When in Rome... (Marketing to Millennials)
Recently, The White House made a play to raise awareness of Obamacare to uninsured 20-somethings. It was a March Madness-themed "bracket" that used a series of popular GIFs touting the benefits of the ACA in addition to a promo video featuring two legendary college basketball coaches.
It really excited me... until it angered me.
It excited me because it was fun to see a slow-moving organization like The White House come to the realization that you actually have to speak the slang of the audience you're trying to reach. They used internet culture to talk the talk while playing on March Madness in order to be timely. That second part was especially good since the deadline to sign up is the end of March.
What made me angry was that for all the good examples like this one, the majority of marketing people who read this on LinkedIn will then go on and try and tell their stories in places where their users aren't. The number of brands that are still trying to reach 20-somethings through print, radio, and TV continues to shock me. Anybody who looks at the media consumption habits (read: attention) of this demographic will see clear indications that they're spending more and more time in front of digital screens be it phones, tablets, or (decreasingly) laptops.
Understanding how to speak to this audience in their language is one thing, but if you're not on their platforms, the message won't even reach them. This is the ultimate battleground. In the example above, The White House succeeded. If The White House can do it, why can't you?
If you're aiming for this audience, you should be trying:
To read this article in its entirety, click here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk is an expert on entrepreneurship, social media, emerging technologies and the new frontiers of customer services made possible by the Internet. In March 2011, he released his follow-up to Crush It, in collaboration with HarperStudio, titled The Thank You Economy.
It really excited me... until it angered me.
It excited me because it was fun to see a slow-moving organization like The White House come to the realization that you actually have to speak the slang of the audience you're trying to reach. They used internet culture to talk the talk while playing on March Madness in order to be timely. That second part was especially good since the deadline to sign up is the end of March.
What made me angry was that for all the good examples like this one, the majority of marketing people who read this on LinkedIn will then go on and try and tell their stories in places where their users aren't. The number of brands that are still trying to reach 20-somethings through print, radio, and TV continues to shock me. Anybody who looks at the media consumption habits (read: attention) of this demographic will see clear indications that they're spending more and more time in front of digital screens be it phones, tablets, or (decreasingly) laptops.
Understanding how to speak to this audience in their language is one thing, but if you're not on their platforms, the message won't even reach them. This is the ultimate battleground. In the example above, The White House succeeded. If The White House can do it, why can't you?
If you're aiming for this audience, you should be trying:
- Advertising on mobile games - Free games are very often ad-supported and can drive huge impression numbers. Flappy Bird wasn't pulling in $50k/day for nothing. Ad impressions drove that.
- Advertising on Reddit is a solid choice for certain niches. Just be sure that you know how to speak that language, because if you don't they'll kick you out of that room in a second.
- A Preroll on Youtube is going to be cheaper and more effective than a commercial on Bravo.
- Finally, if you think any millennials are still listening to the radio A. You're super wrong, and B. Let me suggest you look at Pandora's advertising platform.
To read this article in its entirety, click here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
New York Times bestselling author Gary Vaynerchuk is an expert on entrepreneurship, social media, emerging technologies and the new frontiers of customer services made possible by the Internet. In March 2011, he released his follow-up to Crush It, in collaboration with HarperStudio, titled The Thank You Economy.