I saw this excellent post by Doug Akin in MediaPost’s Engage: Teens and wanted to share it.

Success In The Eyes Of Teens Today

I’m intrigued by how media are transforming today’s teens to be tomorrow’s innovators and revolutionaries. What will fuel them to do great things as they enter adulthood? How will brands, causes and celebrities inspire their dreams and help make them reality?
But first, let’s take a quick flash back to a decade ago. Jackass gave hope to class clowns across the country and Napster founder Sean Fanning was giving the record industry the proverbial middle finger. It was cool to be a badass. Today, it has become cool to do good.

How today’s teens are different:

They will defy conformity and reshape the vision of success and career
They will rethink how companies are built and how they profit
They believe they can change the world (and ultimately will)
Their idea of success isn’t a 9-5 with a six-figure salary
A great pop culture nugget that shows just how much teens have transformed: “The Buried Life,” an MTV show following the epic cross-country journey of four friends as they accomplish 100 dreams before they die. From paying off their parents’ mortgage to playing ball with President Obama, their adventures undoubtedly provide a new perspective on what it means to achieve.

What am I getting at here? Teens see the real world through a different lens. The cast members of “The Buried Life” believe they can do anything, from going into space to delivering a baby. What’s more, they’re actually giving back to communities. From the small (giving a random person $100) to the huge (buying computers for an L.A. school), they tie every crazy dream they accomplish back to helping total strangers.

Assuming they stay on course (and remain entertaining), these guys will become role models for teens and reshape how they view success. For many of today’s teens, becoming a millionaire will become less important over the years. Money is still important, but today’s teens will see role models like Blake from Toms Shoes and Charity Water founder Scott Harrison achieve success through cause and community. They will also be inspired by how entrepreneurs are using their voices and influence to spotlight key causes.

Recently, Twitter co-founders Ev & Biz leveraged their rock-star social-media status to start up a new wine venture, Fledgling, designed to fund literacy programs. Don’t get me wrong. I’m sure there are millions of teens who aspire to be the next Mark Zuckerberg, but the next kid to step out and become an Internet legend/ accidental billionaire will probably build something with a strong give-back component.

I’m excited to think of how far today’s teens will take us in 10 years. I imagine a world where they will create products with a purpose. Imagine creating a granola brand and using profits to end a war in Africa, or building the next Facebook platform to donate 20% of their advertising revenue to crisis relief? Now that’s a dream to cross off my own bucket list.

These phrases stand out to me in particular and get me excited about the potential of cause marketing with the teen segment: “it has become cool to do good;” “tie every crazy dream…to helping total strangers,” “products with a purpose,” and “reshape how they view success.”

What brands are owning these sentiments? American Express has taken the lead on aligning themselves with the entrepreneurs and SMBs leading our economic recovery. Who’s going to empower and align with the Do Good Youth segment?  Better yet, how can we harness the work we do (or our clients do) to make a greater social impact?

I’ve already got an idea for one of my clients…