Millennials, a diverse group born after 1981, make up 25% of the U.S. population and are characterized by their shift in values towards access over ownership and a digital-first approach to media consumption. This generation prioritizes health, social responsibility, and seeks authentic brand interactions, often engaging through social media and video content. Brands looking to connect with millennials must focus on delivering meaningful, visually appealing, and flexible experiences that resonate with their values.

2. The group on every brand’s mind.

3. What do we know so far?

4. What is Their Background?
Born after 1981,Millennials are a big piece of the pie
– 77 million strong, larger than their Boomer
parents.
They make up nearly 25%of the U.S. population.
Millennials
Boomers
Top Markets by Concentration

5. What is Their Background?
Millennial Heritage
Millennials Generation X Baby Boomers
% of Population Index % of Population Index % of Population Index
White 57% 83 62% 89 74% 107
Black/AfricanAmerican 13% 119 11% 104 11% 102
Asian/Other 9% 150 7% 122 5% 82
Hispanic 21% 149 20% 139 10% 72
Millennials are more likely than any other generation to have diverse ethnic and racial
backgrounds; 43% of Millennials identify as a race or ethnicity other than white as
compared with 38% of Generation X and 26% of Baby Boomers.

6. Who Are They?

7. Type of Millennials Most Likely to be Found Typical Jobs Average Salary
The Boomerang Baby In Parent’s Basement • Part-time server
• Office temp
$0-10/hr
The Perpetual Intern Juggling coffees while running
to the office at 7am
• PR Intern
• Researcher
$0-16/hr
The Grad Student Grading a stack of uninspired
essays
• Teaching Assistant $3,200/year
The Idealist Pledging money to the latest
kick-starters campaign
• Power Blogger
• AmeriCorps Member
$12,000-49,000/year
The Young Householder Searching Interest for new
home decor
• Graphic Designer
• Photographer
$29,000-50,000/year
The High-Tech
Multitasker
Sleeping in a tent outside Apple
for the latest iMust-Have
• Social Media Strategist
• Mobile App Developer
$45,000-100,000/year
The Startup Kid Selling her third business to
Google
• Tech Company CEO $250,000+
7 Types of Millennials

8. Millennials in Segments
29%
Hip-Ennial
“I can make the world a
better place”
Demographics
• Female dominated
• Below average
employment (students
and homemakers)
Consumer Profile
• Cautious consumer
• Charitable
Characteristics
• Globally aware
• Information hungry
Social Media/Tech
• Greatest user
• Doesn’t push content
Millennial Mom
“I love to work out, travel
and pamper my baby ”
Demographics
• Female, older
• Highest income
Consumer Profile
• High social
• Information hungry
Characteristics
• Family-oriented
• Confident
• Can feel isolated from
others because of routine
Social Media/Tech
• Digital savvy
• High online intensity
Anti-Millennial
“I’m too busy taking care of
my business to worry about
much else ”
Demographics
• Slightly more female
• More likely to be Hispanic
• Live in Western U.S.
Consumer Profile
• Doesn’t spend more for
Green Products
• Seeks comfort and familiarity
over excitement, change,
interruption
Characteristics
• Conservative
• Locally-minded
Gadget Guru
“It’s a great day to be me”
Demographics
• Male, single
• Above average income
Social Media/Tech
• Wired
• Greatest device ownership
• Pushes social content
Characteristics
• Successful
• Free-spirited, confident
• At ease
• Feels this is his best decade
Clean & Green
“I take care of myself
and the world around me”
Demographics
• Male
• More Hispanic
• Full-time student
Social Media/Tech
• Greatest contributor of
social content
Characteristics
• Impressionable
• Healthy
• Positive
Consumer Profile
• Cause-driven
• Green
Old School
“Connecting on FB
is too impersonal.
Let’s meet up for coffee
instead ”
Demographics
• Older
• More Hispanic
Social Media/Tech
• Not weird
• Spend least time online
Characteristics
• Charitable
• Confident
• Independent
• Self-directed
Consumer Profile
• Cautious-consumer
22% 16% 13% 10% 10%

9. • Pragmatic
• Idealistic
• Inclusive
• Consensus Driven
• Risk Averse
• Optimistic
• Technology Failure
Millennial Generation Behavior
• Media options
• Shared attention
• Consensus
• Customization
Increasing
Decreasing • Gender gap
• Network TV
• Living on their own
• Risk taking

