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Engaging Millennials: How Marketers Can Break Through

'What will break through?' is a question I am often asked. My very first post on this blog in ("A Collective Chill", 4.28.08) reported about the comments of a Millennial panel at a marketing conference I attended in New York last Spring:

The audience was ANA members gather to discuss "Innovations in Marketing". The panel was impressive, brand managers from Mercedes, Unilever and Lincoln Financial. But their answers to questions about their media use sent a collective chill through the room. They don't watch TV other than NCAA Finals. They don't see online advertising thanks to blocking software. They don't want ads on their mobile devices, facebook pages or IM. They don't even like ads. This should not be news to anyone. However, it was shocking coming from Millennial Marketers. They seemed as stumped as the moderator as to how marketers could reach them most effectively. Ah.....with relevant content? Reaching Millennials with messages they want to hear, in the format they want to hear it is going to be a challenge!

After nearly two years of thinking about this question, I have distilled my advice to one not-so-easy-to-accomplish formula:

Engaging Millennials = Enabling Discovery + Energizing Experience + Encouraging Advocacy

Of course, this formula presumes you have a relevant product and positioning. If not, you have more problems than simply breaking through. But assuming for a moment you have cleared the Product, Placement and Pricing hurdles, how should you go about Promoting your brand to Millennials? Let's unpack this formula a bit:

Enabling Discovery

No one wants to be told what to do, what to like and what to think. That is especially true of Millennials, who have an instant aversion to anything that smacks of 'marketing'. They want to believe that they have uniquely discovered the things they like. That's not to say that mass brands are not appealing, as Obama can tell you. But mass brands don't start with any advantage. The ideal way for a Millennial to first experience a product or service is to discover it for themselves. Think of 'Stumbleupon' as the model.

This feeling of 'discovery' underlies the success of Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog and Tom's Shoes. Discovery is social currency, you can spend it with friends (or wider) and increase your personal brand. Discovery is the dynamic that drives marketing for restaurants, music, wine and microbrews. (For more on the social dynamic behind wine's growing popularity, see my earlier post, "A Perfect Pairing").

Achieving a sense of 'discovery' is no accident. It means creating events where Millennials can meet the brand, as Red Bull has done so successfully. Or creating a smash viral video. Social media, social media, product placement, and sampling are all good 'discovery' media.

Energizing the Experience

This is literally having a brand experience worth writing home about, one that not only meets the minimums for efficiency, personalization and value, but that goes over and above expectations. Success with Millennials requires being distinctive; they love 'shiny' things.

Marketers at Apple, Nike, Zappos, Jamba Juice, Red Bull, Zipcar, Vogue magazine and other beloved, 'iconic' Millennial brands understand that to be remarked upon, you must literally be remarkable for something inherent in the user or customer experience. This can be accomplished through customization, design, ease of access, or price (free works especially well). However it is accomplished, it must be both authentic and fresh to overcome the impressive filters Millennials have perfected. The experience must be fun, compelling or unique or you will never get to the third and final step of the formula: advocacy.

Encouraging Advocacy

If this was a real formula, 'advocacy' is the variable that would have an exponent after it. Advocacy is the thing that makes Millennial marketing unique today, and is likely to be the biggest change to mainstream marketing in the future.

Yesterday I had a wonderful conversation with Sarah Newton, a radio celebrity, Twitter friend, and author of the blog, GenYGuide.com. Sarah lives in Northampton, England. Despite the being oceans apart, we agreed on many things, above all that Gen Y is unique. We also speculated the thing that makes them unique, perhaps in all history, is access to platforms to broadly communicate and share their ideas. This ability alone may make the gap between Gen Y and earlier generations more striking than any previous gap, or possibly any to come (profound thought isn't it?). A new global study of 9000 -27 year olds by YouGovStone reached a similar conclusion: "The digital revolution has not only given this generation of young people access to knowledge and information on an unprecedented scale, but it has also given them massive influence."

Mobilizing that influence requires making it easy to access and share information with peers. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, topic-specific blogs, and opinion sites like Yelp are all ways to encourage Millennials to talk to each other about your brand. Of course, talking about brands is not something Millennials are inclined to do without good reason. That's why so many brands have found success by associating with worthy causes, or highlighting their support of environmental or humanitarian initiatives. Advocacy efforts take many forms, both long term and short term promotions (Starbucks Project Red, Taco Bell Feed the Beat). For more immediate sharing, brands are experimenting with mobile applications and widgets, like DryncWine.com. However it's done, advocacy via social media is now a critical part of any youth marketing effort.

