Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup

Coming up June 1st and 2nd, is Ypulse’s latest Youth Marketing Mashup conference in San Francisco. The gathering brings together participants from the marketing, media, education and non-profit worlds to share research, best practices and the latest strategies on marketing to youth with technology. Check out the full lineup here. PSFK readers can use the code READER to get 30 percent the price of admission.

PSFK talked with Anastasia Goodstein, founder of Ypulse to see what’s happening in the youth market:

What is the thing you are most excited for this year at Y-Pulse?

There are so many aspects of this year’s event I’m excited about. Our spotlight keynote, Don Tapscott, author of Wikinomics, Growing Up Digital and now the follow up, Grown Up Digital, has been personally inspiring to me and my work, and he happens to be a phenomenal speaker. This year we have pulled together our first Urban/Multicultural pre-conference, offering a deep dive on diversity issues within youth marketing and reaching youth of color. And I am moderating a youth panel that will rate brand campaigns live on stage – no holds barred.

Since last year’s event, what was the most significant thing you saw happen within the youth market?

We’re beginning to see signs of social networking fatigue in the youth market in terms of time spent on the big two sites (Facebook/MySpace). Youth are still social networking, just not to the same degree they were – the initial thrill is gone, some teens are over the drama or have become weary of parents or other adults who are now also a part of this space. The big question on everyone’s mind is what’s next? I also think we’ve reached a saturation point with virtual worlds –there are just too many for the number of tweens/teens who would become active members of these sites. I predict a shakeout soon.

What is the most innovative thing taking place in the youth market, whether that be marketing, communication, collaboration, etc.

I think PSFK actually posted something on this the other day – the economy and lack of jobs are inspiring teens to innovate asentrepreneurs. In the marketing space, it’s interesting watching brands experiment with “social media” to reach youth – even when it goes awry, think: Skittles. I’m anxious to see what happens with the “Ford Fiesta Movement” as well (the campaign where Ford offered free Fiestas to young drivers who would blog/tweet/Facebook their experiences). In the non-profit youth space, I think the organization Do Something was quite innovative in its fundraising by creating an IPO looking for large donors who would act as investors in the organization.

Thanks Anastasia!