Top brands must start creating content to reach Gen Y, new study suggests

Small businesses must start using experiential marketing to connect with younger shoppers and start focusing their budgets on producing more content online, new research from the Lifelounge Group reveals.

Lifelounge chief executive Dion Appel says the company’s new Urban Market Research report, completed in conjunction with Sweeney Research, shows younger shoppers value brands such as Nike, Billabong, Smirnoff and Nokia for their emphasis on creating content over simple direct-message marketing.

“These companies are all forward-thinking and are using “brand experiences”. They create content online and are allowing the customer to become involved in the marketing, rather than just give them the message directly.”

The research quotes Nike as the top fashion brand for the survey’s respondents, followed by Billabong and Adidas, while Smirnoff has topped the list for top alcohol brand, followed by Jack Daniels and Jim Beam.

Nokia managed to snare the top spot for most loved mobile phone brand, (although Appel says this level is falling), with iPhone and Samsung coming in second and third respectively.

Appel points to a Nike marketing campaign which allowed users to take videos of themselves kicking soccer balls, which were compiled by the company with footage of famous soccer stars. He says this type of content creation is the way to reach younger people – entertainment is the key to spending.

“This type of marketing is extremely successful and young people respond to it, which is why we are urging businesses to move away from disruptive marketing into more of an immersive experience. Younger people multi-task, but they also love these single-task activities.”

“The answer to this is content creation. Some brands have done that very well, like Tipp-Ex with its hunting advertising campaign.”

The Tipp-Ex campaign allows users to choose what happens to two characters being attacked by a bear in an online video. While Appel says this is a fairly big-budget venture, businesses don’t have to go all-out and can use a simple video camera and YouTube to spread their messages.

Appel says the Tipp-Ex advertisement appeals to another aspect of Gen-Y and Gen-Z – a focus on entertainment spending. The research claims respondents spent $68.56 billion this year on sport, fashion, travel and entertainment, with socialising and entertainment taking up an average of $122.42 of expenditure each week.

Although Appel says this year’s figure cannot be directly compared with last year’s result of about $42 billion due to a difference in metrics, he says there has nevertheless been an increase in entertainment spending.

“This market hasn’t been disheartened at all in terms of spending. They are spending more on going out and having fun, but they are also becoming more sophisticated. About 41% of the audience had attended activities such as art exhibitions, while about 21% said they had attended rave events.”

And that focus on entertainment is also combined with a new focus on socialisation, Appel says. For the first time in the survey’s history, music has no longer been listed as the factor that most defines a young person’s personality.

Instead, Appel says young people are now defined by their friends, with 48% listing Facebook as their most visited site. He says younger consumers are now more likely to share information with their friends – including where and how they shop.

“Businesses definitely need to have a look at how they are representing themselves in social environments, because they don’t want to do it the wrong way or everyone will know about it.”

“I think brands very much need to know that in order to gain effective relationships in the social networking environment, they need to look for quality ways to represent themselves. That goes back to content creation, and companies like Old Spice have done that extremely effectively.”

The survey also shows younger consumers are spending more on travel with overseas travel taking up 8% of total expenditure, with domestic travel taking up 5%. Appel says businesses should note this, as it proves younger shoppers are “increasingly mobile”.

“They are engaging with travel, and are more immersed in getting social and visiting new places and having new experiences. They are craving the opportunity to share with peer networks and that includes going new places with them. Distance isn’t necessarily an issue.”

These results, Appel says, prove businesses need to start focusing on their relationships with younger consumers instead of just marketing towards them.

“Content and entertainment creation doesn’t need to cost the world. The ability to have things go viral is huge, and it doesn’t need to have great broadcast quality – just needs to set the right tone and have the right message.”

“You can’t just measure campaigns in ROI now, you need to measure things in your return on relationship with consumers. Obviously generate income and increase your bottom line as a focus, but you can’t just measure strict ROI anymore without realising the greater effect your marketing will have on your reputation among young people, who are all connected with each other and share information constantly.”