreplaceable and banal objects gain unbelievable new usages, contributing to comprehensive projects. The result is non-repeatable mouthslacking products, worthy of inventor fairs and exhibitions.

But not all today’s youngsters create is surprising and unpractical. A great number sew their own clothes, design their Halloween costumes, brew their own beer or grow nano-watermelons in the backyard. A reaction to the frugality era? A step back from the American-winded consumerism?

DIY does not embody belt-tightening methods, but bursting creativity and commercial sense. Producing limited stocks, today’s youngsters sell their self-designed freight in online stores, develop their e-commerce sites, shoot their own

71

photos, and distribute the orders. The DIY-individual is an all-inclusive genius.

Apart from the business-orientation, today’s youngster, born tech-savvy, is a computer expert and electronic buff.

The vast majority of the innovations are technical gadgets: home-made radios, kitchen robots, electronic-paper clocks, animated stuffed toys and gas powered bicycles. Their room or improvised lab is a mess, their computers are overheated, and their brains are swollen. But they are not afraid of sharing the production secret – on the internet, innumerable blogs reveal the step-by-step building process, photo-sharing sites overspill with photographs of the innovation, and discussion boards are populated by detailed testimonies of the hardships encountered, of the trial and error proceedings.

For brand owners, the 2009 youngster is difficult to persuade – he definitely needs an out-of-the-box approach and brainy brand message.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

DIY Alicia 24 Barcelona

I have my own shop, Dudua, which I opened one month after graduating. I have my own brand, Chrochette, I think up items to crochet, make a prototype and then a couple of old ladies take care of production. The most famous design of my second brand Sirena con Jersey, the ‘Moustache Bag’ was selected for a contest in the States. This gave us a lot of publicity and our stock was completely sold out afterwards. I organise iPod battles, competitions for fantasycakes, workshops and cheap art parties. I use the internet to promote my activities, sell my stuff and search for talented DIY’ers. Sometimes I am afraid I will be copied. I am not too sure what my rights are. Making money is going slowly! I don’t have money, I spend all my money on the shop. My biggest fear is not having enough money to keep the store open. Next year I want to start my own label, find shops in Europe who want to sell my stuff, visit the States and try to make money with my shop. People will always buy t-shirts.

Site: www.myspace.com/dudua - http://duduadudua.blogspot.com/

72

73

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

CONNECTIVITY

77

78

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Connectivity

Online 24/7. Wire/Wireless. Accounts on MySpace/Facebook/Netlog/Youtube/Delicious/Twitter/Skype/…Young people in front of their laptop, their PSP, using their mobile, their MP3, ... It is logical that it seems as if everyone is very anti-social and just interested in their own little world. But in this new light young people communicate with each other and keep their friends posted on their travels and arrange to meet up. Generation Y members have bytes running through their veins, and live on being connected.

Carefully nurturing their accounts, European youngsters keep contact with friends through social networks, are constantly on messaging software, share loony self-made movies on video-sharing sites, organize events through Facebook, and practice moblogging. Youngsters own profiles on at least two of the most popular social-networking platforms: Facebook, MySpace, Netlog, Hi5 and Friendster. According to ComScore Media Metrix November 2007, Facebook members spend an average of 21 minutes on the site, log in twice a day, and surf an average of 50 pages. Permanently exchanging personal information, they feed their profiles with photo albums, notes and confidential blog content, comment on friends’ walls, subscribe as Fans to VIP’s profiles and send virtual gifts like T-shirts, Teddy-bears and pounding hearts. Thirsty for the others’ acceptance, boys launch polls asking “Do you think I’m sexy?”, while girls closely verify the news feeds for some digital gossip: who’s friends with whom, who joined the Blonde Bombes’ group, what Y wrote on Z’s Wall. Certain e-commerce websites run Facebook Beacon, tracking all the actions that visitors take, from subscribing to a newsletter, downloading a catalog to ordering a product, and so spicy stories invade the News feed and the chit-chat thrives. “Johnny ordered the book “Get rid of hemorrhoids in no time” may well be a Facebook story attracting virtual roars of laughter.

Born computer experts, youngsters learned to broadcast themselves through podcasts and vodcasts. Using such

resources as MyPodcast.com for audio files or Blip.tv for video podcasts, they record their own radio & TV shows, regularly post new episodes, and broadcast them to the online audience. For wider distribution, the young link their feeds to iTunes, the market leader in the field, get loads of subscribers, and benefit from the opportunity of having their work delivered straight to subscribers’ iPhones, mp3 players or other portable media gadgets.

