Millennials: Their Place in Generational History

According to Wikipedia, Neil Howe is co-author with William Strauss of Millennials Rising (2000), and many other books on Millennials, "is historian, economist, and demographer who writes and speaks frequently on generational change in American history and on long-term fiscal policy." In short he someone I would go out of my way to hear speak. So I was delighted to find this 16 minute YouTube video of a speech he gave in January at Otis College.

Hint: If you want the larger generational perspective, the whole video is worth watching, but start about nine minutes in if you just want to hear what he has to say about Millennials. >/p>

Young Adults Will Embrace Local News on Social Networks

This article appeared in TVNEWSDAY, Friday, Mar 27 2009. Another version also appeared in MediaPost 3.27.09. It was written based on research I conducted in earlier this month on how Millennials are using social media.

If television stations want to talk to young adults (ages 18-30), the welcome mat is out - on social media networks.

New research conducted by market research and consultation firm CJ&N Inc. in partnership with Brand Amplitude shows there is room for — and interest in — news and information where young adults spend much of their time: on Facebook, Twitter and similar social networks. More than a third of online adults are social networkers, and this research shows they have a need for local news and information.

"It may surprise you that this group is very amenable to — even encouraging of — a local news organization being part of the social media mix," said CJ&N's Vice President of Research Mary Beth Marks.

In a series of online focus groups, young adults across the country indicated a strong interest in local information and said they would welcome the availability of that information on their turf — social networking sites. Further, they said that a local television station would make an impression with them if it had a presence on those sites.

"They may not be loyal local television news viewers today, but they are certainly local information seekers," said John Altenbern, CJ&N president.

According to the study, how stations interact on social networks will determine how well they're accepted. In fact, if stations aren't careful, they may inflict damage to their brand among this group.

"It's very important for stations to do their homework and know what young adults want or they risk looking out of place," said Marks. "Respondents said that when organizations get on Facebook a lot of times it's like when your parents are trying to act cool, but they're not."

Yet even if stations execute a flawless social networking strategy, it may not necessarily increase television news viewing among this group — at least not right away. Young adults say they are not likely to turn to a newscast anytime soon. The one exception is breaking news. They may first hear about a story on social networks, but will then turn to television as a trusted source to see coverage of breaking news.

"Right now, the benefit for local television stations is using these platforms to talk with an audience they may not otherwise be able to reach. It's an opportunity to build their brand by filling a need in a way this group is willing to accept," Altenbern says.

Findings are based on a series of online focus groups with adults ages 18-30 across the United States. Respondents included a mix of men and women, college students, those in the workforce and those with a young family. The groups were conducted earlier this month.

For more information on this research and other findings, contact Carol Phillips.

Gen Y to Marketers: All Millennials Are Not The Same

Leah Hennessey is a Millennial with a wine brokerage business. Her blog, "Millennier" offers advice to winemakers wishing to connect with others of her generation. She starts by suggesting that Millennials are a generation, not a type, and a diverse one at that:

"The Millennial generation, like every generation, is a group made up of VERY diverse people who all happened to be born within years of each other. We are rich and we are poor. We are waiters and CEO’s. We are crazy college kids and we are parents. What all of these different types have in common is the world that they grew up in, the universal experiences that shaped both their views and their expectations of the world around them. This is an important distinction and crucial to keep in mind. You truly can’t tell what someone in this demographic group will spend in your shop simply by noticing how old they are. This is a very sensitive subject with young people today, and that young couple in your tasting room are just as likely to assume that you will judge them based on their age… as you are likely to do it."

Of course we are all guilty of painting with a broad brush, and Millennials are right to be sensitive about it. The issue is even more complicated in that Millennials often nurture many different interests and sides to their personality. As one Gen Y'er wisely and succinctly puts it, "We're never all 1 thing."

My marketing students at Notre Dame often struggle with segment-specific marketing because it seems so much like stereotyping. How is it okay to address all Hispanics the same way? All New Yorkers? All new moms? It's more efficient however, to market to the rule, not the exceptions -- the trend not the outliers. Millennials do share characteristics, values and consumption patterns -- in everything from foods to media -- that distinguish them from other age cohorts. Any marketer wanting to connect with this critical age group needs to grasp what makes them different from other age groups. But to stop there is to make light of the complexity of this generation.

There have been some attempts at Millennial segmentations:

Mintel provides a segmentation based on education and income. They note college students are just 15% of the 71 million young adults 18-34 in the U.S., 'Affluent Young Adults' make up another 19%, and the remaining two thirds are 'Minimalists' or 'Unpowered Young Adults'. These groups are quite different in their demographics, buying habits and general outlook on life.

Cone provides a segmentation based on social responsibility. 61% of Millennials are 'Doers' who feel personally responsible for making a difference in the world. 20% are 'Active Doers' who are especially receptive to purchasing brands based on perceptions of social responsibility and cause branding. They volunteer at least once a week.

Pew provides a wealth of data for segmentation on politics, media use, values and religious beliefs.

