The next two 2 important questions are:
. What are the best platforms to distribute our content?
. Who are the people in our audience?
The Millennials
This TV Series is especially designed to reach out to millennials and their needs. More particularly the so called Milestones Millennials - young adults in their late 20s to mid-30s who are currently reaching major milestones in their lives — landing jobs, starting families and buying homes.
Millennials don't like advertising. Marketers today face a huge obstacle when trying to reach young consumers: 84% of Millennials don't like traditional advertising, nor do they trust it, according to a recent study. To solve this problem, brands need to engage their customers on a social level and put them at the heart of their marketing strategy.
Social media has changed the way brands engage with their consumers. Consumers today want a different relationship with many brands than what they are getting, explained Sean Foster (CMO of marketing platform Crowdtap), because social media has changed and continues to change everything. To adapt to these changes, Foster noted that brands must move from a "closed system" to an "open system" where consumers become architects of a brand.
A proprietary study by Accenture estimated that collectively, 83 million Millennials in the U.S. now spend $600 billion annually. In five years, however, when the youngest of these Millennials also begin reaching their life milestones, spending by Millennials is projected to reach an unprecedented $1.4 trillion (Donnelly & Scaff, 2013) and over US$30 trillion over their lifetimes as consumers, in the U.S. alone.
A large percentage of this spending will likely be on bit-ticket items as this generation begins to fulfill their needs as new parents and homeowners. If retailers and brands want to ride the crest of this unparalleled spending wave, they need to have a digital presence that speaks to these “digital natives.”
Although Millennials research products extensively online before making a purchase, 97% of them will buy from local retailers. But, unlike their Baby-Boomer, parents who expect to get most of their information about a product from their local retailer, Milestone Millennials come into a store already well-informed about the products they ultimately buy. They “hone their shopping skills on the Internet, checking product ratings and reviews or feedback on retailers…to confirm that both product and vendor provide the best value and service, respectively” (Donnelly & Scaff, 2013, p.3). When shopping for products for their new homes and families, Milestone Millennials expect a consistent and informative path to purchase from online to a brick-and mortar store.
But it is not just their use of technology that is causing major shifts in how they respond to marketing. Millennials are more likely than any generation before them to apply their values to the market. They want brands and businesses to not only provide the affordable high quality products they need for their families, but they also expect them to support causes that have a positive social impact. More than half of Milestone Millennials are willing to spend more on products from socially responsible companies (Nielsen, 2014).
Here’s something you may not know: Millennials are more optimistic and entrepreneurial than Gen Xers. And the good news is that they can absolutely be marketed to — provided that they’re getting something of value in return that doesn’t feel like an interruption. The key is making them feel they’ve been entertained or enlightened by your brand.
Millennials also have a high propensity to enjoy branded content, so long as it doesn’t strike them as an ad. According to Nielsen, 61% find educational content and information from the financial-services sector relevant, compared to 53% of Gen Xers.
So what we advocate to all the brands we work with is to initiate a dialogue - with your younger target consumers with engaging content that nurtures their trust and affinity through social networks. If it sounds simple, you are half right. The formula is straightforward, but content creation and distribution are both like muscles; you’ll need to truly invest if you want to make them strong.