While there are many contenders, Red Bull may be the ultimate Millennial brand. As Millennials became increasingly sleep deprived, energy drinks thrived. In 2007, 34% of all 12-24 year olds say they ‘regularly drink energy drinks’ (Mintel, July 2008). The reason given most often for drinking is ‘for energy’ and ‘to stay awake’, far out-pacing the number who say they mix it with alcohol.The energy drink category has more than quadrupled to $5 Billion in 2008 (est), up from $1 Billion in 2003. There can be no doubt that it is immensely profitable, at $2.27/16 oz vs. $.53 for sports drinks and $.36 for soft drinks.
Energy drinks are a Millennial-driven phenomenon, and with a 42% share, Red Bull is the driver. 61% of 18-24 year old energy drink users drink Red Bull, outpacing Monster Energy by a factor of 2:1.
Since its beginnings, Red Bull has shown that it ‘gets’ Millennials and especially their desire for a dialog with the brands they consume. This blurring of the social with channels of brand marketing is what NYT columnist,Rob Walker , dubbed ‘murketing’ in his great book, “Buying In: The Secret Dialog between What We Buy and Who We Are”. He maintains that modern branding involves complicity between consumer and consumed, an embracing of commerical culture, not commercials. Red Bull was among the first to recognize and leverage “murketing”, with its extreme sports competitions in extreme locations. Red Bull is also a great example of why Millennial-targeted brands should forgo making claims in favor of building affinity. Who knows or cares what guanine is, anyway? Certainly not my students.
Red Bull’s Facebook group shows how effectively they have leveraged murketing online. The group boasts 282,286 fans. There is free music, a contest to find the next great hip hop artist, a webisode series, photos from events, profiles of Red Bull athletes, links to other great ‘procrastination’ sites, and many more ways to connect with Red Bull web sites. Perhaps the most unique feature is Red Bull’s sharing of drunken phone messages they have received. Here is one of the top rated (yes, you can rate and share them): “Hi, I really like Red Bull a lot. Right now I’m pooping. In my parents bathroom. And I really like Red Bull a lot.” Try that Monster Energy. While much of the same content can be found on Red Bull’s web site, it doesn’t have the same energy as when presented in social media. Count me in as a fan.
And all week long your River City
Youth’ll be frittern’ away,
I say your young men’ll be frittern’!
Frittern away their noontime, suppertime, choretime too!
– Professor Harold Hill, aka, The Music Man
Substitute “Twittern’” for “frittern’” and you’ll see “either you’re closing your eyes to a situation you do now wish to acknowledge or you are not aware” of the impact of the 24/7 media world Millennials inhabit. Ever wonder why Millennials always seem so tired? It’s because they are nocturnal, surrounded by what the New York Times last week described as ‘ambient social awareness’(“Brave New World of Social Intimacy” 9.5.08). Facebook, MySpace, YouTube are ways to extend the social conversation beyond the hours when most face-to-face social conversations take place. The party continues — online.
I admit I have dabbled in this world. I have strangers following me on Twitter and I am following strangers. I use LinkedIn and Facebook. But I feel like a stranger in a strange land; it is not my natural habitat and I see them as time stealers, not productivity enhancers. That is one of the main differences between my generation and Millennials. Millennials, and those who share the digital mindset, find the blurring of online and offline realities completely natural–and productive.
Marketers are starting to catch on. Last week, I noted several hefty articles on ways to leverage Twitter as a business building tool. My favorite is by Steve Mulder, (“Five Marketing Tips for Attacking Twitter“, Mediapost, 9.1.08). He explains why this is important:
Numbers are hard to come by, but TechCrunch reports that Twitter has more than 1 million users (200,000 of which are active every week), and about 3 million messages are posted every day. These are still relatively small numbers, but the activity comes from an early-adopter segment that can be hard to reach using traditional marketing channels.
Mulder points out that brands that use Twitter as a way to extend a brand’s personality have an edge over those who are just pushing information. He points to Zappos as a good example.
