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.

Observing Teen Media Use in its Natural Habitat

I have two Millennial-age kids, one in high school and another is a college student. This summer they exhibit the sleep habits of nocturnal wild animals. If they were dropped into Hong Kong tomorrow, they would experience no jet lag.

Technology knows no time zone and is hard to quit once you start. Combine entertainment with social connection and you have a sticky brew. My son dramatically removed the TV from his room during final exam week, but has yet to restore it. I now see why: he doesn't need it! His laptop functions as super-functional TV/DVD/ player with communication built in.

New research from OTX (and conversations with other parents) assures me my kids are fairly typical. Andy Pipes, in blog post titled "Technology, Kids and Telly", summarized the OTX findings on 12-24 year-olds like this:

* They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)

* They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV

* 25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access”

* A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time

* They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces

* And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC

Although the research is from London, all of these findings ring true with my experience, including the points about vacation and texting friends sitting next to you. According to the OTX report, youth’s obsession with technology is less about the technology and more connection and communication.

"Young people’s immersion in these devices and the time spent on them is not due to an obsession with the technology per se, but largely due to the gadgets’ ability to facilitate communication and to enhance young people’s enjoyment of traditional pursuits. For most, the focus of their passion is not so much the device itself, but more about how it can help them connect, relax or have fun. The technology itself is “invisible” to the young consumer.

How is all this 'communication' affecting offline relationships with friends and family? According to the Annenberg research (reported this week by AP) Internet time is more likely to cut into family time than time with friends."

In 2000, when the center began its annual surveys on Americans and the Internet, only 11 percent of respondents said that family members under 18 were spending too much time online. By 2008, that grew to 28 percent....In the first half of the decade, people reported spending an average of 26 hours per month with their families. By 2008, however, that shared time had dropped by more than 30 percent, to about 18 hours."

The OTX research aligns with this finding. Here is Andy Pipes again:

>"These activities seem to be making up for not spending as much physical time with their friends as they’d like - which seems to be most of the time. On the weekends, when typical young adults have the most free time, they are still spending more time hanging out with their mates and watching television than any other activity - the difference is that this generation tends to be engaging with their connected devices a lot more whilst doing those cherished activities."

I suppose i can take some comfort in that. Meanwhile, I don't miss hearing the refrain of summers past: "Mom, I'm bored. There's nothing to do!"

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog

A review, by Ariella Phillips, Student, University of Notre Dame, Class of 2012

"With my freeze ray, I will stop the world.....

That’s the plan/ Rule the world/ You and me/ Any day

Love your hair.”

Dr. Horrible’s Sing A Long Blog is a production that is utterly Millennial. Not quite definable, it’s a movie/blog/musical/webcast/thing. It was never shown on TV, never advertised, a case of completely out-of-the-box thinking and approach. Despite the low budget (it was made during the writers’ strike), the quality of the music and acting is top notch. And every college student has seen it.

If you haven’t seen it, here’s the link. It’s a little long (40 minutes) but if you have 10 minutes it’s worth watching through the first song, “My Freeze Ray.” In case you don’t have time, here’s why I think Dr. Horrible appeals to Millennials.

The message.

We want to change the world. We’re a little fuzzy on exactly how, but as Dr. Horrible says in the first few minutes, “the status quo is not… quo!” We’re a little innocent on this point, almost naïve. Still, we know there’s something wrong with our world, and we are going to fix it, either through Penny’s volunteering with the homeless and vegetarianism, or Dr. Horrible’s freeze ray.

The Medium.

Dr. Horrible is on OUR media, the Internet, which Millennials take special pride in. Yeah, yeah, we know our moms are on facebook now, but gosh darn it, we’re the ones who know it best. Dr. Horrible starts off talking to a computer cam, blogging his email responses on his exploits in world domination and love. If you look closely, you’ll see the remote for his heist is an iPhone. Technology is something all millennials use, know, and exploit. Even if we don’t have a transmatter ray, it’s our superpower.