Youngsters update their status hourly, letting the world know how they are spending every second. On Yahoo Messenger, status lines like “Having a shower with my gf. Mama Mia!” are a common encounter, on live-talk software Skype, one can learn what song the other is just listening to, while on Facebook developers have recently added the “What are you doing right now?” field to fill in. Passionate about connectivity, teens immediately embraced the idea behind Twitter, chirping to friends all the actions they have just taken: “Billy bought plane tickets for San Tropez”, “Cutie pie ate a strawberry”, or “Tim quarreled with his Smurf-brained boss”.

To organize a gang reunion or a big time party, youngsters resort to SMS, instant messaging, conference calls or the Event functionality on Facebook. The London underground party in June 2008, promoted on Facebook as a reaction against the mayor’s decision to forbid alcohol on public transport, gathered thousands of party-hunters, degenerating into a drunken chaos. The Tube changed into a crowded party space, teens passed out, others have started fighting,

79

leading to the closing of six stations and the out-of-service elimination of several trains. Seventeen participants were arrested, whereas seven Tube staff and two police officers were wounded. Responsible for the shocking underground scenes was the Facebook group Circle Line Cocktail Party, whose administrator, a 25-year old banker, insisted they meant the event as a private 100 person-reunion.

But not all events planned and advertised on Facebook end up uncomfortably: the National Frites Day Brussels in September 2008 was an undeniable success. The relaxing reunion, taking place in Reine Market, was organized by two members of the group “It’s not “French fries” but “Belgian fries”, that rapidly attracted 4000 members in spite of starting out as a mere joke. The organizers claimed that fries build bridges between Belgians as the words “mayonnaise” and “frites” are the same in French and Flemish.

However, staying “connected’ is far from being chained to the computer for young people today. Always on the move, they update their blogs using their mobile phones - when an awesome picture is taken or an unforgettable video recorded, internet users upload them using the cell phone internet facility. Others refresh their photo gallery on Facebook while on the go by sending cell phone emails to mobile@facebook. com, and use Skype without their computers, transferring all contacts to their phone. The sky is the limit.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Edial 25 Amsterdam

Currently studying new media at the UVA in Amsterdam, Edial won a Vodafone Mobile Clicks award for ‘most promising start-up’ with MapTheGap, a promising mobile application for storing, developing and sharing ideas. Together with Ernst-Jan Pfauth he organised a Blog08, an Amsterdam-based conference about blogging.

I don’t see myself working for somebody five days in a week. Freedom is too important to me right now. Of course there are always targets to obtain, but it’s up to you to decide how you’re working towards them. You can work at home. You’ll do your hours anyhow, easily. All day long you’re getting information, e-mails and everything, that doesn’t stop when you’re at home, at least for me it doesn’t. That doesn’t mean it’s all instant though, when I get a reply to a mail within half a day after I sent it, I’m surprised. My parents watch the news and read the newspaper, and that’s it. For us, it’s completely different. I get emails all day, every day.

www.edial.nl www.mapthegap.nl

www.blog08.nl

www.spotlighteffect.nl

80

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Ernst-Jan 22 Amsterdam

When I was going to see the shoot of a Dutch television program which had our prime minister Jan-Peter Balkenende and rapper Ali B as guests I caught Balkenende after the show arguing with the interviewer about how he felt disrespected and misportrayed throughout the show. I wasn’t supposed to be there, but I had left my jacket and had come back in the studio to get it. I had a little camera with me, filmed the arguement, put it on my blog and it started to live it’s own life, national press covered the whole story and my blog was a big thing all of a sudden.

I’m a professional blogger now. Always working. Carrying my laptop around, in the evenings, in the weekends, always. But that’s because I love what I do. Our generation, we’re very individualistic, much more concerned about our personal branding.

Everything is image. Just the other day I posted a blog about how we were eating pizza at the office. I thought of it as a funny thing, but then again, that too was just us branding ourselves, showing off, look at us, hard-workers...

I wouldn’t want to live in a squat, but I’d love to work in one. I can imagine older generations having a hard time understanding our way of working. Sometimes we stop working to play a match of ping-pong for half an hour. When we go back to our desks we get the older people from downstairs looking at us: ‘Don’t you have anything better to do!’ But when they leave at five o’clock, we order pizza and continue working for a couple of hours. They don’t seem to get that.

dutchproblogger.com

www.blog08.nl

www.spotlighteffect.nl

81

GATHERING

95

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

96

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Gathering When you quit shopping with your parents, you might ask your friends for advice. The term sub-culture is now being replaced by neo-tribes, scenes or communities. All to show that young people still gather, but don’t want to lose their identity. Nowadays we place great emphasis on the individual, but gather to consciously distinguish ourselves, to meet and to exchange. Gathering is symbolical for youngsters: it ties the group together, reinforces group values, allows brainstorming and enhances creativity. Established groups have well-defined gathering places: a favorite bar or pub, a training center, a park, cellar, warehouse or street corner.

