Drugi jezik na kojem je dostupan ovaj članak: Bosnian
Timothy Armoo is 24, he is the CEO of Fanbytes, an advertising video platform that helps major brands become relevant for Millennials and Generation Z. This multi-award-winning company has built a network of online communities and influencers entertaining millions of teenagers around the world.
They work on crazy campaigns on new platforms such as Snapchat and TikTok with brands such as Apple Music, Sony, YouGov, Deliveroo, Warner, Universal Studios and even the government. In the world of marketing they have redefined how brands communicate with Millennials and Generation Z. The company is a pioneer in its field and has won recognition from Forbes, Adweek, Business Insider, the Huffington Post and others. Armoo is the youngest speaker at Ljubljana’s POMP Forum content marketing conference this year.
Whenever somebody writes about you, the first thing that always seems to pop up is your age. 24-year old CEO. Is this really still so unusual?
I think this is quite unusual, because most CEOs are much older. But with the rise of the internet has meant that young CEOs have taken the world by storm and it’s becoming more common. Eventually what will end up happening I believe is that it’s going to get even younger, maybe even see 16-year-old CEOs. I think for us at Fanbytes, it’s helped coming in very young because we are able to understand the mindset better than most.
Do you feel that your young age helps you understand/know Generation Z better and so you can come up with more effective communication solutions for them than your (much) older peers?
Indeed, I certainly think so. Our average age of the team is 21 and that gives us a lot of reason to really own the conversation when talking to brands about why they should use us. It also permeates all our marketing enabling us to become an authority as to what we do and why we take certain steps
If one wants to effectively communicate/market to Gen Z, what does one have to know about them/understand them? What is so different?
The key thing here is to think about the idea of Advertainment which is to think just beyond impressions and simply eyeballs to think about how to really emotionally connect with the audience. Gen Z are a very very savvy audience with ad blockers everywhere but that doesn’t mean they don’t like good ads. Rather what this means is that they don’t like bad ads and bad ads are those that don’t stir up emotion.
Is it just teenagers are young and similar to all other teenage generations of the past, save technology/gadgets they use is different? Or is there more to it?
I think it’s more that the power now has moved to the consumer. Fundamentally, the teenagers of the past and teenagers of the future are the same people, they are all human beings with relatively similar tendencies. It all comes down to the fact that now brands can’t get away with just shoving ads into faces, it’s a much more nuanced approach that people need to take.
What exactly are their values, priorities? How do they make (purchasing) decisions?
One of the key things the world of social media has provided is a certain closeness that comes with everyone. As a consequence, it’s very easy to feel pressure from others when making a decision. Gen Z feel this social pressure/ social proof the most and it’s important that brands leverage this when marketing. This is why companies like us exist in order to help brands to amplify that social proof through influencers.
Snapchat or Instagram or something else or all of the above? How do you even choose? Or is this a wrong question to be asking oneself?
I think the right question isn’t platform, it’s about where your audience is and then working your way backwards from there. Marketing is relatively easy; it’s going to where your audience are and then giving them some reason to come to you. If you lead with an audience first approach this is where you win.
