Are you as excited as Stööki are for the the Youth Marketing Strategy Conference London 2024? 👀

Stööki are excited to announce that we will be back at Youth Marketing Strategies in 2024! As guest speakers last year we are excited to return to the world’s largest youth marketing conference covering this year's event on our blog and socials. The Youth Marketing Strategy festival offers the latest insights, freshest ideas and invaluable networking opportunities ready to drive your Gen Z marketing strategy forward.

Stööki offer Work Experience, Traineeships & Apprenticeships for young people looking to start their journey in the creative industries. They will be attending the conference this year to give their Gen Z perspective on the event. We had a chat with the awesome Olivia from event organisers Pion ahead of the conference to learn more about this year's agenda, how best to prepare for the conference and a few sneak peeks...

1. Youth Marketing Strategy 2023 was a massive success, how have things developed over the last year? What can we expect from YMS 2024.. any surprises you can let us in on?

Every year we look to grow the event and we’re excited to welcome over 2000 delegates to the Old Truman Brewery in June. For 2024, we are introducing a brand new theme - Futurescape: Together towards tomorrow. The next generation is poised to shape the future in significant ways. As a generation of change-makers, the more we learn about them, the more we can help them thrive through life and make their prospective worlds a better place. 

Over the past 13 years, the YMS event has been cemented in uniting the youth marketing community. Whilst this still rings true, we want the event to evolve at the same pace as the world around us and that’s why Futurescape is future-focused and curious.

For a number of years, the focus of all the content at YMS has been on Gen Z. We’re now looking ahead to what’s coming next with Gen Zalpha and Alpha across all our content tracks.

Plus watch out for a whole stage dedicated to Trends & Culture, a brand new focus on youth marketing career development and our wellness lounge which includes meditation, workouts from Gymbox and a quiet space for our audience to get away from the hustle and bustle of the festival. 

We were part of a panel discussion with FLAARE at ‘The Future of Work Track’ stage. With the amazing FLAARE founders Izzie and Annie we discussed our brand partnership with FLAARE and how the two projects we collaborated on together supported and facilitated the young people we worked with on their creative journey. The Q&A gave us the opportunity to talk about our experiences teaming up on the project and how our content creation engaged with Gen Z.

2. We see you have some exciting Masterclasses available! Which would you recommend for brands wanting to connect with Gen Z and Gen Z creators themselves?

Our team at Pion, the organisation that runs YMS, are excited to be hosting an insights focused masterclass on Keeping Your Finger on the Pulse with Gen Z. It will be packed full of stats and insights to help marketers understand Gen Z's attitudes, behaviours and opinions on emerging trends. 

If Higher Education Marketing is your thing, join SMRS for a masterclass on exploring innovative strategies and approaches for universities to engage with prospective students and parents. With young people now choosing between Higher Education, Apprenticeships or getting straight into the world of work, Universities need to effectively engage students with a compelling proposition that positions them as pivotal to their journey to win hearts and minds.

 Whether it’s the TRENDS & CULTURE, CREATOR or INNOVATION TRACK check out more info about the agenda here!

3. As a brand what’s one of the most effective strategies to grow a community with Gen Z in the social media landscape 2024?

The key here is to know your brand and to know your audience. It’s important to be clear on when to join the conversation or not? To tap into trends or not? 

4. Is there a key theme or message you would like the youth marketing industry to start thinking differently about this year?

The most exciting thing about YMS is there’s always something new to talk about across cultural, social and digital trends. There are two key messages that I would share with attendees:

• To market to young people effectively means to really understand them - take time to watch sessions all about the lives of young people and the sessions at the intersection of youth culture to discover how your brand can support and champion this demographic (as well as getting them to engage with your product or service). 
• Think about the full spectrum of what ‘youth’ really is. We like to frame youth as a mindset rather than a demographic. For example, the older age ranges in Gen Z may already be parents, whilst what about the Zalphas that have extreme purchasing power within their households? 

Returning to London on 5th-6th June 2024. Over the past 10+ years, YMS has evolved into the largest youth marketing festival in the world. Böök your tickets here

5. We're really excited for YMS 2024 there's so much happening! Any advice for attendees to prepare to get the most out of the two days of programming?

With 3 content stages, there’s so much on offer that we advise attendees to download the app or take a look at the agenda here so they can tailor their YMS experience to their own interests or business needs. From creator strategy, higher education and social impact to ecommerce, social media and the future of work, whether you are looking to engage, sell to or hire young people, there’s something for everyone.

The app is also a great way of seeing who is in the room - our mission is to bring the youth marketing community together to network, learn from each other and make brilliant and useful connections.

Check out our full recap of last year's Youth Marketing Strategy Conference in London below...👀

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