With all this data at our disposal it's time to stop thinking of Millennials as a monolithic group and start finding some meaningful segmentations. As Leah Hennessey reminds us, "It’s crucial that you don’t make the same mistake by judging and generalizing in this way, even if it’s not on purpose. It will cost you a consumer."

Millennial Marketing: The Vulgarity Gap

Nothing dates a Boomer so fast as to wince at expletives and vulgar humor. Yet a quick look at Adult Swim, Family Guy, and CollegeHumor.com quickly show that Millennials are perfectly comfortable with language and humor that makes my generation blush. Vulgarity is no doubt part of the attraction.

I recently begain following an interesting young woman on Twitter. She thanked me for the follow, but sent me several @ replies trying to warn me off.

@carol_phillips i'm not so sure you're going 2 like my tweets. they r pretty raw. :) u seem like u tweeting 4 professional reasons.

@carol_phillips no offense, but most ppl of ur generation usually don't like hearing raw thoughts/emotions/language.

@carol_phillips if u click on my id & look @ past tweets, u will get an idea of why i issued the warning. :)

She's right of course, generally people my age don't like to hear rough uncensored thoughts.

Which brings me to, My New Haircut. The success of this non-professionally shot YouTube video further illustrates the generational divide. Twenty-two million views puts My New Haircut among the all time YouTube greats. Rated "Really Fuckin' Funny", it has spawned numerous spoofs and a top spot on College Humor. While not in the same league as Evolution of Dance (116MM views), or Laughing Baby (79MM views), it does rank up there with Miss Teen South Carolina 2007's 43 minutes of fame (34 million views). (Note: For those who are interested, ReadWriteTalk does a good job of explaining the complexity of ranking YouTube videos as many of the top ones are professionally produced).

For those of you over 30, here is some background. MyNewHaircut is a 2007 video filmed by Brett Tietjen and his friend Mike Allen in New Jersey in June of 2007. Tietjen has a master's degree in film production from New York Institute of Technology and his own production company called L2X Productions. Both Tietjen and Allen star in the video, which features a well-known stereotype in Long Island bars, the 'guido', a tanned, buff, spiked hair guy with more bravado than brains who is singlemindedly focused on going to techno bars and 'winning with the ladies' (Hint: not the way he describes it in the film).

The film, reportedly shot, edited and aired all in one day, has spawned many spoofs ranging from an Asian version (Rated "Reary Reary Funny") to a senior citizen version to a Jewish version (Rated "Kosher") by University senior, Eric Niederman.

Needless to say, the film's popularity has launched Tietjen's career. Jagermeister sponsored a tour called, "The Skanks and Broskis Tour," which has gone all over the country appearing at local bars and clubs. There is a script for a movie version and a reality TV show, all of which will no doubt be wildly successful for the young film-makers, their production partners and brand sponsors.

Which brings me back to my original observation: what Gen Y finds "Really Fuckin' Funny", other generations generally do not. Even Niederman, the marketing major who created Jewish spoof, says, "My family doesn't like my comedy, but thought the video was hilarious. They showed it to my grandparents which was awkward because I cursed a lot in it."

Given the vulgarity divide, I think it's fair to say that My New Haircut and other properties like it, is unlikely to cross over to an older audience. For over 30 Millennial marketers, that means we need to put our own sensibilities aside.

Who Knew? Millennials Are Foodies

"I am a Millennial, born between 1980 and 1994, and therefore, according to a conspiracy of journalists, sociologists and assorted pundits, a spoiled, overachieving, techno-centric brat. So to fly in the face of all that, I'm enrolling in culinary school." - Sophie Brickman, August 2008

Sophie is not as much of an outlier as she thinks she is. In fact, 2 out of 3 Millennials are what Mintel classifies as 'Casual Cooking Enthusiasts'.

Casual Cooking Enthusiasts are 53% of the total population but 65% of those 18-24 years old. They find cooking a 'pleasurable hobby' and cook an average of 4.4 'elaborate' or 'gourmet' meals every six months, more than 4 times as many as those who 'Avoid cooking' or are 'Non-enthusiastic cooks'. As they grow older and start families, the Mintel data suggests many Millennials will become 'Serious Cooking Enthusiasts'. Serious cooking enthusiasts are 16% of the overall population, but 18% of those 25-34 years old.

Casual Cooking Enthusiasts not only cook more gourmet meals, they also have different attitudes toward food. This means that instead of relying on a diet of Ramen and Easy Mac, Millennial casual cooking enthusiasts are a target for locally grown organic and fresh ingredients. They are more likely to agree with these statements:

You enjoy experimenting with new recipes (86%)

You buy ingredients that are from different countries for specific recipes (61%)

You buy utensils, cookware and other kitchen items if you need them for a new recipe or cooking technique (58%)

You always try to cook with seasonal or local foods (57%)

You are willing to spend more money for the highest quality ingredients (55%)

Millenials have shown a preference for luxury tastes in everything from technology to beer. So it should come as no surprise to see that they are over-represented among foodies. As for Sophie Brickman, she appears to have no regrets about her decision to enroll in culinary school. In February, she posted to her blog that she is enjoying serving gourmet meals to her friends. Here's her description of a bacon-themed moveable feast.

