Tags containing: "millenials"

Q&A: Catherine Salazar, Managing Partner, Practice Lead MEC, on Targeting Millennials

August 27, 2014 Danielle Block, Director, Agency & Advertiser Relations - DCN

Q: How are you shaping advertising messages to get and hold attention of Millennials?

A: We’re taking a two-fold approach of using insights and media execution to shape the messages that will ideally get a hold of Millennials.

By partnering with our clients and creative partners we’ve been able to craft the right media mix from insights gathered in the pre-planning phases.

Secondly, in our media execution we’ve started “storytelling,” essentially using video sequencing. We have an arsenal of assets and short-form content that the creative agency has provided in the voice of Millennials, and the goal is to go back to our former days of storyboarding where we take Millennials on a journey. The journey begins with content that is subtle and leads with a mix of spots and short form content to strike the right balance of how we want consumers to experience the brand and campaign.

Q: How are you leveraging social media to communicate with Millennials and to provide CRM?

A: CRM is no longer about sending a customer emails to keep them engaged with the brand. Millennial CRM is about delivering engagement and giving them what they want, when they want it. The most relevant way for brands to do this is through platforms like Tumblr, Instagram and Twitter in visually compelling ways to carry a conversation in short or long form where preference is up to the user and not the brand. Moreover, we are using social media to be transparent. For a campaign like AT&T’s “It Can Wait,” we recognized the need to move away from scare tactics for this audience, and instead focused on engaging in authentic and honest dialogue on Tumblr. This enabled the brand to connect with Milliennials on an emotional level and makethem feel good about their decision not to text and drive.

For Millenials, a key aspect is trust. We are building trust by delivering programs like AT&T’s @SummerBreak which was a first of its kind entertainment experience; a mobile optimized, real-time, interactive reality show, connecting viewers to the teenage cast members across various social platforms. We supported this program via paid platforms and it spoke to the insight that non-linear content was becoming a key component of the media behavior of the target and that mobile was the primary platform for digital media usage.

Q: What is the number one takeaway to keep in mind when targeting Millennials?

A: Millennials are consuming media in all shapes and forms, but mobile and tablets have drastically changed the way they consume media. In the 80s and 90s the Gen X’ers had posters of their favorite brands on their walls, in 2014 the question becomes, how does a brand become that digital poster to a Millennial?

Catherine Salazar is Managing Partner and Digital Practice Lead at MEC on the AT&T business. With over 14 years of marketing, advertising, management and leadership experience, Catherine is currently focused on all digital media investment across display, video, mobile, search and social for AT&T’s General Market, Youth, International, Multicultural, LGBT and Sponsorship efforts.

Prior to MEC, Catherine worked and helped launch Microsoft’s Search platform in the U.S. and Canada. Catherine also worked in the display advertising space with Focint.com, Agency.com and JPMorgan Chase Credit Cards from 1999 through 2004 providing media strategy for Bookspan, British Airways, Brown & Co. and Chase Credit Cards. Catherine is a graduate of New York University.

Perspectives

Q&A: Andrew Hanelly, SVP of Strategy at McMURRY/TMG, on Marketing to Millennials

August 20, 2014 Danielle Block, Director, Agency & Advertiser Relations - DCN

Q: How are you shaping advertising messages to get and hold the attention of Millennials?

A: The first rule of advertising to Millennials is don’t try to advertise to Millennials. This is a generation that has always been in control of their media experience. They/we grew up with cable, we nearly always had the Internet, and boredom and curiosity are easily killed with the super computers we carry around with us that we call smartphones.

The way to earn the attention of Millennials is to understand and respect their needs. You have to add to their cultural experiences rather than try to interrupt them. And the best way to do that is through inbound marketing with valuable content that delights them. It’s got to be useful or be interesting or it will be ignored.

Q: How are you leveraging social media to communicate with Millennials and to provide CRM?

A: Most agencies and consultants will tell you that the key to social is listening and responding. That’s a nice start, and listening is necessary, but you have to participate to gain traction and build trust.

Successful brands immerse themselves in the community they are trying to be a part of and they humbly serve that community. There are no gimmicks required. Brands should act like a blogger and think like a startup: Embrace the tone of the community you are trying to serve, be transparent about who you are, and always add value by solving problems.

We do this for a number of brands, including ASAE, the center for association leadership. One of their main challenges—as is the case with most organizations—is building a relationship with younger audiences. We built a strategy around serving that audience through a hub-and-spoke social media model. The hub is a media-style website (associationsnow.com) and the spokes are the individual social channels we discovered this audience to be using.

