NEW YORK: Millennial males are at the vanguard of the digital revolution, and savvy marketers are proving these consumers can be reached with suitably tailored communications.
New research from Nielsen identified this group as spending more time with online video, streaming music services and social media than any other demographic.
Brought up in a digital environment, they are also more likely than older age groups to learn about what companies are doing via social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter or blogs.
During a 30-day period in the last quarter of 2014, seven in ten millennial males engaged in social networking, compared to 38% of older men.
New research from Nielsen identified this group as spending more time with online video, streaming music services and social media than any other demographic.
Brought up in a digital environment, they are also more likely than older age groups to learn about what companies are doing via social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter or blogs.
During a 30-day period in the last quarter of 2014, seven in ten millennial males engaged in social networking, compared to 38% of older men.
A further 56% downloaded games, while 57% downloaded apps and 51% used a games console, compared with 24%, 36% and 23% for non-millennial men respectively.
Millennial males are a contradictory mix of trusting and cynical. They're more likely than others to trust the information they learn about a company through social media than information offered elsewhere, and they're not so concerned about the amount of personal information those companies are capturing.
But when it comes to advertising, edgy and sarcastic humour resonates highly with them. They also identify with "normal" guys in extreme or exaggerated situations.
Marketers can take advantage of such insights, said Nielsen, to significantly improve their campaigns with suitably tailored messaging. One example comes from the computers and electronics category, where 76% of all impressions aiming to reach millennial males do so successfully, compared with 57% for campaigns aiming to reach the general millennial population.
That success evidently translates into spending, as the average millennial man shops five times a year for electronics, spending around $77 on each trip.
Nielsen also reported that, overall, millennial males spend an average of $2,200 a year in retail, with the key categories being, in addition to electronics, mass merchandisers, home improvement, digital apparel/merchandise and apparel.
Millennial males are a contradictory mix of trusting and cynical. They're more likely than others to trust the information they learn about a company through social media than information offered elsewhere, and they're not so concerned about the amount of personal information those companies are capturing.
But when it comes to advertising, edgy and sarcastic humour resonates highly with them. They also identify with "normal" guys in extreme or exaggerated situations.
Marketers can take advantage of such insights, said Nielsen, to significantly improve their campaigns with suitably tailored messaging. One example comes from the computers and electronics category, where 76% of all impressions aiming to reach millennial males do so successfully, compared with 57% for campaigns aiming to reach the general millennial population.
That success evidently translates into spending, as the average millennial man shops five times a year for electronics, spending around $77 on each trip.
Nielsen also reported that, overall, millennial males spend an average of $2,200 a year in retail, with the key categories being, in addition to electronics, mass merchandisers, home improvement, digital apparel/merchandise and apparel.
Data sourced from Nielsen; additional content by Warc staff
