Creating A Targeted Strategy
Millennials have deep pockets and like to spend. Millennials are also still one of the hardest and most elusive market for brand marketers to engage with unless their attention is grabbed in a way they trust and where they spend time – which is through their chosen content mediums.
Millennials are major consumers of content - ranging across SVOD, television, mobile, social media, music to gaming. And that content offers one thing in common - an excellent platform to build a strategic marketing campaign to better target and advertise to millennials. In this blog, Hollywood Branded provides a look into best marketing practices to truly engage the millennial consumer.
Why Millennials?
The millennial group is the first generation to grow up in a time dominated by digital media. While those 40+ remember growing up with traditional media and transitioning to digital, most millennials probably don’t remember a time without it. Computers were part of their middle and high school experience, as were cell phones. This means that media consumption habits are starkly different between millennials and late Gen Xers - and even more drastic in comparison to Baby Boomers.
Fact #1: Millennials Are Heavy Mobile Users
Growing up in an age where information has always been at their fingertips, millennials know what they want, and they want it right now. It is no wonder that four out of five millennials own a smartphone. And of that population, nearly 20% rely solely on their mobile device for media consumption, which includes social networking, Google searching, reading email, watching videos, and beyond.
Fact #2: Millennials Are Social
Millennials spend 18 hours a day with media, and 5 of those hours on social media sites, according to Mashable. They absorb social media content above all other media types. In fact, social networking has the highest percentage of participation in the span of a day, with 71% checking their social sites at least once a day, surpassing TV, texts, emails, and all other media.
They also tend to use social media to keep up with their favorite celebrities, which provides a world of opportunity on its own - check out our blog Six Steps To Safeguard Celebrity Endorsement.
A study by Oracle found that 68% of Millennials found new products and services through social channels on a monthly (or more frequent) basis.
Fact #3: Millennials Trust Their Peers
The overwhelming time Millennials spend on social media is spent interacting with peers - sharing links, commenting, messaging, reposting content, etc. This is the reason why Millennials trust peer-generated content more than any other content generator.
In fact, according to research by Crowdtap, millennials trust user-generated content (UGC) 50% more than other media. UGC includes social posts and reviews, basically anything that is posted organically, without any sort of motivation attached, purely for the sake of offering one’s opinions. Not only is UGC content more trusted among millennials, but more memorable.
Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising reports states that millennials typically see their friends and family as the most trusted sources of recommendations, with 83 percent of respondents completely or “somewhat” trusting peers’ suggestions.
This means that the content millennials are likely to share is the content that they find entertaining, and that they organically choose to share. Marketers win when they partner with or create engaging content that encourages reshares. These partnerships increase the chances of making each viewer and social participant a credible, extremely influential (and FREE) brand ambassador.
Fact #4: Millennials Are Multitaskers
The majority of the 18 hours Millennials consume a day is comprised of browsing the Internet, with social networking at a close second. In today’s age, time categories now intermingle: While watching the season premiere of Game of Thrones, the millennial is also tweeting about it on mobile, their laptop is on with tabs open to Facebook, Pandora, and even a Google search window for class research.
What does this mean for marketers? Millennials are engaged in the content that is viewed as entertainment, and they are doing so simultaneously across multiple screens.
Fact #5: Millennials Are Not Easily Swayed
Marketers have the opportunity to win and grab attention by partnering with proven partners in order to reach their Millennial demographic. Rather than trying to create a new piece of that media consumption pie when the Millennial’s daily routines and interests are not likely to sway from the current trend of immersion, a brand marketer’s best bet is to reach them through an existing piece they are already absorbed in – such as integration into TV, Film, music or video content. Yes, we had to include this because... we know product placement works!
Most importantly, to capture Millennials, content must engage, and do so specifically catering to individual habits and interests. Entertainment marketing allows brands to be part of all relevant screens in ways that are already proven to entice millennial viewership and engagement – through the hottest TV shows, films, and other popular media.
Start Engaging!
Every generation has its own unique ways to approach with marketing - and we know that streaming video on demand is one of the most watched types of content millennials favor. Leveraging pop culture - the content, the celebrities and the influencers that are front and central to it will get your brand noticed. The creation of a strategic entertainment marketing campaign that aligns to the millennial’s content choices will result in brand trust – and sales - from this most coveted consumer group.
Check out our Product Placement and Promotions 101 guide which provides you with the basic insights you need to know to get started in the world of pop culture partnerships.
