The 80s may have been the “Me Decade,” but Millennials are clearly the “Me Generation.” This group, and Generation Z behind them, has unique views on popularity, celebrity, and privacy. These perspectives are sharply illustrated in Matthew Frost’s “Aspirational,” starring Kirsten Dunst. The two-and-a-half-minute film gives a critical but honest look at how Millennials think and how brands can market to them.
The plot of the film is simple: Kirsten Dunst, as herself, waits on the street for an Uber (already placing the film firmly in 2014). Several people pass her by without a glance, but two Millennials immediately stop, take selfies with Dunst, and immediately start posting them. They barely speak to the celebrity, who stands there patiently. “Do you want to talk?” she asks her fans. “Are you curious about anything?” The young women’s response: “Can you tag me?”
Once they’re back in the car, the Generation Y’ers are much more enthusiastic. “I’ve already got 15 likes!” cries one. “We’re going to get so many random followers that we don’t even know,” predicts the other.
This encounter is fictional, but it’s very close to the truth. What does it tell us about marketing to Millennials?
The power of celebrity
Young people love celebrity content. According to SocialBakers, three of the ten most popular Facebook pages are devoted to celebrities, not brands: Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Drake. Four of the ten most-watched YouTube channels belong to celebrities. And eight of the ten most popular Twitter profiles are celebrities — nine, if you consider President Obama a star. In the same vein, the web has thousands of articles and videos on dating tips. But a video of dating tips from comedian John Mulaney was covered by Entertainment Weekly and the Huffington Post, and made it to the front page of Reddit.
What marketers can do: Use a celebrity is possible. If you can tie your brand or messaging to a movie, or a celebrity’s favorite charity, or to a product they use, you may experience a huge jump in interest from people who know the celebrity but not your brand. This is why you’ve seen articles like “What I Learned From Batman” or “3 Business Lessons from a Katy Perry Concert.” And if the celebrity responds or mentions you, get ready for an exponential leap in traffic. But please, don’t directly ask them, “Can you tag me?”
It’s all about the numbers
What was the biggest thrill for the Millennial characters? The number of likes and followers their selfies were going to garner. Popularity among friends is one thing, but internet popularity can potentially cover the globe. Millennials want their online content to generate a response from their social circle and beyond, as we see in the line “We’re going to get so many followers that we don’t even know.” Likes on Facebook, favorites on Instagram, and retweets on Twitter are easy ways for young people to compare their success to others’.
What marketers can do: Millennials want to share content that will itself get shared and liked; help them help you. When OkDork analyzed 100 million articles to find what type of content was the most popular, they found that posts with at least one photo were shared twice as much on Twitter as those that didn’t, and three times as much on Facebook — hence the Millennials’ desire for selfies. The analysis included emotions that the most popular content evoked; “Joy,” “Amusement,” and “Laughter” accounted for 46% of all online content. “Awe” provided another 25%. So, to reach Generation Y and compel them to share your content, create fun, humorous, or awe-inspiring messaging and make sure to include an image.
Make Millennials the star
The point of Aspirational is that the young women’s celebrity encounter was all about them. This generation has mostly lost interest in online privacy and now wants to be the center of attention on multiple social platforms. According to Hashtagig, the third-most popular hashtag on Instagram is #me, while the 14th is #selfie. Generation Y loves taking pictures of itself, as well as broadcasting its location on Swarm, and bragging about its achievements on Snapchat.
Also worth noting — the seventh-most popular Instagram hashtag is the starkly honest command #followme.
What marketers can do: Earlier this year, the movie Muppets Most Wanted placed a display in movie-theater lobbies that left room for a person to stand, inviting fans to “step into the vault and take a picture with the Muppets.” This is the selfie culture in practice. Why force Muppet-lovers to lean against a glass-encased poster when they could be in the poster alongside their fuzzy idols?
Brands should let Millennials be part of their marketing efforts. That could be as simple as posting a question on Twitter (like “What’s your dream travel destination?”) and asking fans to add your hashtag to their answer, or hosting a photo contest, such as for Halloween costumes or cute pets. Generation Y is likely not only to participate but also to share their creations with their social circles. Just as both characters asked, “Can you tag me?,” marketers should reward the best entries with favorites, likes, and shares.
Generation Y, Yes!
Marketing to Millennials may seem easy, since they want to consume content, want to create it, and want to share it. Yet obviously not every marketing strategy works. Brands need to produce compelling content, connected to a celebrity, that taps into Millennials’ desire for popularity. Only then will marketers see the power of this generation to spread the word and influence others.
Ready to reach out to Generation Y? Contact Brandemix to get started.
Jason Ginsburg is Director of Interactive Branding at Brandemix.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
