“We all hate advertising,” declared Lance Traore, managing director of video ad tech company Unruly at AdTech’s creative connections conference in Sydney yesterday.

He was referencing a recent study the company – which has just been acquired by News Corp – had conducted that looked into Millennials’ sentiment of brands.

“We found with Millennials and Gen Z is that they want brands to embody and live what they say and eight out of ten get put off a brand if they feel they’re trying to own something that’s not theirs,” he explained to the audience.

From his own experience Traore said a lot of brands try to own a space super fast and expect to get a good result from it.

Not the case.

“People’s bullshit metre is quite sensitive these days,” he said. Using Red Bull as an example, Traore explained how the energy drink company had worked for years to dominate the epic stunt, adrenaline and extreme sport type space. And now the company owns the space, so much so it wouldn’t be weird if Red Bull launched a new sport.

“Today’s about, you need to understand how your consumer views you,” he continued. “Not how you think they should view you.”

For a lot of brands, Traore said they may have a vision of where they want to be and how they are seen.

Many brands might want to own a certain space, however they need to account for a rather lengthy transition into that space.

“You can’t come from zero and be like ‘let’s own skateboard’,” he said.