"Enrolling in culinary school turned out to be a prescient kind of life-style insurance. When the economy tanked, my friends and I started cooking. We found that, for a fraction of the price and with a little creativity, we could cook a three-course meal that would cost $45 per person at any reasonable establishment. While the setting is never luxurious (screws routinely fall out of my table, which causes all guests to crowd on one side, for stability,) the food is. It began a few months ago, when I offered to cook a bacon-themed dinner for my boyfriend on his birthday. I had decided to make a salad (boring, save the goat cheese croutons), Beef Bourguignon (which calls for braising cheap cuts of meat until they become "fork tender," a term of expertise I picked up at school and enjoy using almost as much as "mouthfeel") and caramelized-bacon-and-chocolate-chip-cookies (Oh. My. God).

The boys politely slogged through the arugula salad, keeping abbreviations to a minimum, but when I brought out the beef bourguignon, the table became silent. The pasta had clumped together, but they didn't care. One bit into a chunk of braised beef and moaned, quietly. Another crunched on a thick-cut bacon lardon. (We'd been trained to cut our lardons big in school, at the request of our 250-pound instructor: "I didn't get this way by eating lettuce," he said, disparaging the "puny French chefs" who prefer their bacon cut into "teeny crumblings.") They asked for seconds. Then thirds. One excused himself to the kitchen to "tidy up" and licked the pot. By the time I brought out the chocolate-chip cookies, each topped with a thick piece of caramelized bacon, all three were lying on the rug, moaning with gastro-erotic contentment."

Where Millennials Get Their News

In 2003, I recommended to my client, Purdue North Central University, that they stop trying to reach prospective students with newspaper ads. Why? I didn't know anyone under the age of 25 who read a newspaper. Little did I realize how quickly this pattern would spread to other age groups.

The 2009 Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism report tells the rest of the story, and it is a bleak one for newspapers:

Newspaper ad revenues have fallen 23% in the last two years. Some papers are in bankruptcy, and others have lost three-quarters of their value. By our calculations, nearly one out of every five journalists working for newspapers in 2001is now gone, and 2009 may be the worst year yet.

The reason, of course, is a dramatic shift toward getting news online. This shift is apparent for all age groups, but is especially pronounced among Millennials.

"I get my news almost exclusively online."

"Constantly connected. Way too much so. I check the news sometimes more than it is updated."

"I usually get my news from multiple sources.I think I saw a newspaper in a museum once."

"TV stations are for old people worried about the weather."

The top three online news sites, Yahoo, CNN and MSN, all show large jumps in audience size between 2007 and 2008. Each enjoys over 35 million unique viewers a month. Two organizations that track online behavior closely, Pew and Annenberg, each shed extra light on how quickly audiences have shifted their news orientations online:

Pew: In December, 40% of Americans said they got most of their national and international news online, up 67% from 2004, when the number was 24%. That put the web ahead of newspapers (35%). Only television, cable, local and network combined, ranked higher (70%).

Annenberg: Eighty percent of Internet users age 17 and older consider the Internet to be an important source of information for them -- up from 66 percent in 2006 -- and higher than television (68 percent), radio (63 percent), and newspapers (63 percent).

As dramatic as these changes are, they are eclipsed by the larger drama of the changes in where and how people access online news. Mobile viewing, sharing stories on social networks and video sites, e-mail and RSS all make it easier for consumers to customize their news. In becoming their own 'news editors' and 'repackagers' Millennials are leading the way. Social media offers a way for Millennials to control and shape their news by filtering it through friends or reporters they trust.

“I get the news filtered from my friends.” Scott K

“Top stories is good for facebook… but not necessarily what everyone is reading… cause that's that pop stuff… I want editing… ” – Ben T

“It would be nice to be able to customize what news you want to see on facebook.”- Holly H

“Editing is very important.”—Kelsey L

As news organizations search for a business model to replace the advertiser-supported model, they could learn from Millennials who would trust a 'friend' over a news organization. By creating news around specific reporters, personalities or 'personna's', they may create value worth paying for.

Why Brands Make Poor 'Friends'

Millennials use social media -- broadly defined as Facebook, text messages, Twitter, and blogs -- to connect with other people. Each is characterized by a different degree of intimacy, with texting the most personal and Twitter the least. But they are all about people interacting with other people.

Brands and social media are not natural partners. It's not that brands are unwelcome, they just don't seem to belong. That makes them easy to ignore, like a guest who has stumbled into the wrong wedding reception. Here's how young adults described their feelings about friending brands on Twitter and Facebook in two online focus groups March 5:

"Brands that show up on facebook often look like your parents when they (unsuccessfully) try to act cool."

