#gen2020

Meet Kimi, the Gen 2020 gal Millennial.

As a veteran marketer, the rise and fall of fads and trends are not surprising or cause for alarm.  I've faced down the birth of new generations and the introduction of new technologies (and the death of many too).  But I must admit, this little girl has got me sitting on edge, polishing the tools in my wheelhouse and learning new skills.  I'm not adapting this time.  I'm attempting to evolve.

I remember when Digg and Friendster came out.  I recall the emergence of MySpace and I even registered an account - after it was no longer cool.  I was late to the game with Facebook.  And I'm embarrassed to say, I used to think Blogs were for people without reasonable communication skills (yes, as I write this blog).

But that was okay for the most part, at least so I thought.  My daily routine was not affected.  Social media was a nice distraction - but it's target audience was too hard to define and seemed small and niche.

So as I kept driving large ad buys on radio and print, my younger intuitive marketing brothers were conceptualizing and innovating - gamification, infographics and content marketing.  Who the hell decided the world needs to go by soooooo fast we need Real-Time Marketing? 

But I have been known from years back to be an innovator myself, so if I may throw back to my early days... Game recognize game!   And I wanted to be on the front side of this one!

So now I find myself staying up late nights - getting updates on Digital Marketing and studying the new ideologies.  I've even crafted a nice niche for myself in Experiential Marketing - and I laugh inside when colleagues belittle and dismiss my warnings.

Sure, we're not really that far from status quo right now.  But that's because Kimi can't even vote yet.  What happens when Gen X (which I was so proud to be part of) starts thinking about college for their Gen ? children,  You better believe that better is smaller, smaller is faster, faster is more dynamic - and wow, does that sound like my four boys.