Parks count amongst popular meeting places, chosen by juggling lovers, capoeira and break-dance practitioners, football and volleyball fans, who can do what they enjoy most taking advantage of the open space. Bars are not to be forgotten – rockers’ gangs hang out in live music places decorated in leather, hip hoppers have their sacred places where shaved heads and piercings are a must, amateur singers meet in karaoke bars. In Brussels, Brits and Irish pub lovers concentrate in O’ Reilly’s, youngsters wishing to shake their bon-bons on R&B music go to Conway’s, Erasmus students invade Celtica, while newcomers feel drawn to Delirium, due to its offer of more than 2000 types of beer. In Bucharest, retro music listeners and youngsters in a mood for some live music head for Backstage. Serious clubbers, hunting big DJ names, opt for Krystal Glam Club, checking if it’s Seb Fontaine, Pete Tong or Steve Mac performing on the day. In Strasbourg, international students know Le Mosquito as a meeting place, with reasonable prices and a pleasant atmosphere, usually expanding beyond the doors of the bar up into the road, as the interior becomes insufficient for the student population.

Gatherings are sometimes organised by student associations.

Erasmus Student Network, aimed at assisting international students and spread in 280 cities from 32 countries,

organizes, on a voluntary basis, city tours, parties, pubcrawls, international dinners. ESN also takes responsibility for trips to cultural hotspots and national landmarks, gathers students in biking, tours or, especially in Switzerland, skiing excursions and ski weekends. With offices located from Iceland, Sweden and Finland to Spain, Greece, Malta, Bosnia and Herzegovina, ESN reunites youngsters in multicultural environments. Thursday is generally known as Student Day, so a host of youngsters enjoy long weekends, going out on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Boys’ gangs engage in mobile bus parties, electronic guitar training and pool playing, girls’ gangs go shopping, prepare private parties and common make-up sessions.

On a higher level, youngsters sharing similar tastes and lifestyle principles gather at festivals, concerts, workshops and street performances. Rock admirers don’t miss the Roskilde Music Festival, dating back to 1971, and yearly hosting among 170 rock bands and 80 000 spectators. In 2007, the festival featured Red Hot Chili Peppers, Beastie Boys, Björk, Tiësto, The Who, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age and a lot of other bands. Originally organized by two high school students from Roskilde, the festival assumed humanitarian and cultural goals, donating up to now a total of 11 million Euros to Amnesty International, War Victims in Iraq,

97

Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children, World Wildlife Fund. Hip Hop lovers reunite at the Hip Hop Kemp festival held yearly in the Czech Republic, Bohemia. Every August more than 20, 000 fans gather in the Festival Park, Hradec Králové. In 2008, the Hip Hop Kemp brought on stage stars like MAJORS, eMC, Kool Savas, Mr Lif & Akrobatik, The Roots, Atmosphere, Brother Ali, Olli Banjo, Huss & Hodn.

For the electronically-inclined, the Sonar festival takes place in Barcelona, with DJs like Goldfrapp, Bestival and Radio 1’s Rob da Bank spread in diverse venues all over the city.

Both electronic and rock fans come together at the legendary Pink Pop festival in Limburg, Netherlands. In May 2008, the festival attracted an enormous audience due to its first-class guests: Metallica, Alanis Morisette, The Verve, Groove, Armada Kaiser Chiefs and Rage Against The Machine.

Croatia doesn’t lag behind at all, hosting about 20 000 European young people at the VipINmusic Festival that took place in June this year near Lake Jarun in central Zagreb.

The concerts, featuring The Prodigy, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, The Go! Team made the crowd boogie ecstatically.

Gathering is vital for the group’s unity and preserves its culture. Knowing where to find the group, brand owners can sneak into the crowd, conduct field research and fusion with the target group.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

On Saturday 11th October 2008, a global manifestation took place with the theme ‘Freedom, not Fear’. The international protest against privacy violations gathered a great group of youngsters in 15 countries, who often expressed their opinion in a humorous way: eyecatching banners and slogans, floats, protest songs based on existing children’s songs and other original actions... We got it all when we followed a group of youngsters through the streets of Berlin. This is what one of them said:

Today we live in a very prosperous and generous society. We enjoy more wealth, security and freedom than at any previous time in history. But we need to make sure that we keep those standards that our ancestors fought and died for.

Our society is also one of insecurity about our politicians. It is hard for the older generations to keep track of technological advancements and the social elites fear to lose control over whatever happens within our society. Instead of embracing the new and much more open culture developing around the internet, politicians seek to regain control by invoking an irrational politics of fear. They exaggerate dangers and press for surveillance and state control in order to “save” us from unknown enemies and risks.

