Last July 29, 2008, a Marketing convention was held in Araneta Coliseum called StratMark. The said event’s theme was “Youthenics” which as the name implies, the youth as the future of the Marketing Industry. First off, I was amazed on the number of schools that participated on the said event; they were all well known schools from Business, Marketing, and Advertising. I managed to take a list of the speakers who pointed out the importance of the youth as a marketing practitioner and my reaction about their discussion. To Learn fresh research findings and information on the youth target market, their consumer insights, products that cater to them, advertising that sells and prospects for the future. Im thankful for having a good memory. 
• April Timbol Yap - Strike a Post: Iconic Cool among Today’s Youth
The speaker particularly cited the trends before and the trends today. In marketing, old trends are just references for the future’s study. Though it used to be something everyone looked up to, time is changing and keeps on evolving. For me, same strategies does not work every time and through studying the factors affecting today’s trends and lifestyle there will be more opportunities for future marketers.
The speaker also gave the importance on studying the behaviour of the youth today, including the needs and wants, buying behaviour, product perception and the amount of money being saved and spent for a product or a service. Buying behaviour is also changing so it is up to marketers particularly the future marketers to make a way to cope up with the changing habits of today’s’ youth.
• Jade Manalaysay-Tulio - Point of Entry Marketing: Introducing Allue to tweens
The discussion is about the case study about influencing a child to use cosmetic products and know its importance together with proper application, advantages and disadvantages.
I first thought that the speaker is talking about irrelevant topics but as the discussion continues, as a marketer I have understood what HBC’s campaign was. It is called forecasting, market targeting and demographics of the consumers. This time, they targeted the young girls as young as three years old to use beauty products. For some reason, I thought that their advertising campaign was too flirty for little girls but the advertising campaign clearly focused on the ethical behaviour of a child, the somewhat acceptable manner for their age. In the end, as the speaker said, no matter how much attractive a little girl may be, in the end it will be the adults to decide what the best is for their child.
• March Ventosa - Is Branded Advertising the New Advertising?
The speaker discussed about the branded entertainment, the use of multimedia of entertainment in advertising product or a brand. Simply to say, a brand, mostly is the name of a product line of a product. Here, the speaker showed clips about a product being used in a movie just like an advertisement on a T.V., but this time it is used on a movie.
The speaker also showed the success of Jollibee having Sarah Geronimo as their endorser. Using respectable images can change the consumer perception about certain products. The new advertising is more complex and beginning to be more creative than being just creative. It must be uniquely portrayed and must be used in special events to highlight its status.
• Jos Ortega - The World’s Best Youth-Driven Ads
The speaker gave clips about the best youth-driven ads all over the world. Simply to say, advertisements that was youth-inspired. It may be the idea of the youth or an idea for the youth. An advertisement targeting the youth group creates different perceptions, in which all of the reactions are valuable to the improvement of an advertisement.
There are clips of advertisements that range from categories such as: Humour, Tragic, Sci-Fi, reality, experience and more. The clips opened up my mind into creative thinking and formulating a new kind of advertisement inside my head. It triggers my curiosity about how an advertisement would change the whole image of a product; in return, it may be good or bad depending on the way the viewers analyzed the advertisements.
• Prof. Henry Tenedero - Gothca! The Filipino Genius Building Empires of the Future
The last speaker talked about the geniuses of the world, he is pointing out everyone and claiming that everyone is a genius in their own little ways. No one is useless unless they choose to be one. Different people have different personality; they all have different awareness, understanding, and perceptions from what they see.
If everyone would only open their minds about the importance of one they know, every single one of us will form a synergy and together create an output that far exceeds expectations. He also talked about the different kinds of geniuses, whether they are geniuses in sports, academics, or art, they are all important in building a better empire in the future. Prof. Henry was the liveliest speaker than the rest of them; He knows how to handle the crowd as if he was talking to everyone face to face and personal. His goals and visions are clearly passed on to his listeners, meaning, us - the youth of tomorrow.