The Nemesis.

Captain Hammer, the Corporate Tool, is Dr. Horrible’s "true nemesis". Captain Hammer is the ultimate boomer. Or gen X-er. Or just a jerk. But he represents everything our generation isn’t. If Millenials are trying to make a change, there is the status quo, thwarting us at every turn (Hammer: “It’s curtains for you, Dr. Horrible; lacy, gently wafting curtains”). Really, we’re sick of our Captain Hammers. Please forward the memo to all the boomers, gen X-ers, and the rest who say we can’t make a difference.

The Attitude.

Millennials are constantly struggling to prove to the rest of the world that we can make a difference, that we’re not the pampered, “everyone gets a trophy” generation, but one that will make an impact. We empathize with Dr. Horrible as he strives to show Penny he’s “not a joke, not a dork, not a failure.” Millennials who survived the gauntlet of college applications understand his anxiety to gain admission to the Evil League of Evil. Those who survived the gauntlet of the workplace understand Penny’s tale of all the times she was turned down and fired from jobs. Dr. Horrible tells Penny over frozen yogurt of wanting to do great things, and be an achiever, but it seems he just won’t be given the chance to prove it. It’s a worry of all Millenials. We just want to be given a chance to show what we can do – and we’re terrified it’ll never happen.

ABC Family Network: A Deft Millennial Makeover

When my friend and former colleague, John Rood, SVP Marketing at ABC Family, told me a little over a year ago that they were planning to reposition the network to Millennials, I admit I was more than skeptical. Disney-owned ABC Family was anything but hip. It sounded like a Bridge to Terabitha too far.

Fast forward one year and ABC Family, tagline "A New Kind of Family", is on fire going into the crucial April 'upfront' advertiser buying season. According to Multichannel.com, ABC Family network just finished its best quarter ever. The reason? Strength in its core audience of 12-34 year old "millennials".

Its new show, "The Secret Life of the American Teenager" about a young teen dealing with an unwanted pregnancy, finished its first season last month as the network’s most-watched series ever, averaging 3.9 million viewers, despite being head to head with the established 'Gossip Girls' on CW. Two other hit shows, "Greek" and "Lincoln Heights", deal with multi-cultural family issues.

Movies are another bright spot. The Jan. 18 premiere of "Another Cinderella Story" was the top cable movie of the first quarter, drawing 5.6 million viewers. The April 19 premiere of the original movie, "My Fake Fiance", about a woman who devises an engagement sham to replace her stolen belongings scored 3.7 million viewers, ranked as ABC Family's fourth best ever among adults and women 18 to 34.

An understanding of the importance of family relationships to Millennials combined with a willingness to deal with the new family issues of the new Millennium (in a way that doesn't alienate their parents), appears to underlie ABC's success with this group, an insight confirmed by President, Paul Lee:

“[Millennials] are optimistic, they make decisions by consensus, and they’re diverse — but most importantly they love family, which is great for our name and the brand,” he said. “They may define family differently — it’s not Ozzie and Harriet, but rather a much messier, more passionate, more fun, more real family,” .

A visit to the Secret Life of the American Teenager blog reveals the depth of attachment viewers feel for this show. Here are some sample responses to the question of whether 15-year old Amy will make a good mom:

"I think Amy will do great as a mom and i think her and ben make a great couple cuz i mean wat guy would stay with a pregnant girl and its not even his baby that shows how much he really cares about amy unlike ricky he was still having sex with adrian and trying to get with grace at the same time! But i think ricky should still be in the baby's life because the baby needs to know the real father, but ben and amy will do great. "

"Okay, I'm getting annoyed at Amy right now. She's always feeling so sorry for herself, but look at everyone else, they're not. Ricky loves John and isn't feeling sorry for himself. Everyone's being such a great support system. I totally think Amy will be a great mom, but only when she finds out how lucky she is to have such a strong support system, because a lot of girls don't no matter the situation whether boys, drugs, sickness, or babies. OMGSecretLife"

"Amy is going to be a great mom. yes, it will be dificult she mite even have to dump Ben and focuse more on baby John. Ricky is also going to be a great daddy..::. I LOVE THE SECRET LIFE OF THE AMERICAN TEENAGER.::."

