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.

Millennials: A New Generation of Family Values

On Saturday, I attended a wedding for the daughter of our friends. We knew the bride 10 years ago when she was graduating high school, but haven’t seen much of her in the mean time. So when the best man's toast made it clear that he expected the couple to have a family, I was startled. That simply wouldn’t have happened 20 or 30 years ago. Yet, upon reflection, the presumption seemed completely logical. Millennials are in fact showing every sign of being one of the most family-oriented generations to date.

I first wrote on this topic last July when I speculated that babies were becoming cool (What the Cool Kids Want, A Baby). The post evoked this response:

"For first-wave Millennials like myself, we were coming of age just as all the characters on FRIENDS were starting to settle down and even have babies. I think girls my age thought "Why am I going to waste a decade trying to find myself, when in the end what I'm looking for is a family?"

There's more than anecdotal evidence that a baby boomlet may be on the way. Birthrates per women reached the magical 2.1 population replacement rate in 2006 for the first time since 1971. More babies were born in 2007 than even during the height of the baby boom. Studies of values shows Millennials put having a family as a goal. According to longitudinal survey of high school students conducted by the College Board, 77% of students nationwide say “raising a family” is an “essential” or “very important” life objective. In 1977, by comparison, just 59 percent of students gave the same level of importance to raising a family.

What will Millennials be like as parents, and what does that mean for marketers? I have a few predictions:

Gen Y will be attentive parents, albeit for different reasons than the parental-attention-starved Gen X’ers who’s extreme parenting styles seem to be about making up for what they missed as kids. In contrast, Gen Y, enjoyed some of the most child-centric parenting ever known. There is every reason to think they will continue to dote on their own offspring, most likely with help from grandparents. Boomers are unlikely to back out of their kids lives now just as things get really fun. We may even see multiple generations under the same roof again, by choice and in some cases, by necessity.

Millennials will put their kids ahead of their careers.Young, well-educated young mothers and fathers, will find a way to balance their career expectations against their parental responsibilities. Millennials who have already shown willingness to decouple identity from work. (Think of the character Ryan in The Office relative to Michael for examples.). A young cousin of mine and her husband each have part time jobs in LA to ensure that someone is always home with their r 2-year old son. I would also expect young parents to leverage their expectation of job mobility to enjoy alternating periods of working and staying home, or working from home. The direct implication is that there will be more sharing of responsibilities, including shopping, cleaning and child care, putting men squarely in the target for many CPG products.

Millennials’ interest in healthful, locally produced and organic foods will accelerate. According to Mintel, interest in shopping at Farmers’ markets, in food co-ops and community gardens all jump with the presence of children. For example, 6% of households without children buy local goods at a farmer’s market and 3% at a food co-op. That jumps to 9% and 7% respectively with the presence of children.

Millennials will emphasize family experiences over material things. An emphasis on travel, learning and experiences is characteristic of their generation and a pattern they are likely to carry over into their parenting. Again, this may be a function of necessity as well as values. Whatever the reason, look for houses to be smaller and greener, toys to be fewer and family activities to be more common. When my mom was a kid, she and her family used to go to ‘family camp’, and I have recently heard several young couples say they have been doing similar things.

Millennials will evolve their use of social media to focus on their lives as parents. The need for the support of friends and community, for documenting one’s life through pictures and video and for sharing milestones accelerates with parenthood. No doubt we will see many more applications and parent-specific social media sites spring up to fill the need. Already Promo magazine and Fast Company have noted that Millennials are more likely to turn online to make her life run efficiently. According to Promo Magazine, "Gen Y moms were also more interested than their older counterparts in tools that let them create and maintain their own content." Here's what Fast Company has to say:

Age 27 or younger, Millennial Mom is the newest mom on the block, and she's the first generation to use technology to seamlessly blend work and life. Not long out of college or high school, she's facing many firsts: marriage, babies, insurance, jobs, maybe even owning a house. Hyper-connected and beyond tech savvy, Millennial Mom's world is both physical and virtual, bringing social connection and life-skills management as close as a computer or cell phone. She's busted out of previous generations' isolation challenges during those early, tethered-to-the-house years. You'll find her plugged into Myspace.com or TheNest.com, sharing worries, excitement, and ideas with her online family. Products like mythum mobile coupons and Infinity Broadcasting Visual Radio -- delivered right to her cellphone -- resonate with her values of connectivity and access, seamlessly going where she goes.

