Why Mobile is the Best Way to Reach Millennials

Millennials have never known a world without the internet, they grew up alongside it. Millennials have matured and advanced at the same pace as technology, becoming the most tech-savvy generation, seamlessly integrating technology into every aspect of their lives.

The Connected Generation

Born between the years of 1980 and 2000, millennials are the most connected humans of all time. A massive 60% of millennials are connected online even when they are away from home. They are the generation that want to interact and not just simply react – they want to share, they want to comment and they want to participate. Not only are millennials highly connected, there are a lot of them, and they bring with them enormous purchasing power. In the US alone, millenials make up 25% of the population and have an estimated trillion dollars in direct spending power (Futurecast, 2011).

A large, constantly connected, affluent demographic seems like any marketers dream. Despite being highly connected and willing to engage, millennials are discerning and will not engage with just any Tom, Dick or Harry’s content. Millennials don’t like to be presented with average, conventional marketing. The don’t tend to watch as much TV as their younger and older counterparts and they don’t hold the greatest opinions on standard commercial branding. But what we do know from recent research, is that millennials have the highest smartphone penetration rate. Making mobile the key channel for marketing to this demographic.

Addicted to Mobile?

The millennial generation, also known as ‘Generation Y’, spend 14.5 hours each week on their smartphones to talk, text and access social media, according to a survey by  Experian Marketing Services. A study by Zogby Analytics (September, 2014) has shown that 90% of millennials say that their smartphones never leave their side with a further 80% saying that the first thing they do in the morning is reach for their smartphone. With so many millennials relying heavily on their mobile devices, they are more likely to be frequently active on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. With them being active on social media, there is a massive opportunity for a brand’s content to be shared and engaged with.

Turning to Video

Through spending so much time on their mobile devices, millennials must be engaging in content other than social media. Research has found that millennials are the heaviest viewers of mobile video content (Business Insider, 2014). From watching music videos to TV shows and short-form content, you name it, millennials are watching it. Unlike many other generations, millennials tend not to watch their content on the TV. They view TV commercials as an old-fashioned method of advertising, with only 3.1% considering TV advertising ‘modern’ (Business Insider, 2014). Research from IPG Media has shown that millennials watch a higher percentage of video content through their mobile or tablet device – with video apps being a popular means for watching such content. They are also frequent watchers of content on their handheld devices, with 50% of those who watch online videos watching content at least once a day!

With the millennial generation dedicating a lot of their time to their smartphones to connect with friends via social media networks and to watch video content, adopting a marketing strategy that involves video content via the mobile may be the method in which marketers can effectively and successfully reach millennials.

Mobile + Video + Personality = Engaged Millennials?

So what does this mean for brands when creating content? Video is the new text for the millennial age. Websites that are rich with engaging video content are a lot more attractive to millennials than a website that is inundated with boring text. Forrester (June, 2008) has stated that a 1 minute long video clip has the same effect of 1.8 million words! As mentioned above, Generation Y share and interact with a lot of content they see on mobile. For a brand’s content to be taken notice of, it would need to be engaging and have some personality, for example, be funny or tell a story. Millennials don’t like the idea of video content to be a sales pitch, they want something that can be shared amongst their friends.

60% of millennials think that mobile will overtake all other processes in the next 5 years and many people from this generation are likely to disengage with businesses that do not use mobile as their main marketing strategy, says a survey from Zogby Analytics (September, 2014). Nearly half of millennials access businesses from their smartphone at least once a day and 58% have tried to enroll for a businesses service (Zogby Analytics, September 2014). It is a no-brainer what brands need to do. Mobile is clearly playing a huge part in the lives of millennials. As long as a business’s marketing strategy features heavily around using the mobile, uses video to grasp attention and is engaging, emotive and worthy of sharing on social media, they may be slowly on their way to capturing the minds and hearts of the most hard-to-please generation there is.

Did you enjoy this blog and gain some good tips? Then let us know by getting in contact via Twitter, Facebook or Google+ Why not take a read of some of our other blogs on how mobile is key for your business such as ‘Why a Mobile Optimised Website is Key for Your Business’. For information on how we can help your business visit Adspruce.