Our knowledge base of marketing to Millennials developed on college campuses along the east coast. There’s no other market segment more digitally savvy, and we learned quickly that they could sniff out an ad better than any demographic.

Marketing directed to young people has to be organically inspired and devoid of pitch flaws. The more effective campaigns has to be generated by young people and bridge both digital and traditional media. Millennials have to take part in driving the themes and messages associated with your campaign.

A LinkedIn post, I read last week, with a passage that read something to the effect of, our brand is no longer what we tell the market it is, but what user-comments say it is…(something like that), can’t be any truer than for Millennials.

I remember launching a Spring Break Giveaway campaign that had a point system that rewarded college students with up to $5,000 on how may likes, shares, emails to friends, comments and text forwards they could generate before leaving for Spring Break.

The promotion ultimately generated a great deal of excitement around my client’s brand. The outcome of the campaign had tangible outcomes; the campus newspaper came to interview my client after getting wind of the campaign and sales were impacted as well.

Your marketing appeal, in most situations, should never try to control or run counter to the prevailing conversation. Our marketing campaign was packaged in the overwhelming discussions about the spring break conversation that was already being echoed around campus.

The overarching message communicated wasn’t about my client’s business being great per say, it was more about, hey you can win some cash and these guys are okay for running this thing. That little okay established a level of trust that was necessary in establishing a business relationship with students.

Success or failure of a sale hinges on trust and this is not exclusive to any demographic. Millennials trust information about brands from other Millennials according to a Social Chorus survey, ‘Millennials as Brand Advocates:

 

So getting Millennials involved in the discussion about your brand is critical. The days of just putting your brand out there without some level of micro-social involvement are long gone. Brand advocates have the means and digital channels to significantly influence getting information about your product or service out there.

Our take on user-generated content and reviews are they’re absolutely necessary with Millennials, because they can catapult a brand overnight. Negative comments are inevitable and young people are articulate enough to understand isolated events.

When you move your brand from the shadows behind the curtain, embrace the potential for some scrutiny and tackle it head-on, the better equipped your Marketing Campaign will be for the 21^st century marketplace.

Vern Nicholson has pioneered comprehensive Digital Marketing Campaigns that utilizes SEO, Social Media Engagement, Content and Advertising. He continues to demonstrate an enormous capacity to execute and maintain advertising campaigns to drive audience engagement and increase revenue opportunities for the world’s leading brands.

For more information please visit Online eBusiness Solutions at: www.OeBS.us or email me at: Vern@OeBS.us.

Graphics Courtesy of Soc!al Chorus