These developments are dangerous because they lead down a dark road that civilization had thought to have overcome.

Freedom and privacy are the very values that hold our society together and save us from the worst threat of all: a new totalitarianism. Giving up our freedom for a little bit of uncertain security is a bad tradeoff. It will make our society less secure, and full of fear and anxiety.

David, 24, Berlin

98

99

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

zie map: Trendrapport_2009_beelden

HEROES 105

106

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

HEROES We look up to heroes. We learn of them. Heroes help decide your life’s trajectory. Because of globalisation, heroes now have an international character. Today though we are seeing a shift towards local friends and family. Underlying this, an even bigger change is on the cards. Heroes are cut loose from location, time and space.

A major shift in young people’s role models has taken place.

In a time of glamorization of scandal and over-sexualisation, the youth turn to their own families as role models to look up to. Various surveys show that youngsters aged 13 – 24 choose their mothers, fathers, friends, siblings and grandparents as their heroes, naming them as source of inspiration, motivation and behavior. Youngsters realise the efforts and sacrifices parents make to offer them the best, admire parents’ ambition and hard-working spirit, wishing to follow in their footsteps. Besides family, youngsters name God as their hero, teachers, coaches, firefighters, police officers, presidents, golf players, crocodile hunters. Overwhelmed by frivolous media messages and surrounded by one-day TV and music stars, the bulk of young people return to classic values: resourcefulness, sharp minds, good-heart, sense of responsibility, courage, persuasive power. Heroes are no more glittering half-naked stars, decorative objects in a dubious TV studio, they are very active, creative people, who fight for a cause and make a difference in the community.

That is why Steve Irwin, Hillary Clinton, Will Smith (actor,

comedian and rap star), or Bianca Jagger, militating for human rights, abolition of death penalty and president of the World Future Council, appear frequently in young people’s role model tops.

But youngsters’ heroes are not necessarily today’s prominent figures, they are also resounding names from the past. A 2007 UK survey commissioned by the Arts Award about the most inspirational people reveals Walt Disney, the creator of Micky Mouse, as top hero of 18-25 year olds in the arts field, followed by Leonardo Da Vinci, the fourth on the list, Bob Marley and Marilyn Monroe. Forty years after his death, phenomenal Walt Disney does not sink into oblivion, Bob Marley, gone for more than 25 years, is still recognized by the youth as a visionary and “Third World superstar”, while Marilyn Monroe stays “the woman and actress prototype”.

The other youngster idols are personalities from the present, sizzling minds, unusually creative: comedian Peter Kay and graffiti artist Banksy, employing unconventional materials in his work (i.e. using a cow as a canvas).

On the other hand, nowadays music and movie stars still attract overwhelming numbers of fans: Justin Timberlake’s profile on Facebook displays almost 600,000 fans and more than 7,600 wall posts, Britney Spear’s profile gathers 300,000 fans, whereas Madonna’s Page shows 370, 000 and 6,800 wall posts.

Brands can also function as young people’s icons: youngsters totally share brand values and identify with brand ambassadors. Nike, taking the name of the Greek goddess of victory, has become the icon of sports lovers,

107

who are risk taking, competitive and irreverent. Using such brand ambassadors as Dennis Hopper or Spike Lee, Nike emanates feelings of self-confidence and triumph to loyal consumers. In turn, Adidas has become the hero of boys who want to play basketball as impressively as Kobe Bryant, the youngest NBA all-star player, or Kevin Garnett, and thus wear the sports shoes that these celebs wear. Adolescents also fell for the brand when it was featuring David Beckham, praising not only his football skills, but also his love life success due to the marriage with the ex-Spice Girls Victoria.

Adidas became equally girls’ idol through Anna Kournikova, the Russian tennis star, highly visible at the time of being an Adidas endorsee in newspapers, magazines and tabloids.

But adolescents’ heroes are not necessarily flesh and blood celebs, they are sometimes imaginary characters from comic stripes, cartoons, animation movies. Embodying altruism, power, fairness and morality, young people look up to these invented heroes, aspiring to achieve the same virtues in real life. Numerous 14-year olds mention Superman, Spiderman and Batman as their idols, due to the fact they fight for the innocent, for justice and struggle to install peace and wellbeing into the world.

A frightening number of brands nowadays forget to define the values they desire to convey and pay attention solely to sales volumes. To win youngsters’ hearts, brands need profound substance, deep emotional brand propositions, as glitter may be sufficient for generating trial, but not heavy users.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T

C

op yr

Daniel 22 Copenhagen

My heroes?