Okaaaayyy, this is definitely not Father Knows Best. Bravo to ABC Family for having the courage to address this target in a relevant way. And sorry, John, for ever doubting it.

Social Media Case Study: Urbane Apartments

Social Media: Marketing the Millennial Way

View more presentations from Mike Whaling.

Everyone knows by now that the way to reach Millennials is to go where they are, which is Facebook, MySpace, blogs, and other social media. In theory, the cost is low and the ROI potential is high, but figuring out exactly how to do it can be daunting.

Eric Brown, landlord at Urbane Apartments in Royal Oak, Michigan outside Detroit, spent the last six months cracking the code. Using the insight "no one cares about your apartments", he worked with Mike Whaling of 30 Lines to build community, reduce paid listings, enhance reputation and increase sales. No small order. The campaign (description starts page 22 of the slide share presentation embedded above) left no social media stone unturned: Facebook, Myspace, blogs, Flickr, VIP passes, logo merchandise, text messaging and more. The creative is hip and fun and gives extra meaning to the word 'community'.

The results are impresive -- 65% increase in web traffic, 4300% increase in blog traffic and a 100% increase in lease conversions. With no paid media for 6 months, Urbane is in third position on a google search for 'Royal Oak Apartments'. Most impressive, Whaley reports low manpower cost - 2 employees at 1-2 hours a day plus a few paid resident bloggers.

This case demonstrates the incredible power of social media to flatten the playing field for marketers. What I like about it is that it shows how anyone can use these tools to increase business performance if they have imagination and understand that social media is ultimately about customer service and community. Eric Brown was featured as one of four social media innovators in BusinessWeek in February. Thanks, Mike, for sharing the details.

Social Media: Time Suck or Time Well Spent?

New research by Ohio State reports a link between time spend on Facebook and academic performance. ("Facebook Use Linked to Less Textbook Time", USA Today). Students who said they used Facebook reported grade-point averages between 3.0 and 3.5; those who don't use it said they average 3.5 to 4.0. Also, Facebook users said they studied one to five hours a week, vs. non-users' 11 hours or more. Students who spend their time accumulating friends, chatting and “poking” others on the site may devote as little as one hour a week to their academic work.

There's no question that effective use of social media requires an enormous amount of time. 65% of the students in the Ohio State study who use Facebook reported using using it at least once every day, and many were accessing it multiple times. A new study of marketers who are using social media says nearly two-thirds (64%) of are using social media for five hours or more each week, with 39% using it 10 or more hours weekly. 10% are spending more than 20 hours each week with social media. In my own work, I find that 'social media creep' has set in. I now devote several hours a day to two blogs and Tweetdeck. I've been blogging for about a year now, and I devote more time to it every month. According to this study, I am pretty typical:

The survey found that there is a direct relationship between how long marketers have been using social media and their weekly time commitment. For people just beginning with social media, the median weekly time commitment is two hours per week. However, for those who have been at it for months, the median jumps to 10 hours per week. For those who report social media marketing use for years, the median is 20+ hours each week.

So what is the ROI on all that precious time that's being invested? Is it 'worth it'? I suppose it depends on what kind of reward you are looking for.

At the most basic level, social media is entertainment, that's why it's called 'media'. Does entertainment need an 'ROI'? If it replaces other entertainment like TV, sports or and video games, I would say 'no'. However, if it eats into study or work time, the answer is 'yes'.

There are more productive ways to develop social skills (see the Dentyne campaign for examples). According to my Millennial daughter, "there are plenty of people completely lacking social skills on Facebook, that's why they're on facebook rather than interacting and using said social skills." The skills students are developing in 'personal branding' also should be considered a poor tradeoff when thousands of dollars are being spent on education. But for marketers, boomers, and other professionals, the answer may depend on how social media 'rewards' are measured.

