"You reach millennials by pleasantly surprising them"

During the Europatat Congress on Friday the 23rd of May, Joeri Van den Bergh of Insites Consulting spoke about 'branding to generation Y', or youth marketing. Generation Y are young people born between 1980 and 1996 and are also called 'Millennials'. Joeri indicates that you need to come closer to the younger consumer nowadays to understand and influence them. "A brand or product has to be a kind of friend to a young person. The Millennials use brands to have more 'fun' in life. This generation still has relatively few responsibilities, loves life and wants to celebrate this. They take any opportunity to party. Like your ten thousandth day on earth."

Closer
"Besides parties generation Y likes to listen to music to get out of their daily rut. Millennials also like surprises. The event Tomorrowland was organised and 360,000 tickets were sold in 1.5 hours. People hardly knew who were going, they only knew that they were going to celebrate 'something' with other young people: the combination of fun and music is what convinced them. The price didn't matter much. Another event that attracts a lot of young people is the Colour run. It's just having fun together. If you can create a 'fun moment' with a brand as a company, you're on the right track. Take for instance the 'Big Splash', organised by Lipton, at which everyone wears a Lipton t-shirt, which was hugely successful. Getting 'closer' to the consumer was also literally carried out by Coca Cola, when you suddenly had your 'own' can or bottle of coke with your name on it. The sales shot up in a few months."

Tomorrowland

Not always a success
Yet organising 'fun' around a brand doesn't always go well," says Joeri. "The American company Next, for instance organised a contest on Facebook to become the 'Next Next Model'. People could vote and the most popular one would win. Unfortunately for the company the winner was Roland Bunce, who wasn't who they had in mind in terms of looks, and the company changed the 'fine print'. It wasn't solved well and this communicated terribly to this generation."

Live and learn
Although generation Y loves to party, this group also has a serious side. They're thinking about tomorrow. Being successful is a dream for them. People no longer believe in 'multi-tasking', but rather in 'mono-tasking', playing into a niche, practising one speciality, that's how you become successful. For instance, they want to be better at a hobby than their friends. An expert. This generation loves to be social and share stories. If companies do what they say they will, it gets shared."

Thaasofobia
Joeri gave other examples of the companies that have successfully approached this generation. "It's about making stories and having them shared. You have to give them a reason to share things, which makes it a win-win situation. For instance, take the beer brand Carlsberg, with 'Happy beer time'." He believes generation Y also suffers from Thaasofobia, the fear of being bored or thought boring. "Young people have a reason for posting on social media that they had a 'great' night or a 'fantastic' weekend."

His advice to companies is to pleasantly surprise these young people. "A unique example is the concept by www.notanotherbill.com. You pay a certain amount per month and receive a nice surprise by post. Not another bill!"

At the right time
He also believes that you don't have to be everywhere all the time as a company. "It's about being there at the right time and when it matters. Like Allianz, a car insurer that hung a mirror in a nightspot. When people looked into it, they appeared drunk and this hit a tender spot."

Joeri Van den Berg wrote the book: 'How cool brands stay hot'. Click here for more information.