As the old saying goes…”You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” That being said, it’s a marketing agency’s job to mold its strategies to the tastes of a multitude of generational desires. Each of the three adult generations — Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials — consumes content a little differently than the other two. This makes reaching multiple audiences with the same message a bit of a challenge.
If doing a side-by-side comparison of Millennials (Gen Y) and Baby Boomers, their tastes diverge significantly when it comes to entertainment and product consumption. While Millennials are more engaged in interactive multimedia and varying perceptions in the market and respective advertising, Boomers prefer repetition and contrasting colors. Boomers display a longer attention span but find themselves more distracted by the swift pace of the modern world. Generally speaking, their senses of humor differ as well – Boomers are fans of light-hearted, witty humor, while Millennials are humored by that which is more sarcastic and offbeat. Boomers are the ones with spending power. They prefer traditional and nostalgic themes, and simplicity is key to their needs. Millennials, on the other hand, are a fast-paced generation that requires constant stimulation.
While all generations use email to some extent; some have grown up with it while others learned to use it after several years in the workforce. Some generations lead the charge with the use of social media and thrive with its short format. Others still prefer the physical copies of magazines and newspapers that are delivered to their mailboxes. Some generations acquire their news via blogs, video, Twitter and websites while others prefer to watch the evening anchors deliver current events.
With modern technology and social media at the tips of everyone’s fingers today, it’s no surprise different generations are customizing their media intake to meet their specific desires. So how should marketing agencies take these differences into consideration when preparing their digital strategies for clients? Here are three tips:
1. Consider more than just demographics when trying to understand the audience your marketing is attempting to reach. Optimize messaging across screens based on audience and generational screen preferences.
If the marketing goal is to drive consumer behaviors like purchase and research, ensure that the marketing investment and delivery match the screen preference. For example, in categories such as investment services that require in-depth understanding of product features and comparison of multiple offers, digital marketing focused on product benefits and features is better suited for desktop and laptop screens, where users can pay attention to and act on the content in the ad. This is especially true for Baby Boomers who are more likely to do research on financial service products on a laptop than on a smartphone.
On the other hand, a hyper-local ad that requires less attention and research, such as an ad for retail, may be better served on a smartphone where younger audiences like Millennials are almost as likely to shop for clothes and apparel on a smartphone.
2. Invest in the future and the present.
While younger audiences have primarily shifted to mobile, in the short term they are still partially reliant on laptops and PCs for purchase and acquisition activities. Commit to obtaining holistic insights that explore the individual components of your marketing's performance -- such as audience, brand lift and consumer behavior insights.
3. Take into account how screen preference influences the buyer journey.
Consumers still rely heavily on laptops and PCs for shopping across categories. Millennials are the first generation to push the envelope on mobile shopping, but they still reach for their laptops for some categories, depending on the amount of time needed and the importance of the task.