Will I ever get it? I am not sure. But I plan to try. Now it’s time to get some sleep!
On the occasion of my 50th post about Millennials (wow, can hardly believe it myself), I did some digging on the social media phenomenon. While many believe it is values that define Millennials. Millennials themselves believe it is their use of the Internet, nothing defines Millennials on the Internet more than their use of social media. In March 08, McCann released Wave 3 of its Social Media Tracking Report based on a survey of 17,000 Internet users in 29 countries. Here are a few findings worth noting:
1. Social media is much broader than social networking. McCann defines social media as “Online applications, platforms and media which aim to facilitate interaction, collaboration and the sharing of content”. That includes blogs, photo and video sharing, podcasts, microblogs (Twitter), widgets, chat rooms and message boards, and more.
2. Social media’s reach is surprisingly high.. 83% of active Internet users watch videos, 73% read blogs. 39% have started their own blog (I am sure the number is even higher for Millennials, especially young women who are more into blogging than similarly aged guys, who favor gaming. In fact, McCann believes blogging rivals traditional media with a 70% weekly reach. 33% have a favorite blog they read regularly. “As a collective, the blogosphere rivals any mass media in
terms of reach, time spent and wider cultural, social and political impact.”
3. Social Networks have evolved into platforms to organise users’ internet experience. 74% use them to message friends. Social networks are becoming a ‘one stop shop’ for all internet needs: messaging friends, posting photos and videos, and unique applications. Consequently, they are becoming one of the most powerful ways to disseminate information.
The blurring of media and creators is nearly complete, as the popularity of Engadget with trendsetting Millennials makes clear. The ‘citizen’ journalist has become a reality and bloggers are becoming mainstream personalities. Need evidence? The NYT and Entertainment Weekly had this to say about www.pinkisthenewblog.com/home/:
“Pink is the new Blog: Must Star Hazer — Why This: Trent Vanegas may run the uproarious gossip roundup from his home outside Detroit, but he doesn’t need proximity to make riotous observations about celebs — often typed directly onto scary paparazzi photos.” — Entertainment Weekly
“Anyone looking for a case study in the convergence of homespun blog culture and market-driven mainstream media need look no further than pinkisthenewblog.com and its creator, Trent Vanegas … It’s Not Just a Blog, It’s a Brand”. — The New York Times
Finally, we have prospect of ‘Facebook: The Movie’. The New York Times reports today that West Wing creator, Aaron Sorkin, and Columbia Pictures producer Scott Rudin, are collaborating on a film about the creation of Facebook. They have set up a place on Facebook to participate. (Talk about media coming ‘full circle’!) Where did I read about it first? A blog of course!
After three months of blogging about Millennials, it seems appropriate to ask what have we learned about them that differs from common wisdom? While we agree with many of the mainstream conclusions about Millennials – they are more collaborative, tech savvy, ambitious and self-confident than previous generations, I would like to take moment to challenge a few ‘myths’.
1. Millennials are cash strapped and debt ridden. (5.22.08) In 2006, households headed by 18-24 year olds had earnings before taxes of nearly $29,057, up from just $20,120 in 2003. Their earnings grew 7.5% 2005-2006 alone compared to a 1.1% jump for total households. While that is not a whopping salary, consider that less than 10% of 18-24 year old men are married, 50%live with the parents. This may help to explain why, according to the BLS, they are heavy spenders in virtually every category other than food and housing. Within many of these categories, they are more likely to purchase the luxury brand, like imported or craft beer, rather than the mainstream brand.
2. Millennials and Boomers make good partners. (5.19.08) While it’s true Millennials enjoy stronger relationships with their (mostly Boomer) parents than most other generations, they prefer working with Gen X’ers who they believe have more to teach them in the workplace. In fact, our research shows that Millennials have little respect for tech-challenged Boomers. Perhaps Hogwarts provides a good metaphor; in the Harry Potter books, the kids are the crusading and effective wizards, while the professors seem a little behind the times and inept.
