Value Added: A Millennial’s View on Advertising

Nathan Antetomaso
Jul 30, 2017 · 3 min read

Everyone knows that Millennials aren’t buying homes as much as we should, are eating more avocado toast than we should, and aren’t going to Applebee’s as much as we should. While that all may be true, what I’m most interested in is the fact that we’re not swayed by advertising like generations past have been… or at least we’re not swayed in the same ways.

I’ve grown up in a world where I’ve had a cellphone since elementary school. By the time I was purchasing my own textbooks online versions were a real consideration. Before I was ever (legally) able to go out drinking Uber and Lyft were widely available. Young adults that are about my age are the first tech natives.

And with all of this comes know-how and distraction. I have an adblocker on both my computer and phone to clean up the sites I visit as much as possible, and I have so many things in the palm of my hand to distract myself rather than paying attention to any TV ad or billboard. I recognize an ad when I see it, and I turn myself off to it immediately.

All of this is well known, and because of it more and more brands are beginning to advertise in alternative ways. Popular Instagram stars are constantly posting sponsored content showing their life improved by specific products. TV shows, movies, and even news content is being increasingly infiltrated by new types of product placement. This definitely works, but like the old methods they still can be easily ignored.

With all of this in mind, one thing that seems to work for marketers is to not just talk to consumers, but to actually add value for them. Your standard sweepstakes in the old days did this, but now there are ways to produce similar results on a much larger scale. I work at fooji which is an awesome experiential marketing platform, but there’s a bunch of other ways for companies to create experiences for consumers that will generate insane ROI. Branded music festivals, Lyft’s new “Taco Mode” that allows riders to stop at Taco Bell, pop-up shops, reward programs with exclusive promotions for members, and so many more examples are providing consumers with tangible experiences linked to specific brands that associate positive feelings with that brand and in turn encourage social sharing of it (both online and in-person).

The only real downside to experiential marketing like this is the difficulty of tracking its exact impact and ROI. When tracked through social media statistics or consumer surveys the results are always staggeringly positive, but I think there still needs to be a more comprehensive and overarching way to quantify an experience’s results before more companies will be all in on experiential marketing.

But when they are, you’ll begin to see the impact of an advertising dollar rise again. Millennials are tough to reach, but when you give us a reason to see your product or brand in a physical light it’s not something we’ll soon forget. We like to think that we’re above a lot of the old ways of business and living, but we’ll go eat a free hamburger or tell our favorite stories over and over again… just like all of those before us.

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