The results of a survey conducted by HDI Youth Consultancy were announced at The Standard GenNext Event on 16 November. The awards were for the brands that Zimbabwean youth voted the coolest in the land in 2018.

Awards were given to the coolest kids’ TV station, snack, and fast food outlet, yoghurt and breakfast cereal. Also conferred were prizes for the coolest skin care brand, sanitary ware brand, grocery store, service station and motor vehicle.

The youth chose CBZ as the coolest bank, Star FM the coolest radio station, and the Herald, the coolest newspaper. The youth selected DJ Stavo as their coolest DJ, Ammara Brown, coolest female celebrity and Jah Prayzah as the coolest male celebrity. Nike’s ‘Just Do it’ was the coolest brand slogan, beating ‘ED Pfee,’ while the coolest company as well as mobile network was Econet.

HDI Youth Consultancy Zimbabwe, a locally registered company opened its doors in the country in May. The consultancy has its head office in South Africa were it has been operating for 14 years. It is part of the TBWA Group of Companies, part of the global Omnicom Group.

HDI Youth Consultancy have developed unique ways of appealing to this market in the schools, malls, communities and digital playgrounds of urban, peri-urban and rural South Africa since 1996. In 2009, the company was launched in Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria.

HDI Youth Consultancy believes in young people and has taken a decision to invest in the future of Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe, where there are well over 4 million youth, HDI Youth Consultancy works to understand and grow them, connecting brands to a market segment that has been neglected for too long.

The company believes youth are the leaders of tomorrow and that education is the foundation on which the future is built. It facilitates and creates corporate sponsored programs and platforms that empower young people. These give access to a variety of educational content such as visual aids, learning tools among others.

In an effort to get to know the youth better, HDI Youth Consultancy commissioned a study to collect insights from them. The GenNext event managed to deliver survey insights into youth lifestyle, brand preference and consumer behaviour in Zimbabwe.

This was part of key research on how brands performed in the youth market, giving marketers a peek into what this target market thinks about their brands and most importantly what made them tick in the preceding year.

The study was a first for Zimbabwe, polling over 1,000 youths aged between 8 to 26 years from all the major cities in urban and peri-urban Zimbabwe. At a glittering awards ceremony we recognised the coolest brands and celebrities.

There were two components to The Standard GenNext 2018 Study. The brand preference component of the study polled the opinions of young people between the ages of 8 and 26, both males and females, and inclusive of all races, to establish which brands they thought were the coolest across 36 different categories.

The lifestyle and consumer behaviour category required respondents to reflect their attitudes as young consumers and was aimed at getting a grip on youth habits and behaviour.

The results, though not necessarily a reflection of consumption patterns, reflected young urbanites’ aspirations, and reflect future purchase preferences. Such information is sure to give corporates an idea of youth preferences as they worked on their marketing strategies.

The survey will be conducted annually and the results released in The Standard newspaper.

The results of the 2018 study are available for sale from HDI Youth Consultancy.

www.hdiyouth.com