Millennial Resources: Gen Y Bloggers

I am not a Millennial. But I know a lot of Millennials. Here are my favorite Millennial authored blogs. Each has a marketing slant that makes it well worth putting in your NetVibes folder or Technorati favorites:

David Fallarme,

www.themarketingstudent.com Sample post: Gen Y will be the Helicopter parents from hell

"Gen Z: don’t even think about lying to your Gen Y parents, we’ll have documented evidence. Of pretty much everything you do."

Sarah Ewing, www.adage.com/gennext

Sample post: Political Advertising Should Be Held to Higher Standards

"Using the same logic that regulates the rest of the advertising industry, why should these campaigns not be regulated?"

Michael Girts, www.adage.com/gennext

Sample post: View from the Inside: Part I

I like to tell people that they gave me a corner office. It's my clever way of saying I sit in the corner. At the end of the hallway. In a makeshift cubicle. Using an in-store display featuring the Incredible Hulk. That's right, it's just me and the Hulk crammed at the end of the hallway. It's okay.

anastasia, www.ypulse.com Sample Post: 11 take home points from what teens want

"Teens today grew up taking their Keds off at the airport in case of shoe bombs. They had leashes, Baby on Board signs and eat all organic. I call this Teacup Parenting. Marketers need to be aware of how delicate and fragile these teens are. They feel like everything is a big deal and they worry a lot. This is why trust, brand building and authenticity are crucial."

Mindcomet, GenYVooDoo Sample post: Are Execs on point with Millennial Marketing?

"Unsolicited text messages I find a nuisance, but I suppose if I signed up to receive some sort of offer through text message it would be less bothersome."

Jeff Taylor, MillennialMarketer.com

Sample post: Microsoft vs. Apple: Competing for Gen Y's Digital Lifestyle

"I am writing to give you an inside look on how marketing and advertising efforts targeted at Gen-Y are seen by us."

Millennial Market: SlideShare Resources

Hola! Today I am in McAllen, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley to share a presentation on Millennials with the AAF Club. It's hot, and the food is great. I also have a better sense of what a market with an average age of 28 looks like. The slides were uploaded to SlideShare (link below). If you also want the text of the speech, contact me and I will send it to you. Meanwhile, I have I've included links to two other Millennial-focused presentations you may want to check out. Warning: They are very heavy on social media. Tomorrow: Blog resources. Adios!

Clued In Or Clueless: A Marketing Professor Talks About Millennials

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: millennials millennial)

Next Generation Participation

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: collaboration brand)

Marketing To Millennials

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: demographics statistics)

Millennial Marketing: Commonalities More Important Than Differences

Segmentation has its limits as a marketing tool. As marketers we are trained to look to focus on the differences, but unless the differences are meaningful, overreliance on segmentation can lead to a lot of wasted effort. It may not be as sexy, but searching for the universal, common ground can lead to even more profound insights, and more impactful and efficient marketing.

The power of the universal is the point of a new book, Metaphoria, from Gerry Zaltman and Lindsay Zaltman. They maintain that focusing on surface level differences and "ignoring alikeness as an important driver of thought and behavior leads to depth deficits in strategic thinking." (p. 8). In other words, we are 'deeply alike' and strategies built on commonalities are more powerful than those built on differences.

I believe this insight is especially true of Millennial marketing. As a generation, Millennals cherish their individuality, but are secure enough in who they are that they have no problem identifying strongly with a larger group, ethic or brand, especially if that group, ethic or brand shares their values; they like being part of something bigger than themselves. I can easily see this generation becoming more attached to their colleges as alumni and to other causes and institutions they support than previous generations.

Millennials share a set of common values that has enabled a few brands to deeply connect with a broad range of young consumers: Google, Apple, Heroes, and Teach for America come immediately to mind. These connections are based more on similarities among Millennials than differences. Those similarities can be traced to common upbringing that stressed team work, embracing of diversity (which is quite different from tolerance), respect for institutions, and the importance of 'making a difference' (i.e., or as Google famously said, 'do no evil'). Millennials also share a faith in technology as tool for connection and productivity. Perhaps most significantly, it shares a deep belief in its own capacity for bringing about positive change. This belief is what underlies their strong will to be 'heard'. With Obama perhaps now less than a month from what is looking like a Millennial-inspired victory, we may be hearing more from and about Millennial universals in the near future.