Accenture surveyed 3000 adults of all ages on their adoption of various technologies. The findings show there has been a very rapid adoption of blogging, podcasts and other social media among older consumers over the past year -- and a leveling off among Millennials. In fact, Accenture's research found "boomers increased their uptake of popular consumer technology applications at an average of 50 percent last year, nearly 20 times faster than Generation Y."

* Boomers increased their rate of reading blogs and listening to podcasts by 67 percent year-over-year. That's nearly 80 times faster than Gen Y (1 percent).

* Boomers posted a 59 percent increase in use of social networking sites, more than 30 times faster than Gen Y (2 percent).

* Boomers increased watching/posting videos on the Internet by 35 percent,while Gen Y usage decreased slightly (-2 percent).

Marketers appear to be happy with the rewards of their social media activities. 81% say their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. At least two in three participants found that increased traffic occurred with as little as 6 hours a week invested in social media marketing, while those who have been doing this for years reported better results. The study also found more than half of participants reported a rise in search engine rankings. Improved search engine rankings were most prevalent among those who’ve been using social media for years, with nearly 80% reporting a rise. Though about one in two found social media generated qualified leads, only about one in three said social media marketing helped close business, and this number goes up as high as 61% for those using SM longer. Finally, most strongly agree that marketing costs dropped when social media marketing was implemented.

For non-marketing types, the rewards also appear to be worth the time. According to Accenture, "they are likely adding life-enriching experiences that they see the younger generation adopting, and striving to remain intellectually and technologically literate, versatile and job-skill competitive." Not bad for something that is also entertaining. No wonder newspapers and TV are having a hard time competing in the attention game!

In the end, how you measure 'worth it' may depend on what activity is being displaced. In my case, it is sleep. I think most Millennials would agree that is a reasonable tradeoff.

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.

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."

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.

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?

Jello & Betty Crocker Get iPhone Apps: Who's Next?

Yes it's true, America's most loved cookbook has gone mobile. A free Betty Crocker iPhone application offers meal suggestions based on what's in your pantry. An even bigger surprise is that the $.99 iFood Assistant from Kraft is one of the 100most popular paid iphone applications. With 19th century brands leading the way, mobile marketing may finally be making some headway.

Mobile marketing is getting a big assist from the iPhone. It's hard to believe but the iPhone won't even celebrate its 2-year birthday until June. That's right, only 18 months old.

On June 30, 2007 Apple sold Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first thirty hours, and has gone on to sell another 17 million globally through the end of 2008, helped by rapid introductions of faster speeds, lower prices and new app's. And there's no end in sight. While iPhone accounts for just 30% of the 'smart phone' category, it has left competitors like RIM in the dust. When we talk about apps for 'smart phones', we all know what we're talking about.

Another amazing statistic: Over half a billion iphone app's have been sold since their introduction in July 2008. I did a little digging on what are the most popular. No one will be surprised to learn that among the premium (paid) app's games rule. (Will GameBoys be the next victim of convergence?) Among the free iphone applications, Apple's list released in December includes many games, but also two social networking apps--Facebook and AOL's AIM. It also includes two travel apps, Google Earth and Urbanspoon. The list also features a pair of entertainment apps, Apple's Remote and The MacBox's Lightsaber, along with two music apps, Pandora Radio and Shazam. Time magazine published its list of top 10 most useful app's. These include Around Me, which tells travellers what is of interest nearby, including stores & restaurants, AP's News on Demand, Wikipanion, and Ocarina (turns your phone into a wind instrument).Notable shopping related app's are Save Benji's which provides comparison prices and Yelp, consumer reviews.

For marketers wishing to reach mobile Millennials (is there any other kind?), iPhone app's are a dream come true. iphone app's are:

1) as targeted as search

2) potentially as close-to-the-sale as in-store

3) as trackable as email

4) as interactive as a web site

According to a recent slide share presentation by Marta Kagan of Viximo, iphone users have higher than average discretionary income and iphone app's enjoy a higher than average response rate. Put all that together and branded app's may be the killer app of all time.

