By 2020, Millennials will be approximately 50 percent of the U.S. workforce. So, within the next five years, Millennials will have increasing influence over organizations’ decisions, move in to leadership roles, and basically take over the workforce. Not only will this have an effect within businesses, it will have a profound impact on who the organizations want to do business with. The millennial generation, also known as generation Y, can broadly be classified as people born between 1980 and 2000. This generation is commonly described as the techno generation, digital natives, and most educated generation. Compared to the previous generations (Generation X and Baby Boomers) Millennials have specific habits and behaviors that have changed the way we need to think about marketing and business as a whole. The traditional outbound marketing model, also known as push marketing, has been disrupted by the advent of social and digital technologies. Because of this, Millennials consume, engage, and share differently. This is forcing businesses to rethink how they incorporate the millennial audience into their marketing activities. In this presentation, these questions will be discussed: why is it important to target Millennials, what are their behaviors and what are the implications, and what are examples of companies successfully engaging with Millennials.

1. Reinvention in the Age of the Millennial
Keith Kaplan, IBM Social Brand Marketing Product and Operations Lead
@KrazyKaplan14
October 27, 2015
Targeting Millennials

2. Agenda
Why are we talking about Millennials?
The Millennial mindset
How can you take action?
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3. SNL Skit: The Millenials
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4. Putting the Millennial generation into context
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Greatest
Generation
Silent
Generation
Baby
Boomers
Generation
X Millennials
Generation
Z
Pre -1933 1933 -1945 1946 - 1964 1965 -1979 1980 - 1995 1996 - Present
Source: The Millennial Generation Rules

5. "We thought that an upbeat name would be good
because of the changing way they were being
raised. They would be the first to graduate high
school in the year 2000, so the name millennial
instantly came to mind." -Neil Howe & William
Strauss
Source: NPR

6. Why is it important to talk about Millennials?
§ Approximately 10,000 Baby Boomers retire everyday1
§ By 2020, Millennials will be approximately 50% of the U.S. workforce2
§ By 2025, up to 75% of the global workforce will be Millennials3
§ The oldest Millennial has been in the workforce approximately 10 years
5 Source: 1The Washington Post, 2Maximizing Millenials in the Workplace, 3Reinvention in the Age of the Millennial

7. Millennials are the new decision makers

8. IBM study: Millennials in the workplace
§ Goal
– Explore the preferences and behavior patterns of
Millenials with those of Gen X and Baby Boomers.
§ Findings
– The fundamental distinction between Millennials
and older employees is their digital proficiency, but
Millennials share many of the same attitudes as
older employees
§ Link to study:
– http://ibm.biz/millennialmyths
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9. 8
Myth 1
Myth 2

10. 9
Myth 3
Myth 5
Myth 4

11. It’s not the age group that’s important, it’s the
mindset that has evolved in this generation

12. Millennial Mindset Trends
§ 2.5x more likely to be an early adopter of technology than older generations1
§ 75% of Millennials own smartphones (more than any other generation)2
§ 83% of Millennials sleep with their smartphones, compared with 50% of Baby Boomers2
§ 87% of consumers use more than one device at a time when watching TV3
§ 92% of Millennials in the U.S. use smartphones as their primary mobile TV device4
11 Source: 1Social@Ogilvy 2comScore 3Accenture 4Adobe

13. This is the “now” generation

14. Source: Torque
More comfortable sharing information

15. Source: Torque
Example: creative ways to share
Quote of the day shareable
to Instagram
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16. 15 Source: comScore
Social media activity is fragmented

17. Stay on top of new platforms and technologies

18. Example: grubHub on Snapchat
§ Week-long scavenger hunt where each day they gave 10 fans $50 of grub
§ Each morning they would post a challenge and fans would have to snap them back
Source: grubHub17

19. 18
Millennials trust peers more than they do brands

20. 19
Great design and experience is expected

21. Example: convenient user experience
Apple Uber
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Airbnb

22. 21 Source: SocialTimes
The future of content marketing is online video

23. Example: engaging video content
BuzzFeed Food creates 15
second how videos
GoPro capitalizes on user generated
video content
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24. Don’t be “salesy”

25. Example: brand expression vs. selling
This Not this
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26. Don’t focus on follower numbers, focus on
engagement

27. Example: engagement on social media
Charmin Starbucks
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28. Example: engagement on social media (cont)
IBM
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29. Give your audience what they like

30. Example: give your audience access
YouTube Spaces
NASA
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31. Example: give your audience access (cont)

32. Content creation checklist
ü Is your content mobile first?
ü Is your content intuitive?
ü Does your content add value?
ü Is the content appropriate for the channel?
ü Is your content authentic?
ü Is your content optimized for the channel?
ü Is your content innovative and original?
ü Does your content factor in data?
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33. Take away
§ What’s good for Millennials is good for everyone
§ If you’re not thinking about mobile first, then you’re already behind
§ The brands that are doing well, understand their audience
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34. Questions

35. Thank you
§ Keith Kaplan
§ IBM Social Brand Marketing Product and Operations Lead
§ kaplan.keith@gmail.com
§ Twitter: @KrazyKaplan14
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