I’m sure you’ve heard from your children, children’s friends, or anybody that is younger than you, some kind of trendy phrase or acronym that makes no sense at all. I’m talking about the Lmfao’s, the Smh’s, the Lol’s, and even the Rotflmao’s (don’t be embarrassed if you have to look those up). If you don’t know what these mean, you are in the majority, but it won’t be the majority for long. The Millennial generation as consumers is becoming more and more real. If you aren’t equipped to change the way you handle your marketing lingo and channels, you are in for a rough ride.
Compared to generations in the past, Millennials are the most non-traditional we’ve ever seen. They don’t respond to advertisements that display traditional values dealing with things like family and community like generations of the past did. Instead, we’ve seen companies thrive simply by doing things like adding the words “on fleek” to their Facebook or Twitter posts (might have to look that one up as well). Here are a couple examples:
“Taco Bell on fleek.” – Taco Bell
“The one and only #WCW (WrapCrushWednesday)” – Jersey Mike’s Subs
“This Sale (Party!) Just Got Turnt Up” – American Eagle
You know what these three examples have in common, besides sounding completely ridiculous? They’re short and sweet. Long and well thought out messages are a thing of the past, leaving nothing but a slew of short and trendy phrases in it’s place. Teenagers are on the internet more than ever which makes it much more important to put out a greater amount of well thought out content, or else you’ll be left in the dust. It is also crucial to have websites that are mobile-friendly when marketing towards Millennials. A study done by the International Business Times found that one in five Millennials no longer use a desktop computer to access the internet, and instead, rely exclusively on smartphones and tablets. In addition to that, a study done by comScore found that Americans, in general, spend 60% of their digital media time using their smart phones and tablets, surpassing that of desktops and laptops. We recommend that if you don’t have a mobile-friendly site, then it is time to make it mobile-friendly because this is one trend that is here to stay.
While you may not agree with these methods, just look at the success of these advertisements. All of them market towards the Millennial generation and if you do too, than it’s time to hop on the trendy, Turn Up boat straight to On Fleekville!
Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/1-5-millennials-access-internet-exclusively-through-mobile-devices-1880194