LOS ANGELES: Using online video to aid discovery and Twitter to build loyalty are two of six key ways to reach millennials, an executive from REVOLT, the cable network set up by music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, has argued.

Jake Katz, REVOLT's vp/audience insights and strategy, discussed this vital – and valuable – group at the Future of Consumer Intelligence (FOCI) conference, run by the Institute for International Research.

"This is a consumer group that needs to discover and not be told," he said. (For more, including results from research with millennials, read Warc's exclusive report: Sean Combs' REVOLT cable network lets millennials own programming.)

Online video plays a particularly important role for millennials who are looking for information. "YouTube is the new Google," said Katz. "This is a place in a digital space where consumers are in discovery mode."

Social media has another essential function for marketers, too: showing that their brands are honest, open and willing to interact.

"The future consumer builds brand loyalty through Twitter, expecting an honest, two-way dialogue," Katz continued.

Indeed, despite having been made available on both Comcast and Time Warner Cable, REVOLT began life on YouTube and Twitter. And it remains convinced that new media is changing the old rules.

"The future consumer is engaged through TV, while digital provides reach," said Katz. "Digital used to provide the engagement and TV provided frequency. Those two things are now completely switched."

His next guideline for connecting with millennials similarly fed into the need for social expertise, in terms of trying to effectively meet consumers "in person" and engaging them in real time.

Finally, he advised that standalone campaigns often add to the existing content overload, and are less desirable then amplifying something "consumers already are doing" – a goal also helping brands to use digital more strategically.

Data sourced from Warc