10. Millennials are not changing their lifestyles to fit parenthood; they are changing
parenthood to fit their lifestyle.
Millennials’ defining traits don’t disappear when they become parents. They aren’t giving
up smartphones or shunning adventure. They are still using technology, but now they
are using technology to simplify parenthood’s challenges.
Millennials have been delaying previously significant life stages such as marriage and
procreation, but that does not mean they will never seal the deal.
They Are Parents

11. Technology affects how Millennial Parents socialize, communicate and, more importantly, purchase
items for themselves and their families.
To reach the influential Millennial Parent means engaging with relevant dialogue that she can access
with any electronic device, so your product or brand will capture her attention and purchase power
while she is sitting in the cafe.
Meanwhile, new parenthood opens up a range of priorities, raising the potential for brand movement
in a variety of categories from food and beverage and cleaning products to financial services, fashion
and consumer electronics.
Messaging to parents is no longer messaging to the homemaker.
Millennials aren’t just parents. They are role models.
They Are Role Models

12. What do they Value?

13. Health:Millennials want to engage medical professionals in a different kind of relationship (online, video,
time scheduling etc.).
Millennials Engage and Interact with Verticals
Retail:Millennial shoppers are looking for a different kind of retail experience. The key is the offline,
analog, retail experience.
Auto:Millennials are owning fewer cars but are still interested in the car as the primary form of automotive
travel.
Finance: Millennials are turning to alternative payment providers like Paypal, Venmo, Credit Clubs or
Mutual Societies.
Travel:From Couchsurfing to Airbnb, Millennials are bringing new business models to the market. No
longer is travel a solitary pursuit but a shared experience between friends.

14. They Pursue Wellness
Exercising more, eating healthier, and smoking less.
Millennials are now turning to their mobile apps to track their progress and discover
health-conscious foods around them. This is one market in which they are eager to
spend.
For Millennials, being healthy does not just refer to not being sick. It is a long term
commitment to exercising and eating properly.

15. It’s not just homes. Millennials have been
reluctant to buy goods such as cars, music,
and luxury items. Instead, they are turning to a
new set of services that provide access to
products without the attachment of ownership.
Thus, an emergence of what is being referred
to as a “sharing economy.”
Originally conceived as a way to fix market
inefficiencies between supply and demand, the
sharing economy became a $15 billion market.
Millennials Value Access, Not Ownership

16. Fashion tech
Luxury brands have been looking to enter the wearable market in a variety of ways.
Successful products have been able to incorporate fashion into the design of the product.
Department store chain Barneys New York recently highlighted its forward-looking approach
with the release of the Opening Ceremony and Intel wearable smart bracelet online and in
select storefronts.
What to wear
The current wearable market is dominated by passive wearable electronics that are
designed to collect data and send it to a different device such as a smartphone or
computer. The passive wearable cannot be used without the additional device. Autonomous
wearable, on the other hand, can be used on their own without the aid of an additional
device (ex: Google Glass and Apple Watch).
Millennials Emanate Fashion

17. Affluent Millennials and Luxury Brands
Affluent Millennials are digital shoppers, with 59% of well-funded young adults likely
to participate in online ratings and review sites compared to 47% for non-affluent
Millennials. Over one-third of affluent Millennials regularly post on brand and product
sites compared to 26% non-affluent.
Affluent Millennials, those 6.2 million or so Americans making an annual household
income of $100,000 or more, will become the dominant group in the luxury
consumer market between 2018 and 2020.

18. Millennials Rethink Luxury: H.E.N.R.Y’s
A growing sub-set is not only finally tackling their student debt and moving out on their own, but have disposable
income and a propensity to spend on luxury items, services and experiences. This group even has an acronym: H.
E.N.R.Y’s, as in “High Earners, Not Rich Yet.”
The key here is functional luxury. H.E.N.R.Y’s have significant, sustained cash flow without true, accumulated
wealth yet. They seek to use and experience luxury without needing to own luxury.

