Today is yesterday and tomorrow is today
I took a deep breath, suited up, readjusted my tie, and pushed open the glass doors to my new life...and never looked back. Good-bye suit, and hello sea of casual wear. 16 years of education dreading the white collar blazer combination was instantly wiped away. I had arrived at a place I could call home: this crazy little thing we call 'media'.
A blur it was: just yesterday I saw the bottom of my glass at my first media event and before I knew it I was a young veteran, a seasoned junior surviving the test of time. I went from being 'the new guy' to pointing out 'the new(er) guy' to other people. The industry is undoubtedly getting younger and younger... with aspirations getting higher and higher, but why?
Gen Y has planted its flag on the world of media; us “Millennials” are matching those spots in BCC and tearing out those insertions from magazines. Gen Y bestows the mentality of live for the now; today was yesterday and tomorrow is today.
We want instant self-gratification; we are narcissistic hounds who hunger for praise, a pat on the back just for showing up and a reward for completing a task we were hired to do. We don’t want to climb the corporate ladder, we want to zoom upwards in the private elevator. A shifting paradigm is upon us, our parents lived to work whereas our generation work to live.
This overwhelming cultural trait sees the average age in media at a youthful 26. Long gone are the days of “just glad to be employed.” Enter the “They should be glad I work for them" fray. This generation always deems the grass to be greener on the other side. There is always another agency or industry that will dangle the carrot above the eager heads of an unfulfilled employee.
This cultural change impacts the talent pool, generating a new influx of bright-eyed, bushy-tailed university graduates to take up the reins, diminishing our experience and creating issues for our HR managers.
Who is to blame? I believe a major culprit is in fact the media. We grew up in a world of instant emails, mobile phones, nudging on msn and poking on Facebook. Technology facilitated our yearning for instant gratification. We then began our careers in a different media from yesteryears, a media exploding with choice and change. Fifteen FTA channels, consolidated data, digital radio, measurability of outdoor and let’s not forget our baby brother of the media channels, the ever-growing digital.
The media industry has evolved by opening vast opportunities for its employers to take different avenues, explore roads less travelled, and forgetting about loyalty in the pursuit of individual goals and happiness.
Take a look at programs like Masterchef, X-Factor, Australian Idol and The Biggest Loser, the list goes on and the message is clear – take a shortcut to fulfilling your dream, instant gratification is yours for the taking. Likewise, it is an industry which always wants more, a CPM can always be lower, an average rating can always be higher, greater discounts, greater added value – “invest not spend!”
Every cloud has a silver lining, this culture might negate loyalty and realistic goal setting but it presents forth an exciting challenge in an exciting time for media. Gen Y are bringing fresh ideas, an acceptance to change and a tech savvy approach to an industry which is evolving by the day: an energy and exuberance just waiting to be channelled.
So give them a thumbs up, a friendly smile or a motivational email of appraisal, they just want to be inspired, they want to feel loved and feel “special”, just like how mummy and daddy told them they were whilst growing up.
I leave you with this timeless adage: "Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys. Look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death!" - Sun Tzu, the Art of War
Michael Jilwan
OMD