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.

 

Screen Shot 2016-04-15 at 10.52.13 AM

 

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.

Screen Shot 2016-04-15 at 10.48.06 AM

 

[SOURCE]

It is no secret that Live Video has transformed the world of social media with applications like Snapchat and Periscope. Even Facebook, as of recently, has been embracing Live Video capabilities and is growing out the now popular feature. After its release back in December, Facebook has expressed that its “Live Video” was going to be an integral part of the platform’s design. Now with one of the biggest pushes it can offer, Facebook is looking to make Live Video mainstream, and forge ahead as one of the most used social media interfaces on the market.

Untitled

[Source]

This week, Facebook released a huge update that aims to make its Live Video feature a part of its infrastructure, holistically. With the update, Live Video will replace the Messaging tab on the bottom portion of the digital app. The new tab will feature broadcasting from around the world, from your friends, and from pages you follow. In addition, Facebook has now allowed you to interact with a map of broadcasts (this feature is only available on the desktop interface).

Still confused on how the update might change your experience? Check out their demo video below:

So what does Facebook’s new update mean for brands? We’ve made it clear that Live Video is definitely an added technique that brands should use in their outreach initiatives (check out our blog posts on Snapchat: Link 1 & Link 2), but Facebook is now giving brands a bigger platform to reach more active users than any other social media outlet. Live Video gives brands exposure opportunities and allows for real-time interaction from a direct brand-to-consumer perspective. With this kind of interaction potential, brands can continue the trend of breaking barriers, promoting transparency with their target audiences.

Another important capability for brands to use will be the measurement tool associated directly with the Live Video feeds. Publishers and video creators will be able to see total live viewership numbers during a broadcast. This gives brands a numerical indication of how well they are doing with impressions, and allows them to see how many actual target audience members they are hitting… something that other Live Video platforms have yet been able to do. (You go, Facebook!)

While there are no paid advertisement opportunities yet available with Facebook’s Live Video, the endless options to integrate your brand into real-time conversations with consumers can open a flood gate of brand exposure. Whether or not you join the wave, Live Video is here to stay in the social media world.

[Source]

Sometimes all it takes is a whiff of freshly baked cookies, a classic jingle, or a childhood character to bring back a memory of the ease and comfort of how things “used to be” – the good old days, when life seemed much simpler. With new technological advancements coming out seemingly daily, it’s sometimes hard for consumers to keep up. Consider later generations in particular, who aren’t necessarily used to this rapid and constant progression in the tech realm.

Marketers and advertisers have observed this obstacle and found a way to introduce new products by engaging consumers through the classic feeling of comfort and nostalgia.

Oats with Alexa

Recently, Amazon’s newest product Echo, a robot named Alexa with human-like features that can play your music, give you information, and even control your environment through thermostat and light control, has teamed up with Quaker Oats. In their newest collaboration, Alexa can help Quaker consumers find and make easy recipes through a compatible app, helping them in the kitchen and adding a whole new level to the experience of making classic Quaker oats. Through this campaign, a futuristic twist has been added to the 135-year-old brand. David Shulman, CEO of Organic, Quaker’s agency partner, explained the pairing as “taking a 135-year-old brand that’s so established, so powerful and historically so important, and matching it with the very latest technology, the intersection of the old and the new.”

 

Baking with Siri

Amazon isn’t the only company pairing its technology with a classic concept. Apple’s latest advertisement for the iPhone 6s features Sesame Street’s beloved Cookie Monster. The Cookie Monster uses Siri to help bake his cookies by setting the timer and playing music – all hands free, of course. Not only is the advertisement attention-getting because of this old school, familiar character, it also gets the commercial message across, illustrating the ease of using the iPhone. (Hey, if it works for Cookie Monster, it can work for me, too!)

This idea of mixing the old and the new isn’t something that is going to go away in advertising. With more and more distractions plus the clutter of mental stimulations growing every day, it’s easy to find comfort in something of the past, something nostalgic and simple. By using that sentiment to get consumers’ attention, they are likely to listen, making for an easier transition to sales for new products and ultimately, brand loyalty. Whether it’s baking cookies or eating your favorite morning breakfast, these companies are at the forefront of inviting technology into “experiences” to give them a lifelike yet modern twist. Next time you bake cookies, invite Siri to join – as Cookie Monster shows us, it’s always easier when you have a friend.