Millennial Wave to Hit Imported Beer and Microbrews

I've never understood why more attention isn't paid to demographics! Thanks to the remarkable efforts of the Census Bureau, we KNOW what the population will look like in 5-, 10- and 15-years (which is, by the way, the reason there is little excuse for overcrowded schools).

Yesterday, I shared SeekingAlpha's conclusion that demographics trends may be unkind to Wal-Mart. Today, I am going to share SeekingAlpha's conclusions about the impact of these same shifts on beer. According to SeekingAlpha.com, Gen Y will " undoubtedly break the beer drinking records set by Boomers in the late 1970s and early 1980s." Here is an editted version of their analysis:

"As 78 million Baby Boomers started to exit the prime 21-34 beer drinking age bracket in the early 1980s, they were replaced by a much smaller potential-beer-drinker cohort, Generation X. This led to years of flat to declining volume in the beer industry. Now, as Generation X ages out of the prime beer drinking age, it is being replaced by the much larger Generation Y. This new generation of potential beer drinkers is currently mostly age 24 and under ... and it is the largest generation in U.S. history. In 2008 alone, more than 3.8 million members of Gen Y turned the legal drinking age of 21, 100,000 more than turned 21 in 2007. Their entrance into the prime beer drinking age bracket may already be making a difference. Industry data indicates that beer consumption has been on the increase since at least 2006."

Which types and brands of beer will benefit most from the shifts? According to their analysis, first and foremost it will be the big U.S. breweries (and their foreign owners), due to their sheer volume - 80% of sales. But the biggest gains will be seen by microbreweries, which are currently just 6% of sales, but already outpacing the rest of the industry. In 2007 the growth rate of microbreweries was estimated at 12 percent, (vs. 1.4 percent for the large domestic brands and imports). In 2008, microbreweries increased volume by another 5.8 percent, and increased sales more than 10 percent.

This analysis brought to mind an email I received from Marty Predd, a twenty-something Research Associate at Brand Amplitude who recently moved to Portland, OR from Indianapolis. He shared this a few months ago when we were working on a project for an imported beer client:

"As you may know, Portland is a mecca for craft beer...we have the most microbreweries of any city in the country, and I can think of about a dozen that are within walking distance of my loft. My girlfriend and I partake regularly and I'm sure we've become beer snobs to some degree. Bars we used to love in the Midwest seem less appealing now when we visit because of their limited selection of mostly huge national beers like Bud or Miller, or mega imported brands like Guinness, Smithwicks, Heineken, etc. With the exception of PBR, which has a nostalgic status in dive bars here, I can't think of the last time we enjoyed a mega beer brand that's not based here in Portland (i.e., Widmer)."

For data geeks like me who want to learn more, Ken Gronbach of SeekingAlpha has written a book,"The Age Curve: How to Profit from the Coming Demographic Storm". I've ordered my copy already.

Can Wal-Mart Survive Generation Y?

I found a post today on a financial analysis blog, SeekingAlpha.com, It is so provocative and insightful, I am going to share it in (nearly) its entirety.

The basic question is whether Millennials will find Wal-Mart's value proposition appealing -- and if they don't, what are the implications for Wal-Mart's future? I don't know whether or not Millennials will or will not embrace Wal-Mart, but as Ken Gronbach, the author of this post points out, it's not a slam dunk. In fact, after I posted the link on Twitter, one of my Gen Y followers replied to the question, "I hope not!"

"(Wal-Mart's) retail concept is not about selection or breadth of assortment and it is certainly not about short runs of anything. This concept, therefore, would struggle with the fashion tastes of a new market and therein lies the problem. Generation Y, born 1985-2004 and currently between the ages of 5-24 and the biggest generation in U.S. history is the new market. And new markets generally have very fickle tastes. If they don’t want something, it doesn’t matter if it is free–they just don’t want it. Wal-Mart is very used to dictating what their customers should buy–large quantities of very cheap retailer’s choice items."

"Wal-Mart is a Baby Boomer-based company. Boomers were born 1945 to 1964, and Wal-Mart has decades of experience catering to the clearly defined tastes of this generation who are currently 45- to 64-years-old. Wal-Mart has figured out what the mature Boomer market buys. They have also refined this demand to the narrowest selection possible, almost telling Boomers what they will buy. Boomers in turn are okay with this because when you are between 45- and 64-years-old you have pretty defined tastes and preferences that influence your buying of stuff. If Wal-Mart does not have what a Boomer really wants, but does have something close at a very low price, the Boomer will buy it."

