Matt Britton Live Keynote At YMS - Brooklyn NY - 10/3/17 (Millennial Expert Speaker)

Do this. Are there any Gen Zennials in the audience? Just making sure. Really enjoyed that presentation. That was awesome. Today I am here to talk about. Not these brands. Keep it moving. Can we get some slide action here? Perfect. Okay. Today I'm here to talk about the class of 2025. And don't worry, I'm not going to be talking about flying cars and teleporting to other countries. I'm going to talk about a realistic view about people who are 10 years old right now and when they're graduating college and what the world will look like, because we're all planning for the future. And, you know, the last presentation I thought was really profound, talking about the importance of the Millennial generation. Why are we all so obsessed with the Millennials? To me, Millennials are a different species than every other species that existed before them because they grew up with the Internet in the household. If you think about the access to information, access to technology, the intuitive understanding of the ability to break down businesses that have been around for over a century, this generation is unlike any others. Gen Z, in my opinion, more Millennial ness, faster, more mobile, etc. But that divide that happened between Gen X and Gen Y is sort of a once in a lifetime thing. 2025 is important because these people are going to be coming to a world because the Millennials will already be in the C suite. So the decisions that are made by big companies will no longer be made by people who are golf buddies with the CEO of a Madison Avenue agency and are spending 80% of their dollars on TV. The world's going to be changed because the leaders are going to be of the millennial framework. So you're going to see change happen in a much more accelerated pace. One of the biggest changes, I think is going to happen is with higher education, where people are going to learn. I get asked by parents all the time after I speak at colleges, universities, et cetera, what should I teach my kids in this world of a barbell economy where 0.1% of the population in the United States controls nearly 25% of the wealth? It's the first time since the Roaring Twenties people are really freaked out right now, right? The middle class is rapidly erod. Offshoring, outsourcing, etc. Jobs in Middle management will no longer exist. If your boss has to tell you what to do when you walk into work every day, he can just as easily tell somebody in India or Costa Rica or China for a lot more cheaply. So people who are preparing for a college education need to understand how they're going to make themselves more marketable. And what I tell these parents, you need to go either deep into an art or deep into a science. Deep into an art is doing something that the machines can't do things. Think, design, innovate, come up with ways to actually control machines in a way that are beautiful, artistically and aesthetically pleasing. Or deep into science, learn how to operate, control and code machines. If you're anything but deep in art, anything but deep into science, coming out in the class of 2025, you're going to be on the wrong side of the barbell economy. The college landscape as well is something that really befuddles me because even right now, I question the value of getting into 150,000, $200,000 in debt to follow your dreams. But when you get out of college, these kids who are getting out right now can do anything but follow their dreams because they're buried in student debt. Higher education loans has now passed $2 trillion in the United States and is a major, major issue. A friend of mine named Adam Braun just started a company that got well funded called Mission U. Mission U is actually under the premise that you shouldn't have to pay for your college education until you get into the workforce and the percentage of your future income goes to pay down your college tuition. Mission U has lined up major companies like Warby Parker and Google who actually have raised their hand and said, I like the way you're teaching students and I'm going to offer to actually hire these students when they come out. To me, that's a much more progressive way of teaching young people what they need to learn to have the right skill sets in the workforce and not getting into debt while doing so. So they graduate from college, hopefully they're not in debt. Where are these people going to live? Well, the version of the American dream, you know, getting married, moving out to the suburbs, getting a house with a white picket fence and a two car garage. Right? That version of the American dream, well, that's really taking a U turn. See, at cities like right here in Brooklyn are the places that young people and the class of 2025 will imagine themselves living. Schools are becoming safe already. There's more parks. The action is in the city in the 247 News feed When young people are on their phones or people, old people like myself looking constantly over and over on what's going on. The action is not going on right now in Long island, right? It's happening right here in Brooklyn or over the river in Manhatt. And because of that, young people want to stay in cities and that's causing a tremendous amount of change to demographics and the landscape in the United States. Two cities, obviously there's gentrification and gentrification is going to only continue again here in Brooklyn. The penultimate case study of gentrification. The impact of gentrification is really interesting to me because the notion of the inner city blue collar worker really has forever flipped. Right now the blue collar worker is actually getting pushed out to the suburbs. The creative class is now taking over cities like here in Brooklyn. And because of that, the landscape of cities are changing. No longer do young people have the ability to say, oh, I'm going to move out to the suburbs, actually get that house. Young people are staying in a city and they're getting super, super, super charged up by the fact that gentrification is occurring and they have the ability to be in places they never thought they'd have the ability to live in. It's really interesting when gentrification