The key for marketers is making a branded app that Millennials will use and will also benefit the brand, which is not as easy as it may sound.

I had trouble finding success stories in this space. Zippo's Virtual Lighter is interesting as a novelty but doesn't really offer any functionality or buzz value. Audi's Driving Challenge didn't get good reviews, even in 2.0. Maybe Millennial marketers need to look at those 19th century brands a little closer? Feel free to send me examples of successful BRANDED mobile app's.

Marketers to Millennials: To Text or Not to Text?

If you listen to Millennials, it's an easy decision not to send commercial messages on their mobile phone. Most Millennials pay for their text messages. As Marty Predd, Research Associate at Brand Amplitude puts it, "They ration text messages like bread in WWII".

Yet, SMS has powerful potential for delivering just the right message at the right time. The sheer volume of text messages is impressive. In Q2 2008, the average text messager sends or receives an average of 357 text messages per month, the average teen, 1752 messages a month. That's more than the number of phone calls. ("Realizing Potential", September 2008).

What about advertising messages? The numbers here are also impressive. Well over half of all U.S. cell phone users have a text message plan and 16% of texters in the U.S. see some form of text-message advertising each month. (The number shoots up to 35% for teens). Consumers are not only seeing text message ads, Nielsen says 45% have responded in some way. The most popular response to mobile advertising (text, video, Internet, etc.) is sending another text-message; one-quarter of responders sent another text-message. These figures make a compelling case for figuring out how to overcome Millennial's barriers to text marketing messages.

There are some successful cases worth looking at. A subsequent Nielsen report ("The Short Code Opportunity", Dec. 2008) points out that President-Elect Barack Obama’s “V.P. pick” text message remains the most notable example of short code marketing in the U.S. In August 2008, the campaign attempted to announce Joe Biden as the vice presidential candidate over SMS text message. Nielsen estimates that the Biden text was received by 2.9 million mobile phone users in the U.S. over the course of that weekend. The next most prominent example of a text message-based effort is is Coca-Cola’s My Coke Rewards program. This program had engaged 1.1 million AT&T and Verizon Wireless customers as of Q3 2008.

"Through My Coke Rewards, Coca-Cola customers collect unique codes found on various Coca-Cola products and enter them into an account they’ve registered at mycokerewards.com. When they reach certain point levels, they are able to redeem points for rewards. The mobile component of the program allows consumers to enter the codes over their mobile phone on the go. Coca-Cola’s mobile users typically send and receive about 32 messages a month to Coca-Cola. Importantly, it’s not just kids or teens who are an active audience for short code marketing. In the Coca-Cola example, nearly half (47 percent) of users were 35 or older. That age diversity is not unique to Coca-Cola either. Overall, 53 percent of those engaging with free (standard rate) short codes, such as those used by brands in marketing, are sent by texters 35 and older."

Subway, Arby’s, Jiffy Lube, BestBuy, Papa Johns, Village Inn, and other major brands have also provided special offers through text and multimedia messaging.

Papa Johns, Domino’s Pizza and Pizza Hut all allow customers to register ordering details online and then order pizzas over text message. Nielsen estimates that 552,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers texted with Domino’s Pizza, 279,000 texted with Pizza Hut and 182,000 texted with Papa John’s in Q3 2008

Foot Locker sends special offers to its “VIP program” participants—they sent those texts to approximately 306,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers in Q3 2008.

Subway’s FRESHBUZZ service allows Subway customers to receive news and promotions via text message. Nielsen estimates that Subway sent these sandwich deals and news flashes to 212,000 AT&T and Verizon Wireless subscribers in Q3 2008.

