The Millennials is the trillion-dollar market that most brands are dying to attract. However, marketing to Millennials is tricky and is something that every marketer struggles with.
Here we give you five secrets to what Millennials want that would help with your viral marketing campaign.
1. Valuable Unique Experiences
No longer is having the latest products attractive to many Millennials. According to a study conducted by PWC, 52% of Millennials would rather spend experience-related purchases.
Millennials want a product not solely for the tangible product itself, they crave the intangibles and the experience that comes with it. Oreo nailed it on the head with their Oreo Colourfilled campaign in 2015 during the holiday season. They allowed fans to fully customize their Oreo packaging online, add a holiday greeting and have them delivered straight to the doorstep.
2. Instant Gratification- Keep it short, simple, to the point.
88% of millennials say that they get their news from Facebook (American Press Institute). With so much content online, your content has to be delivered fast, if not, your brand will be scrolled away with just a swipe of a finger.
Whether it is a video, a picture or a Facebook post, it has to be short and to the point. It has to catch the attention of the millenniums instantly because to them, there is so much more content to look at.
Strongbow’s use of visual content and a short humorous caption effectively captures the spirit of the brand in a glance.
3. Relatable Content- Talk the same topics/language
The internet is saturated with so much news and your business has to know what the Millennials care about. This can be topics related to school life, relationships with peer, social issues or a health. By injecting current topics millennials are talking about into your marketing ideas will garner more attention.
Jolly Shandy shares visual content on common situations and problems young people face in their everyday life, effectively engaging their audience who share the same sentiments.
Source: Jolly Shandy Facebook
Millennials will only engage with the content if they can relate to it. So, whether it is the element of surprise or shock or a touch of humour, triggering some sort of emotion will then make the message (and your brand) stick.
4. Authentic brand-customer relationships
Millennials hate the hard selling. Why should they buy your product when there are so many of the same thing everywhere else? What makes the difference is the brand-customer relationship.
64% of Millennials feel an immense urge to make a difference in the world they live in (Intelligence Group). There is an increasing emphasis on supporting companies who are socially responsible and care for their consumers.
Always, a feminine care product brand seeks to empower females worldwide by educating young girls. Their #likeagirl video was a social experiment that showed the drop in self-confidence of young women after going through puberty. This sparked off a chain of social media buzz with many young women posting pictures of them breaking the status quo and gender stereotypes, further reinforcing the message of female empowerment.
Source: spotmegirl.com
Building trust with your consumers and showing them you care for them too differentiates your brand from the rest. Yet, remember that Millennials grew up with technology and research everything before buying. If a brand is unauthentic and doing public stunts just for the sake of it, they can tell.
As computer becomes much smarter now, there is artificial intelligence company in Hong Kong leveraging chatbots to interact with customers and build personalized customer experience. It is also a great way to build better relationship with the target customers.
5. Likes and Shares- Content has to be easily spread, use social influencers
Finally, as with all marketing, content has to be easily shared. Millennials want to share their life and want their voices to be heard. Viral content is spread by word of mouth and through social media, thus it is vital that your brand is mobile compatible and uses suitable distribution mediums.
The ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) caught on really quickly. Big names such as Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift all joined in. Not only was it easy to upload a quick video onto any social platform, tagging friends to do the same quickly spread the word worldwide.
Source: nydailynews.com
Remember to choose the suitable channel for your marketing campaign to increase engagement with your targeted audience:
Snapchat (16-24 Yrs old)
Instagram(16-34 Yrs old)
Facebook (25-34 Yrs old)
WeChat (18-34 Yrs old)
To recap, this is the Millennial Viral Matrix
Valuable unique experiences
Instant gratification
Relatable content
Authentic brand customer relationships
Likes & Shares
With these features in your marketing campaign, go forth and go viral.