19. How Do They Connect?

20. How Millennials Get News
Much concern has come from data that suggest Millennials do not visit news sites, read print
newspapers, watch television news, or seek out news in great numbers. This generation,
instead, spends more time on social networks, often on mobile devices. The worry is that
Millennials’ awareness of the world, as a result, is narrow, their discovery of events is incidental
and passive and that news is just one of many random elements in a social feed.
85% Say keeping up with the news is at least somewhat
important to them
86% Usually see diverse opinions through social media
69% Get news daily
45% Regularly follow five or more “hard copy” topics
40% Pay for at least one news-specific service, app, or
digital subscription

21. Millennials have an entirely new perspective on ownership.
They’re not seeing the benefit of owning lots of “stuff.”
Whether it is music, friends, or transportation, the things that
matter most to Millennials are no longer limited in terms of time
or place.
Living life in the cloud extends their “safe space” beyond the
confines of their home, giving them the freedom to explore with
minimal risk. In familiar CPG categories, this means they’re
willing to forego product loyalty in favor of continued
experimentation.
Millennial's Life on the Cloud

22. Identity: Things about them (Who, What, Where, Why, When, How They Are)
They watch and share Identity videos because it allows us to better understand ourselves and those around
them. Thus, making it easier to tell those around them who we are. They care about feeling joy as well. This is
the root of human connection.
Creating Content for Others
Information/Utility: Things about their life
Videos are centered around things that are typically external. Informational and utility videos are often
transactional in nature, where information is exchanged from one party to another. They watch and share
informational/utility content because it has value in the form of better understanding the physical world around
them, along with educating them and the people in their lives.
Emotional Gift: Things That affect how they feel
Videos have to do with things that evoke emotional responses. This content is both internal and external as it
typically factors to affect us internally. They watch and share Emotional Gift content because when they feel an
emotion, like joy, they want the people.

23. Example: Millennials Snap to Chat
On Snapchat, one of the most popular apps among Millennials, vertical videos have
become the norm.
Snapchat is about 7% the size of Facebook. With closer to 200M users and 2 billion
videos shared daily, Snapchat’s content closely follows Facebook’s 1.4 billion video
shares with 1 billion shared daily.
Snapchat’s popularity shows that Millennials create contents for their identity and
emotion and utility.
The mobile and first-person nature of Snapchat has proved appealing for live events. Up
to eight times as many Millennials in the US opt to view Snapchat’s live stories rather
than TV for similar events.
Millennials prefer watching videos on the go that are tall and narrow instead of short and
wide. Millennials embrace and adapt.

24. What Does This Mean To Marketers?

25. How Can You Reach Them? In a Word, Online
They don’t mind sharing their online space with brands
• 66% follow brands on social media, but only 41% of those said they enjoy interacting with the brands
• 38% said brands are more trustworthy and accessible when they use social, rather than traditional advertising
• 60% follow brands to hear about coupons
While they are most often online, they expect brands to be channel agnostic
• 60% said the consumer experience should be consistent across online, store, and mobile
• 58% would rather have full control over how they engage with brands
How often are they online?
• 82 million Millennials consume online content monthly in the U.S. alone.
• By 2020, Millennials will total more than $1.4 trillion in spending power.
Why do they connect with brands?
• 31% of Millennials are more likely to buy if the brand delivers interesting content that teaches them
something.
• 70% say their main reason for sharing content is because it makes them laugh.
• 83% connect with brands on different social media platforms.

26. Millennials need to know they’re “winning” at shopping. They seek validation for their
decisions through instant and immediate rewards, which make even the most routine
choices fun and surprising.
Sometimes it’s less about the win and more about getting to the next level or scoring the
next point. Little wins at the store shelf are the perfect way for brands to help shoppers
jump to the next level and ultimately reward Millennials for making it as an adult.
What’s More: Millennials As Consumers

27. Ways that Millennials Want to Engage with Brands
It is a great opportunity for brands to focus on rewards that are relevant and meaningful to the
audience they target.
• 44.8% would favor earning points for visiting a Web site or watching a video
• 59.5% of Millennials are willing to earn loyalty points in exchange for engaging with brands.
• Some 67.9% of Millennials said they don’t earn points for engaging with a brand through such means
as tweeting, posting comments or reviews, opening and clicking emails, or checking-in.
• Millennials are 18.6% more likely than baby boomers to want to earn points for engaging in a loyalty
program.
• 43.3% said they would like to earn points for opening and reading emails from a brand.

28. Leverage Millennials on Their Turf
Share bite-sized information that will resonate with this demographic
Millennials tend to have limited attention spans and do not want to spend more time than necessary on
any given task. Therefore, if a message is too long and complicated to comprehend, this audience will
most likely ignore it.
Encourage them to share their stories
In order for a brand to create an effective conversation with fans and followers, it needs to prompt them
to join the chatter and share their stories on a given topic.
Respond to Millennials in real-time — and every time — to create a one-on-one conversation and
experience. Everyone wants to feel as though their questions and comments are being heard,
especially Millennials.

