Millennials are the future of retail spending, forecasted to spend $600 billion in the United States alone this year. The marketing community isn’t sleeping/missing out on the opportunity to engage with the generation that has the potential to make or break a brand with a few keystrokes.
However, despite advertisers’ best efforts to reach this new generation through traditional marketing strategies, millennials require a new kind of thinking; they ignore traditional marketing, skip commercials and don’t click on banner ads. They want to be a part of the brand experience; they want to play a role in spreading the love through their social networks, and that’s where they want brands to reach them. With the use of social media at an all time high, marketers can harness the power of the millennial by transforming them into dedicated brand ambassadors and including them in the marketing experience. In short, we need to market with millennials, not to them.
To help offer some first-hand knowledge, we’ve posed a panel with experts including:
- Mikey Scott, Global Marketing Director at Herschel
- Jeremiah Owyang, Founder of Crowd Companies
- Ben Parr, author of Captivology
- DeeAnna McPherson, Vice President of Marketing, Hootsuite
These experts want to offer advice on how to make genuine connections with millennials, and in turn, encourage them to share brand messages with their peers to become marketers in their own right.
Attendees will learn how to:
- Develop their marketing strategies to fit the needs of the 75 million strong millennial demographic.
- Effectively capture the millennial audience through social media and unique customizable content.
- Shift their campaign planning process, moving away from big ideas to create the unique, personalized digital and physical experiences that millennials crave.
Each panelist will pull from their own experience working with (and at) at global companies to discuss real-world examples of successfully captivating the millennial market through innovative, creative marketing techniques.
However, in order to make this happen, we need your help! To make sure this panel becomes a reality at SXSW 2016, head over to the Panel Picker and cast your vote for “How to Market (with) Millennials.” See you in Austin!