Mirror, Mirror On The Wall, Ad People To Millennials Total Enthrall

Michael Hedges December 12, 2016 Follow on Twitter

Nobody in the advertising business, at least, is altogether prepared to let go of the notion that buying and media habits established before adulthood are, well, set for life. Many advertising people fear – really fear – that Millennials are rejecting advertising and always will. There’s no fear like the fear of rejection. Ad people want to be loved.

Advertising people and the product and service brands they serve have long been excited about the arrival of a new target market – the Millennials or Generation Y or digital natives – after the rather unremarkable buying performance of Generation X. When the spending power of Millennials surpasses that of Baby Boomers sometime this decade the ad people would be set for rich rewards. And, best of all, researchers told the ad people that Millennials “really aren’t all that different,” said Ad Week (April 4, 2014), in the ways they choose stuff they buy. Ad people were relieved; nothing (much) would change and new money would roll in.

Then came the bad news. “Millennials really do hate advertising,” said a Harris Poll of US consumers for social content manager Lithium Technologies, quoted by the San Francisco Chronicle (May 5, 2016). “They hate advertising,” said Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) marketing professor Gemma Segura, quoted by uoc.edu (April 18, 2016). “They see it as one more element of the establishment. But they love brands.”

With smartphones as security blankets they are more than simply irritated by ads, unwanted messages soil their digital universe. One survey after another lodges the same message: Millennials view online and mobile ads as intrusive. The hyper-connected, inundated by advertising since birth, are ad-blockers. Somewhere between a quarter to two-thirds use an ad blocking software solution.

Native advertising, the polite offspring of product placement, is touted as a cure for the ad-blocking culture. If they don’t know it’s an ad, they can’t block it; so goes the thinking. Branded content, advertus obscura, is the next great hope.

Digital advertising isn’t everything, but nearly. Magna’s forecast for 2017 puts the digital share of global ad spending at 40%, TV just 36%, reported Ad Age (December 5). Media buyer GroupM, part of WPP, says TV will still lead, unchanged at 41% of global ad spending against digital ads rising to 33%. Magna projects the digital share of worldwide ad spending to reach 50% by 2021.

Millennials like TV, anecdotes abound of their preference for gathering at home – often the family abode – and tuning into shows and films rather than going out. Their smartphones, naturally, are blazing away on social media with each cogitation. Ad people love this; TV plus social media equals brand engagement, possibly, and then pay day.

“Heavy video consumption comes from binge watching,” said Broadcasting & Cable (June 24) reporting a study of US Millennial TV watchers for YouTube conducted by comScore. “This is good news for advertisers because when consumers are deeply engaged with content, it’s a great opportunity for your brand message to resonate. Not to mention digital distribution provides a better ability to target the right audiences.”

Millennials source their video binge differently but almost always digital. YouTube, Facebook and the like offer short slices. Video on demand (VoD) portals – Netflix, et.al. – provide every episode of hit TV shows, not to forget movies.

Traditional TV broadcasters are fighting back. French broadcaster TF1 acquired a majority stake in MinuteBuzz, popular with 9 million French Millennials for its 5-minute video capsules available on all the usual social media portals. Television is not dead,” said TF1 digital innovation director Olivier Abecassis,” quoted by journaldunet.com (September 16). “It just made babies. And we are very proud to present our first adoption.” MinuteBuzz’s entertaining features come attached to a pre-roll ad. Millennials swipe to the next moment after 15 seconds.

Marketers and the ad people who love them are studious adherents of segmentation. No target is fully exploited until it is sliced and diced into good, better and best. Young Millennials are contrasted with Old, affluent against the rest. BBC Advertising Reaching Affluent Millennials October 2016, 3,000 interviews in August/September in 31 countries

Affluent Millennials have been further segmented in the BBC Advertising study as “The Crowd,” The Understated,” and “The Supercharged.” Obviously, “The Supercharged” are just perfect; “extremely affluent and the opinion leaders of today and tomorrow,” said BBC World News head of insight Andrew Tenzer.. “They are very global in their outlook and have a deep emotional relationship with their favorite brands.”

Neither “The Crowd” nor “The Understated” segments seem to care much about brands, the former a lot like non-affluent Millennials. Alas, the study estimates only 16% of all Millennials fit into that “Supercharged” segment. The rest are so much more like their parents.

Advertisers, particularly in fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), are falling all over Millennials with specifically targeted ads, in every medium. But targeting is so much more than choosing appropriate media. The message must be crafted to touch all the right hot buttons.

For that ad people are reaching deep into the Millennial mind. Psychographic profiles prevail when simple demographics fall short. Digital agency Syzygy, another part of WPP, recently released a study (October 2016) of US Millennials based on the Narcissistic Personality Inventory, a clinical psychology test first published in 1979. The sample of Millennials was contrasted with a sample of GenYers and Baby Boomers.

Narcissism is associated with inflated ego, first described by ancient Greeks and more recently applied, in the extreme, to celebrities and tyrants. Millennials have been tagged as narcissists for several years (Time – May 20, 2013) largely on their relationship with social media. Think: selfie. The Syzygy study does not conclude that US Millennials have achieved the pathological extreme. The name Syzygy, as an aside, comes from astronomy; the alignment of the Earth, moon and Sun when the Moon orbits the Earth creating so-called Super Moons.

Indeed, the Syzygy study found “elevated levels of narcissism” among Millennials; 16% higher than non-Millennials, males even higher. The “key driver” of Millennial narcissism is “personal technology.” Surprise! “Millennials display a high level of emotional attachment to their smartphone.” Other details confirm everything ever said about social media posting and selfies.

Crafting an effective message to Millennials, the study suggests, starts and ends with appeal to ego. “Narcissists believe they are entitled to the best.” They also believe they are “smarter, more attractive and more important than others.” A happy Millennial jumps the queue, preferably as waiting others notice.

Fear not, this, too, will pass, said a Kantar Millward Brown study of the next generational target: Gen Z, post-Millennials or Centennials, born between 1997 and 2011. "Gen Z will not only change how brands communicate but also create challenges in how brands demonstrate authenticity and transparency in digital," said global brand director Duncan Southgate in a press statement (December 6). "Strategies that are likely to be successful include investment in digital platforms that allow consumers to co-create a shared brand experience; Gen Z will be hands on - they want to try it, take it apart and re-create it." Advertising, it seems, will be just another part of virtual reality.

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