"So where is the rub? It’s simple. When consumers hit about 50 years old, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, their demand for stuff begins to subside. At 60 years old a person pretty much has all the stuff he or she needs and then some. At 60, one’s body has stopped changing so one can wear clothes longer, a lot longer. If you want to see what was fashionable thirty years ago go to a Miami retirement community. The point here is that the bloom is off the rose of the Boomers’ consumption of things. The Boomer population is a huge bell shaped curve with many Boomers turning sixty at its leading edge and with its very top cresting at 50-years-old in 2007. All of this means that Wal-Mart needs to find a new market fast if it wants to continue doing business."

"But where does Wal-Mart turn? The two U.S. generations over 60 do not have the critical mass to serve their infrastructure, and besides, for the most part they have stopped consuming. The U.S. population now 25- to 44-years-old is a non-homogeneous combination of the small native born Gen. X (nine million fewer than the Boomers) and the free standing market of Latino immigrants."

"So who’s left? It is Gen. Y, the largest and most powerful generation of consumers this nation has ever seen. Will they be the solution to Wal-Mart’s sales problems?"

"No. Gen. Y is an emerging market, a huge bell-shaped curve with its peak at age 19. They are inhaling entertainment products, fashion, food, electronics and transportation. Selection is everything to them. They do not care about low price unless it is exactly the item they want. Their tastes change daily. They don’t know what they will want six months from now. Wal-Mart’s limited selection, low price offering to the Boomer will not and cannot translate to Gen. Y."

"Oh yes, and one more thing. Gen. Y is on track to become the greenest and most humanitarian generation in U.S. history. If one wants to do business with them they had better be very green and very nice to their fellow mankind. And popular perception is that Wal-Mart has a dismal record on both accounts. Perception is reality. This fact could seriously injure Wal-Mart’s business all by itself."

Three Reasons Gen Y Doesn't Get Twitter

I love Twitter, but, my 18-year old daughter still insists she doesn't "get it". She explained it to me yesterday this way: for her, Facebook functions as a general organizing tool, much as Outlook does for me. Facebook is her calendar, contact book, and primary messaging platform. Any communication gaps are filled by GoogleTalk, text messaging, and if all else fails, dialing. Twitter adds nothing meaningful to this mix -- especially since her friends don't use it. Twitter is a hard sell, and I have finally given up.

The data has consistently shown 18-24 year olds lagging in Twitter adoption. Earlier this year we did focus groups among Millennials on Social Media usage ("The Millennial View of Social Media: Why Should I Be Your Friend?". We were especially interested in talking to Twitter users - but they were hard to find. I suspect if we repeated the study today, they would be equally hard to find.

A CNN article by an intern, Sharon Vaknin, titled "Generation Y: We're Just Not That Into Twitter" provides another view. Vaknin agrees with my daughter that Twitter has nothing to add over Facebook, but suggests a second theory for the lack of interest. Picking up on the Theory of Millennial Narcissism, Vaknin says Twitter offers little opportunity for 'self-branding':

Twitter's microblogging platform is what many Gen Y's may describe as "like Facebook, but just the status update." What is the point of that? We like to consolidate, so Nemeth explains that he doesn't "want to join another community, just tell people what (he's) doing." We have everything we need on Facebook. Based on Twenge's theory, a good explanation of my generation's lag in joining the Twitter mania is that there isn't an obvious way to achieve a self-brand on Twitter.Participating on Twitter requires a fan base that knows why you are unique, special, and deserve attention. Fan base aside, the Web site's interface paves a short path for cyberstalking--there is nothing to find past a user's status.

For example, Sally went to a great party last weekend, but where are the photos? Who went with her? These features, which Gen Y's value so much, are missing. As much as I like to know what my friends are doing, updates on Twitter happen so fast there really isn't time to react. More importantly, my friends don't have time to react to my activities.

Largely as a result of the digital communication tools on which we were raised, a big part of my generation wants to know what the cyberworld thinks of us, and we want its inhabitants to pay attention to us. How can they do this if they're following 300 other people? For the Millennials to make the move, Twitter will have to find a way to integrate the self-branding features MySpace gave birth to and Facebook nurtured. Even if they're packaged in 140 characters or less.

