Marketing to Millennials - Downtown Partners

Marketing to Millennials

A FEBRUARY 2015 REPORT BY FEATURING DOWNTOWN PARTNERS

Successful Marketing to Millennials Mintel Praises Campaign by Downtown Partners in Recent Report. Downtown Partners was honored to be featured in a recent Mintel report entitled “Marketing to Millennials.” In its February 2015 report, Mintel, the world’s leading market intelligence agency, discussed four highly effective campaigns aimed at Millennials. The brands? Coke, Taco Bell, HBO, and Get Covered Illinois’s “Luck Plan” created by Downtown Partners. Read the excerpt in the following pages. And let’s talk Millennials when you have time.

PAGE 2

Marketing and the Millennial Mindset

Millennials have been actively targeted throughout their lives and can sniff out marketing from a mile away. They came of age in a time when practices around marketing to children were increasingly being called into question; a debate that became even more heated with the introduction of the World Wide Web. Millennials are wary of marketing and its ulterior motives. Some 67% say that advertising manipulates people into buying things they do not need, and 52% are overwhelmed by the number of ads they see each day. This raises the question: Why (and how) should brands market to a group so averse to advertising? Apart from the fact that Millennials have a lifetime of buying ahead of them, and that estimates put their annual buying power in the range of $200 billion, Millennials accept marketing as a fact of life. The key to marketing to Millennials: understanding what they expect from advertising and how their reactions differs from previous generations.

EXCERPT FROM FEBRUARY 2015

Millennials are savvy content consumers. Advances in technology mean that brands are rarely guaranteed a captive audience; streaming and time-shifting allow Millennials to circumvent TV ads, and smartphones provide a compelling distraction from the world around them. Millennials are keenly aware of how to leverage their attention (and the attention of their social network should they choose to share). They expect marketing to be engaging, meaningful, and targeted. Gone are the days when brands simply needed to laud a product’s attributes. Modern marketing requires brands to tell stories, create share-worthy content, and foster an experience around a product/service. Millennials expect transparency. Companies should not attempt to pull the wool over their eyes. Not only are these efforts likely to fail, but deceptive practices made public can damage Millennials’ relationship with the brand, sometimes irreversibly. Many Millennials were outraged in March 2014 when they discovered that the viral “First Kiss” video was an ad for a clothing company called Wren.

© Mintel Group Limited. All rights reserved. Republished by Downtown Partners with express permission.

REPORT

Millennials desire relationships and authenticity. Though Millennials never forget that ads are trying to sell them something, they are willing to set cynicism aside when companies are sincere. Companies cannot market to Millennials by checking off some Millennial checklist, and they can’t haphazardly push out cause-related initiatives that do not fit with their brand ethos. Brands that resonate with Millennials are often those that incorporate values into their corporate identity, and then walk the talk. This means companies may need to take a polarizing stance. For example, in January 2015, Chipotle pulled pork from its menu because a major supplier violated the chain’s policies on the humane treatment of animals. If Millennials don’t like you, they will ignore you. Instead of passively waiting for content, advertisements, or news to be delivered to them, Millennials actively choose what they view and when and how they view it. If a company doesn’t create engaging ads and participate in two-way conversations, then Millennials will unsubscribe.

PAGE 3

Campaign case study: Luck Health Plan Get Covered Illinois uses sarcasm to gain Millennials’ attention In November 2014, Get Covered Illinois, the official Illinois health place market, launched a campaign aimed at uninsured Millennials. The campaign poked fun at young adults’ tendency to feel invincible by promoting the “Luck Health Plan,” a health plan that depends on luck rather than actual coverage. The tonguein-cheek videos tout the benefits of not having insurance (No paperwork! No co-pays! No monthly premiums!) and show too-chipper Millennials with ramshackle treatments for their injuries, such as cardboard casts and bubble wrap neck braces. The videos end with phrases such as “Luck is not a plan,” and “You’ll be okay. Probably.”

GET COVERED ILLINOIS, “LUCK HEALTH PLAN: YOU’LL BE OKAY. PROBABLY,” NOVEMBER 2014 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=c3RluUsZEOk SOURCE: YOUTUBE – LUCK PLAN CHANNEL

GET COVERED ILLINOIS, “LUCK HEALTH PLAN: MEET JOEL,” ONLINE VIDEO, DECEMBER 2014 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=ll7nGmzZFVQ SOURCE: YOUTUBE – LUCK PLAN CHANNEL


PAGE 4

Campaign case study: Luck Health Plan Get Covered Illinois does an excellent job of capturing the attention of its target audience through sardonic humor – eight in 10 Millennials say they are more likely to remember an ad if it is funny. Though it does refer to Millennial stereotypes, such as reading blogs, wearing “fake” glasses, and having an affinity for the nostalgic, it does so wittingly and with a touch of sarcasm. Even those who don’t see themselves in these stereotypes will recognize them. Furthermore, companies that poke fun at Millennial stereotypes communicate to Millennials that they understand them and see them as dynamic individuals instead of a static group.

In addition to the TV commercials, Get Covered Illinois hosted a “Get Lucky” casino night in Chicago (the ticket sales were donated) and pushed out content through a Twitter page and microsite. It also partnered with satirical sister sites The Onion and Clickhole to offer “health hacks.” In one video, a fictional vlogger named A.J. Mack recommends that those who are uninsured find doctors on dating websites.

GET COVERED ILLINOIS CASINO NIGHT HOSTED BY THE ONION PHOTO COURTESY OF ONION LABS

The videos also do a nice job of driving home their message in a way that is memorable. At home and in the media, Millennials are often told to “grow up,” so they do not appreciate companies that nag them. The campaign speaks to them as a peer, allowing them to make their own decisions.

SOURCE: TWITTER – @LUCKPLAN


PAGE 5

Campaign case study: Luck Health Plan Since its launch, the campaign has been well-received and lauded for its delightful irreverence. As of January 2015, the commercials had been viewed nearly 460K times on YouTube. The campaign also includes print, radio, and billboard outreach.

SOURCE: DOWNTOWN PARTNERS


PAGE 6

To learn more about marketing to Millennials, please contact [email protected]