it's amazing to be young
Go dance at a post punk show in a sea of strangers // Gen Z is just a reboot of the best parts of Gen X & Elder Millennials (Xennials?) // the marketing funnel isn’t your holy grail
To be clear - I am not young anymore. Nor do I want to be.
As often happens when you’re paying attention, work life and personal life and just being a human in this crazy world collided this weekend, so here’s my latest rambling.
My husband bought me tickets to see Fontaines DC this past weekend in NYC, and we joked that we’d be the oldest ones there. I was happy to see that we were not, although us olds (greying elder millennials and Gen Xers) were definitely in the minority.
And yet - I felt right at home.
Maybe it was because young ones that are somehow two decades younger than me have the same fashion sense right now.
I’ve gone through so many phases of style but am firmly back in the Doc Martens with black dresses or ripped jeans, filthy oversized flannels, big chunky necklaces, and bluntly cut dark bob (dyed) phase. The same uniform that I carried me through middle school and high school.
(New Dr Martens instead of my original ones from 1999 because apparently pregnancy also affects foot size and that is another area that does not in fact bounce back. Thanks, Saoirse).
So I had to laugh looking around the audience before the show got started.
First up was the opening act - Jadu Heart, a young, English EDM group fronted by a young Skunk Anansie-esque beauty (I hope she knows of Skunk Anansie?!).
But as all opening acts know - you’re just the filler while everyone shows up fashionably late. So I spent that time - while stressing about when the band was actually going to go on so we could get home at a reasonable time for our babysitters - looking at the audience.
Not to be a creep, but rather to really pay attention to Gen Z. Like so many marketers, I’ve read Vogue’s piece on how Gen Z has killed the marketing funnel several times. So much so that I volunteered to do a LinkedIn Live with my friend and Board mate Lucie Kim about this exact subject. So I was thinking about that while looking at a sea of younger me’s.
Meta picture of me in 1997 - a digital photo of a printed photo of me looking at other printed photos. Rocking a bob, a vaguely industrial necklace, a red dragon black baby tee and wide leg jeans.
I saw way too many things that I wore in my teens.
The chunky, silver ball necklaces.
Note on the necklaces - Obviously I didn’t take any pics of young women wearing this at the concert, because that would be creepy. But this google image search definitely hurt my heart a little bit. “Grunge! Y2K! Statement! Plated! Handmade (is it, Walmart?!) Gothic!” Kill me now.
The Asian inspired (coopted…) silk embroidered slip dresses.
The thrift store cardigan.
The big jeans and crop tops. Good lord, I loved a wide leg jean and a baby tee.
And then, some guys wearing the t-shirts of the band that they bought in the lobby for that concert…. That’s a hard no from me. Haven’t they seen PCU? Don’t be that guy. (The only time I’ll agree with Jeremy Piven, it seems).
As entertaining as it was to point out fashion choices I myself had made almost 30 years ago, I was also thinking about this generation as consumers and professionals and people.
While Vogue is bemoaning the death of the marketing funnel at the hands of Gen Z - because however will we sell them shit they likely don’t need?! - I’m actually celebrating it. Because I’m old enough to remember marketing plans that weren’t so strictly built around an Insert Shape conical representation of people making choices about where to put their dollars.
Yes, in general I find the funnel helpful - but only to communicate with executives about what the brand should be doing, how and why. And if you’re doing it right, brand activations (especially those beyond digital, like events, partnerships, pop-ups, collabs, sponsorships) should actually touch multiple stages of the holy Funnel.
The process of going through a funnel internally gives you a road map and a filter for which to make decisions. Should we do this thing? Does it match what we stand for - and what we have seen our customers respond well to? Then yes. If it’s purely an eyeball play, at what cost are we doing it?! Like this collab that definitely lost me as a customer.
Because it was never about consumers going down this perfectly orchestrated path like Candyland. Any good brand marketer knows it’s more a game of Shoots & Ladders. But when you’re trying to get buy-in from your exec team, and approval on budget spends, you know you need to show this silly Funnel.
So as my Gen X husband and I sat in a sea of Gen Zers, I started by looking at them like animals in a zoo - subjects to be studied. What are they doing? Why? Why are they so difficult to BLANK?
And I realized - they’re not. There is nothing new under the sun.
(As my boomer mother would say).
It’s no wonder that grunge and punk are back - whether new bands or the original (now old) ones being discovered by the youth through Spotify algorithms and Stranger Things’ features.