"Seeing a brand on facebook makes me just think is spam mail or a scam.” - Bree

“Yeah I don't really pay attention to the ads on the side of facebook. A lot of them aren’t even accurate.” – Kelsey L

“I've never clicked on the ads on the side on fbook or gmail - not out of principle, but they've just never grabbed me.” – Chris S

“I mean, I think people use it as a user-to-user network. I mean, you call your connections "friends." I don't think I've ever joined a brand's FB group -- unless you count maybe a sports teams, though those are usually fan generated …There's something really offputting about a big brand sending you a facebook group invite. I'd never accept it.” – Mike G

“I think there is a sniff test people give brands when they use such tactics. And I'm not sure what the formula is for passing it” – Courtney S

“I really enjoy being able to "friend" indie rock bands for their music, but I don't really friend any product company, or brand. I always feel like most brands are scamming you in some way when they want to be your friend.”—Andrew A

Brands are working hard to find a place on social networks. And social networks drive a lot of traffic to branded sites. According to Forrester, (Ad Age, 3.17.09) PerezHilton.com and Dlisted get more traffic from social media than from Google. But this traffic has little to do with paid marketing campaigns, and everything to do with the personalities behind them. In contrast, brands seem to have little of value to give back. Millennials are keenly aware of the motivation behind brand communication is to 'sell shit', which is an automatic turnoff.

"If it looks like you’re getting an ad, it’s a turn-off."

"I don’t need incentives … I see that as a front … I want to see that they are run by humans and I can relate to them."

I don’t think I’d friend one unless there was some explicit benefit to being its friend.

“I would want added value from a brand if they are going to connect with me. It has to be worth it. If they added value that they normally didn't because they were on social media then it would make sense.”

There is evidence that Millennials do want to connect with brands as long as the connections are genuine and of value. One study even suggested Millennials would welcome a separate channel for 'friending' brands. Research by Pace University indicates 51% of Gen Y respondents saying they’d "join a separate social network dedicated to managing brand interactions." Until such a channel comes along, marketers will continue to try to find ways to connect with Millennials and Facebook and Twitter. Here is our advice:

1. Act and Sound like a Real Person

"They need to surprise me with their content or genuine nature or candor."

"I think a possibility for twitter posts and facebook pages for companies would be to have actual people doing them – to have entertaining personalities or something."

"If you get the stars of the shows doing it it would work."

2. Interact.

"One cool use of Twitter is with starbucks where they have a person at corporate who will communicate back to you."

"Yeah Comcast has their customer service reps on twitter actually helping people."

3. Make it worth my while.

"Make me feel special."

"Yeah exclusive deals are always good, makes you feel special, get you more engaged."

"Good deals catch my attention too, especially for stories I like!"

"Two for one tickets to events always grab my attention, but again, that’s more locally oriented.

"Yea if products and brands to be my friend I want something like … 89 percent off everything."

"Make me feel smart for buying your shit."

Word of Mouth: Millennials Talk About Social Media

Over past few weeks the buzz about social media, and especially Twitter, has outbuzzed the loudest of buzz campaigns. Much of the noise seems to originate from marketers. According to Pete Blackshaw (Ad Age, 3.11.09), “nearly 30,000 Twitter users self-identify as marketers. Nearly 8,500 use the term "PR," and another 8,000 use the term "social media."

With so many marketers talking about marketing to other marketers, we wondered, ‘is anyone else really listening?’ To get beyond the marketing hype, we conducted two online focus groups to see what Millennials think of social media. We confirmed that they are not as gaga for Twitter as marketers -- just half use Twitter despite our efforts to include tweeters in the groups. And those that do were still figuring it out, although we had one enthusiast.

“I have yet to get a twitter, but I'm on the fence with it”.—Andrew A

“Twitter for news and deals, facebook for friends, I read digg to laugh at what people think is an important news article. Though I don't tweet enough.” – Dustin H

“I haven't gotten into twitter yet. I'm afraid of it. I am afraid it will consume me.” – Justin D

“I have not ventured into the land of twitter yet.” – Courtney S

“I'm a little frightened to use Twitter... it's like, should everyone know exactly what I'm doing all the time?” – Mike G

Millennials define social media very broadly as anyting where you interact with other people. That includes message boards, text messaging, Skype, and blogs in addition to Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter. It even includes Amazon Reviews and video games.

“Social media is that media that connects you socially with friends mainly and some family. it makes it social because a large percentage of your friends relative and colleagues use it too.” – Courtney S

“facebook - friends, twitter - interesting people/networking, linkedin - ponzi scheme (I don't think real networking happens this way)… I agree with Chris--amazon reviews are def social media and have big pull on influencing my purchase decisions – Dan S

“Facebook, it's learning about culture and stuff through visiting the personal profiles of people in your area, or who you know.” – Kelsey L

“When I think of social media I think of points of view… social media is media that illicits me to talk, not just take in info.” – Ben T

Instant messaging seems to have fallen into disuse, a victim of text messaging.

“I used to use AIM all the time, but I don't know very many people who use it anymore.” – Holly H

“I can't believe Yahoo! is even up there. Does anyone even use Yahoo! anymore?" – Justin D

In fact text messaging appears to be the preferred way to connect personally, relegating Facebook to the place to maintain less immediate or personal ties with distant or long ago friends.