I have a third theory for Millennial disinterest. Millennials aren't accustomed to making online friends. For years, parents warned kids and teens against talking to strangers online. The origins of Facebook were that unlike MySpace, you could only have one identity on Facebook and it required a .edu email address. That meant it was 'safer'. The very idea that I am sharing my email address and phone number with people I only know from their 'tweets' is a little creepy to those who were warned from an early age of online predators. How do you know they are who they say they are? Suddenly, it's okay to make friends with people you don't know?

I have no answer for this, and I am a little surprised at the personal risks I have taken. But in my defense, unlike email and online chat rooms, Twitter seems spam-free and offers an unusually civil level of discourse. After all you have control over who you follow and block others from following you (although I have had no real need to do this yet).

Whatever the reason, it is clear that until Twitter offers a compelling value proposition, it is not going to attract younger users. Long live Facebook!

Millennial Wave Hits Wine

Those of us in higher education were among the first to notice Millennials were different from other generations. Then it was politicians. Now managers, recruiters and HR professionals are scrambling to adjust. What's next? Most likely food and wine marketers.

Millennials are discovering wine in record numbers. Domestic wine volume increased 11% between 2003 and 2007, and imported wine volume increased 27%. According to the Wine Council, Millennials accounted for 46% of the growth (see chart). Savvy wine marketers are aware of the sea change and, excuse my torture of the metaphor, are preparing for what is shaping up to be a tsunami of wine drinking.

Those reading along with me over the past year, already know that Millennials' love of wine is unique to the U.S. - in fact, French Millennials are forgoing wine. You will also know that it is part of a larger affinity for gourmet, premium and imported food and drink in general.

But what do we know about Millennial wine drinkers, and especially about enthusiasts that can help wine marketers?

First, wine drinking appears to start in earnest as Millennials graduate from college and start careers. Incidence of wine drinking increases from 23% among 21-24 year olds to 32% among 25-34 year olds (Mintel, Oct 08), approximately the same as adults in general (35%). However, the wine preferences, attitudes and behavior of Millennials are quite different. They are more sophisticated in their preferences, and more willing to spend to indulgence their preferences.

* Millennials who drink wine are twice as likely to belong to a wine club (20%) and to drink at wine bars in the past three months (38%) than older groups, (Wine Council).

* Forty-one percent of Millennials who drink wine say they drink imported wine most often vs. only 24% of Boomers and 31% of Gen X'ers. For example 31% of Millennials have drunk a wine from NZ, compared to only 15% of Gen X'ers (Wine Council).

* Millennials are much more likely to purchase their wine at a winery (33%), specialty liquor store (40%) or gourmet food store (20%). (Mintel)

* Millennials say they spend about $10 more per bottle than average across a wide variety of wine buying occasions. For example, Millennials say they would spend $40 on a bottle of wine for a special occasion compared to just $24 for all adults. (Mintel)

* Forty percent of 25-34 year olds agree that more expensive wine tastes better compared to 31% of adults on average. (Mintel)

* Millennials' criteria in wine selection tends to favor more familiar wines and wines with fun, casual names. (Mintel)

These facts don't completely relate the sheer enthusiasm of young drinkers for wine. They see wine as part of their move into adult life. It is a passion that drives them to look for new ideas and authentic experiences. For example, here is a comment left by Therese on this blog:

Really enjoyed this. I'd have to say that especially as a millennial, drinking wine is also about the experience. This helps explain why I LOVE and other "millenniels" LOVE drinking imported wine. What better way to escape from stress than to sit outside with friends drinking a Spanish Rioja, eating tapas and discussing life's little pleasures?

For wine marketers, the biggest adjustment will be learning work with younger drinkers' high degree of connectedness. Millennials are naturally social. They share their interests in everything from music to philanthropy through social networks, and it looks as if wine will soon be getting the same treatment. Twitter tasting networks and Millennial wine blogs are appearing almost daily. I have already mentioned the Millennier and Just yesterday, Yvette launched her new blog, millennialtastelive, with this introduction and an invitation to all Millennials to share their love of food and wine.