I think Hitchcock is one of the best directors on the movie scene. I look up to Michel Gondry. Both at directing movies and video clips he’s great. Sidney Lumet is a director who works great with his actors. For his 1957 movie ‘Twelve angry men’ about 12 men in 1 room, he made the actual room smaller only to generate more tension between the actors.

I know it’s against my business but I download movies myself. But I will be part of the next generation of movie-makers who will have to think about the distribution of movies. There will always be pirates. We have to get people back to the cinema, people need to feel like watching a movie on the big screen again.

Maybe government should open free cinemas. They have libraries, so why not cinemas? As long as my movies are beautiful, my life doesn’t have to be. I think less and less that I could change the world. I did do a party in a bus for Obama, which was the first campaign out of the USA. Hollywood? I doubt the USA will still be as important in twenty years from now. Go to the States to attend film school and work over there, you’re already part of the industry as a student. I prefer Denmark, I like paying taxes, the communities that we have and the fact the government supports young filmmakers over here. Maybe after 15 years I’ll do a project in the States. I have great admiration for my uncle, the film director Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, because he always surrounds himself with talented people. My father, a documentary maker, works very differently – he has worked with the same camera man for 10 years – and we often have discussions about that. But still, he’s in the business... does not care about other people’s expectations, and does what he likes. Once he wrote a protest song that was censored by the authorities.

108

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

e-mail: dkraghjacobsen@hotmail.com 109

TRAVEL

115

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

116

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Travel

Time and borders are blurring. Young people travel from the 30s to the future, from the elderly home to a far off friend, from offline to online. Doing nothing has become chatting with a friend from America or gaming with someone they have never met before in real life. In gaming, film, music and in reality we travel from one setting to the next. Always on the move.

The youngster today is a born globetrotter, physically and mentally. Spending one weekend at a buddy in Frankfurt, the next one at the cousin in Nice and the third at the “petit chou chou” in Rome is perfectly natural today.

In the quest of new adventures, youngsters are regularly present on online travel communities such as tripadvisor. com, tripist.com and lonelyplanet.com. Willing to know about the must-sees in St Tropez, about the Rila Monastery in Bulgaria, or the best beer dens in Brussels, they consult the reviews on Trip advisor, rate the ones they consider helpful, and submit their own tips. On Tripist, an interactive world travel guide, youngsters look for solutions to specific concerns: “Please tell me a cheap central hostel to lie down for a night in London”, “Gimme the address of a high-class restaurant in Vigo, I’m planning to propose to my girlfriend”, or “Where can I rent skis in Zakopane, Poland? I need help fast, babycakes.” Preparing their forthcoming journeys, youngsters seek practical info (addresses, phone numbers, opening - closing hours), peer personal opinions and –last, but not least- proves, like pictures from B&B dorms, from the latest attractions in theme parks and reasonablypriced discos. Hotel and restaurant owners can no longer post idealistic Photo-shopped pictures on their websites, as the truth comes to the surface easily in online travel

communities, disclosed by loyal members: nasty furniture, unreliable wireless connections or disappointing service are disclosed in no time.

Geotagging makes reality check even easier: youngsters add to their uploaded photos and videos identification metadata, usually consisting of the latitudinal and longitudinal geographical coordinates. Desiring to assess their forthcoming holiday accommodation and natural surroundings, all the internet users have to do is log in to a Geotagging-enabled search engine for images and videos.

Brilliant.

The Erasmus programme, celebrating 20 years in 2007, has also strongly enhanced youth mobility. In its launching year, 3 244 European academic students have traveled abroad, while in 2005 almost 1% of the entire European student population has spent a semester in a foreign country (144 032). In the last twenty year 1,5 million students have obtained Erasmus grants and the European Commission plans to reach 3 million till 2012. But Erasmus is much more than qualifications obtained abroad and a CV hot spot: it is about sharing, living in tiny studios and crowded multilingual student homes, about saving money and partying till dawn.

Behind each door, another destiny: girls from Malta share the kitchen with boys from Bratislava, go to classes with a

117

bunch of Hungarian colleagues, and chit-chat in the washingmachine room with Finish students.

Low-cost flights encourage youth mobility: with 20 euros youngsters go back and forth from Brussels to Rome, not hesitating to run for a long weekend to some ol’ high school colleague, meet an MSN friend face to face at halfway distance, or simply go home for a birthday party.

Fearless globetrotters resort to Couchsurfing.com and similar affordable traveling strategies. Joining the online community, youngsters build a profile, search for volunteer hosts in 5km from their travel destination, and contact the most convenient offers. Hosts offer their couch for free under the reciprocation principle: guests crash there for a few days, but show their goodwill by bringing gifts or launching a return invitation. Verified in advance by Couchsurfing administrators for fulfilling the safety criteria, hosts can achieve level 3 after giving their genuine name and home address, can be vouched for or promoted as ambassadors. Following the itinerary of their trip, globetrotters connect to hosts in each city where they aim to rest for a night or two.

