Daniel Tucker ’16 penned an article on LinkedIn explaining the factors necessary for brands to reach millennials. He contends that advertisements must be interactive, entertaining and participatory to be successful.
Elon University senior Daniel Tucker published a June 13 article on LinkedIn titled “How to Hook Millennials to Your Brand the Easy Way,” and the social networking community took notice.
The strategic communications major, who aspires to become a marketing and public relations professional, wrote that “millennials want brands that act like their friends.”
In his article, Tucker outlined three ways to reach millennials: through interaction, entertainment and participation. If a brand fulfills each of these tactics, Tucker contended that they would have a greater chance of reaching the young adult demographic. The author highlighted a few brands that have successful employed this approach, namely, Sony and Apple. Tucker also claimed that reaching millennials is not a challenging task; all it takes is having a strong presence on social media.
“Social media is one of the most important and powerful tools that a brand can use to interact with their consumers. It’s such a great medium for discussion and it allows brands to truly personalize their relationships with people,” Tucker explained. “All it takes is responding to tweets or commenting on Facebook to bring people into your brand in a way that you couldn’t do 15 years ago. Social media has become the bridge between a brand and its consumers.”
Similarly, Tucker described why traditional advertising is not as effective with millennials. “It’s so easy to skip over these kinds of ads with the introduction of on-demand options and streaming services. Millennials don’t like marketing that feels intrusive to them or annoys them,” he said. “It’s become an ‘open system’ these days because brands have started to take feedback from younger consumers, as opposed to just bombarding them with information.”
One example of successful non-traditional advertising is the “Share a Coke” campaign, which allows individuals to customize Coke cans with the names of friends, family or loved ones.
Since its June 13 publication, Tucker’s article has received more than 2,500 views and more than 40 comments. “I hope that everybody who reads it can take something away, whether they agree with what I’ve written or not,” he said. “My goal was to give people a millennial’s perspective on marketing, using some of my own insights as well as some actual research. I hope it conveys a clear message that all professionals can use to continually improve upon their marketing towards younger demographics.”
By Brett Gubitosi ’16