(Cross posted from the AdHack website.)

The Age, a solid Melbourne newspaper I used to enjoy reading when I lived there for a few months, has a great article about the shift of power from marketeers to consumers entitled Y oh Y won’t you buy that brand?

Unfortunately, they totally bury the most insightful input towards the end, and force you to read a load of bumfy comfort food for panicky marketeers before they come clean with the clear answer to their question. Below I have saved you the time and excerpted the gems.

Peter Sheahan, a 26-year-old business consultant, released a book last year called Generation Y. He says word of mouth has always been powerful, but its influence is upped a notch among young adults.

“The speed of which word of mouth spreads is faster with this generation than it has ever been before and it’s a result of the technology they use to stay in touch with each other,” Sheahan says. “Gen Y can’t go to the toilet without telling five of their friends first.

“They are going to tell people if they like something and they make decisions based on the story we are going to tell once we have bought the product.” Often the story they tell relates to an experience.

…

Sheahan believes brands trying to reach the 16-30 market could save money if they went back to basics. “Stop trying to figure out how to bullshit your way into a market that has a BS-detector on their head,” Sheahan says. “Stop trying to trick an over-stimulated, heavily marketed-to generation and start being genuine and authentic in the first place. If you deliver an original, quality product, that will get people talking and it will end up marketing itself.”

Simple.