Finding the teen gene
Posted July 19th, 2007 at 11:00 am by Doreen Bloch, Yahoo! Intern
2 Comments / Filed in: Conferences/Events
Ypulse Mashup 2007 concluded on Tuesday night after two days of intense discussions, panels, and presentations all about how marketers can better target… ME! Just kidding, sort of.
Anastasia Goodstein brought together media professionals, marketing folks, and non-profit do-gooders at San Francisco’s Hotel Nikko to talk all about targeting the teenage demographic I’m a part of. Experts and industry leaders spoke on everything from using mixtapes to get brands in front of hip, urban communities (Tina Wells in conversation with journalist Adisa Banjoko) to Harry Potter fan culture on the Net (keynote conversation with MIT’s Henry Jenkins and USC’s danah boyd) to growing your brand virally by partnering with large social networks (RockYou! CEO Lance Tokuda).
The portion of the day I found particularly fascinating was the “Totally Wired Teen Superstar Panel,” moderated by Smashface Productions‘ Zadi Diaz. It was so energizing to hear about the experiences of four young Web entrepreneurs. One speaker Aseem Badshah, president of Scriptovia.com and rising sophomore at the University of Washington, discussed the academic tools his company gives students and answered questions about dealing with plagiarism. Martina Butler, host of Emo Girl Talk, talked about getting sponsorships for her weekly podcast from big brands like Acuvue, GoDaddy.com, and soon, Covergirl. Whateverlife president, Ashley Qualls, explained how she got her start creating a site centered around MySpace page designs, and how she got her family and friends involved in the project too. And, MyYearbook.com’s Catharine Cook, who will be attending Georgetown in the fall, spoke about school-work balance, or lack there of with the crazy 40-hour work week plus school schedule she said she maintained when they were just starting up the company.
It seemed all the Ypulse attendees echoed my excitement for these four talented fellow youth. It was a wonderful conference and I’m so glad Yahoo! sponsored. I’m sure the forward thinking and great conversations will continue — especially considering Ypulse’s Tween Mashup is fast approaching.
Doreen Bloch
Yahoo! Intern
Photo from freshelectrons
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2 Comments Add your own
roderick | July 20th, 2007 at 2:32 pm
i cant wait till i get in the business soon my website will be big just like yahoo (once i find out whats it is going to be about)
Mousie | July 25th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
They can huff and puff all they want about how to target the teen demographic- but they SHOULD be focusing on the senior community too… (I don’t in my website, LOL- maybe I should take my own advice?) The baby-boomer generation is the largest market in America at the moment, and they’re getting younger. Life doesn’t stop after 55, but most social networks and products completely ignore what could be a huge money maker.
Teens are a great market to tap and cultivate for the future, yes. But the seniors are a great way to make a lot of money in the interim.
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