Report: Digital generation not anti-brand

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on March 1, 2010 at 4:03 PM

The rise of digital technologies have created a new generation of "digital junkies," voracious consumers and creators content, according to the new South African 2010 Flux Trendreview, BizCommunity's Issa Sikiti da Silva reported today.

Although some say digital junkies have difficulty understanding privacy, relating to people face-to-face or not being loyal to brands, especially media brands, Ian Calvert, co-founder of Instant Grass, said he disagrees. He told attendants at the Digital Lab workshop in conjunction with the Flux Trendreview conference that 52 percent of these people have blogged about a brand, 69 percent have given feedback on a brand's Web site, 69 percent have read a corporate blog post and 77 percent have viewed a television commercial on YouTube, da Silva reported.

The best way to get digital junkies to notice content is to have them create it, Calvert said. Digital junkies, in reality, are informed and opinionated people who are simply misunderstood, da Silva reported for BizCommunity.

Ten key things that drive the digital generation are:

1. Freedom
2. Customisation
3. FOMO (fear of missing out)
4. Gravanity ("I have this need to heard; can't really explain it. That is why I am constantly updating my blog. It feels good to get things off my chest.")
5. Transparency
6. Integrity
7. Entertainment
8. Collaboration
9. Speed
10. Innovation