Today's Top Trend Tip: Bright Young Things

Here at Trend Bible, we produce a bi-annual forecast for children called Kids Lifestyle Trends. We sell this to all sorts of brands from kids furniture manufacturers to mobile phone companies- basically anyone who needs to know about trends that affect kids from babies through to teens. I've been doing some research for our Autumn Winter 2011/12 forecast, and have been really blown away by the innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among the 9-13 age group in particular.

Some of you may have already seen the debut of Junior Apprentice on BBC1 this week (I for one am totally hooked) which highlights the sheer determination of today's younger teens to set themselves apart and become enterprising individuals (who needs school anyway?!)

I'm also a big fan of teen fashion blogger, Tavi Gevinson, (my favourite headline was 'Tavi Gevinson- the new Anna Wintour?’), who is the author of Style Rookie, a blog she began in 2008, age 11.

As brands and marketeers inch closer to finding what drives and motivates these young consumer groups, the children themselves are dictating to brands and retailers like never before, fully ensconsed in their roles as opinion leaders and representatives of their generation.

I spent some time at a networking event in Newcastle talking to Peter Hirst who runs a company called MyKidology a North-East based market research company helping brands who sell to children test out their products and services before going to market. Peter explained; "At Kidology we believe in being creative and having fun in every aspect of our work; it's what working with young people does to you! We're keen to help any business, at any stage, achieve a great relationship with young people."

We've also noticed a flurry of websites for children helping them come up with ways to make money and be enterprising, like Kidpreneur, which encourages kids to be enterprising, from using their vast social networks to recommend and sell on behalf of brands, through to innovative online methods for making pocket money (no one likes washing cars right?).

So today's Top Tip is for all of you who include children or teens as your target audience. Are you enabling them to have input into your brand? Can you encourage them to promote your brand by offering them the opportunity to write a blog for you?