Advertising loves Millennials. Brands have been throwing everything but the kitchen sink at Millennials and yet, they are still struggling to crack the code on how to get the attention of the largest living generation.  Advertising to Millennials is tricky, as they tend to be savvy at determining what they truly want and depend on their social networks to make product decisions rather than on the shiniest advertising.
According to Daniel Newman in an article in Forbes:
[Millennials] want all of the above, but they don’t want it from a brand, necessarily – they want it from trusted sources – and who’s more trusted than their own social communities, and their social communities. And so on, and so on.
Traditional marketing will no longer cut it. In an age where information is shared instantaneously, the millennial generation is incredibly adept at filtering out everything except what they want.
To win over Millennials, you need to win over their friends and they can still be capricious with their spending habits.
What about Gen X?
In the meantime, if you’re glossing over the GenXers, you’re missing out on a loyal consumer base who is more likely to respond. eMarketer has found that Generation X has the highest rate of brand loyalty at 70%, along with the strongest purchasing power. All the same, Adweek reports Generation X, those in their mid-30s to mid-50’s, are rarely targeted. CNBC and Wall Street analysts reviewed 18,000 samples and discovered that Generation X was mentioned only 16 times.
It sounds like advertisers may be wasting their time with their favorite generation and ignoring the generation with the best net results.
So how do we solve the age issue?
According to HotwirePR, we stop counting. The agency’s seventh annual “Communications Trends Report,” which was based on crowdsourced data from 400 communicators across 22 countries, challenges the idea that age is one of the key features that define us, noting that advertisers are realizing that in today’s market, middle-aged consumers actually may be on top of the latest trends and technology, while younger consumers might be more interested in retro. Recognizing that age no longer means brand affinity, the report states that this year brands are looking to engage consumers with age-agnostic content that emphasizes certain values. So, does age really matter? In advertising, maybe not!
In other words, “Hey, advertisers! We’re just as young as we feel!”
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