The world around us is chaos. Established institutions are failing - failing us, failing their people, failing their constituents. Brands are being called out for not being honest, and being held accountable for intentionally misleading or worse.
And who knows what’s going to happen tomorrow.
So of course we want more aggressive music and much stronger messages and much louder voices.
But also - we just want to have a good time.
And on Saturday night, we all did.
I can’t wait for the day that teenage Saoirse comes home telling US about a band called Fontaines that SHE discovered. Girl, we knew them first.
At 9pm, Fontaines finally came on. And I was so happy that we went through the ordeal of getting a babysitter and driving in during the transit strike because live music soothes even the savage beast.
I stumbled upon Fontaines a couple of years ago and have become one of their biggest fans. So to hear almost all of my favorite songs - live - loud - and in a crowd of other super fans singing and dancing - it was pure bliss.
They played their new summer bop “It’s Amazing to Be Young” that Dan correctly labeled as a modern Cure.
And then contrasted it with my favorite, Big. Of course I prefer the Kilmainham Gaol version.
And I danced like no one was watching (no one was) and sweated and screamed about my childhood being small and how I want to be big (not really but in the moment I did).
I danced like Barry Keoghan.
I was no longer a tired 42 year old mom - wife - sister - marketing exec - anything. For one moment, I was transported back to teenage Molly, ready to fight and do things my own way and dreaming about an unconventional life but one that was distinctly me. And then I got back into my crossover SUV and drove back to the suburbs :(
But while the band was playing, none of that mattered.
They kept the energy high, united the crowd, and wove their hits into a set list that made everyone happy. I was even amused by them playing their most popular hit, Starburster, last last - last of the encore, last. Worth the extra $20. Fair play, lads.
So even though I clearly used my phone to take these pics - I was so happy to see that most people put their phones away for most of the show. It was more of a utility and ritual - “here we are taking the selfie to tag that we are here” - but then everyone was just listening and dancing and having a good time.
Clearly there’s an addiction and anxiety crisis happening with device usage amongst all the ages - but being in that crowd Saturday night made me understand the unraveling funnel and behaviors of the latest generation to be targeted by marketers. The funnel isn’t working perfectly like they want it to - because they are out there living their lives more. Post pandemic, they’re getting together - they’re doing things.
I’m sincerely hoping that no executive reads this and thinks - “Let’s sponsor Fontaines DC!” I’m pretty sure they’d laugh in your face.
But it’s more to say - it’s time to think outside of the device. The funnel. The perfectly tracked spreadsheet of ROIs. While also making sure that your shit is tight on the digital marketing follow-up sweep - because this is late stage capitalism, we do need to sell some stuff, and that money goes into doing more cool stuff.
I myself am using my phone less and less - deleting my personal Instagram account has helped tremendously - and know I am not alone. So what is a brand to do?!
Get outside. Get where the people are. But tread carefully.
Quick story: Years ago, when I was at Farrow & Ball, we wanted to launch a new floral wallpaper collection in a way that made people look at the storied British brand differently. With the genius idea from Ebbie Koelle, we partnered with Lewis Miller to help this collection come to life - in a very NYC way.
We did a studio shoot to create new campaign materials - and then wild wheat pasted them all over strategically selected scaffolding during NYFW. And by we, I truly mean we. Our budgets were tiny and we both really wanted to make this happen - so we were part of the installation team, actually installing and spray-painting logos in the middle of the night. Three times.
So did this work? This piece in Vogue makes me say yes, yes it did.
Did I walk this exact corridor with one of the C-Suite - visiting from Dorset to see what those two wild Americans were doing with their heritage brand - who then criticized me for not including the street address of the 3 closest showrooms? Or the website? Why didn’t I put the phone number?
Can you imagine?!
If I had to put that wild idea - again, Ebbie your brilliance will never cease to amaze me - into a funnel, it never would have happened.
Proving again that it is amazing to be young.
So my plea to brand owners and marketers - stop focusing on the funnel and ROI and remember that arrogant optimism of youth. Then plan some shit that matters.
And if you need a hit of inspiration, go into a sea of strangers and just dance. And scream lyrics at the top of your lungs. And sweat it all out.
Take one pic and then put your phone away.
Your posts are a breath of fresh air.
So you guerrilla campaigned, got your hands dirty, logos everywhere, piece in Vogue (I remember this part) and they said you should’ve included a phone number!?!? Ingrates! xx