“I also text, but only my close friends....my casual friends I message facebook.” – Bree

“Well facebook keeps me updated on their lives, but it doesn't feel very personal. I'm more of a texting person when it comes to that - Kelsey L

“Yeah, I’m with Kelsey. The internet is a tool I'm likely to use to reach old friends or casual acquaintances. People that I don't see on the day-to-day.”- Mike G “I'm also much more connected now with old friends than I ever was before e-mail and now with facebook (which seems to have replaced e-mail as the stay-in-touch-with-friends application.” – Chris S

“If I want to be more connected I call or text.” – Natalie B

While it’s theoretically possible to be ‘too’ closely connected online with friends, in practice Millennials feel they have it under control. Most Millennials say they are as connected online as they want to be -- about a 6 on a 10 point scale. Control appears to underly some of the appeal of Facebook.

“prob a 6, which is where I want to be--we have the choice to be less connected if we want--every once in a while I check out for a week or two and go on a subconscious Facebook fast and read a book or two.” – Dan S

“A 5 - not too connected, except with some who have bad facebook habits but I can turn their exposure down if I want.” - Chris S

“Yeah, I think online can keep you disconnected sometimes. It lets you keep a "safe distance" that's not there if you have to pick up the phone. – Mike G

“It's fine because I can set the terms.”- Scott K

What Would a Millennial Do? A Millennial Designed Campaign

As Millennial marketers struggle to create social media campaigns for Millennials, it is worth taking a moment to look at Millennial designed efforts.

Jen Corbett is studying creative advertising at the axis adschool, part of Media Design School in Auckland NZ. I was intrigued by her blog post today which features a team-created campaign responding to a brief to "enhance brand recognition by promoting the unique aspects of Google's “i’m feeling lucky” button. Here's Jen's description of the assignment and the team did to bring it to life:

"The brief required us to develop a film, attach a product and then amplify using strategies to invite involvement. This entire project evolved from a “secret word” brief we were given on Monday afternoon of Day 1. We were asked to develop an idea, storyboard, film, edit and present it that Friday. The emotional theme needed to be concise and effective to deliver the “word” to the viewer within the commercial time limit of 30 seconds. This had to be done without written communication of the word. We then needed to attach a product or service to it and come up with ways to generate interest in the video through amplification. We came up with “I’m Feeling lucky” and created otherbutton.com. The final edit of the video can be viewed below. At 3 weeks since conception, we’re about to wrap up the first segment of this project; but I expect we’ll be called on to evolved and adapt it throughout the year."

As part of this we created:

a youtube account with a channel for related videos

a blog where we posted various images and stories

a live auction on NZ auction site trademe

a strategy to place “I’m feeling Lucky” stickers placed near buttons (lift, pedestrian, atm etc) in the CBD

a facebook group set up to attract followers to website / video

a profile on twitter set up to attract followers to website / video

a concept for flyers “not this button” / “this button”

What I love about this campaign is how it leverages social media to get the message out. I visited each of these sites and the whole effort is striking in several ways:

1. Highly Integrated and Cross referenced: The Twitter feed appears on the blog, the Facebook group invites you to join the twitter feed. Twitter posts feature YouTube videos.

2. Invitational: The blog and facebook group invite you to submit stories of getting lucky, research on luck, adventures inspired by the campaign. I love this story:

"Dear team, after 12 long years, I have been reunited with my first love via the "I'm feeling lucky" button. If it were not for trying my luck with this other button, I would not have found him so easily. He moved all the way to Germany, and I was googling his name about a month ago. He's got a website, and it took me directly to him. If it was not for the button, we would have never reconnected - Rebecca Hobson"

3. Non-commercial: Other than a few pitches to buy "I Feel Lucky merchandise" or stickers, there is no overt sales pitch other than to use the I feel lucky button.

4. Video: Video is integral to the campaign.

5. Upbeat and Fun: The idea is happy and so is the campaign.

Buckle's Up! Fashion Retailers Who Get Millennials

As I predicted last month, Millennials are not cutting back when it comes to their favorite fashion retailers.

Yesterday the WSJ reported teen retailer, Hot Topic, which also operates stores offering fashion forward merchandise for plus sizes under the name Torrid, posted a 19% rise in fiscal Q4 profits and 38% rise in gross margin, buoyed by sales of gear connected to the popular teenage-vampire movie, Twilight. Aeropostale, H&M and Zara also appear to be fairly recession resistant, which is impressive at a time when other apparel retailers (e.g., Abercrombie, Ann Taylor LOFT) are struggling.

One fashion retailer that seems to really 'get' Millennials is Buckle. According to WSJ, Buckle's net also jumped 19% in the fourth quarter. A visit to the Buckle web site says a lot about how they do it. The home page features a Millennial-friendly message about a Spring break event. It's free to enter and you can enter everyday. Brands are front and center, and they seem to have the brands my kids want most -- Lucky, Hurley, Puma, Billabong, Fossil and literally dozens more. Major boomer brands like Levi's and Calvin Klein are no where in sight.

The shopping experience is easy, with new arrivals and sale merchandise featured plainly on the home page. There are multiple ways to shop. You can shop by size (even by inseam), brand, item type, price, even by outfit. There's a 'style shop' that features separate 'trend watches' for men and women.

