360DigitalInfluence

I am in Los Angeles today and had the opportunity to participate in The Millennials Conference, an event focused on marketing to the new generation of Millennials (those born between 1980 and 2000) put on by Digital Media Wire. The event has a large gathering of folks from startups and large brands, including presenters from YouTube, MySpace, Disney, Sony, and MTV to name just a few. The event generated many new thoughts, but among the most interesting were those conclusions that some of the presenters shared about how the Millennial generation differs from older generations. Many were related to the growing role of multiculturalism in this generation’s view of the world and media they consume. It comes down to mindset for many of them, and here are a few interesting observations from the event:

• Millennials describe themselves as “non-white” - Mike Vorhaus shared an interesting stat about how a recent survey noted that 40% of all Millennials describe themselves as non-white. Young people today are more likely than ever to associate with a range of cultures and heritages and unlikely to define themselves narrowly. They have grown up in a world of interracial relationships and often see themselves as a product of this world.
• Interest matters more than ethnicity - Whereas much of marketing has been focused on separating audiences into neat demographic groups based on race or ethnicity, Kevin Walker of Culture Lab shared the interesting perspective that Millennials today are more likely to be aligned by interest rather than ethnicity. This clearly has big implications for anyone planning a multicultural marketing campaign and hoping to gain a better understanding of the audiences they are likely to reach with their efforts and how to craft a smart strategy. It is an effect we are already starting to consider in any of our own multicultural marketing efforts targeted at the Millennial generation.
• Friendship is no longer tied to locations - With the rise of social networks, it’s clear that Millennials have friends from many different cities and parts of the world. In the process, they are redefining the idea of a “friend” to include those acquantainces that are listed as friends on their MySpace pages, and those that they actively communicate with. Close friendships are no longer dictated by geography and as a result cross-country and international friendships and conversations are flourishing online.
• Music discovery and experimentation rules - Jay Frank of Yahoo Music shared the interesting anecdote of youth five years ago and how many of them would have answered that they like every type of music, except country. Today, Millennials are listening to every type of music and there are no exceptions. International music, ethnic music, mashups, and independent labels are all finding new popularity as Millennials discover new music and share it with friends around the world.

I believe it will continue to be challenging for brands to keep up with this generation, but it was clear from the event that Millennials are not marketing-averse, as some might be tempted to conclude. The rules of the road are just different when it comes to engaging them in a way that they will respond to.