While researching popular wine groups, I found they were heavily slanted toward the more mature wine consuming demographic, particularly the group Twitter Taste Live, now Taste Live! Wine is popular among Millennials for three reasons: Wine is a social drink and Millennials are arguably the Social Generation There is so much variety in wine and Millennials tend to be attracted to constant change: "What's new?" "What's hot?" and "What's different?" And simply: Wine tastes good! It is my hope that this blog and Twitter Feed helps 20 and 30 somethings connect with one another to share our common bond of love of wine and propensity for social networking for the pure FUN of it MINUS the snobby elitest crap.

Efforts to engage this group will need to go well beyond the traditional web site. They are looking for wine knowledge and experiences and ways of sharing them with their friends. Marketers will need to explore leveraging existing networks, such as the 45,000 member online group, Womenwine, or creating new ones. Millennials want social currency they can 'spend' - and savvy wine marketers will be there to provide it.

Perfect Pairing: Social Media and Millennial Wine Enthusiasts

Social media creates communities of interest, so what could be more natural than reaching young wine enthusiasts through Twitter? Wine is inherently social - you drink it with other people. It's also inherently discussable and recommendations are a form of social currency.

Given the affinities, it's no great surprise that it's pretty easy to find young wine marketers on Twitter. Yesterday I spoke with Shana Ray (@sharayray), an ex-ad agency strategic planning professional and social media strategist who works with the Sonoma County Tourism Bureau to help wineries with their social media strategies. Shana says there is a lot of interest in Millennials among wine marketers. She is considering doing some of her own ethnographic research to help them get insight into young wine enthusiasts.

Other fascinating Millennial wine marketers I've friended online include Sasha Kadey, (@skadey, King Estate Winery), and Leah Hennessey (@millennier).

Most of the tweeting is around books, wine news, wines tasted. But there has already been at least one real time 'Twitter wine tastings', sponsored by Project Vino. (This technique was first used by bloggers has been going strong for over a year at WinebloggingWednesday.org).

As more Millennials join Twitter, I suspect wine marketers will be among the first to engage them with real social currency -- knowledge of and news of wine, where to find it, and connections to real wine authorities. What makes these conversations so powerful is that they can happen right in the store or restaurant. Mike McGowan, aka @WineGuyMike is creating in-store kiosks and a few months ago I blogged about Drync Wine, a cool mobile app for easy access to wine recommendations. Mintel data suggests that it will be worth the effort: adults 18-24 are more likely than average to say they 'stick with the brands they know' and more decided based on brand than on price.

Millennials' love affair with wine is part of a larger relationship wtih gourmet foods. Millennials think of food and wine as an 'art form', and eating and drinking with discrimination as another means of self-expression. Although it may seem counter intuitive, a love for gourmet actually decreases with age. 22% of young people 18-24 agree with the statement "I try to eat gourmet food whenever I can", a figure that is 20% higher than that of all U.S. adults. Their love of fine food extends to wine. Unlike French Millennials, young adults in North America are increasing their wine consumption. A Gen Y blogger who calls himself 'The VinoBandito' describes the appeal this way:

I’d like to let you in on a little secret about young people. Just around the time we reach legal drinking age we also start to have a desire for sophistication or a desire to be seen as an adult. We’ve done a lot of moving on from our teenage years and, contrary to popular belief, the majority of us are not a bunch of binge drinking, hard partying, pierced, and tattooed hooligans as we are portrayed in the press. The majority of young people today are smart, ambitious, inquisitive, and above all we’re sophisticated and discerning consumers (even if we’re not yet, we like to think so). This is where wine can compete. Make us feel sophisticated, after all this is one of the ways it is marketed to adults. Wine is a complex and beautiful drink with a great history and a great culture. This is something a lot of the Millennial Generation would love to learn about but the marketers don’t think we want to learn the story. Sure we have our idiosyncrasies and like cool stores, but most of all we want to be treated like the adults that we are.

The Office Gets Generational Work Relationships Right

At the risk of undermining my cultural credentials, I hereby admit that I was just introduced to NBC's The Office by my 15-year old son. It's witty, well-written and I love the fact that it, mercifully, has no laugh track to inform you of what's funny. Above all, I am impressed by how accurately it captures the unique perspectives of all three generations: Millennials, Gen X and Boomers.

Gen X: Pam Beasley and Jim Halpert are Gen X'ers -- and the only sane people in the office. Jim and Pam alone are able to see the humor of each situation. Both are hard working but not that ambitious. They willing to sacrifice career advantage for personal happiness (continue to work in the same office). They reject the idea that Dunder Mifflin is their 'career'.