Here’s how it plays out with a very practical example. We saw that our social audience—which is heavily millennial—talking about Google’s recent diversity disclosure. Our social journalism team quickly created context around the issue and shared it with that audience, adding value to the conversation. We didn’t interrupt, we didn’t sell. We saw what was culturally relevant, did the hard work of adding context to it, and we shared it. And then it got shared.

Content is currency in the social ecosystem and brands that can develop quality content will earn trust by being part of the conversation in a very real, practical way. This pattern of listening, learning, contextualizing, publishing and sharing has earned us cultural relevance to millennial audiences in a variety of industries.

It makes a statement: We’re here, we’re listening, we care, we want to add value, and we’re not trying to sell you anything. That’s a recipe for building trust.

Q: What is the number one takeaway to keep in mind when targeting Millennials?

A: Earn trust or die. Millennials are the driving force behind the shift from an attention-based economy (i.e. companies who can get attention will get share of mind and share of wallet) to a trust-based economy (i.e. companies who can earn trust will earn share of mind and share of wallet.)

What is the practical implication? Companies need to stop acting like faceless corporate entities and start acting like people. It’s about humanizing your brand by being transparent, being thoughtful, being respectful, and being a good digital citizen.

As SVP of Strategy at McMURRY/TMG, the country’s largest independent content marketing agency, Andrew develops and executes award-winning digital content marketing strategies for brands and organizations of all sizes, ranging from the Fortune 500 company to the nonprofit down the street. He’s passionate about earning audiences, creating community, and achieving business objectives for organizations by harnessing the power of content and technology. Andrew established McMURRY/TMG’s Content Velocity discipline, which builds relevance for brands through real-time content creation, powered by social journalism. Also, he’s a giant media nerd and was a sociology major for a semester or two.

Innovation

AOL and Girls Who Code Partner to Make Cambio #BuiltByGirls

August 13, 2014 Michelle Manafy, Editorial Director – DCN

Reshma Saujani, founder of Girls Who Code has made inspiration her day job at the nonprofit organization she founded to inspire, educate and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21^st century opportunities. And her work, and mission, is getting some “traditional” brands to take notice.

When Mattel wanted to create an entrepreneur Barbie with street cred, one of the women they turned to was Saujani. Susan Lyne, CEO of AOL’s Brand Group and Girls Who Code advisor also turned to Saujani when she wanted to create a site built by girls for girls.

The inspired connection between Lyne and Saujani led to AOL offering summer internships to five Girls Who Code alumnae. These young women are playing a fundamental role in the re-launch of AOL’s millennial-focused pop-culture site, Cambio (coming this Fall).

“Part of Reshma’s program is to build something you care about and present it. She focuses on what you can build if you learn to code, which is exactly the right focus.” During their internship, the girls will certainly do a lot of coding, but they are also helping to shape the Cambio brand’s editorial direction and building new mobile-first products.

Lyne been impressed with the impact the interns are making—including making the content “multifaceted like they are,” which includes an affinity for celebrity news (the current focus of Cambio’s content), but also “about issues that are really important them whether it’s a crush, weight, family relationships or world peace.”

The interns have also developed an inspirational meme generator and a contributor platform so that they—and many more girls like them—can participate in the site. “I love the idea of building because it can mean many different things,” says Lyne. “Just the idea of creating, not just serving or enabling. Doing the creating themselves is incredibly empowering.”Lyne was also pleased to see how the larger AOL team welcomed the Girls Who Code interns, “the minute we announced the program, I can’t tell you how many engineers raised their hands, but also people in sales, designers, editors…everyone wanted to find a way to help these girls have a fantastic summer.” They’ve been privy to sessions on advertising, analytics, privacy, computer security and more.

Given the fact that three of the five top positions at AOL are held by women, it isn’t surprising that this is an organization supportive of young women’s professional development. “I think it all starts with Tim,” says Lyne of the company’s CEO and Chairman. “He made it a goal to have three women on the board because there’s research that demonstrates that companies with three or more women on the board perform better. He was looking for whatever will give us an edge and having strong women is part of that.”

Building a structure that supports women internally is important. But perhaps even more so is spreading the #BuiltByGirls message through initiatives like these, where young women see that the products they use every day are actually built by girls, in the hope that it changes their perception of computer science.

And, as Lyne points out, “Media companies like ours reach many millions of people and we impact all kids of attitudes. It is important that we positively impact the way young women think about their possibilities going forward, and even impact the way technology and an industry evolves. This is an opportunity…and a responsibility.”