happens, and I'm no fan of gentrification, when Google and Amazon are taking out businesses that have been around for 10, 20, 30, 50 years and mom and pop shops go out of business, one of three things always tends to open up. One is a Starbucks because Amazon still has not broken down the Starbucks model, right? They can't deliver Starbucks to you. They might be able to deliver within an hour, but they can't deliver it to you within a minute. So you see that pop up bank of America Chase. Big banks are popping up because in this society people still believe they actually need cash. So despite the fact that most young people are starting to use Venmo and peer to peer payments, cash is still something that people like to have. A lot of people still like to bank the old fashioned way. So you see banks still pop up when these businesses go out of business. And third is Duane Reade, right? Could there be any more Duane Reads here in the city? That's because that's the third place that Amazon still hasn't taken over, pharmacies, et cetera. So that's really it right now. The rest of the notion of retail right now, non perishable goods, even fashion, you name it, these businesses are slowly going on at the automotive industry. Their version of retail being out in the suburbs with these huge parking lots, right, where people can go and browse through cars and take test drives. That's even no longer the model for automotive companies. They're going into cities in the same 2,500 square foot retail locations like Tesla, the best example, they have one car in a retail location. You get to check it out, talk to a salesperson, and if you should buy a car, which I think less and less people in a class of 25 will do, they'll actually just deliver it to you. So that's really changing the landscape of how major cities actually look. And because of that, it's actually going to change where and how people work. When I was growing up, my parents said, be a doctor, be a lawyer, get a six figure job, right? Marry a nice girl, take that normal path. That's the path that people thought you could take. It was a clear path. But the fact is, right now, the average age of a company in the Fortune 500 is going to be less than 10 years in a couple years from now, versus 40 to 50 years old in the 50s and 60s and 70s. It used to be working for a big company, putting your head down, doing the right thing, working through middle management, working your way up to the C suite was a clear path. As long as you didn't screw up, you could be very successful in working for a big company. Well, that's actually no longer the case. Working for a big company right now actually creates more risk than being on your own. Big companies are also seeing the changes of young people wanting to move into cities. And, and what we're finding is big companies that have these huge suburban enclaves like Microsoft in Redmond, Washington or Pepsi in Purchase, New York or Visa in Foster City, are slowly moving their headquarters back to big cities. Yes, it's more expensive, yes, they don't have the tax advantages, but they can no longer recruit good young talent out in the suburbs right now. So they're moving into cities, but when they're moving into cities, they're actually contracting their workforces. Because in a world where the stock market's putting more and more pressure on these companies, they're getting addition through subtraction. So the workforces are not growing nearly as fast for big companies anymore. And instead of these big companies hiring, they're tapping into freelancers or what's called the gig economy. And in the class of 2025, the gig economy will be the majority of jobs that people take, meaning they will no longer submit their resume anymore. And let's face it, resumes should be completely dead even as of today for the class of 2017. But young people are not going to be submitting resumes anymore. And if they go deep in an art and if they go deep into a science, they can actually become a freelancer and actually go direct to companies and have a world and a lifestyle that's enviable and create really a new version of the American dream. They no longer have to come into work every day. They can travel wherever they want. And as long as they have an in demand skill set which is like a YouTube search engine optimizer or a Ruby on Rails software developer, right, these people can actually have the ability to work with any company they want. Towards the later years of me running my advertising agency, I couldn't hire creative directors for 2, 3, $400,000 a year because they were freelancing for five or six ad agencies at the time, eating their lifetime supply of Doritos right, playing Xbox every single day and making an income that I could make as the CEO of a company. This is actually the future. It's the landmark of the future. And that's why you see this boom in things like collaborative workspaces. So an article this morning, WeWork is now worth $20 billion with a B. Started by people who are now in their early 30s. Everybody knows what WeWork is here, I'm assuming. Okay, for those of you who don't and maybe too embarrassed to raise your hand, basically, WeWork is the number one tenant of commercial real estate in the world right now. They take over really cool warehouse type spaces, kind of like this one in gentrified areas, kind of like here in Red Hook. And they will essentially allow you as an entrepreneur to sit across neck cool guy in that white button down shirt with the glasses on. And you can pay $150 to $200 a month. And he might be a designer and the person next to that person might be an engineer and the person across the table might be a copywriter. You can start your own little company in a culture that rivals Google. You have a massage therapist, you have your own conference rooms, you have your own receptions, you even have your own health benefits. When I started work, when I started my agency back in 2002, I had to work out of my bedroom and I would pick up the phone and pretend like it's somebody else's voice. Hi, Mr. Youth. Oh, hold on, Matt. Hi, this is Matt. I actually did that shit right, because I didn't have WeWork and I had to actually roll out of my bed and