Deyes is reported to have 2.9 million subscribers and 136m views on YouTube. He has more than 1m followers on Twitter and Instagram. Earlier this year, he published The Pointless Book, which attracted 8,000 people to its launch and ended up in the Amazon best-seller list. The strength of what people such as Deyes can do is to create engaging content for their peers to consume and share. The problem is that as a sector and an industry we like control.

The millennials like to co-create the content as it evolves. They are part of the communication process and to some extent shape its content and style. In so doing, they have ownership and this develops a loyalty and a following.

The key to co-branding has to be to allow the audience to feel part of the campaign while retaining some control.  By being directly involved with a brand they gain a sense of loyalty and attachment.

At motor shows over recent years companies have started to get visitors to paint or design cars virtually and then have the picture sent to them electronically or in a form that they can tweet. Mini has done this a number of times and Toyota in Paris exhibited the ‘Art Car’, where people could add to the appearance of the vehicle in a form of what usually resembled graffiti.

How can the auto industry engage millennials, but retain brand control?

Millennials present a different challenge to our industry. Unlike previous generations, who accepted that they were being marketed at or to, the millennials are less passive and want to be involved in the process. For years, we have fought shy of user-generated content, but companies such as Kia and BMW have led the way in openly sharing feedback from customers. Although this is still a fairly linear communication process, there have been examples of customer groups sharing information, often of a technical nature about a product or service.

The millennials present us with a challenge that at the moment we haven’t cracked. How do you get engagement and involvement without losing control of the brand message you are trying to get across?

One possible solution is Apple’s approach, where they encourage comment online but have young staff in their stores who are not paid on commission and are simply there to engage, chat and pass the time of day with customers. Or it may simply be that we start to listen to young people and learn from them. Maybe it is time for the students to teach the professors.