Short codes are not limited to brand marketing. Traditional media is also using text messaging to enhance participation (e.g.“American Idol”). In radio, Nielsen’s tracking of short codes showed more than a million transactions in 2Q 2008 with the short code “A-L-I-C-E” (or 25423), a short code assigned to the station Alice 97.3 KLLC-FM in San Francisco. Alice listeners are invited to send text messages directly to the studio to make requests, win prizes, and enter polls.

Given Millennials adamant stance against text message ads, any marketer considering using SMS should take a cautious approach and make sure that the messages are both useful and welcome. But these marketers have shown it can be done.

Reaching Millennials With Mobile Media

As this very cool video from Nokia demonstrates, the so-called fourth screen 'changes everything' by bringing the big screen to your pocket. If you want impressive statistics on global market for mobile youth marketing, look no farther than "The Mobile Shift" a slide show by Graham Brown at Mobileyouth.org. A sample: "By 2010, American mobile owning youth under 30 will number 100 million. The USA is the most valuable mobile youth market in the world currently producing 17% of the world’s total telecoms youth revenue, or $48 billion per year." (Reminder, 2010 is next year!)

However, understanding how to make mobile youth marketing acceptable to youth is harder. In focus group after focus group, Millennials tell us, often emphatically, they do not welcome commercial messages on their personal phone -- especially if they have to pay data or text messaging charges to receive them. What's a youth marketer to do?

For clues to making mobile marketing work, I turned to some youth bloggers.

1. Arielle Patrice Scott: 19-year old blogger, Arielle Patrice Scott, a student at Berkeley and entrepreneur, recommends meeting your target in person, then continue the conversation digitally.

You really only need two marketing methods to establish long-lasting relationships with Gen Y. The first is face-to-face communication and the second is social media. It’s really simple. You use face-to-face to introduce yourself. You use social media for building and maintaining our friendship. Face-to-face marketing refers to any form of guerilla, event or physical interaction communication between you - the brand - and us. The key is you want to make a great first impression and ask for permission to get to know us better, almost as if you’re looking to go on a second date. Social media is the most effective for keeping in touch and afterward, it’s the perfect medium recommend your products to us. We already know you and are looking forward to your messages at this point. We are ready to get to know you.

2. Josh Kowitt: Arielle's insight no doubt accounts for the presence of campus 'ambassadors' for brands like Apple, Red Bull and more. Taking the brand to the target is also expensive and fraught with pitfalls, as Josh Kowitt, the 24-year old entrepreneur behind College Boxes, explains in his guest entry for the blog, 'Big Brand on Campus' . Just giving something away free at a fraternity party does not guarantee you will be noticed or loved. Josh suggests carefully selecting the venue to ensure students will be present who will value your effort and spread the word to others.

3. Benjamin Leis: Benjamin Leis is the Millennial blogger and entrepreneur behind Big Brand on Campus. He describes a campus appearance by Havaianas Sandals that made the transition to digital successfully, to his great surprise!

Upon learning about the Havaianas' Color War Campus Tour I joined their Facebook page and posted a complimentary comment on the wall. A few days later I was thanked by the page administrator/brand ambassador for 1. becoming a fan of the page and 2. "participating in the community". I was shocked. I am a fan of over 15 business' Facebook Pages and I have never once received a personal message from any of them. The representative then went one step further and asked me for my sandal size and mailing address. SHE WANTED TO SEND ME A FREE PAIR OF HAVAIANAS!! Now that is remarkable! I have told just about everyone I know about this. It is super low cost marketing. The cost of postage will probably rival that of the manufacturing cost of the sandals themselves. Divide that by the number of people I have told and you have an incredible word of mouth marketing metric. Ironically this wouldn't be remarkable if it weren't for the status quo, so that is something marketers should be aware of as well.

4. Tyler Reed: Tyler Reed, 20 is the founder of Younique and Project Wolf. Tyler suggests that mobile advertising should be location-focused, even if it is not triggered by a location search, per se.