Role Reversal? Marketing to Millennials Through Their Parents

Every marketer knows parents' purchase decisions in everything from breakfast cereal to cell phones are often strongly influenced by their children. Wise marketers have leveraged this by marketing directly to their kids, even though they are not the ultimate decision-maker. With close relationships between hovering parents and young adults increasingly the norm, the opposite strategy may start to make sense: influence young adults' decisions through their parents.

Colleges have long known the importance of parents to the application and decision process. Now HR managers are also directly addressing parental concerns after noticing parents were helping their adult children negotiate pay and benefits, angle for promotions and evaluate job offers. According to BNet, Office Depot is planning to include a reassuring message to parents on its web site; Merrill started sponsoring a Parents’ Day in 2006. The company flies parents and caretakers of diversity students to Manhattan, teaches them about the business, provides a tour of the Big Apple, and emphasizes company support and benefits, such as free meals and transportation for employees working overtime. The program has been so successful they are considering expanding it. Last year only one student whose parents attended the event didn’t accept the firm’s subsequent job offer.

Millennials are just beginning to make their first significant adult purchases -- automobiles and appliances, student loans, health and life insurance, a home, financial investments, and automobiles. As they make these decisions for the first time, they will turn to their parents for advice. Smart marketers will anticipate the influence parents are likely to have in these decisions. After all, 50% of 18-24 year old men and 33% of women still live at home, and many continue to receive financial support from their parents. Increasingly, consumer decisions may look more like corporate 'buying center' decisions, with multiple influencers and lack of clarity around who is the true decision-maker.

The Gen Y Digital Divide: Natives vs. Immigrants

Millennials are different in ways large and small -- in upbringing, values, beverage and leisure preferences, work habits, social attitudes and more. But perhaps the difference that is most important for marketers is information savvy. Millennials prefer to think of themselves as the Internet Generation. Gen Y members could operate a mouse before they could read. They absorb each new innovation with lightening speed, speeding the innovation cycle to dizzying levels. They don't value information per se, because information is free. Instead, they value the ability to organize, create and share information. They don't search, they expect relevant information to come to them. Ultimately, technology may be the underlying driver of all the other differences. The Journal of Brand Management, in an insightful 2008 editorial eloquently described this generational divide:

"The under thirties 'are more savvy, more materialistic, more media-saturated and more impatient than any generation that's preceded them. Gen Y-- the so-called options generation -- wants the freedom to exercise choice. ... But the picture is more complicated than this: it isn't simply that the young are savvy and the old aren't. Indeed, many in the older generation are savvy and technologically sophisticated. Moreover, older consumers are striving to be younger....Perhaps the real difference between the generations is Gen Y and Gen M take digital, interactive technologies for granted -- they are cyberspace natives -- whereas older generations are like immigrants who have at differing rates and with differing abilities, had to learn about this brave new world. Superimposed on these generational differences are variations in gender socio-economic status, access to technology, educational attainment and ability -- the components that go to create, on the one hand, digital communities, and, on the other hand, digital divides."

Despite all my attempts to stay technologically current (hey, I use Twitter!), I was reminded of my 'immigrant' status yesterday in a conversation with Millennial, Connor McCue of Generation Think Tank in Boulder, CO. Connor had urged me to add an RSS feed to this blog, which I did and thanked him for suggesting. I went on to brag that I had also added bookmarking capability, but rather than being impressed, he asked me a few questions about my own use of technology that made it clear to me that I am still speaking pidgen Internet, relative to Gen Y, regardless of how fluent I may appear to others my age.

Here is the point: even the least technologically sophisticated Millennial is probably well beyond the skill level of the most sophisticated 50 year old. When building brand relationships, it is now critical to use access to and comfort with technology as a segmentation dimension, in addition to the usual behavioral and attitudinal factors. The technological factors may be more important to engaging with brands than demographics. This complicates the marketing challenge, but will lead to more nuanced marketing.