The visuals look like real Millennials, not models. Prices appear comparable to what you would pay on the individual brand sites, but the ability to assemble outfits, and ship all at once is a big plus. Military and international shipping are also featured.

The whole site makes shopping fun and gives you confidence you can create the looks you want. This is a site that really seems to have done its homework on Millennials, a lot of functionality and fun without unnecessary gimmicks or commercialization.

Dead Letters: Email Marketing to Millennials

I receive and send hundreds of emails a day and use four different email accounts to keep my personal, professor, business and consumer identities separate. In generational terms, I am a digital Neanderthal. The average high school or college student uses 2.4 emails a day according to eROI. Students, on average, read marketing emails on a "rarely to never" basis, with 61% falling into this category, says the report. Only 16% are reading marketing emails on a frequent basis, while 66% of students rarely or never take action on marketing emails.

I completely change my habits when communicating with Millennials. To reach my daughter and son quickly, text is the only way to go. My teaching assistants? Facebook messages. I once sent my TA's Amazon gift certificates to their email address. It took a suggestion to their Facebook account to look for it before they even noticed.

So what are those two emails a day about? According to eROI, it's probably got something to do with their parents. 81% got an email address for communicating with family. Students are now using email primarily to sign up for social networking sites (25%) and receive email alerts (36%) to keep up to date on what's happening on their social networks. What's clear is that email for marketing to this generation is dying, dead and buried. And who can blame them, with Cisco's latest Annual Security Report showing that 90% of email is spam.

New research among Millennials from Pace University says there may be a way to make email marketing more relevant by making it more like, well, social media.

The study of Generation Y consumers - also known as Millennials, finds that this age group would potentially welcome direct brand interactions through email, but wants more ability to control, organize and manage the interactions. Gen Y consumers are eager to see “innovative services” that allow them to better control, organize and manage email coming from brands. 78% would like their email client to automatically categorize and delete expired promotional messages. 62% would like communicate directly with retailers about their favorite products in exchange for getting the best prices from them. 44% say they’d subscribe to an email service that collected and summarized multiple offers of interest to them. 32% say they’d share promotional email offers with members inside a social network and open emails from others."

Personally, I wonder if email is the right place for 'organizing brand interactions'. Social media seems more flexible and has more sharing potential. The Pace research seems to confirm this may be more appropriate, with 51% of Gen Y respondents saying they’d "join a separate social network dedicated to managing brand interactions." This sounds like a major opportunity for marketers. Anyone listening?

Gen Y to Bosses: You Just Don't Understand

In the Odyssey, Odysseus' talented but immature son, Telemachus, benefits from the advice of a series of mentors, including Athena herself. Great coaching prepares him for the day when Odysseus finally returns to exact revenge on the despicable 'suitors' and reclaim his kingdom.

Three millennia later, modern day Telemachuses, aka, the Millennials, are wondering 'where are our mentors'?

Last September, we conducted online focus groups among professionally-employed Millennials to see the workplace through their eyes. Among other things, they told us they were deeply unhappy with their bosses. They want more -- more responsibility, more say in decisions, more recognition of their abilities, more mentoring. They crave appreciation, but their bosses 'don't get it', and don't give it. (Listen Up! What Millennials wish they could tell their bosses.)

We don't need focus groups among Gen X or Boomer managers to know what they think of Millennials in the workplace. In May 2008, there was a very negative 60 Minutes segment, "The Millennials Are Coming". Now we are further enlightened by the Harvard Business Review's featured case, "How I learned to love millennials (and stop worrying about what they were doing with their iPhones)". Each month, HBR describes a fictional situation and asks management experts to provide advice to the protagonists. February's case features Gen X Sarah, new mother of a 4-month old baby, marketing manager for a major film studio and boss to twenty-something, Josh. Josh is brimming with ideas Sarah finds impractical and consequently doesn't champion. Josh is frustrated. Now it's crunch time, and Josh has neglected his regular work analyzing distribution spreadsheets and creating reports in order to devote time to developing his new ideas. Here's the pivotal moment:

Now, Sarah was staring anxiously at the envelope icon in the bottom-right corner of her screen: Where were the numbers she'd asked Josh to generate? Sarah just couldn't afford to stay at the office tonight; every minute she was late to pick up four-month-old Rosie from day care was costing her (financially and psychically), and she had already logged plenty of overtime this week. Sarah was ready to alert her husband that he'd have to handle the pickup, when the Outlook message popped up: "You have new unopened items." It was close to 5:30 PM when Josh's report arrived, and the last couple of case studies looked pretty sketchy, as if he'd thrown them together quickly. But there wasn't enough time to send them back for revision, Sarah decided. She'd work on them further in the morning. Sarah quickly dropped the numbers into her slide deck and was about to log off when she spotted the bright pink "coaching" sticky note slapped on the side of her monitor. A few months ago she and the other frontline managers had gone through a special HR-facilitated training session about integrating the newer, younger hires into the company. "Invest the time," the managers were told. But what many of them heard was "Sugarcoat." Sarah quickly dashed off an e-mail to Josh. "Great job! You're the best." Who was she kidding? He'd done a half-assed job, and he knew it. Like so many of the young people hired by the studio recently, Sarah thought, Josh was far more concerned with getting praise than with earning praise. How else to explain that "look at me" move in the team meeting a few weeks back?