actually work at a desk. Well, these people don't have to anymore. And you're going to see WeWorks in a world continuing to build where young people no longer have to walk into an office any day. And be told what to do, but instead come and actually leverage their marketable skill sets again, deep into an art or deep into a science to really live the next version of the American dream. But not in the suburbs with the white picket fence, but here in the cities. How they would buy is super fascinating. Now there's no mistake that Amazon is just destroying, and I mean destroying retail in every way, shape or form. And a big reason why is that these young people are staying in cities and they no longer have the SUV to drive out to Target, to pack the back of the car and actually drive home. It's so much easier to actually have things delivered. I don't know how many of you live in a doorman building in a major city like here in New York, but the stacks of Amazon boxes are almost getting so big that you cannot even see the damn doorman anymore. It just keeps going higher and higher and higher. Which I don't think is going to change anytime soon. But the way these young people are going to buy is going to be forever changed. Long before the class of 2025 graduates because of voice technology. The best companies in the world are investing in voice technology right now. You have Amazon with Alexa, you have Google with home, you have Microsoft with Cortana, you have Apple with Siri. Why? Because it saves consumers time and typing is going to go away. I had an argument with a school teacher a couple years ago and I said they should not teach handwriting in school anymore. And she was super pissed off. She said handwriting is really important to the development of young people. I said handwriting is going to be gone today. I'm going to call that teacher up and say they should not even teach typing anymore. Because in five years from now, 10 years from now, we will no longer type. We will speak into our phone and, and with incredible lightning fast accuracy, it will transcribe everything we're saying. Wait till the new Apple 10 iPhone X comes out. You're going to see how much evolution and how much progress Siri has actually made. And because of that, we're going to be speaking into our phones, not typing in our phones. And since we don't have to type into our phones anymore, do we even really need a screen? Right? So Amazon thinks no. And if you don't have at least an Amazon Echo dot, which is $50 and you're in this industry right now, you're not really serious about being in this industry right now. So after the speech, don't go on your phone while I'm talking unless you're Gonna tweet how great I'm doing. Order yourself an Amazon Echo dot, get it in your house and test it out. Because it's fascinating what Amazon's doing with deploying these devices in people's homes. So I test it out all the time. And one thing that happened with me, super interesting, is I have batteries for my remote control and I say, alexa, buy batteries. And Alexa says, I will send you Amazon Basics batteries. And I say, no Alexa, I want Doracell. And Alexa says, and I won't try to mimic Alexa's voice, I will send you Amazon Basics batteries. What Amazon is betting right now is that the ease and convenience of buying over voice actually trumps the power of a multi billion dollar brand like Dorcel. They're saying consumers really don't care about Dorcel, a brand and a low involvement category like batteries. What they would much rather do is not have to leave their couch or pick up their phone even to actually order batteries. And what Amazon's doing is they're creating the new ultimate private label brand to actually take down CPGs and low involvement categories by essentially winning over distribution and convenience, over building brands. So for all you brand managers and all you agencies out there that are investing in CPM and impressions and building that, you're doing it wrong right now because it needs to be about actually the function, the delivery methodology is now trumping the brand because consumers really don't care as much anymore about brands anymore. They're building, as was mentioned in the last presentation, their personal brands through experiences, not through their cars, houses, watches and sneakers. The bling bling of the 80s and 90s, that doesn't build their brand anymore, right? So they don't really care if you're busting out door cells or they're rolling into the cul de sac with their brand new Lexus. That doesn't actually gain them social currency anymore. And Amazon is playing into this in a big way. And the future of the phone is going to look like this 20, 25. People are not going to be looking at their phones. This will be the phone. Okay? And that's why AirPods are already being invested into. All the technology will be in here. And 80 to 90% of what you do, whether it's sending emails, sending texts, hearing about the news, you name it, will be here for screens. How are people going to look at things? Well, Apple and the new iOS10 is investing in augmented reality and augmented real kit. For those of you who don't know what that means, I can go to a target and scan over different products and see how much they are. Or I can say, hmm, I wonder how much that overpriced loft is here in Red Hook and actually see how expensive it is. So those are really common applications of augmented reality. And I don't think it's going to be on the phone, though. I think contact lenses or glasses. Probably contact lenses, because people who don't wear glasses don't like to wear glasses, which is why Google Glass didn't work and why Snapchat's not spectacles failed. But if we get contact lenses that actually go on your eyes and when you turn it on, it gives you that augmented reality overlay that seems to make a lot of sense, does that mean we're all going to become robots and drones? Yes, but that's actually where I think it's headed. It doesn't mean a tablet or an iPad won't be part of the picture if you want to actually watch a game or you want to watch a movie or something. But I don't think it's going to be something you walk out of the house with. In fact, the new Apple Watch