Craving for the attractive unknown, youngsters praise novelty, enjoy living on the edge and thrive on risky voyages.

They are self-confident, feeling comfortable wherever they go, and adventurous.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T

C

op yr

Helena 24 Berlin

The production of my fashion brand Niconé is in Portugal. We don’t want to produce in China because it’s so far away and we don’t understand each other. I was born in former Yugoslavia, I go back for holidays because my parents have a house there. I don’t have any family or friends there, so I don’t have a real connection to my home country. When I was 16 I moved from Berlin to a village near Munich because my mother wanted me to start my studies. I went to live with my father, who is much more open-minded and became a make-up artist.

He lives in a village full of old people though. I was very homesick but kept telling myself ‘don’t go back’. It was a good experience because now I can leave whenever I want and start again... In January we always go traveling for 5 weeks, in 2008 we went to Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and Thailand. In 2009 we are going to Cape Town and Miami. I want to spend the summer in Europe, it’s nice here. I have been to Tokyo before and would like to live there for six months, I like the strange people there. www.nicone.cc

www.spin-publicity.com

118

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

“I get most inspiration for my fashion collection while traveling: seeing other cultures, the local population’ style, the shops, the surroundings....”

119

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

REBELLION

129

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Rebellion

It is said young people no longer have values, and do not want to fight for them. They do not have principles or willingness to revolt anymore. No rebellions, no revolutionary songs, no storming movement for change. They prefer dancing in the streets over organizing a march. Manifestations are like pseudocarnivals without an underlying ideology. This at least might be the views of an outsider. Rebellion has not disappeared, it has just shifted to a more temporary, selective and powerful movement. Online networks allow finding like-minded people worldwide and forming a more powerful stance against certain ideas, products and companies. When small groups suddenly get bigger, the media does not report this as a symptom of a culture of rebellion, but as crime. The riots in the Parisian suburbs show that young people can still express themselves forcefully. Rebellion is still a characteristic of a younger generation, as they always resist a society that imposes rules. No matter how close youngsters may stand to their parents and teachers, there will always have to be rules, and these will always lead to rebellion. In this way there will always be a divide between generations. And in a time when young people have digital literacy levels that surpass those of adults, their power is bigger than ever.

Short-term goals have replaced long-term goals in today’s youth culture. Youngsters prove capable of extraordinary dedication, but they need to see immediate results. Instant gratification is what they seek. Former life-long ambitions like graduating best ranked European universities, working for international organizations and world forums have been set aside in favor of temporary, easier reachable ambitions.

However, rebellion means a lot more than goal-shrinking: youngsters fight for a cause, engage wholeheartedly, and invest extensive effort in making it happen. Take the Guerilla Gardening movement for example, a group of people took on the responsibility of refreshing neglected public space.

At their own expense, they plant apple trees, daffodils, dandelions, researching about the Latin names, seeding and growing conditions.

Rebellion embodies a protest and the youngsters’ desire to prove they got power, energy and that they can take over the situation. Youngsters protest against the ads invasion, against the obscurity and platitude of cities at night, against the “send to trash” obsession of functional goods that can still provide added value. The Decapitator is a renowned rebel in Great Britain, whose stubborn mission is to behead all the VIPs or anonymous characters displayed in print newspaper ads, billboards and other types of outdoor advertising, protesting against the flood of commercial messages. Attracting a loyal fan base, he gathers funds for his projects online.

In London, a rebellious street artist protesting against shark killings for cosmetics products and food suspended herself from shark fishing hooks in front of a central store.

Explaining that the demand for shark fin soup is pushing the shark population into extinction, Alice Newstead had her torso, legs, arms, stomach and knees pierced and then hang herself from fishing hooks in London Regent’s Street. The practice of harvesting meat for the fin soup is cruel: sharks have their fins sliced off and are thrown back into the water still struggling. Practiced since 1970, fining is responsible for reducing numerous species by more than 90%. Questioned about the safety of her protest, the 26-year-old explained that back impaling is safe, contrary to chest piercing, yet blood covered her spine.

To speak out to the world and create scenes of joy and shock into public places, the youth sometimes work in organized groups, as the Improv Everywhere, who conducted more than 70 missions with the help of undercover agents. One of the latest inventions was the Human Mirror, filling an underground train with identical twins to create a human mirror. Twins occupied the face-to-face places, dressed similarly. Launching a recruitment call, 50 pairs of twins responded, but only 8 showed up at the mission spot.

