Mattias Behrer & Joeri Van den Bergh on writing the best marketing book of 2011

 How Cool Brands Stay Hot, the bestselling book about branding to Generation Y by Mattias Behrer and Joeri Van den Bergh has last month won the Expert Marketeer Award for Best Marketing Book of 2011. We are still very proud with that achievement and we thought it would be fun to publish a short double-interview with the authors. What projects do Mattias Behrer and Joeri Van den Bergh have in the pipeline for 2012? What can we expect and will they team up again to win some more marketing literature prizes? Find out in the interview below!
Mattias, this is a great milestone. What was your first comment?
Mattias Behrer: “I guess I just said: ‘Wow, this is amazing!’ I was extremely pleased to see the book nominated in the first place, to actually win was honestly very unexpected and a real thrill, even more so when looking at the competition. I have a lot of respect for the authors on that list. On the other hand, Joeri is one of the smartest people I have had the pleasure to work with and he does write like a champ too.”

Joeri, there were quite a lot of famous marketing authors in the shortlist. How did you & Mattias pull this off. Who did you guys bribe?
Joeri Van den Bergh: “I believe our book fulfills the need to understand the new empowered consumer generation. Gen Y is a media savvy cohort that incites marketers to change their approach to branding and communicating. The fact that our book is based on 5 years of research and business experience combined with the numerous case studies as well as the international roadshow of last year must have helped us to win this valuable award. And of course we ARE two very enthusiastic and lovable creatures 🙂 with a network that feels more like true friends rather than business partners. So instead of thanking our moms, we should thank our friends and network! By the way, the other authors are great too….”
Joeri, what’s up next, does this change anything, are you working on new stuff?
Joeri Van den Bergh: “We’re releasing some new youth studies now and then. We first had the crushed ice youth community in 15 global cities, and now we’ve finished a quantitative study in 16 countries across the globe. So do check our blog regularly, it’s full of updates every week. It’s still a bit early to talk about a successor of this book, but there might be plans for an update in a second paperback edition and maybe a new title too. We’ll see what the future brings.”
Mattias, any news at MTV. Will you and Joeri team up again to win the award next year? Is there any  interesting new youth research coming up?
Mattias Behrer: “MTV is all about new stuff, all the time…as for international research we do have some new interesting reports coming up this year. I would love to team up with Joeri again at some point but personally I don’t think there is time for any book projects in the very close future. Not sure about Joeri though, he seems to be on fire…”
The book is now out for exactly a year. What Generation Y developments and trends are NOT in the book?
Mattias Behrer: “I guess we didn’t fully cover the exciting and rapidly accelerating development in social TV, very much driven by Gen Y.”
Joeri Van den Bergh: “I deliberately didn’t want to write an advertising or social media book to leave that headspace to my partner Steven Van Belleghem. After almost a year of roadshows around the world, I think there’s a need for more insights on emerging markets like the BRIC-countries. Next to that one of the questions I often get when I’m doing in-company workshops or conference keynotes is: how do you create something appealing to Gen Y AND their parents. That intergenerational branding is a topic for a separate book, I think :-).”
Mattias, what’s the relevance of this work for a global youth brand like MTV?
Mattias Behrer: “It’s highly relevant. Insights about Gen Y are key for us. MTV is well on its way to transform from a former Gen X brand into a brand tailored for the Millennial generation. The only way to manage this journey is to stay plugged into our audience, to explore their values, attitudes and behaviors, learning and adapting on a daily basis. ”
Joeri, how is your book linked to the daily research and consulting practices at InSites Consulting?
Joeri Van den Bergh: “Of course our main business is understanding consumers and giving consumers a voice inside a company. By deepening our knowledge of the most important cohort of consumers today, we are ready to offer our clients good advice. As a result of the book we’ve done many Gen Y insighting and brand communities as well as other types of projects using the book’s CRUSH model.”

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