Confession: I’ve never been a Don Tapscott fan – maybe because I’ve always viewed him as more of a well-polished marketer who focuses on technology as opposed to a tech guru, and maybe because I’ve been a tech “insider” for the past decade, and see Tapscott’s books, speeches, etc. as far less insightful than people who are not directly involved in the tech industry.

To me, Tapscott’s “expertise” lies in four areas: a knack for recognizing emerging trends/business opportunities (be it the Internet, Y2K, e-commerce, corporate governance and, most recently, Web 2.0); a gift for gathering information from a variety of sources and then packaging it so it’s easily digest-able by the common folk; the ability to position himself as an “expert”; and, of course, the ability to make a lot of money from the “hot new trend” through books (most of them co-authored), research studies (many sponsored by corporate clients), keynotes, etc. under the Don Tapscott brand.

That said, Tapscott is onto something with a $3.5-million research study he’s doing in a partnership with OgilvyOne on how young people (aka Generation X and Y) are using the Web, including their decisions about brands. Speaking at a conference put on today by Ogilvy. Tapscott offered some interesting insight into how young people consume media, and how the Web influences their choices, behaviour, attitudes, etc.

There’s no doubt young people have a deeper involvement with the Web than most people, although they don’t see the Web as a great technology as much as a tool to be used – much like we never saw the remote control was nothing more complicated than a tool to change channels. It’s an idea that I find fascinating and one that I’m lobbying to be part of the upcoming mesh conference agenda (we’ll see if I my efforts are successful!)

Another thing that struck me during the half-day event was the tone. By that, I mean the information about the Web was pretty basic as if OgilvyOne wanted to err on the side of caution rather than assume the audience had a sophisticated knowledge of the Web and the key trends and tools. Maybe I’m wrong but my sense is that many advertisers are still feeling their way on the Web, trying to work out the best ways to approach it (CPM, CPL, CPC, AdSense, banner ads, etc.), what vehicles to use (portals, blogs, targeted sites), and how much of their ad budgets to allocate. Given the Web only accounts for 5% of total advertising spending, it’s still early days and there’s plenty of runway left.

Update: An overview of the conference by Webwalker can be found here and here.

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