In the UK, street artist Imbue installed an odd sculpture in Brighton Pier: a drug vending machine. The machine claims to sell cocaine and heroin for a few coins, stirring controversial

130

remarks. Less criticized is the “Ideas vending machine”, the cure for bored people: in exchange for 50 cents, the machine gives an idea for a fun thing to do. Employing a battered vending machine, the inventor filled the toy capsules with an idea note and a map to guide the user to the place of putting it into practice.

In Vienna, a series of living human sculptures invaded the city in August 2008. Distancing from the classical convention of the human body recreated from various materials, the artists used human bodies to create complicated, contortioned formations. The breathing sculptures, standing on their heads and hands, combined in multilegged creatures, were placed in remote locations, mostly street corners.

Sometimes rebellion shapes juvenile offenders when young people choose to defend illegal causes, forming car-fire setters’ gangs, hackers’ gangs, graffiti or burglars’ groups. In the last 10 years, the number of 15 - 17 year-olds in custody is said to have doubled in England and Wales.

Rebellious, today’s youth looks for excitement, craves risk and desires to be seen as a bit naughty. Refusing to stay silenced and resigned to the world’s sins and injustice, bold youngsters set their feelings free in public, support a cause and convert their entire force into accomplishing it.

131

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T

C

op yr

Antoine 25 Paris

I’m an educator, for six years now. But at the same time I’m in a transition, I’m doing more and more journalism and photography. I’m currently launching a magazine, together with a couple of friends: Entrisme Magazine, inspired by gonzo journalism and post-blog style of writing. It’s not even a question if the internet and its social networks have had their influence on how we make our magazine. The question is, if we would have wanted to start a magazine ten years ago, how would we have done such a thing? You can consider there’s less activism then there used to be. But then again we’re in a time where everything is changing. Politics is no longer only about manifestations in the streets.

Entrisme is a strategy of political infiltration, originally it comes from the Trotskist revolutionaries.

We consider ourselves cultural entrists. Me and my friends, we try to frequent all different types of environments. It’s just as political a statement for us to infiltrate the bourgeoisie. I’ve confronted my ideas much more by infiltrating different classes, then at squatting parties, which I attend just as much, punk parties in squats, etc.

132

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

A popular catchphrase I’ve always remembered from the punk movement, says: Rather than battling the media, become the media

133

SKILLS

137

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

Skills

Now style is for sale in the shop window of every big and small shopping street, young people go back to skills. Skills require talent, but mainly training and perseverance. In this way skills surpass the temporary and make you authentic. Skills can earn you global respect. The days that you only impressed in the club as a good dancer are well and truly over. Dancers now have the world at their feet with their tricks. Clothing, social class and age are of no importance if you have the right skills.

New media art, sticker art, graffiti and break-dance are all the inventions of the fruitful minds of nowadays youngsters. As always, they feel the need to prove themselves and achieve respect for their merits, but present areas of activity are much broader and imaginative. Truly talented and frenzy-stricken, young people train daily or several times per week, seek likeminded individuals and form dedicated clubs, engaging in inter-groups’ peculiar competitions.

DJ battles and MC battles stir up the youth competitive spirit. Innumerable discussion forums host online DJ battles, allowing young people to show their scratching skills: after subscribing as candidates, fancy-nicknamed individuals upload their mp3 creations, waiting for the public’s votes.

Competitions are either freestyle or impose strict rules,

allowing, for instance, lasers, snakes, hydroplanes and tears techniques, but banning swirls, scribbles, uzi, stabs and chirps. DJ-ing requires gradual learning: greens start with Baby, Chirp, Transformer, Drags, Click Flare and Crab moves, advancing to the more complicated techniques, like Clover Tears, Swipes, plus other Faderless and Fader scratches. The IDA (International DJ Association) is currently running a 2-minute battle to select the DJs to participate in the world finals from Poland, Warsaw, on 12th Dec 2008. MC battles, those wording contests on rap rhythms, stimulate improvisation and spontaneity, enabling participants to gain recognition and fame on the spot. Frequently held between a white and a black candidate, involving striking language, victory feeds the winner’s ego, who is applauded, hugged

138

and lifted on the crowds’ shoulders. Sometimes, given the passion involved, MC battles degenerate into fights, as it occurred at the contest organized several years ago by MTV in front of its Times Square studios.

