Sunday Times GenNext celebrates 18 years as leading youth brand surveyor

On September 15 2022, the Sunday Times GenNext campaign, in partnership with Africa’s leading marketing strategy consultancy, Yellowwood, celebrated its 18th year in awarding the coolest brands — voted for by SA’s youth. 

To mark this milestone, the much-anticipated GenNext interactive showcase was hosted on the same day, where brands got the chance to engage with more than 300 youth, aged 8-24.

Here’s what the youth got to enjoy on the day.

Brand SA celebrated a core initiative that promotes how young people see and experience brands and what the country has to offer. Through the Play Your Part programme, Brand SA engaged with young people to instil a sense of pride and patriotism. 

The Gautrain Management Agency kept the youth smiling with their 360-degree camera, which captured hundreds of poses throughout the day.

The Doritos exhibition was a big hit with their free-to-play FIFA gaming tournament. Fun prizes were given away, but the ultimate prize was given to the winning tournament player who took home the latest PlayStation 5 console.

Mercedes-Benz showed up in grand style this year. Its stand featured a hugely popular gaming simulator supported by motorsport gaming partners, ATK. The supercool Mercedes-Benz AMG safety car and Mercedes-Benz A45 were both on show, and attendees were able to lap the challenging Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in an AMG.

McCafé supported the GenNext initiative by treating the attendees with fresh doughnuts, iced coffee and cappuccinos. 

Watch the awards ceremony above:

Standard Bank had the objective of helping young people find the right work so they can earn and save or generate their first R100,000 — 10% of a million rand — by the age of 30.

They achieved this through an edutainment activation where the youth were encouraged to take part in challenges based on the six worker types. namely: helper, organiser, influencer, builder, thinker and creator. The youth were then able to play the spinning puzzle game and stood a chance to win a goodie bag or get a picture drawn by a caricature.

Telkom's activation stand was all about innovation and technology, from VS Gaming, the curated streaming platform TelkomONE, and many more cool offerings to help youth achieve their dreams without breaking the bank.

The youth also got to enjoy fun-filled photo booths, spin and win, popcorn, sweet treats and games through the Proudly SA and Pin Pop activations.

The Sunday Times GenNext thanks all the partners for making this year’s campaign a huge success.

Click here to view the full list of winners.