they do not only influence each other. If you are the parent of a Millennial or a Gen Zer (the generation after Y), you know what I mean. We are on Facebook, we text, and we might even learn Snapchat, if for no other reason than to be connected to our offspring in the way they feel most comfortable in relating.
MARKETING AND THE MILLENNIAL MINDSET
Given the changes in technology and Millennials’ propensity to interact with brands, marketers have changed how they interact with this group. While in the past, the goal was to know who the consumer was in order to craft a message that resonated with them, today the goal is to know who the consumer is so that you can get them to spend time with you. Consumer product companies want to be Millennials’ friends.
Marketing campaigns therefore play to making Millennials feel good about themselves. Doritos inspires Millennials to create advertising for the brand in hopes of having their commercial appear on the Super Bowl—recognition on a grand scale—and convinces them to “be bold” by participating in adventurous missions, like jumping from a thirty-foot platform or participating in a roller derby with pro racers, an act which might lead to tickets to SXSW to see Lady Gaga. Doritos psychographically describes this group as “Young and Hungry,” literally and figuratively, and their marketing reflects this attitude. In another example, Marlboro has an international campaign that uses the tagline “Don’t be a Maybe.” Their videos show young people having fun—driving in a car with their hair blowing in the breeze or jumping from a significant height onto an air-filled blob. Similar to Doritos, they play to the idea of living boldly. As they say in an internal promotional video:
As a brand Marlboro was not resonating with adult smokers even though its values of freedom, authenticity and master of destiny were. Smokers missed the essence of the cowboy which led us to our opportunity. Eliminate the word MAYBE from our smokers’ vocabulary to become the catalyst that inspires smokers from just thinking about life to taking the lead in life. To live the Marlboro values. To be True. Bold and forever forward.42
The communication to Millennials, then, is that Marlboro smokers don’t sit back and watch; they take part in the action. But this is just an updated twist on the cowboy that represented freedom and individualism for past generations.
Another gimmick marketers have used with this group to considerable effect is asking young people if they can pick up and go away for a weekend—the ultimate expression of freedom. Anheuser-Busch asked Millennials if they were “up for whatever.” One thousand lucky Millennials who submitted an audition video on Facebook and who promoted the brand on Twitter with the hashtag #upforwhatever were put on a plane and sent to an unknown destination. Once on the ground, they found themselves amidst a three-day party including celebrities, games, and lots of Bud Light.43 This campaign was so successful that Anheuser-Busch has run it multiple times.44
Undergirding these youth-targeted campaigns is experiential marketing. It’s not enough for consumers to see an ad; they have to experience it, interact with it, be immersed in it much in the same way as they’re immersed in a videogame. This is why brands that never had a physical presence before are creating retail outlets. Of course, there’s the Apple Store, but there are now shops for M&Ms and Asics, and there was even a pop-up store for Pop-Tarts in New York City.
A Millennial campaign with broader appeal was Coca-Cola’s “Share a Coke,” which combined a number of elements that work for engaging this age group. The heart of the campaign was to print bottles of Coke, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero with labels that bore 250 of the most common first names, as well as a few group titles like Mom and BFF. If someone’s name was not available, they could request it at ShareaCoke.com for five dollars, or they could go to the site and send virtual versions of a personalized Coke bottle to friends. The availability of these specially marked bottles was promoted through in-store marketing, print ads, social media, experiential marketing, and a microsite, among other elements.
In one commercial for the campaign called “Share a Coke This Summer,”45 a young woman wearing a necklace, “Jess,” goes into a store and buys a personalized Coke for herself as well as one for her friend Alisha, whom she meets on a rooftop where they drink their sodas. Appropriately for this generation, Alisha is African American, which taps into the group’s multiculturalism. Jess and Alisha go back and buy four Cokes—two more for themselves and two for friends (Alex and Maria). They go back again with still more friends to get sodas for a picnic at a park. In the final shots, hundreds of people are dancing and drinking Coca-Cola. Then, at nighttime, Jess goes back to the store where the clerk is closing down for the night. She hands the cashier a bottle that says “Chris,” and they walk away holding hands.
Integral to the campaign was the hashtag #ShareaCoke, which consumers were meant to use when they posted pictures of themselves with their personalized bottle of Coke. Close to 600,000 pictures were posted to Instagram alone.46 Millennials were encouraged to share with the promise that their picture might be featured online or on a national billboard. This campaign was so successful that it reversed Coca-Cola’s ten year sales decline, a tough feat in light of concerns about obesity (and most particularly among teens).47
What makes all this messaging so interesting is that it is the exact opposite of how advertising traditionally worked. Ads would tell you that you had ring around the collar, so you needed to use Wisk. Or that you had halitosis, so if you didn’t use Listerine, you would never get the guy or girl. Advertising was all about telling you what was wrong with you so that you would use the product. It was the very definition of problem-solution advertising. Now, it is all about entertaining you and telling you how great you can be so you will promote the product for them.
Moving from mass marketing to one-to-one interactions has changed how marketers communicate not only with Millennials, but with all of us. Unlike the thirty-second commercial that screamed at you to buy, Buy, BUY, these communications are subtle, friendly, and relationship-building. They don’t appear to be a prelude to a monetary transaction. Because they are personal, they are effective: it’s harder to say “no” to someone you have a connection with than to a nameless, faceless corporation.
These relationships are about getting us to share, as many women did with Dove’s “Sketch Artist.”48 In this video, women describe themselves to a professional sketch artist who is behind a curtain and cannot see them. One after another, the women describe their flaws as they see them—their nose is too big, their lips are not full enough, their jaw protrudes, etc. Then, one by one, someone who has just met one of the women describes what they saw to the same sketch artist, and in case after case, they provide a gentler, more accepting description of the person they saw. The sketches are then placed side-by-side and shown to the woman depicted. The realization of how hard they are on themselves is sad and palpable. This video, like others we will look at throughout the book, manipulates our emotions to generate those strong feelings that move us to share content with others. “Sketch Artist” was viewed more than 65 million times. That’s more than the number of people who typically watch a prime time television show, or the advertising in it. And this video is three minutes long—six times the length of a typical TV commercial. That’s powerful marketing. But stop to think about it for just a minute and ask yourself: What does moisturizer have to do with feeling good about one’s self? And if you passed it along, why did you help Unilever (Dove’s parent company) promote their product?
There are any number of reasons why you might have shared the video, which we’ll talk about in the next chapter. For now, be aware that marketers will increasingly provide you with motivation to pass along their messages. Campaigns will be designed to include participation and personalization. Participation means that we produce the content, whether that’s creating an ad or voting for a favorite Starbucks holiday coffee with a hashtag
