Gaming the Millennials

I had read all about MTV's “Twitter jockey,” Gabi Gregg, so I was curious to see her seated a few rows in front of me at an Advertising Week panel discussion.

Gregg was named MTV's first “T-Jay” in March after the cable network partnered with American Express to conduct a nation-wide search for the position. It's a $100,000 gig, by the way.

Unsurprisingly, the 23-year-old was Tweeting about the presentation: “MTV's Born Digital: What's driving the Millennial digital revolution?”

Gregg, of course, is a product of this, having been selected in part by her peers for the job. Part of what reportedly gave her an advantage is a blog she started in 2008, called “Young, Fat and Fabulous.”

Nick Shore, SVP of strategic insights and research at MTV, give a very interesting discussion on the topic, pointing out that Millennials want to be co-creators, co-directors, co-stars and co-marketers of virtually everything they do.

Marketers should take heed: if you want to successfully target the Millennial generation, you've got to truly get them involved.

I had an interesting conversation with Shore since his presentation. He noted that gaming is a big part of Millenials' lives.

He says that's why a platform like Foursquare is so successful.

“If you look at something like Foursquare, it's turning life into a game — you get badges and buttons for it; you become the mayor of the place; you bring more people in; you get rewards. That would be a logical outgrowth of that kind of behavior,” he said.

It gives new meaning to the phrase, “life is a game.”