Boomer: Michael Scott, Manager of the Scranton office of Dunder Mifflin, is thoroughly Boomer. His personal identity is deeply connected to his co-workers and his career. He is so earnest about cultural issues in the work place that he inevitably behaves inappropriately whenever there is a racial, gender or privacy issue. He embarasses his younger staff members, and they don't respect his abilities, but love him all the same for being a 'nice guy'.

Millennial: Ryan Howard embodies the Millennial point of view. He is disdainful and incredulous of Michael's seeming ineptitude. He starts as a temp, but his MBA and careful cultivation of upper management, catapaults him to the position of Regional Manager at corporate in New York. This move makes Ryan Michael Scott's boss (a Millennial fantasy if ever there was one!). Once in the job, Ryan unleashes a series of well-intended, but disruptive, technology initiatives (web site, PowerPoint training, Blackberry's. He fails to grasp the impact of his heavy-handed ways which causes opinion about Ryan to shift from tolerated to actively disliked.

The Office portrays real generational tensions. Michael thinks Jim is 'lazy'.

Michael: "I can spend all day on a project and he can do the same project in 30 minutes, so that should tell you something!"

Jim does not aspire to be like his boss, Michael.

Jim: "I think of this as my job. If rose any higher this would be my career, and then I'd have to throw myself in front of train."

Ryan's introduction of Michael to his MBA class makes it clear he thinks Michael is a loser.

In telling it like it is, The Office reveals a truth about intergenerational work relationships: the generations don't have to respect each other's abilities or understand each others' values to care for one another as human beings and pull together for the common good. We could all learn a lot from The Office.

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>

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.

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.

Career Advice for Millennials from Daniel Pink

Career Advice '08

View more presentations from garr. (tags: career advice)

Here is a great example of how to talk to Millennials. This presentation, while long, can be viewed in 5 minutes or less and speaks right to the anxieties we hear among Millennials about their career paths. Namely, the fear that there is no path. This presentation, created by Garr Reynolds, provides some solid advice in an entertaining, Millennial-friendly way. The content is based on Daniel Pink's new book, The Adventures of Johnny Bunko, the Last Career Guide You'll Ever Need, 'with some other stuff thrown in'. (FYI, the book itself is written in Manga.) Bravo.

Millennial Childhoods: The Why's of Gen Y

Millenials

View more presentations from Steve_Mellor. (tags: boomers baby)

There are a lot of presentations that do a great job of describing Gen Y. This presentation By Steve Mellor and Cathy O'Donnell of Harris Interactive is the best I've seen of at explaining why they are the way they are. Definitely worth a read, it provides cultural context for understanding Millennial values and the pressures that shaped them. (My only criticism is that Millennials should have two 'n's').

Millennials: The Education Divide

As a college professor, it's easy for me to forget that not all Millennials are college students or graduates. In December, I called attention to a recent Mintel Market Research report (Oct 2008) that notes college students are just 15% of the 71 million young adults 18-34 in the U.S. The report says 'Affluent Young Adults' make up another 19%. The remaining two thirds are what Mintel calls 'Minimalists' or 'Unpowered Young Adults'. These groups are quite different in their demographics, buying habits and general outlook on life. The large number of 'Minimalists', and their aggregate buying power, make them critically important for marketers to understand.

A new report from Tufts University ("Youth Demographics - Youth with No College Experience") provides an even more detailed picture of the education divide among Millennials. The report focuses on young adults 18-29 years old. Like Mintel, the report reminds us that non-college educated young adults represent a sizeable opportunity for marketers. The rate of college education among 18-29 year olds has increased steadily since the 1960's, yet today only 52% of all young adults have at least some post-high school education.

The Tufts report rebuts one of the the most widely shared views of this generation, it's civic-mindedness. According to the report, this trait is a function of education. Those who have no college experience are significantly less engaged on 10 different dimensions, from voting, to volunteering to membership in clubs or unions than their college educated counterparts.

In the Presidential primaries and caucuses, young people who had college experience were 18 percentage points more likely to vote than their counterparts with no college experience (25% and 7%, respectively). In the general election 70% of young people who voted had at least some college experience. Comparing non-college youth to full-time college students and people with bachelor’s degrees would produce substantially bigger gaps.

