Brands Woo Millennials With a Wink, an Emoji or Whatever It Takes
By Sydney Ember
David Perel spends at least an hour a day on his iPhone 6. He watches live sports on television and tries to catch “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS, but he rarely tunes in to prime-time shows. He does not have a Netflix subscription, but he is thinking hard about getting one.
Mr. Perel, 26, is typical of a generation that grew up on the Internet. These young adults watch less traditional television and do not have a reputation for reading print newspapers or magazines. They skip online commercials and block ads on their web browsers and phones.
No wonder marketers feel as if they are starting over.
“Everything you know about advertising — chuck it,” said Laura Desmond, chief executive of the media agency the Starcom MediaVest Group. “It’s a completely different world and game with millennials.”
For advertisers, that means fewer 30-second commercials and more emojis and apps.
Marketers have long coveted the attention of 18- to 34-year-olds, and this generation is no exception. The consumers in this age group, the thinking goes, are young and influential, and many are getting married and having children. They have discretionary income and are making big purchases like houses and cars. They are also deciding which brands they are likely to remain loyal to for the rest of their lives.
But this generation — the millennials — is also harder to reach. Millennials spend more time watching television shows on demand or streaming them on services like Netflix and Amazon. They tend to have short attention spans and bounce rapidly among smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.
Many, like Mr. Perel, have little tolerance for traditional advertising.
“The ads that don’t appeal to me are a waste of my time,” he said. “I feel like the ads on my phone aren’t that useful.”
As a result, advertisers are racing to adapt to the shifting media habits of millennials, and much of that effort is going toward developing new ways to connect with them on smartphones and tablets, said Matt Britton, chief executive of MRY, a digital marketing agency that focuses on millennials. Most important, he said, brands must find ways to promote their products without using traditional ads.
“Brands need to re-engineer how they reach millennials,” he said. “Brands need to figure out how to add value to a consumer’s life. And if they do that, consumers will seek brands out.”