• by Aaron Baar , August 13, 2009

Hewlett-Packard is looking to foster a deeper connection with a younger generation, sponsoring a new campaign, "Declare Yourself with HP," that asks people to state their personal aspirations in a public forum.

The heart of the effort, which will include digital, on-air, mobile and on-the-ground elements, is www.hpdeclare.mtv.com, where users are asked to state their ambitions. These statements will then be posted on the site, and will be broadcast during some MTV programming.

"It's a way to activate on a deeper emotional level, taking a cue from what [youths] are doing on social networks," Mark Fortner, creative director at Digital Fusion, which developed the campaign, tells Marketing Daily. "We want to get people to think about what they're going to do and what they aspire to."

The site -- which prompts users to make their statements by offering phrases such as "I will," "I plan to," and "I can," and gives them a chance to upload a photo to go with it -- was born out of research from MTV Networks Digital's MyVoice panel of 15,000 youths. According to a recent MyVoice survey, more than 88% of the demographic agrees with the statement "it's important to make their voices heard to the friends and the world."

HP's presence on the site is meant to be subtle, acknowledging that the target audience will likely only be turned off by an overt effort, Fortner says. "If you hit consumers over the head ... our audience is fickle, and they'll stay away from that," he says. "If it's something that's integrated, and HP is a part of it, they'll get more engagement."

However, HP is heavily promoting the program with several marketing elements, such as a takeover of MTV.com (where people can enter their own declarations without heading to the dedicated site) and banner ads that immediately populate with one's stated declaration. Offline elements include on-air tosses to the dedicated site and placement on the show "It's On with Alexa Chung." There will also be engagement at live concerts.

Plus, a lot of the declarations (like "I plan to influence the world with my creativity" and "I will become the best elementary school teacher I can be") could be accomplished with the help of technology, Fortner notes. "When you look at these declarations, they're all things that would be better or benefit from the help of a computer," he says.