Last week I was fortunate enough to be invited to form part of a panel to launch a brand new piece of relevant and exciting African research. The Youth Opinion Report is an in-depth study of 500 Afrillenials conducted by Space. I joined my good friend Arye Kellman, the sensational Gugu Nkabinde and research author Shaun Frazao on the panel that was moderated by Maggs on Media host and epic author and journalist, Jeremy Maggs.
It goes without saying that great strategies and even better implementable work starts with in-depth research. In Africa we have a great shortage of relevant research for our context. When I studied overseas I noticed that there is a hunger for that research among first-worldians but a shortage of appetite to do the hard work, or just a fear of how to even begin tackling it. So once again a South African agency that could rolled up its sleeves and spent months gathering some useful data to produce the Youth Opinion Report 2018.
If anything this report proves to me that while South Africans do mirror a large number of attitudes and behaviours that Americans and Europeans reflect, they also surprise us in a number of unique and singularly important ways. One of these which surprised me is that over 60% of Afrillenials say they have become more religious over time and yet their attitudes to somewhat religiously contentious issues like feminism and same-sex marriage are very positive and supportive of such movements. For good work going forward among all brands and businesses, these types of insights need to be internalised at strategy inception.
To get some quick insights Space has produced a video summary here.