My final words of advice on reaching Millennials is much simpler: take time to get to know them. If you are over 30, the worst mistake you can make is thinking they think like you do. Listen to Millennials, at home and in the office. They will give you the best advice about how to reach others like them.

Generational Differences in Time Use

How people spend their time says a lot about them. A fascinating interactive graphic by the New York Times breaks out how different groups spend their time based on data from The American Survey of Time Use. By clicking different groups, you can literally see how the proportion of time spent working, sleeping, eating, on housework, education, TV watching, etc. changes at every minute of the day. This graphic is very engrossing and reveals interesting generational differences. Comparing 15-24 year olds to 25-64 year olds shows the younger group spends a higher proportion of their on education, and lower proportion on housework and work. No great surprise there. Here are some less obvious observations:

Time Shift: I have observed before that Millennials appear to be 'nocturnal', here's the evidence. They go to bed later and sleep later than any other age group. At 11:11AM, 11% are still sleeping; at 11:10 PM 53% are still awake with 14% watching TV or movies, 6% socializing, and 3% talking on the phone. Interestingly, just 2% are doing homework. My daughter has arranged her college schedule to ensure no class starts before 11:00 AM. She regularly goes to bed at 2:00 or 3:00 AM. @bengarbe twittered today: "Frankly, this 26 year old would give up thousands in salary to be able to sleep until noon, work 12-8pm from home, etc."

Sports: Sports and fitness are a big part of Gen Y's lives. At any point between 10:00 AM and 10:00 PM between 3% and 6% of 15-24 year olds are participating in 'sports'. The comparable figure for 25-64 year olds is 1-2%. On average, 15-24 year olds spend 36 minutes a day on sports, about twice the time spent by 25-64 year olds.

Reading & Other Interest: 15-24 year olds spend on average :50 minutes a day reading and pursuing other interests. This is much higher than 25-64 year olds who spend 32 minutes. The research points out that half of that time is spent 'reading'. Those over 64 spent by far the most time reading per day: 1 hour and 24 minutes. This presumably does not include computer time, as that is accounted for separately.

This cleverly designed chart is remiss in only one respect: it doesn't account for multi-tasking, and assumes that people are doing one thing at a time. Of course, we know that Millennials are master jugglers, who eke more hours than the rest of us from a 24 hour day, if we are to take their word for it.

Gen Y Food Preferences: You Are What You Eat

Generational differences exist in values, media usage, career goals, entertainment choices. Now there is evidence that what you like to eat may say a lot about what generation you belong to. (Mediapost 7.31.09)

* Boomers prefer "classic" comfort foods such as braised meats, casseroles and ice cream, but many also enjoy gourmet choices such as high-quality dark chocolate and fancy cheeses. They crave foods from their childhoods such as peanut butter, popcorn, foods made with canned tuna fish, chicken noodle soup and hot oatmeal.

* Gen Xers are more accustomed to commercial fare, and crave fast food (especially hamburgers) and burritos. They cite branded foods more often than the other generations, including favorite packaged cookies, ice creams, candies and snacks.

* Gen Yers are also partial to burritos and ramen noodles -- but in contrast to other cohorts, many also include healthier foods, including sushi and fruits, among their favorite comfort foods. They are less inclined than Gen X to associate specific brands with comfort foods.

The research also identified top trends in "comfort foods". Gen Y pastry chefs and a desire to start the day with a "protein burst" are driving a trend toward 'breakfast for dessert'. "Boxed cereals, already found in snack bars and frozen yogurt shops, are now turning up in desserts, along with desserts such as "glamorized" versions of French toast, waffles and doughnuts."

Other humble foods such as meat loaf, meat pies, and macaroni and cheese are making a comeback, with 'fuller flavors and natural or leander meat blends'. Even the lowly casserole appears to be due for a Millennial makeover as one-dish meals come back into favor and receive 'artisan' spin with natural and organic ingredients and updated flavors: ""New" casseroles replacing processed ingredients with fresh ingredients, including vegetables and "contemporary" proteins such as turkey, crab and shrimp." .

This new research contributes to growing evidence that Gen Y is made up of a high proportion of food sophisticates who are willing to put in the effort to create healthier, more flavorful dishes at home and demand better fare from restaurants. According to Mintel, young parents are among the most enthusiastic shoppers at Farmer's markets and food co-ops. (Mintel, “Local Procurement” Feb 2009). Just six percent of those without kids buy local goods at farmers markets, compared to 9% of those with kids.

So if you attend a family reunion or potluck this summer, pay attention to who brings what. Chances are, the Boomer will be the one with the potato salad and chocolate chip cookies, the Gen Y'er will be the one with the organic fruit and Asian curry.