I’m a millennial and I don’t understand marketing’s millennial obsession
John Dawson believes brands should remove their myopia when it comes to millennials.
If you’re in media, advertising or communications, it can often seem as though there is no one alive over the age of 35. No one.
The only people that are still alive on Earth are 18–35 year olds… it’s their [our?] planet now… they are the millennials (that name has such an iRobot feel about it, as though they can only see through a snapchat lens and talk with bots while living in a VR world).
As some context, I recently spent two weeks in New York for the NewFronts where the biggest digital publishers in the world present their annual strategy to advertisers in the hope of luring their media spend. What became clear very quickly was the all-encompassing emphasis on millennials. It was a race to see how quickly and how often a company could mention the word and ‘own the demographic.’
The way that everyone talks about these ‘millennials’ is as though they are some sort of new species that have been bred to bring about the death of the economic system, not through revolution like previous generations but through ad avoidance.
What an excellent article, simple, insightful, and data driven.
Great piece, good use of data, thank you.
I wonder if this fear/paranoia/focus on milennials stems from the ‘big collapses’ in recent years of big brands who ‘never saw it coming’ – Nokia, Kodak etc. No exec wants to be at the helm of that kind of business, so there is an almost unhealthy focus on millennials to understand what they want. You know what they want? – A good life, a decent job and things that make them happy. Sound familiar? Yep that’s right – just like every other demographic group out there.
Invariably millennials are seen as this all knowing, all powerful group that through the power of social media will ruin your brand in minutes, shun you for eternity and then your business is dead. You know what’s equally dangerous that no one talks about? The tens of billions of conversations that happen each year from Boomers, Gen X’s and other age groups too. Handy hint to businesses – don’t bullshit an audience (ANY audience) and you’ll do fine as a brand.
Well said John Dawson. Sadly this demographic data should come as not surprise, but it does. Longer living older Australians are increasing as a proportion of the population. Most have many active years ahead as they transition from full time work to part time to retirement. They buy financial services, food, cars, FMCGs, travel, technology and entertainment. Their net worth is the highest, by demographic. But they are rarely marketed to. Instead they are patronised or ignored. We know that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Well one day this market segment is likely rise up and smack the advertisers who ignored them. Can’t wait to see how this plays out.
It’s pretty simple and the same reason brands have been chasing the young for decades, regardless of size of demography, or the particular moniker.
1) Spending \ Brand habits have not crystallised and they are an easier to influence target
2) They consume more media \ advertising, in particular that which is easy to target, so they are easier to reach
3) High disposable income as a proportion of total income
4) If you recruit them to a brand young, you hold on to the ‘tail’ of their consumption for life.
Example – Coca-Cola only ever targets the young demographic. You don’t see Coke marketed to the over 50s, even though it’s a huge chunk of the population. They recruit you young, then they’ve got you for life.
Same reason BMW \ Mercedes \ Audi have pushed super-hard into the small car segment with an affordable offering – they can get you as a consumer for life.
Best case study I can think of (although not targeted at Millennials, specifically), is the CBA Dollarmite account initiative. Recruited into banking young through a school-savings targeted program, I have no doubt trying to achieve stickiness to that particular financial institution was the sole reason.
This article took me back to one of my university courses in buyer behaviour, and you’ve just summed up the point my lecturer was making – that almost all our brand loyalty was locked in by age 35.
I’m not sure that I agree entirely with this premise in the current marketing climate, but it’s a glaring omission from an otherwise fantastic piece.
Yes indeed.
People over 50 — “the most valuable generation in the history of marketing” (Nielsen)
http://adcontrarian.blogspot.c.....young.html
Agree with above. It makes a nice companion to Gill Walker’s recent piece on the grey market.
https://mumbrella.com.au/why-the-grey-market-has-become-so-appealing-gill-walker-366271
I’d say it comes down to a funnel effect. It’s easier to stimulate interest from an older skew with younger skew imagery but ‘catch-all’ marketing comms with older people would tend to turn young people off. This is a generalisation that’s highly dependent upon product category of course, but once you’re on the older skew radar, you can customise subsequent comms to their specific demo as they deepen their inquiry (particularly online and with canny real-person sales people).
The ‘millennials’ I know hate that label.
Good article John. Hang around in this business long enough, and you’ll see that at some point in the next decade, millennials will be ‘last-gen’, and we’ll all be talking about reaching the ‘teeny-boppers’ or something.
Advertisers, especially in FMCG, have always preferred the 18-34 demo. Their brand preferences are more fluid, they set trends and they’ve got a lot of years of buying cars and soft drinks ahead of them.
And of course you’ve got to bullshit them! Earth-destroying SUVs and teeth-destroying sugar water don’t sell themselves, you know.
Shock horror. Baby boomers have highest disposable income of any age group.
Wish I’d said that, John Dawson.
I’ve never heard such utter common sense from a ‘media’ guy.
Clear, concise and well argued. Thank you for cutting through the hype and pointing out that the only people obsessing over millennials are the media.
I’m off to spend some of the hard-earned cash I’ve accumulated from working hard my whole life. I guess I’ll spend it with brands that still want me as a customer…..