16th
Generation Think Tank - Thought Leaders
What do you get when you put a bunch of chocolate bunnies in a frying pan? Ask Generation Think Tank (GTT). This group of out-of-the-box creative thinkers has made it their full time job to drum up the most obscure marketing strategies that happen to cater to a specific demographic——Generation Y——-hipsters between the ages of 13-35 that are hard to please, hard to understand, and hard to reach. But somehow GTT has figured it out..and companies pay them handsomely for it.
Part of the reason GTT is able to successfully market to this tough demographic is because they are part of it. Brett Jackson, Daniel Lim, and Connor McCue started GTT because they saw a need for a different breed of a marketing company that didn’t think like all the others out there. GTT gets assignments that would terrify the more traditional (read: old) marketing and advertising agencies. A typical project may involve developing an unconventional marketing strategy for an unconventional product —— namely, the AVX Aircraft Company, manufacturers of a small, lightweight helicopter that can fit into a garage!
My high regard for this company derived out of my respect for their fearless leader, Brett Jackson. As the second youngest mentor in Techstars (Ben Casnocha has him beat by a few years), Brett has made quite a name for himself right out of the gates (or the diapers, depending on how you look at it). He started working for Crocs at the age of 16 and spearheaded the evolution from Crocs as a ‘boat shoe’ to the Croc as we know it today (i.e., every person in the world wears them, along with their 4.5 kids). He started an investment firm called Getch Companies at the ripe old age of 18, and started making seed investments in other businesses. Nowadays he runs GTT and provides non-traditional marketing advice to the 10 Techstars companies. He offers a fresh perspective to our teams, partially due to the fact that he has the practical business sense of a veteran entrepreneur, combined with the imagination and energy of a younger person. He’s just sort of an anomole, to tell you the truth.
Brett and his pals at GTT have been extremely helpful to Travelfli as we’ve developed our business this summer, and we can’t wait to work with them more as we roll out our marketing strategy for capturing frequent flyers in their infancy. We’re pitching for his company next week prior to Investor Day, and we can’t wait to hear their offbeat, yet valuable advice and recommendations.
P.S. Brett is also a treasure hunter. Yes, that’s what I said. He hunts for treasures that others buried ages and ages ago. Ask him about it. This guy is full of surprises.
GTT’s Marketing Strategy for Gellazzi... www.savethebunny.org