Tag Archive for: brand storytelling

The average millennial’s attention span is… oh look, a text message! Thanks to technology and their addictive multi-tasking behavior, millennials’ attention span is about eight seconds, which is just one second less than that of your pet goldfish. Needless to say, it’s going to take a lot more than a catchy song and a flashy ad to connect with these consumers.

 

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If you are a marketer who is reading this right now—don’t fret.   Here are some inspiring tips and tactics from the pros to help you rock this target audience.

  • Millennials prefer quality over quantity

 

Due to their constant intake of knowledge and information, this generation is full of skeptics and cynics. They trust their ‘squad fam’ and respectable social media stars more than any prominent brand or company.

 

What does this mean for us as marketers? It means you should spend more money on higher-quality experiences that connect with fewer but more effective influencers.   These experiences will, in turn, create bigger opportunities for online influencer strategies. It’s kind of like the domino effect—start small by connecting with a few, and before you know it you’ll be influencing many.

 

  • Create unique brand experiences by fusing physical sensations with creative technology

 

Think 360-degree videos at events and virtual reality at home. These innovations help consumers become immersed in brands and their marketing strategies. They make the overall experience memorable and impactful by allowing individuals to interact with the brand before, during, and after the main event.

 

  • Keepin’ it real

 

Millennials are stubborn; chances are if you aggressively try to sell something to them, they ain’t buying it. As a marketer, it’s important that you complement, rather than try to change their lifestyles and habits. Let them experience your brand personality firsthand. Hey, if you’re really killin’ it they might even give you a shout out on one of their 9,652,567,234,820 social media handles.

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With a constantly growing fan base, Instagram has continued to find new and exciting ways to keep up with its ever-developing consumer. Looking ahead, companies must recognize the importance of having a strong presence on “the gram” so they can utilize its newest features to the best of their abilities.

Insta-artsy

A recent trend in many companies’ Instagram profiles is the so-called visual strategy of “insta-tiling.” Profiles feature photos in a mosaic-style grid that, together, make one larger image. Each individual piece of the puzzle usually has different bits of information, providing more detail than a single post would. Posting nine images instead of just one also provokes viewers to further explore what the brand’s profile has to offer. [Source] What do you think about this strategy’s effectiveness? Are you more prone to click-through when you have nine photos to choose from?

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Jumping on the Advertising Bandwagon

On Tuesday, the company announced it would make yet another monumental change to its mobile app. Instagram now has plans to open up users’ news feeds to all types of advertisers. From the global fashion brand to the corner boutique in the user’s area, users will be able to see it all by this fall.

Closing the Deal

In addition to the wider variety of advertisers, Instagram will also be testing a new “shop-now” button. This e-commerce link will allow users to move directly from the image to a page where they can purchase the featured item. Companies like Banana Republic have already taken advantage of this new update. [Source]

One can only hope that with the addition of more advertisements, users’ feeds will not become cluttered with “Click Here for Free Coupons” as so many Facebook news feeds have now become. In an interview with the NY Times, Instagram’s global head of business and brand development ensured fans, “Visual storytelling for brands has more resonance… But we want to make sure the ads [you] see are for things that matter to [you].” We agree, sir. We’d like for our Instagram content to matter to us, too.