Later, unbeknownst to Sarah, Josh pitches his ideas to her boss in an impromptu elevator speech. The boss is so impressed, he asks Sarah to tell him more. Sarah has her issues, too, but who do you think the reader is siding with in this epic? That's bad enough, but the response of the three HBR 'experts' is even more revealing of Boomer perceptions of Millennials.

Ron Alsop, author of The Trophy Kids Grow Up: How the Millennial Generation Is Shaking Up the Workplace : Like many Gen Yers, Josh doesn't respect the corporate pecking order. His generation has little tolerance for lines of authority and proper protocol. Some corporate managers even call college-age job applicants "student stalkers" because they fire off e-mails to everyone from the CEO on down to try to get the inside track to a job.

Jim Miller, executive vice president of sales and marketing at General Tool & Supply:I'm afraid Josh isn't doing much here to disprove the theories that some people have about Generation Y: a life experienced through machines, no respect for what's gone before, and a constant need for praise, entertainment, and instant gratification.Josh's behavior is wrong on so many levels. He's been hired to do a job, not this other thing that he'd like to do. He has no respect for his boss; that's apparent in his actions. But he is also putting his team's work in jeopardy by not completing, to the very best of his ability, the tasks he was assigned. That's unacceptable.

Millennials strongly relate to Josh, saying this situation happens 'all the time'. One has gone so far as to post an anonymous reply to the article on Google Docs, saying, "It's not the case study that bothered me but the managers' comments. I was shocked to hear the other side of a common scenario." The response is titled, 'An Open Letter to Boomers':

After reading the business case in the Feb 09 Harvard Business Review, I started to see really how big this whole Gen-Y thing is. I underestimated the degree to which I myself was underestimated and disrespected as a Gen-Y and was actually offended by the way we are viewed. It seems managers claim they are seeking out how to deal with this generation of unruly and tech-savvy professionals but really they just want us to shut up, put the cell phone down and keep doing things their way.

In our defense, I thought it might be useful for the last of you Boomers and even some of the older Gen-Xers (like Sarah in the case study) to understand how we see you. I hope you consider this before dismissing us as "kids these days". This document was written on my iPhone, edited on Google docs, and syndicated anonymously via Twitter. I found that the generation gap is much bigger than even we YouTubers thought and even the fact I have to publish this blog anonymously is a testament to how differently we see the world.

For the other side of the argument, see the Harvard Business Review. For advice on how to mentor Millennial like Athena, the third HBR commenter, Pamela Nicholson, President and COO, Enterprise Rent-A-Car offers sound advice:

"Sarah doesn't have time to get angry. She needs to familiarize herself with Josh's idea and make sure all the supporting data are there. Given the CEO's enthusiasm for Josh's marketing proposal, I think Sarah should actually commend, rather than criticize, her young report for taking initiative. She should invite Josh to accompany her to the meeting. But she should remind him that he needs to keep her informed so she can manage the details of the project and the expectations of the CEO."

I wholeheartedly agree. For more mentoring advice from our Millennials research see an earlier blog post, " You're Doing Great! Keeping Millennials Happy at Work."

Fast Food Marketers Target Missing Millennials

Everyone is cutting back on eating out these days, but Millennials are leading the way in frugality. As of March last year, 18-24 year olds visited fast food restaurants an average of 3.0 times a week, down from 3.7 times in 2007. Even more telling, 18-24's were the only group to show a decline. We expect that number to drop even farther by March of 2009.

What are QSR marketers -- other than high profile Burger King -- doing to win back this important segment? A lot it turns out.

1. Pizza Hut: Pizza chains are among the hardest hit by the recession (WSJ, "A Smaller Piece of the Pie", 2.23.09). Pizza Hut is taking direct aim at Millennials with its "Pizza Hut Interface" launched October 2008. The Interface allows Facebook users to order their Pizza Hut favorites without ever leaving Facebook. According to AllFacebook, Pizza Hut is the first national pizza chain to offer this method of ordering. In 2008, Pizza Hut awarded $50 gift cards to Pizza Hut friends on Facebook on a weekly basis. Currently, Pizza Hut is running a “Passport to Italy Sweepstakes” through its Facebook page to celebrate the launch of new Tuscani Lasagna. According to Bob Kraut, VP of Marketing Communications, Pizza Hut is pleased with the results.

In the last month, we’ve gone from 700,000 fans to 750,000 fans, which makes us the largest restaurant fan page on Facebook. We want to strike a fine balance between communicating with our fans and giving them meaningful offers, without overcommunicating to them and becoming a nuisance. We want people to see our Facebook page not as something they become a fan of and then forget about, but a place they come back to on a regular basis for the latest news and deals from Pizza Hut. To have a live measurement of the number of fans we have interacting with our brand and the ability to create an ordering application within the site makes Facebook an extremely effective online channel for us. We’re very pleased with the results we’ve seen so far.