just got announced, actually has the cell phone technology built into the watch itself. I was at JFK last week. The woman's talking on her phone like she's James Bond already. We've already arrived. The future is here. What will they buy? Well, the reality is they're going to be buying a whole lot less stuff. Because think about it, when you're in an apartment, you have way less space. People are sacrificing space and privacy for proximity and connectivity. And when they're doing that, they don't have space to basically build up in a mess crap anymore. Right. So they're not throwing whatever they can into the back of their car and actually driving in. They're being much more choiceful about what they're buying, which is absolutely destroying retail. Right. That's another reason retail's being destroyed. So think about, there's less demand in their products. And since a lot of these retailers are in the cities, the real estate costs are coming up. So they're getting crunched from the top and they're getting crunched from the bottom, and they're really getting hit from both ends. And it's not just the actual clothing and everyday purchase items. Why would you ever buy a car if you're in the city? Who wants to pay for parking here and gas and tolls, insurance and, oh yeah, the cost of the car when you can just hit a button And a car will take you anywhere. Right? And if you want to go for a nice little weekend road trip, you can take a Zipcar or something like that. So I say this all the time. The only people who argue with the people that work at automotive companies is, I don't think people are gonna be buying cars anymore. I just don't think it's where it's gonna be. Same with houses. Why have houses where you have Airbnb Move it on. And instead of people actually buying stuff, they're investing in a service economy. Did anyone see that? IKEA bought TaskRabbit. So super interesting. So we're moving from DIY. Do it yourself. Like Home Depot. We can do it. You can help to di fy, which I just came up with this morning, But I'm gonna write about some Steal it, which is do it for you. Right? Because people don't have time anymore. You hit a button, people do it for you. Glam squad. People come in, do your hair, your blowout, your makeup's for you by hitting a button. That's sort of the future of retail, where you don't have to actually visit a service. You hit a button as well. So I'm being told to stop. I actually started about five minutes late. So are you guys cool with me going an extra five minutes just so I can finish this? Yeah, I'm saying a lot of yeses. Okay, sorry. So I just pulled rank on this bit, so. Rent the Runway. Another thing in terms of people not wanting to purchase things, I promise it'll be five minutes. Rent the Runway is incredible because instead of buying that $1,500 beautiful orange Diane Van Furstenberg dress, you can rent it for $75. Rent the Runway, go out, take a picture, and insta with it. No one knows that you actually don't even own it, and then return it afterwards. And with the savings of $1,425, you can have a wild night out. And lastly, so I'm not going to have time for everything, but in terms of how they were spending their time, obviously, I had to throw J. Biebs into is all about experiences. In my book Youth Nation, I talk about something called Dipty, which stands for did it for the Instagram. And that young people are so consumed with experiences as a byproduct of building their personal brand, they will pursue them, not even so much for the ability to enjoy them, but to show everybody else that they were actually there. And there's so many examples of it. There's Mission Peak in Fremont, California, which has been around forever because it's a mountain. But for some reason, in the past three years, Mission Peak has been plagued by overcrowding, complaints from local visitors, lack of parking. Why? Easily accessible off of two major highways, a 15 minute walk up to the top of the mountain, and on top, a pole where you can take the perfect selfie. Now all of a sudden everyone is outdoorsy, right? Everybody is a super great hiker. GTFO get the flight out on Friday. You pull up, get the flight out, you see you the furthest mountain you can fly away for the cheapest amount of money possible. $150 round trip to Budapest. Guess we're all in the Budapest. And you can believe we're going to tag a million pictures when we're there. And my personal favorite example is Color Run. Okay, this does not look like the Kenyans that just won the Boston Marathon, does it? Okay, but this is actually the future of fitness. People show up wearing white shirts. They show up, they get doused with colorful powder, creating a perfect Instagram moment. Basically, no one's showing up there without a phone. The races are untimed and by the end, when you win or you lose because there's no winners or losers in Color Run, there's a DJ at the end and you're treated to a live concert. Meanwhile, Valleys a gym that's actually about weights and showing up every day, well, they're now bankrupt. Okay, so the future of fitness is about experience as well. It's about the status update over the status symbol. The status update over the status symbol. In the 80s, 90s, 2000s, it was Cadillac Frills. Cadillac Frills, right? Bling bling. Showing everything. You have to build your own personal brand. Now it's photos like this that will get you social clout. And that's the future of where people are spending time. And then lastly, because I saw the Tinder set up downstairs because of all this, people are getting married way, way later for the first time ever in the United States. The age of the first time father in the US is over 30 years old. Tinder I think is actually the biggest reason more why. But actually there's other reasons why in terms of people staying in cities, it becoming more expensive. There's more two individuals earning in the household, so they're pushing out marriage further and further ahead. I have more, but usually I got. You guys are going to have to check me on YouTube to see the less because this is way too much stuff. I guess I overestimated my actual speed of talking, but thank you guys so much. Matt Brady, you can come check me out.