How to reach your target audience – Generation Y?

Generation Y is also known under many other names; Millennial Generation, Generation Next, Net Generation, Echo Boomers or just Millenials. There is general disagreement about exactly what period this generation was born, but the safest to say is that this group is usually born in the late 1980s to mid or even late 1990s. These are the children of the baby boomers; they have extraordinary technological skills, grew up with video games, mobile phones and experienced first hand a rapidly growing digital revolution. And chances are, that these people are the target audience for your brand or company. So how do you engage and intrigue this generation? How do you have to change your approach when reaching out to these people?

The typical Generation Y is a techie and an early adapter. He or she prefers learning by doing, which means they never read instructions or manuals. They are easily bored and great multitaskers. In social settings, generation Y seems to be less violent and more liberal and social accepting that older generations, which is definitely worth keeping in mind when advertising to this group. Ad and marketing people where scratching their heads when this generation emerged. It was hard to figure out exactly what type of things that ‘tickled their fancy’ and actually got them excited.

Where will you find them?

You can find them everywhere; In Starbucks with their MacBooks, vintage clothes shopping in East London, rages through the city on their retro bikes or demonstrating against raise in public transportation fees. Networking is important to them and they have job titles that never existed 10 years ago, such as Online Marketer or Digital Content Writer.

Who influences them?

With easy access to an incredibly large amount of information they have become natural sceptics. Because they don’t believe everything they read or see, they value sharing between their circle of friends and acquaintances. So the most powerful way of connecting with Generation Y is to produce content that encourage sharing between users.

Why should you reach this audience?

Generation Y grows older every year which also means they acquire more knowledge and income thanks to their jobs in rapidly growing industries. This group works as influencers for the younger generations as well as caretakers for the older ones. They are the most powerful group in our society because they have an subconscious amount of power to change and shape the world. If a cause concerns or provokes them they can reach a large amount of people cross countries, religion and polite beliefs in seconds. Generation Y fights a war every single day against causes like poverty, suppression or even animal cruelty. The channels used to communicate today are nowhere near what the previous generation had to play with, and their ability to reach out on a global scale in second are worth keeping in mind.