2.Culvers: Last month Culver's launched its first ever national ad campaign, starting with E!'s pre-Academy show. The premise is that there is an 'outbreak of niceness' at Culver's. While this is not Millennial-specific message, it is definitely Millennial-friendly. (Pepsi, anyone?) The campaign includes social media: a Twitter feed and Facebook page, although only the eClub sign up is on their home page and the effort is not as integrated as the Pizza Hut effort. Company vice president Chris Contino: "We still aren't sure that it works for quick-service restaurants, because so much of the buying is impulse, but we're hoping to hit on something that makes sense."

3. Arby's: Arby's is betting on new products, especially an "All-American Roastburger" sandwich positioned against hamburgers. Launched in February, it will sponsor an NCAA tournament bracket on Facebook through CBS SportsLine. Arby's spokeswoman: "Facebook engages more than 80 million active users, and 1.5 million people signed up for Facebook NCAA tournament brackets in 2008." Online ads on CBS SportsLine and NCAA.com this month will support the effort, along with March Madness network TV and radio (CBS, Sirius). A PR program for called "Change Your Clock/Change Your Burger" on March 8 will promote a free Roastburger with the purchase of a soft drink. It will be interesting to see how (whether) they leverage the 'news' value of daylight savings on Twitter...

4. Taco Bell: Taco Bell is the second favorite fast food restaurant among 18-24 year olds, right behind McDonalds. Millennials love Taco Bell for their ingenuity in mixing the same basic 7 ingredients into a constant stream of 'new' products (Crunch Wrap Supreme, Fully Loaded Nachos). This gives them a constant stream of 'news', which combined with lots of items for $.79, $.89 and $.99 makes for a experience you can enjoy frequently. Taco Bell has smartly leveraged their late night hours to connect with Millennial bands and their fans with their 'Fourth Meal' promotion, "Feed the Beat".

Millennials Face the Financial Crisis II

No, I am not going to talk about Skittles' Twitter debacle as it is still underway (stay tuned). Instead I want to revisit a topic I first addressed January 27, how the financial crisis is affecting Millennials. I speculated that this may be the defining event of their generation, and made five predictions:

1. Many will return to school.

2. Many will seek alternative jobs in the not-for profit sector.

3. Many will try to supplement their income with side jobs.

4. Many will redirect their careers.

5. Many will move back home.

6. Some will sign up for military service.

While I stand by these predictions, they don't address the more subtle impact the crisis is having on Millennials' values and outlook. An article in the LA Times yesterday, "The Millennial Generation Test" speculates a prolonged recession may start to contradict Gen Y's basic assumptions about how the world works. Perhaps not everyone does get a trophy? -- or even a fulfilling job. Will the Millennials become even more resilient? Or embittered? There are voices on both sides of the argument.

UC Irvine researcher Ellen Greenberger is the lead author of a recent study that found that a third of college students thought they deserved a B just for attending lectures, and that 40% said they deserved a B just for completing the required reading. She worries that this generation will be deeply embittered. "The insults of this recession might be seen as a personal affront to their high expectations," she said.

Morley Winograd, coauthor of "Millennial Makeover: MySpace, YouTube and the Future of American Politics," has no such concerns. "This is not an embittered and cynical generation," he said. "Although they did tend to be protected as children, they were also taught to compete and to perform. This will only make them more determined.

I don't presume to know the answer, but there is mounting evidence the financial crisis has Millennials' full attention. It is affecting their lives and narrowing their choices. Parents who have devoted their lives to protecting their kids from the hard knocks of life are now confronted with hard choices on everything from allowances and family vacations to college educations. Students see their programs squeezed by fewer resources. New graduates face the reality that many more qualified unemployed workers would be happy to claim entry level jobs once reserved for them.

This week YPulse posted the question, "How Has The Recession Affected You?" to its youth advisory board. The video above is a great window into the pain of the financial crisis as it is experienced by twenty-somethings. They also shared this from Nina, a high school freshman in Washington state:

"I go to a public school in a wealthy community where money has never been a problem until now. For the 2009-2010 school year, they may have to drop up to 17 teachers throughout the district. And even though many of my friends are not going right out and saying it, I know that it has been affecting them, too. Over the past couple of months my lunch table has converted from hot lunches to bag lunches. Also, as a group, we have opted for low-cost activities, such as wagon racing, watching old movies at home, and perfecting that classic teenage-skill of loitering. Last year when my girlfriends and I went to the mall, we bought junk like lip gloss, cheap earrings, an ugly hat that we'd never actually wear. Now when we go, we just look, or go to Nordstrom and try on wedding dresses."

Now that's frugal! They aren't the only ones, Scarborough Research shows teens are cutting back in many ways:

15% of teens dropped out of a sport or recreational activity

13% missed doctors’ appointments

11% stopped or cut back on taking vitamins

33% changed eating habits. The most frequent change cited is a reduction in eating out, particularly at quick service restaurants

20% have cut back on eating organic food