Full disclosure.  I'm 42.  I have two young girls.  They are prime Bieber demographic.  Neither one of the them huge fans of the Biebs.  Why?   Because we live about 30 minutes away from his home town of Stratford Ontario Canada and Bieber Fever is thick in these parts.  And when its thick and sustained,  people start to turn on their home grown talent...even when its Justin Bieber.  He is polarizing among the young ones and especially in our family.  My girls are Greyson Chance fans. 
Dont ask.  I have no idea who he is either.
 
So how we ended up seeing Bieber's Never Say Never this weekend....opening weekend....'you better get tickets ahead of time mom because its gonna sell out!' weekend, is beyond me. 
But I'm here to tell ya...what Bieber and his people delivered was nothing short of a master class in youth engagement.  Sure, on its surface its entertaining and delivers what every hard core Bieber fan needs.   And the 3D gimmicks actually enhanced the experience for once!  But for those of you, who work with youth and young adults and wonder how new media is changing the rules of engagement for youth and young adults...watch this movie.  The answers are all there.  They are inherent within his 'rise to fame' story...they are there in the manner in which he engages his fans via social media...they are there in the way he acknowledges that his fans made it all happen.  They made it happen.  Not a top down, old fashioned, broken record industry that still thinks old media ( like television and radio air play) are the only reliable platforms.  Who the hell watches television or listens to radio anymore?  Well... I do.  And I'm 42.  And that's the point.
 
So what are you doing to engage youth and young adults...digital natives who can tweet 140 characters faster than you can say "we need to print off more program brochures?"
Stop.  Spare a tree.
Grab your daughter, niece, cousin, younger sister...and check out Never Say Never.
 
And if that's still too low brow for you ask a young Egyptian what's possible when they have access to new media.

By ML