Media That Moves Millennials

Millennials are famous for ignoring advertising, so it is no small matter to find data on what moves them to action. BIGresearch (July 2008) data show 18-24 year olds self-report that magazines and TV are effective in getting them to initiate an online search (see chart). 60% say this is true of magazines and 55% say TV can stimulate them to search online, the highest figures for any medium including online. We noted in a past post that Millennials index high for the original 'mobile media' (magazines and radio) and certain TV channels (MTV, Adult Swim) (see 9/9 post). Likewise, we reported that they rely on TV for election news (see 9/22 post).

All of this data suggests it would be unwise to overlook traditional media when attempting to reach Millennials and drive them to act. But before we get carried away --or you suspect that I am actually working for the Magazine Publishers of America -- it should also be noted that the same pattern holds for most other age cohorts. The biggest takeaway is the old notion that it's all about the mix -- put your GRP's in multiple media baskets.

Media research has consistently shown that multiple platform advertising not only increases reach, it also improves the likelihood that a target will act on the message. Last summer, Integrated Media Measurement (IMMI) reported a study of 3000 panel members who recorded all ads (TV, radio, in-cinema, Internet, TIVO Showcase) they had seen for new Fall TV shows, then tracked what shows they actually watched (conversion). The study confirmed the more different ways a target encounters the message, the more likely they are to act. Of the six shows that ran significant TV and radio campaigns prior to the season premiere, a siginfcantly higher number of panelists who saw ads in multiple media watched the promoted show than those who only were only exposed to one media type.

In each case studied, the data showed that exposure on television-only drives less of the target behavior than exposure on another platform in addition to television. Because the result is consistent across the board, the report concludes that there is value in constructing multiple platform campaigns that goes beyond simply maximizing reach.

While this research was not Millennial focused, I have no doubt it holds true for Millennials, who are media savvy and heavy media consumers. Bottom line? Diversification works!

How Red Bull Leverages Social Media

While there are many contenders, Red Bull may be the ultimate Millennial brand. As Millennials became increasingly sleep deprived, energy drinks thrived. In 2007, 34% of all 12-24 year olds say they 'regularly drink energy drinks' (Mintel, July 2008). The reason given most often for drinking is 'for energy' and 'to stay awake', far out-pacing the number who say they mix it with alcohol.The energy drink category has more than quadrupled to $5 Billion in 2008 (est), up from $1 Billion in 2003. There can be no doubt that it is immensely profitable, at $2.27/16 oz vs. $.53 for sports drinks and $.36 for soft drinks.

Energy drinks are a Millennial-driven phenomenon, and with a 42% share, Red Bull is the driver. 61% of 18-24 year old energy drink users drink Red Bull, outpacing Monster Energy by a factor of 2:1.

Since its beginnings, Red Bull has shown that it 'gets' Millennials and especially their desire for a dialog with the brands they consume. This blurring of the social with channels of brand marketing is what NYT columnist,Rob Walker , dubbed 'murketing' in his great book, "Buying In: The Secret Dialog between What We Buy and Who We Are". He maintains that modern branding involves complicity between consumer and consumed, an embracing of commerical culture, not commercials. Red Bull was among the first to recognize and leverage "murketing", with its extreme sports competitions in extreme locations. Red Bull is also a great example of why Millennial-targeted brands should forgo making claims in favor of building affinity. Who knows or cares what guanine is, anyway? Certainly not my students.

Red Bull's Facebook group shows how effectively they have leveraged murketing online. The group boasts 282,286 fans. There is free music, a contest to find the next great hip hop artist, a webisode series, photos from events, profiles of Red Bull athletes, links to other great 'procrastination' sites, and many more ways to connect with Red Bull web sites. Perhaps the most unique feature is Red Bull's sharing of drunken phone messages they have received. Here is one of the top rated (yes, you can rate and share them): "Hi, I really like Red Bull a lot. Right now I'm pooping. In my parents bathroom. And I really like Red Bull a lot." Try that Monster Energy. While much of the same content can be found on Red Bull's web site, it doesn't have the same energy as when presented in social media. Count me in as a fan.