Why is location based advertising so special? Once again, it ties in with being able to target people who looking for specific information at or withing a specific location. Therefore if advertising is location relevant or specific, it has a greater chance of being more relevant to the person. Even if they are not performing a search, information that is location specific to the person’s current position can be just as relevant.

Next time: Effective mobile media campaigns.

What's Hot? The Family Guy!

Moderator: Anything else help you get 'away' from it all?

Kevin: when im stressed, I usually grab a beer and watch some family guy dvds...thats the only way i can be happy again lol

Matt B: I second the family guy dvds :)

Gregg C: Family Guy is a great stress-reliever

James: ps3, and yes to The Family Guy.

This exchange happened yesterday in an online focus group about beer. All of these guys are 25-29 years old, young professionals, some married, some not. Why has Family Guy become the 'escape' of choice?

Upon investigation, I became aware of how what I have been missing. The Family Guy is a cultural phenomenon.

There are six boxed DVD sets, one for each season. The Family Guy has sold over 5 million combined DVD units, making it the fourth-largest TV series seller ever.

The Family Guy series won 3 Primetime Emmys. IMDB.com lists another 7 wins & 26 nominations. . It has set viewership records on Fox's Adult Swim block.

A Facebook application with over 55,000 subscribers.

There was a 'live' show at Carnegie Hall in November 2008.

There are several Youtube clips with 5-8 million views.

After watching a few (Puke-a-Thon, Stewie Beats Brian, Electric Man), I am baffled. These are not only not funny to me, I don't see how they could be funny to anyone else either. Perhaps that is the point? If I liked them, perhaps Millennial Men would not? Oh, we also did a focus group among 25-29 year old Millennial Women; The Family Guy never came up.

The Facebook Juggernaut

This week I lost another kid to Facebook. Like most Millennials, my 18-year old daughter has been addicted for years, but my son, who just turned 15, had so far found it uncompelling. No longer. This week, he went from just a handful of friends to over 140 friends. Like his sister, he now spends hours uploading photos, posting remarks on friends' walls and making new connections.

According to Gallup poll data, there are dramatic differences in amount of time spent on the internet by age group. Those spending at least one hour a day drops steadily with each successive age group, from 62% for Millennials to 24% for their grandparents. (See chart) If my kids are any indication, the 'Facebook Effect' is a large part of the difference. (My dad likes his computer, but doesn't know what else to do once he's done with email).

According to Nick Burcher, who follows Facebook and other social media site usage, Facebook's U.S. user base grew from 27.8 million users in July to 42.0 million in December, a 51% jump. Internationally, its user base grew even faster. Altogether, Facebook added an eyepopping total of 47 million new users in the last 6 months of 2008. The largest non-US user bases are in the English speaking Canada and UK. (For more on international use of Facebook relative to Twitter, see Brendan Mitchell's Jan 11 blog post.)

There is no doubt that Facebook dominates the lives of many Millennials, but whether this pattern will continue indefinitely is still up for debate. In our research among young adults we are starting to hear some reservations about Facebook as the end all be all social network application. While Twitter is not really registering yet among young professionals we talk with, we are hearing that they think of Linked In for professional use, and fear that their Facebook profiles may come to haunt them as they advance in their lives and careers.

Millennials: Email? You Must Be Kidding!

I receive and send hundreds of emails a day and use four different email accounts. 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 know that better use of RSS feeds, Facebook, NetVibes and other Web 2.0 tools would simplify my email life and do wonders for my productivity. But I don't make the effort to do it. However, 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.

Millennial Research: Just the Facts

When I first started blogging about Millennial Marketing, there were few research summaries. Now there are almost too many. This new presentation by Resource Interactive is among the best I've seen. It incorporates some fresh in-depth primary research among 72 Millennials with a range of secondary sources - Jupiter, Census, Harris and Forrester. The quotes help break up the statistics and bring the data to life. It's a little long, but the graphics are great and there are some good basic reminders about how to reach Gen Y near the end.