3. The way to reach Millennials is through social media like Facebook. (5.19.08) Social media is more social than media. Millennials do not use social media to shape their buying and tend to ignore commercial messages. MySpace and Facebook lowered their sales goals by 11 and 13 percent respectively. EMarketer has also lowered its forecast for social media ad spending by 12%. Much more experimentation will be needed to bring brands directly into the application experience rather than relegate them to a banner or group, such as Slide’s branded ‘SuperPokes’.
4. Millennials are no more socially liberally than other generations. (5.29.08) According to Pew (2007), each generation tends to be more liberal than its predecssors, but Millennials are even more socially liberal than Boomers were at a similar age. On Super Tuesday, 58% of younger voters self-identified themselves as ‘Liberal’. This is happy news for Brand Obama.
5. Millennials are drinking more beer compared to earlier generations of young drinkers. (5.26.08) Not true! According to Nielsen, U.S. 21-30 year olds are forgoing beer in favor of wine, with beer dropping 12 percentage points in this age cohort over the past 10 years compared to a 6 percentage point drop among over 30′s. Instead, Millennials are embracing the wine culture in record numbers. This contrasts with France, where Millennials are losing interest in wine. Mon Dieu!
6. Millennials are cynical and mistrusting of institutions. (5.21.08, 6.04.08) According to Pew, Millennials put more faith in government and business institutions. Their faith in business is growing, while that of other cohorts is decreasing. The gap is even more pronounced when it comes to government effectiveness.
7. The Ultimate Millennial personna is an entrepreneur. (5.12.08) This is more true of Gen X’ers than Millennials, who tend to be more idealistic. Their goal is to ‘make a difference’ as well as be successful. Clues to the Millennial Persona may be found in some of the TV shows they watched growing up. There are a remarkable number of fifties style through backs and ‘princesses’ where the kids are smart, gifted, special and uniquely successful – Lion Witch and Wardrobe, Nancy Drew, High School Musical. There are also a surprising number of ‘princesses’ and average kids by day who become rock n roll stars by night.
I recently ran a campaign on Facebook to recruit Millennials to some focus groups. The ‘headline’ seemed sure to capture attention: Earn $50 in 75 minutes. Thanks to the pay per click ad model the ad received lots of exposure – 932,917 impressions to be exact. But the clicks didn’t happen; just 160 responded for an appallingly low .02% click through rate. Too bad Millennials don’t need market research because it would have been a very cheap branding campaign. My 17 year old Facebook addicted daughter explained: “Mom, no one clicks on Facebook ads”. Silly me. I should have reread my own Ad Age article, where Notre Dame students’ view of social media was explained this way: “Students do not think Facebook was invented for any other purpose that to facilitate their social lives.”
According to new articles by Adweek and Fortune, my experience is not unique. Adweek today, “Social Ad Lessons”, points out that eMarketer lowered its forecast for social-media ad spending by 12 percent due to “tempered enthusiasm for meshing ads with social environments”. MySpace will miss its $1 billion U.S. sales goal by 11 percent and Facebook will take in 13 percent less than the $305 million forecast. In last week’s article, Finding Cracks on Facebook, Fortune explains the shortfall as due to the “blase attitude” media buyers have toward the company. The code on leveraging social media as a medium is not broken, but some are getting closer to the key by thinking of social media as a new form of product placement. Adweek describes successful efforts this way:
… Slide and RockYou are developing a new-era form of product placement that brings brands directly into the application experience, rather than relegate them to a banner on the periphery. One of Slide’s most popular Facebook applications is SuperPoke, which lets users to give each other virtual nudges. Slide has begun working in branded SuperPokes, like spraying a spritz of perfume for Estee Lauder and rolling a set of dice as part of a Vegas-themed Palm campaign. Coke brand VitaminWater ran a SuperPoke campaign in April that resulted in 9.7 million virtual versions of the brand being sent out.
Meanwhile, save your money on banner ads. They are simply wallpaper.