The education divide is apparent in other ways as well. Non-college young adults are more likely to be unemployed. Census data through March 2008 shows the unemployment rate for 18-29s with no college experience was 13.6%, while only 4.5% for those with some college. Interestingly, they are equally likely to be married.

What makes all this especially interesting is that another Tufts report (“Civic Engagement and the Changing Transition to Adulthood”) says it wasn't always this way. In fact, they believe that there is a generational shift that is increasing the divide between those with and without college educations. This report argues that "life has changed dramatically for people in their 20s. Marriage, childbearing, financial independence, and other aspects of the “transition to adulthood” have been transformed since the 1970s, and are now very different for people with and without college educations."

Most disturbingly, they conclude that young adults without college experience are permanently missing some aspects of civic engagement–such as group membership–that were common thirty years ago. While this has obvious implications for society and policy, it also is important context for marketers. We must keep in mind that there is great diversity among 71 million people, and generational shifts we see among the college educated, like civic-mindedness, may not hold for everyone.

Mind the Gap: Generations Online

This chart was taken from Pew's Internet's just released report, "Generations Online". It does a great job of comprehensively mapping out the differences in online usage across age groups. A graph is worth a thousand words so I won't spell out every observation here (click the chart to enlarge), but it's interesting how each generation has its own defining way of using the web. For teens it's gaming, for Gen Y it's video and social networking, for Gen X it's online shopping. Also of note, is how many activities they have in common.

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 Marketing: The beginning of backlash?

A Google search on the term 'Millennial' today returned 1,900,000 hits (this blog was number 31!). With all the hype, I suppose it's understandable that some marketers will view all the fuss as... well, hype! A poll of readers of the enewsletter, SmartBrief, shows half of all marketers agree it's all hype. That is surprising to me. While there is a bandwagon element to the recent outpouring of news on Millennials, I think there is fire under the bandwagon, hence all the smoke (how's that for metaphoria?). Here, again, are a few reason why Millennials matter to marketers:

1. Size. There are as many Millennials as Boomers and remember what a difference they made.

2. Taste. While they do like our music, they have different preferences in just about everything else. They are the trendsetters, especially in matters of entertainment and technology.

3. Politics. Millennial Makeover authors, Haig and Weingrad, got it right. Young voters were the difference and will continue to be for decades.

4. Values. Millennials are motivated differently. They want to make a difference in everything from the workplace to the environment. They just might do it.

My recommendation? Accept the hype and focus on the substance.

Millennial Entitlement: Keeping it in Context

Does this sound familiar? "Why do those in the Millennial generation seem to have such a sense of entitlement?" "Has anyone else noticed the “Paris Hilton syndrome” that is taking over our young people’s brains? The lust and desire for material possessions and fame increases, while the standards of hard work and creativity diminsh."

Gen Y:

Mike: "Older people sometimes laugh when I say I want my job to have meaning.My parents' generation... they often accept that a job is a job. (They) say my generation is spoiled -- I'm spoiled -- because I look for work that means something to me. They were satisfied with the paycheck. I have the luxury of wanting much more."

Katie:I feel like i want a lot more out of my work than what my parents generation ever thought of let alone expected. Older men laugh at the idea."

Justin:

"I often play the work/life balance card to work from my girlfriend's apartment in DC for a day so I can have a long weekend. It is critical to have the balance (between work and life) and I will demand it or find a new job."

The first comments came from the web. The Gen Y comments are from the transcripts of a series of online focus groups we conducted among young professionals last spring. The general theme was that my job isn't big enough for me, I want more from my job than just a job. Millennials feel prepared to make a difference.

Managers interpret this yearning for 'more' as over-ambition and unrealistic expections. The biggest frustration I hear when I speak with managers about their Millennial employees is an inability to meet high expectations on the job. Managers feel pressured to give young workers more responsibility, more praise, more rewards, faster than they feel comfortable. One senior brand agency exec I spoke with last week described his anguish over having to fire a talented and promising young Millennial because he was exhausted by the constant demands for more responsibility that he didn't feel the employee was ready to assume.

One generation's idea of 'spoiled' is another's idea of 'better prepared'. Here's blogger Cliff Mason's response to a review of Ron Alsop's new book, "The Trophy Kids Grow Up." Cliff blogs for CNBC at MillennialMoney.