Digital Millennials: R U Ready

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: digital millennials resource interactive)

Millennial Target: Starbucks Project Red

Starbucks appears to have hit it right with Millennials with its Dec 1 RED Event for World Aids Day. So far, nearly 580,198, people have RSVP'ed on Facebook. Whether all of them actually come and sip a 'handcrafted beverage' (and generate a 5 cent donation to Project Red), is irrelevant. Starbucks is already a winner just by getting that many people to raise their hand in support of the effort. At minimum, those handraisers will think twice before buying a latte someplace else on Monday. The event is only the beginning. For the next few months, all holiday drinks will also result in a 5 cent donation. There's a Red Community site where customers can use an 'impact calculator' to see how their donations are impacting the world crisis.

If Monday's event results in lines at Starbucks stores, it will owe its success to doing its its homework on Millennials. The Project Red promotion hits a number of Millennial hot buttons:

1. A worthy cause.

2. Easy to do - doesn't require any extra effort.

3. Social - hey, let's all go!

4. Multi-media - everything from TV to celebrities in Times Square.

5. Lots of ways to participate online and in person -- even a photo op in the store.

While RED is a promotion, it feels bigger, more like a party. That's what makes its appearance on Facebook more permissible than most commercial attempts on Facebook, and consequently something Millennials click on rather than ignore. A lot has been written lately about Facebook's struggles to become a viable advertising medium. Perhaps Starbucks has just given us all a clue as to how to leverage its potential.

What Are the Cool Kids Doing Online?

Millennials spend 12-14 hours a week online searching for information, watching video, updating their profiles and messaging their friends. They are confident "neti-zens" who have never known a time when up-to-date info about friends, grades, tonight's biology homework, favorite political candidates and the latest SNL episode wasn't instantly and freely available. It's worth understanding what they like online now, because Millennial's online tastes are very influential. According to Deloitte's 2007 State of the Media Democracy Survey, word of mouth is the most common reason for Millennials to visit a website. When they find a particular television show or website that they enjoy, they tell an average of 18 people, compared with only 10 people for all age groups. So what online brands are hot with Millennials today? New research from Outlaw Consulting among 100 hand selected Gen Y Trendsetters sheds some light. The biggest surprise here is that there are no real surprises here. Facebook is number one, even among trendsetters, who at the beginning were vaguely uncomfortable doing something so, well, popular. It just seemed so vain. That apparently has changed however, due to the ubiquity and ease of use.

>"Facebook has become more of a fact of life, a way to communicate and schedule events—consider it this generation’s version of Microsoft Outlook, but with an emotional side. “There is an entire army of friends who I don’t see regularly but still care about. It means a lot to automatically be able to see their photos from time to time, and keep abreast of who’s where. Facebook provides a warm blanket for me. It makes me feel more connected, less alienated.”

In our research with recent college graduates, we learned Facebook has become essential for remaining in touch with newly scattered friends. While the Facebook habit is strongest among those who actually used it in college (those who graduated less than 4 years ago), we expect the trend to continue.

Other popular trendsetter sites pose similar paradoxes. Ironically, trendsetters want to tap into the 'wisdom of crowds' available, where else, on EBay, Yelp, Wikipedia, Craigslist.

“There are tons of different opinions on there, but you can sift through and get a feel for the truth. I don’t know what I did before Yelp.” “Whenever I have an item in mind, I check eBay. It standardizes the pricing. If you want to know what the public thinks an item is worth, eBay will tell you.Gen Y trendsetters will gladly sacrifice 100% accuracy for direct access to the public’s version of reality, whatever it may be. They believe they know when to trust sites, and when to seek another source. In the meantime, they credit these sites with doing no less than changing their lives. The model of the open platform giving voice to a crowd will be close to their hearts as this generation comes to power.

The rest of the list is equally unsurprising. CNN, NYT, Netflix, Amazon, YouTube, Flickr and Pandora round out the list. Where are the obscure, the trendy, the not on the map ideas? Perhaps that is the big finding. The Internet, arbiter of every personal whim and taste, may be more mass than we even suspected.