Targeting Millennials

transcript

Reinvention in the Age of the Millennial

Keith Kaplan, IBM Social Brand Marketing Product and Operations Lead @KrazyKaplan14 October 27, 2015

Agenda

Why are we talking about Millennials?

The Millennial mindset

How can you take action?

SNL Skit: The Millenials

Putting the Millennial generation into context

Greatest Generation

Silent Generation

Baby Boomers

Generation X Millennials Generation

Pre -1933 1933 -1945 1946 - 1964 1965 -1979 1980 - 1995 1996 - Present

Source: The Millennial Generation Rules

"We thought that an upbeat name would be good because of the changing way they were being raised. They would be the first to graduate high school in the year 2000, so the name millennial instantly came to mind." -Neil Howe & William Strauss

Source: NPR

Why is it important to talk about Millennials?

§  Approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers retire everyday1

§  By 2020, Millennials will be approximately 50% of the U.S. workforce2

§  By 2025, up to 75% of the global workforce will be Millennials3

§  The oldest Millennial has been in the workforce approximately 10 years

5 Source: 1The Washington Post, 2Maximizing Millenials in the Workplace, 3Reinvention in the Age of the Millennial

Millennials are the new decision makers

IBM study: Millennials in the workplace

§  Goal – Explore the preferences and behavior patterns of

Millenials with those of Gen X and Baby Boomers.

§  Findings – The fundamental distinction between Millennials

and older employees is their digital proficiency, but Millennials share many of the same attitudes as older employees

§  Link to study: –  http://ibm.biz/millennialmyths

Myth 1

Myth 2

Myth 3

Myth 5

Myth 4

It’s not the age group that’s important, it’s the mindset that has evolved in this generation

Millennial Mindset Trends

§  2.5x more likely to be an early adopter of technology than older generations1

§  75% of Millennials own smartphones (more than any other generation)2

§  83% of Millennials sleep with their smartphones, compared with 50% of Baby Boomers2

§  87% of consumers use more than one device at a time when watching TV3

§  92% of Millennials in the U.S. use smartphones as their primary mobile TV device4

11 Source: 1Social@Ogilvy 2comScore 3Accenture 4Adobe

This is the “now” generation

Source: Torque

More comfortable sharing information

Source: Torque

Example: creative ways to share

Quote of the day shareable to Instagram

15 Source: comScore

Social media activity is fragmented

Stay on top of new platforms and technologies

Example: grubHub on Snapchat

§  Week-long scavenger hunt where each day they gave 10 fans $50 of grub

§  Each morning they would post a challenge and fans would have to snap them back

Source: grubHub 17

Millennials trust peers more than they do brands

Great design and experience is expected

Example: convenient user experience Apple Uber

Airbnb

21 Source: SocialTimes

The future of content marketing is online video

Example: engaging video content

BuzzFeed Food creates 15 second how videos

GoPro capitalizes on user generated video content

Don’t be “salesy”

Example: brand expression vs. selling

This Not this

Don’t focus on follower numbers, focus on engagement

Example: engagement on social media

Charmin Starbucks

Example: engagement on social media (cont)

Give your audience what they like

Example: give your audience access

YouTube Spaces

Example: give your audience access (cont)

Content creation checklist

ü Is your content mobile first?

ü Is your content intuitive?

ü Does your content add value?

ü Is the content appropriate for the channel?

ü Is your content authentic?

ü Is your content optimized for the channel?

ü Is your content innovative and original?

ü Does your content factor in data?

Take away

§  What’s good for Millennials is good for everyone

§  If you’re not thinking about mobile first, then you’re already behind

§  The brands that are doing well, understand their audience

Questions

Thank you

§  Keith Kaplan

§  IBM Social Brand Marketing Product and Operations Lead

§  kaplan.keith@gmail.com

§  Twitter: @KrazyKaplan14