MTV YOUTH MARKETING FORUM: DULL FARE

The MTV-Brand Equity Youth Marketing Forum, held in Mumbai on 19 March, turned out to be a disappointment despite a 12-member august speaker panel. The forum, which is in its second edition and ran to a packed house, was broken up into four sections: Appealing to the Young Mind, Tuning into their wavelength, and Looking beyond the Citylights, and Youth in India: A mass niche. The major complaint amongst attendees was the lack of any new insights from the speakers though they lauded MTV's initiative in focusing on an under-researched subject such as youth marketing. The session which came in for the most criticism was the one on rural youth, where speakers hurled banal statements such as there is no differences in the attitudes of young people in the hinterlands and in the metros to we don't know what the differences are.

MTV Asia president Frank Brown and India director Sudhanshu Sarronwala were also present at the gathering. Sarronwala announced the MTV 1999 Indian youth marketer of the year and the best youth marketing campaign ad campaign. These were given to Sanjiv Kataria of computer education firm NIIT and to Contract Advertising for its Chiclets chewing gum ad campaign.