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Contests are fun. Wait…contests are fun
if you have a good chance of winning….Ummm….let me revise…contests
are fun if you have a good chance of winning a prize like flying to
Japan to see the newest japanimation feature.
That train of thought represents what most youth would say about contests.
As a company that creates offers for young people, I'd like to talk
a little about how attractive winning prizes that involve trips or
travel can be for this market.
The link between traveling and young people is nothing new. Almost
every person has stories of "that cutie backpacker on my first
road trip to New York" or "that night I was held over in
Amsterdam and saw Neil Young play live in a dirty, smoky bar on the
outskirts of town." Travel has become a rite of passage and it's
synonymous with fun, adventure, independence and friends - all things
that we gravitate towards, especially young people.
Recent trends have centered around two new phenomena in this wide
world of ours:
- people are choosing to travel further away than in the past; and,
- people tend to go there to experience the same things they would
normally, even if that isn't their intention. |
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For example, East Asia is the current hot
spot, with media showing a side of life in the orient that paints
a pretty appealing picture- beautiful people, hot sun, beaches a plenty
and pretty water to stare at all day. Substitute the climate and you're
looking at the same phenomenon that happens in a more familiar Canadian
version- how many times have you wanted to just stay and skied your
life away on your last trip to Whistler (those kids, they're so lucky…)?
So, in the same way that for decades kids have gotten sucked into
the idea of putting time on hold for a while by snowboarding and smoking
pot in Whistler, youth are laying on a beach and smoking pot on the
beaches of Thailand. Subtle tweak but an interesting change of scenario
nonetheless.
The allure of East Asia for young people can be summed up in exactly two points. For one, their parents did Europe-when you grow up listening to your parents talk about 'falling in love in an Amsterdam hostel' and 'whoa, you have to see the arc de triomphe', you get used to the ideas of Europe and what it has to offer. It's not that European countries aren't exciting, it's just been done- to death. These kids need new stuff! They want to feel independent and experience life on their own terms. This leaves them searching for something different.
The second reason East Asia seems to be hot right now lies in the
fact that it's really far away and it's a really different culture.
These unique characteristics channel directly into a young person's
desire to be challenged. Whereas backpacking through Europe used to
be tough, your daughter needs to feel like she's challenging herself
in new and more extreme measures. A different language, a different
hemisphere and all those temples sure makes for something she's never
seen before.
Even if East Asia is the hot spot, there are still lots o' youth that are going to Europe. The difference between Europe 'then' and Europe 'now' lies in the very fact that yes, our world is getting smaller and a direct application can be seen in how many McDonald's have opened up in European countries in the last decade. Multinational corporations are everywhere and even more so in Europe. In a recent National Post article, titled 'Eurotrashed', the author writes of tales from his own backpacking days and recalls,
"In the course of my trip, I met Calgarians who saw Munich from the beer gardens, a Vancouverite who remembered Prague as an absinthe-green blur, a girl who thought Amsterdam nightlife revolved around the hostel's coffee house. In Budapest, I watched a drunken Australian backpacker empty a bottle of olive oil over his toga-clad body, then crawl into the bunk under mine with a girl from Saskatoon. The only difference between my trip to Europe and a university pub crawl was that in university, I had to be sober by Monday morning."
This speaks to the fact that although some young people are venturing
off into far and distant lands looking for something new, there are
also youth who want 'just a little bit- for now'. To play off these
varying degrees of independence, relate the above back to your brand.
Are you Nike and you want to project high performance and risk-taking?
Then offer a contest where you win an eco challenge in the remote
islands of Thailand. Are you Levi's that wants to associate with new
hype and personalization? Then offer youth a chance to win a trip
to see their band of choice in Europe. If you visit www.muchmusic.com,
you'll see a plethora of contests - and Muchmusic does a great job
of refreshing contest opportunities quite frequently. Fruite, the
fruit juice, is currently running a promo where you get the chance
to win a trip to "Surf in Hawaii" for 4 people or one of twenty snowboards.
A really easy way to link its product with an exotic and appealing
offer. Done and done.
Will win. Will travel.
Simply link your travel destinations and packages to the imagery you want your target customers to think of when they think of your brand.
Written by Nitasha Kapoor
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