1. http://blogs.forbes.com/paularmstrongtech/?p=323
TECH 4/14/2016 @ 8:17AM 2,778 views
3 Things You Need To Know Today To
Better Serve Your Millennial
Customers Tomorrow
It was a hungry crowd at Day 1 of Millennial
2020 (FD: Forbes were a sponsor) who came to
hear a diverse bunch of speakers including
Unilever, WeChat, Pepsi, Maker Studios,
Starwood Hotels, and Under Armour along with
a host of start­ups (although interestingly no
major platforms). One thing I noticed straight
away was a certain fervor that wasn’t at these
sorts of events a year ago – the need and mood
has certainly changed from the twenty or so
delegates I spoke to.
This change in mood isn’t surprising. There is
+$600 billion up for grabs every year in the US
alone as Millennials (or 18­30­year­olds) fast
become the biggest demographic on the planet.
Marketers still don’t understand how to connect
with these people as they flounder around with
the emerging technologies and emotions that
(some believe) define this generation. Yet,
whenever I hear the word ‘Millennial’ I always
think back to this video by Adam Conover about
why the marketing stereotypes around
Millennials should always be challenged.
While the usefulness of the talks ranged wildly,
three insights I was not expecting emerged:
1) Millennial meal rituals take a massive
backseat during the week
Per Charlotte Burgess, Director of Growth at C­
Space: “The way millennial young professionals
are eating during the weekday is diametrically
opposed to their habits during the weekend –
because their life goals are different. During the
week, food fits around work and health goals,
and so the focus is not around the meal itself. On
the weekend, this totally changes and the meal is
the center point of a much bigger social
Paul Armstrong Contributor
I write about media, emerging technology and social technologies.
Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

2. occasion.”
—> IMPLICATIONS FOR: Media spend,
messaging style, copywriting, events, social
content timings
2) Marketers seem to be scared of
Millennials because marketers never hear
from them
I saw this tweet from Global Managing Partner
for Social Consulting at IBM, Andrew Grill; “I
still don’t get how middle aged men on stage can
tell us what Millennials want. Surely we should
hear this from real Millennials?”. Grill
expanded; “I’ve been to a number of conferences
where actual millennials have provided their own
view, and to some audiences this has been
shocking – because it is hard for GenX to know
what Millennials really want. We learned from
Nick Blunden at the Economist from their
Millennial research that the ‘Gen­Narrator’
segments want to influence and share their own
experiences so why not hear an actual millennial
voice?”.
—> IMPLICATIONS FOR: Conference topics,
conference creators, research panels, speaking
opp prepping, media training execs, external
’face’/spokesperson selection
3) Millenials are using email and you can
train them to use it more
Shop Direct‘s Email Strategy Lead, Melissa
Woodall, spoke about training Millennials and
successful email strategies; “Using Moveable Ink
we have trained many of our Millennial
customers to use their email in a way they have
not done before including interacting with live
polls and dynamic voting mechanics. We see our
role with our customers to bring them engaging
content, they have some much choice that we
need to break through the clutter. Whether that’s
bringing their name into the email or showing a
differently lit room shot image in the email
because it’s 8pm in Liverpool (where they live)
can increase click through on a mobile device by
up to 25%.”
—> IMPLICATIONS FOR: Marketers, design
teams, email teams, social teams, media spends,
social content
Beyond these insights, Accenture was a stand­out
element for me with its refreshing ‘World of Me‘
pop­up stand. Reimaginging the in­store
shopping experience, from entrance to purchase,
the stand explored some interesting questions for
the future of retail and demonstrated a real
understanding of the coming challenges.
GoInStore was a live selling execution I had not
seen before, imagine being on a website or bus
but having a livestream into the shop with a real

3. This article is available online at: http://blogs.forbes.com/paularmstrongtech/?p=323
2016 Forbes.com LLC™ All Rights Reserved
person helping. Based on Facebook’s F8
announcements yesterday this is an area I see
expanding quickly. Other honorable mentions
included: Iconeme (shoppable window displays),
Wonderluk (personalized 3D printed jewelry),
FACE by Holition (virtual reality makeup trials),
Boomf (personalised food) and Hoxton Analytics
(footfall and customer demographics analysed
from people’s shoes).
Another hat tip goes to Unilever for sponsoring
an impressive startup collection that featured
several candidates that will be vying for your
budgets. Standout candidates included:
StreetLike (Building in­store reward
experiences), Burst Insights (short­form video
intelligence), Inkpact (personalized hand­written
communication at scale) and Captive­Media
(demonstrated a unique advertising mechanic via
a game at urinals) amongst others.
EDIT: Edited quote from Charlotte Burgess to
clarify point.
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paularmstrong.net.
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