Colenso BBDO Spoke to Soldiers, Screenwriters, and Students to Write Book on NZ Youth Culture, ‘Dream Bigger’

Colenso BBDO has released a follow-up book to its 2022 book, ‘Dream Small’, called ‘Dream Bigger’.

Both projects saw the team send a group of planners and a photographer on a road trip across Aotearoa in response to being “freaked out by what we were reading about youth culture from research companies,which seemed at odds with what we were hearing/seeing from our own interactions,” Rob Campbell, Colenso BBDO’s chief strategy officer, told LBB.

“Their brief was simple: Let youth culture express how they see their life -- and future -- without filter.”

Three years on, the team wanted to hear and see how things had changed, especially in light of “a narrative from certain parts of society, media and politics that this is a generation who lack the skills, ambition and drive to be ‘successful.’”

The result, ‘Dream Bigger’, is a very different type of book to ‘Dream Small’ according to Rob -- “and yet, there are still commonalities.”

“They still love this country. They still want to do good things for this country. But they continue to feel judged for what they do and want to do, as well as feel a pressure to conform to the expectations of those who came before them.”

What sets this new wave of young people apart is how they respond to those judgements.

Where ‘Dream Small’ laid bare a sense of isolation and despair in New Zealand’s youth, ‘Dream Bigger’ shows that while these feelings haven’t changed, the group is now “increasingly feeling empowered” by being misjudged.

“Part of this is because they’ve only experienced a life full of chaos and change and so feel totally comfortable with it,” Rob said.

“Part of this is because the internet has completely changed what they can do and how they can do it. But unlike previous generations who blindly believed in the path that served so many so well over the years -- they know this doesn’t exist anymore and with that has come a sense of freedom.”

Looking back at the original ‘Dream Small’, Rob admitted “It made for pretty-tough reading, telling the stories of a generation who increasingly felt tolerated rather than welcomed -- not helped by the isolation they experienced during the COVID years.”

“The sentiment was so strong that we were not surprised when we witnessed how many young adults started leaving the country they loved in the hope of having a life filled with more choice and opportunity.”

As well as what the team found, the approach to research has also shifted. ‘Dream Small’ was made up of spontaneous trips and random interactions, while ‘Dream Bigger’ saw the team “more precise in their focus.”

“While we criss-crossed the country, it was to specifically listen to people we had identified -- or been introduced to -- who were forging their own path, regardless of the obstacles and expectations they faced,” said Rob.

“We spoke to students, soldiers, screenwriters, UN speakers, blossoming popstars, politicians and conservation workers -- to name but a few. All individuals who are writing success stories that run counter to what tends to be celebrated or promoted in New Zealand culture.”

When asked what some of the stand-out discoveries the team made on their travels, Rob said it was “that their definitions of success were very different to the common narrative.”

“At the heart of their choices and actions was a fierce clarity on the world they wish to inhabit and create. Success for them was far more personal than universal.”

Whilst Rob said the hopes for the original ‘Dream Small’ were for the people involved to simply be seen, the hopes for ‘Dream Bigger’ are for those involved to be respected.

“Because far from lacking the drive, skills and ambition to be successful, our takeout is this is a generation who are the new industrialists of New Zealand. The people who will add to the future of the country, not -- as many suggest -- just take or repeat what has gone before.”