"We all know the rap about us so-called millennials: we're spoiled, we have entitlement issues, we think we're better than everyone else, we have unrealistic expectations about entering the workforce. Apparently we were coddled too much by our parents and teachers, or at least that's what the baby boomers keep telling me.....At the end of the day the millennial generation is better educated, more adept at using technology, and much more media savvy than generation X or the baby boomers. Maybe we feel superior because we actually are?"

I may have to agree with Cliff. At the very least, it's worth giving him and his generation the benefit of the doubt. After all, it may be true!

Research Insights: Brands that Connect With Millennials

Understanding how and why brands connect with Gen Y is critical to Millennial marketing, but research on the subject can be hard to come by. Primary brand research is often closely guarded. That makes figuring out what Millennials want now and, more important, will want in the future a challenge for those without money to spend on getting out and talking to them. Here are three great, free resources on Millennial brands:

1. Outlaw Consulting Trend Reports: Outlaw specializes in researching Millennial trendsetters. They have been doing this longer than anyone I know and provide great content on their site in the form of their in-depth newsletters. These newsletters are full blown reports. Last year, they profiled the top 15 brands.

2. Businessweek recently shared their list of brands with global girl appeal ("How Brands Become Girl Approved", 9.18.08) as part of an overall survey of global brands. There were the usual suspects: Coca-Cola, Apple, Starbucks, and Google. But there are also a few surprises -- Ford, Citi, H&M, Motorola. Actually, I am not so sure about the surprises and neither are they. But what I especially liked was the slide show, the synopsis of what each brand means to girls and suggestions for what it could mean.

3. Graham Brown also has a long record of understanding youth culture, especially mobile marketing to youth. His blog, mobileyouth.org contains a wealth of data and links to slide presentation on youth culture and mobile marketing. For a sample, check out this presentation to Vodaphone on slideshare:

Mobile Youth Presentation to Vodafone by MobileYouth.org featuring trust, loyalty, net promoter score

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: mobile marketing)

I especially value the links to four slideshare presentations on the Gen Y appeal of four specific brands: Scion, Jones, EA games and Red Bull. He describes these as 'brands with uncommon sense'. Here is the Red Bull presentation.

326475 - Red Bull, "It's Not A Drink, It's a Lifestyle".

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: yagerbombs nightclub)

The Word of the Day: "It's Generational"

"There's no doubt that we represent the kind of change Senator Clinton can't deliver on. And part of it's generational," Barack Obama on Fox News November 2007.

"I think we need a transformational figure. I think we need a president who is a generational change and that's why I'm supporting Barack Obama, not out of any lack of respect or admiration for Senator John McCain." -- Colin Powell on Meet the Press Sunday.

Obama's Gen Y appeal has accelerated public awareness that Millennials are not just younger versions of their Boomer parents and Gen X siblings, but the result of a massive generational shift. Obama was named "Marketer of the Year" by Ad Age today largely because of his savvy use of his knowledge of Millennials. I agree with Winograd and Hais that Millennials are not politically motivated this year because of the appearance of Obama. They would have been involved regardless. But Obama's marketing has been pitched perfectly to this group in everything from message to medium, and that is not an accident. Team Obama did careful research, created focused brand messages and showed clear strategic understanding that Millennials matter. Here is what Winograd and Hais, authors of Millennial Makeover, had to say on their blog Oct 8:

...the political attitudes and identifications of Millennials were clearly evident long before the Obama candidacy gained widespread visibility. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in March 2007 indicated that Millennials identified as Democrats over Republicans by nearly a 2:1 ratio (52% vs. 30%). And, a study conducted at about the same time by the Millennial Strategy Program of communication research and consultation firm Frank N. Magid Associates showed that Millennials were the first generation since at least the GI Generation to contain a greater number of self-perceived liberals than conservatives. All of this at least raises the possibility that the high level of Millennial political involvement is significantly based on the Democratic and liberal affinities of the generation and would be strong even without Obama's strong candidacy....Millennials are intent on working together to create a better America than the one Boomers have left them as an inheritance. Their confidence, political activism, and unity will begin to initiate that change on Election Day this year thanks to a record turnout of young voters. The 1.7 million vote plurality given to John Kerry by young voters in 2004 will grow to between 8 and 10 million for Barack Obama when this involved and unified generation goes to the polls on November 4.