Contrary to popular belief, graffiti practitioners are far from vandals: they constitute urban modern artists, with a great sense for detail and attention to color and line. Painting on unconventional surfaces like bus stations, buildings, mail boxes, subway trains is both back-breaking and risky: for painting underground trains, youngsters have to face electrified rails and possibly the police. Most works prove exceedingly sophisticated, bringing a glimpse of vivid color in grey neighborhoods and representing an example of beauty amidst banality. Although most artists are autodidacts, learning

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T op yr

C

through trial and error, graffiti is a standardized art with wellestablished styles and working methods: one can use block letters, cartoon letters, top-to-bottom, block busters, panel pieces, leaning letters, throw ups, window down, whole car, or the bubble style, unintelligible for outsiders. Acknowledging youngsters’ vocation, various cities organize hip hop events, inviting graffiti artists to perform, and set graffiti-legal places: in London a team of youngsters painted a skateboard ramp in a park through the Youth Awareness Program, enchanting nearby inhabitants. London’s famous graffiti genius, Banksy, has his works protected by the council: paintings in Islington and near Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium are continuously restored by council workmen, removing offending words inserted by vandals.

Youngsters also express themselves through stencil graffiti, stickering, street installations, wheat-pasting and street poster art, art intervention, flash mobbing, revealing tremendous creativity and awe-striking abilities. In sticker art, youngsters not only spread sticky drawings around cities, but messages constitute political comments, protests and manifests, transforming into written public speeches. For their work, youngsters either design patterns on personal computers, printing them on self-adhesive paper, or recycle

stickers given away for free (DHL and USPS mailing labels).

Even more eye-catching, street installations engage careful handwork and pragmatic spirit: wooden sneakers tossed on electricity lines, carvings on plywood installed on street signs using metal bolts, or fake air-conditioning vents represent innovative crafts work. Roundabout dogs and ghost bicycles have already become traditional street installations.

Originating from Sweden, home-made dog sculptures made out of wood, plastic and metal kept popping up in the roundabouts since 2006. The phenomenon extended afterwards to Spain due to a TV reportage by PuntoDos channel. Ghost bikes are white-painted junk bicycles attached to road signs, functioning both as a memorial for riders hurt or killed by cars and as a reminder for drivers to keep their eyes open.

Possibly the most demanding, physically and mentally, is the performance current practiced by danger-defying action artists. Youngsters paint while snowboarding, draw hairrising works using their own blood, or soak themselves to skin for shaping ephemeral harmonious shapes with their bodies. Preoccupied to convey movement in his paintings, a 26-year-old action artist miraculously mixes snowboarding, skateboarding and skydiving with oil painting. Skating

139

up and down a self-made halfpipe in his studio, the artist creates abstract paintings, inspired by expressionist idols Jackson Pollock and Saburo Murakami. Another fearless young artist builds frightening portraits of himself crashing into walls and sidewalks or falling off skyscrapers through a mix of performance art and photography tricks. Aiming to transmit a sense of lost gravity, the artist creates the illusions of a terrifying reality. The performance art current also gave birth to politaoke, a sort of political karaoke, with competitors interpreting political leaders’ speeches. Fed up of listening to bombastic words, youngsters enter politicians’ skins, opting to interpret the speech either in a serious or sarcastic manner. Speeches and interviews are provided word by word, segmented into slices (songs) of 1 to 8 minutes.

Applying the unexpected and capable of the unthinkable, nowadays youngsters are difficult to surprise. Brand propositions and communication strategies have to sneak into this new universe and get on the same wavelength.

dw ol ve s re n ig ht T

C

op yr

Carla 24 Barcelona

I’ve learned that being open-minded creates opportunities and possible collaborations. I won a contest with my schoolwork, that gave me the opportunity to do an exhibition. On the opening night I was approached by somebody working for a magazine, Time Out Barcelona, who offered me a job.

Since then I work for that magazine as a photographer. I’m constantly working on my portfolio. I use it to find jobs and to apply for funds to go study abroad. I already did a part of my education in Berlin, for unknown talent there are more opportunities for exhibits over there. Right here in Barcelona only the big names get offered chances. After I obtained my degree in arts, I took photography class because I wanted to gain more control over the medium. Post-production became just as important as the making of the picture itself. Digital photos look dead when they’re not edited - manipulation brings life to them. I always start from a feeling, not from a concept. My biggest fear in life? Not being able to work in something I like. I often ask myself: “why didn’t I study economics?

140

141

dw ol ve s

re n

ig ht T

op yr

C

PE CT ’

dw ol ve s re n

OS

ig ht T op yr

C

‘P R

”When kids look up to you and adults look down on you, you are a young person!”

(Pierre, 23, France)

This report answers the following questions:

How does the European youth population think, feel & live in this day and age?

How can you reach 14 to 25 year old consumers more effectively with your message or product?

How can you translate this into a cutting-edge marketing strategy?

How can you keep the target group’s attention?

European Youth Trend Report ‘09 now available more info: info@trendwolves.com

european youth trends

Trendwolves nv Tortelduifstraat 79a 9000 Gent Belgium +32 9 330 83 61 info@trendwolves.com www.trendwolves.com