29. Millennial Consumers and Video
Millennials watch more video content than any previous generation. They love movies, TV shows, and
short-form video. And while this sounds like great news for advertisers, the trouble is, millennials aren't
watching video content on their living room TVs anymore.
Compared to Baby Boomers, millennials
are 150% more likely to comparison shop
with video while in-store and 146% more
likely to watch a video on a company’s
website while shopping online.
Millennials are 264% more likely to share
videos about a product, service or
company while shopping online than Baby
Boomers.

30. The Millennial Parent & Brands
The millennial parent engages with brands differently then their peers.
1. Millennial parents are people, too. They aren’t all
about diapers and baby products.
2. Millennials put more importance on being a good
parent than on a successful marriage. They are
questioning whether marriage has anything to do
with children.
3. Messaging to the mom is no longer messaging
to the homemaker. Millennials aren’t just parents.
4. Millennials are growing up and bringing with
them old-fashioned pragmatism.
5. They expect fairness among genders, races,
ages and other demographic categories.
6. They expect fairness with brand messages;
specifically, authenticity and transparency.
7. Millennial parents will instill an unprecedented
sense of individual tolerance and social
responsibility in their children.
8. Millennial parents will support brands that
reflect their values and that think beyond profits.
9. They will require brands to solve problems.
10. They will expand the idea of the “participation
economy.”

31. Case Study: 3 Strategies for Marketing to
Millennials Moms
1. Inspire her
This generation believes it can change the world and in many ways it already has.
TOMS has created the neplus ultra of big, inspirational business ideas. TOMS is a brand beloved by
Millennials because it speaks to one of their core values: making a difference in the world.
2. Think visually
Good design has become an expectation for Millennials. They are drawn to sharing pictures of the
things they find attractive.
The Apple effect or Target effect tells us that design can no longer be separated from Marketing
strategy.
3. Build Age “Elasticity”
Millennials women are the burgeoning epicenter of brand influence.
Home Depot may not be the first place that springs to mind when you say, “children,” and yet an
astonishing 300,000kids participate in the company’s Kids Workshops every month, alongside a
parent or caregiver who presumably will not leave the store empty handed.

32. Target Millennials & Luxury
• Integrate multiscreen, mobile-enabled marketing approaches to reach HENRYs at all stages of
their journey – from dreaming, browsing, planning, shopping and even while traveling
• Create campaigns built on moments and experiences that speak to the aspirational themes of
the HENRY demographic and are easy to share across their digital worlds
• Focus not on your brand name – which carries comparatively little weight with this generation –
but on your story of quality, craftsmanship, authenticity and citizenship
• Put the audience at the center of the campaign and give them control of the experience, such
as through interactive videos
• Make the most of visual ways to engage, with social media mechanisms such as Twitter’s
“Flock-to-Unlock” where specific content or promotions are only revealed once brand followers
cross certain “share” thresholds

33. • Today, 89% of adult Americans would rather consider switching brands
to one associated with a good cause, if price and quality were equal. In
1990, before Millennials, only 66% would do the same.
• 75% of Y&R’s spend shifters, mostly Millennials, make a point of buying
from brands who “share their values.”
Align to Millennial Values or Lose Your Market

34. In the End…

35. Millennials need constant engagement.
Once you have honed in on your brand identity and the type of content your digital solution provides,
making sure that your content is consistently and continuously engaging & providing value is the way
to engage Millennials. Dynamic storytelling continues the conversation as your brand identity evolves
and grows.
Fresh content is the key component in driving Millennial traffic to your brand, day in and day out.
Fresh Content is Key

36. • Millennials are misunderstood, in large part, because they aren’t approaching adulthood the same
way that previous generations have. Millennials grew up in an expanding world of choice and
options for just about everything they ever needed or wanted. Because of this, they view life very
differently. They don’t see just see one path available to them—they see limitless possibilities to
make their life their own.
• Capitalize on Growth: Millennials are the largest generation in US history. As they reach their peak
working and spending years, their influence on the economy is going to be huge. NOT
understanding them, NOT finding ways to be relevant or engaging to them, NOT adapting to their
new expectations— it’s the easiest way for a brand to fail.
• Make it Easier for Consumers to Take Action: They’re the first generation of digital natives, and
their attachment to technology helps shape how they consume. Understand their realistic lifestyles
and experiences and find ways to amplify their reality. Make sure they feel informed and involved,
not just marketed to.
Key Takeaways