Millennials are the most diverse generation to date; they are more accepting than previous generations and their digital connections have made it a less intense struggle to get along with other young people from different backgrounds. This shift from face-to-face to more online interaction results in an increased need for ‘a certain daily dose of drama’. Add the fact that Gen Y is the most stressed of all generations and has an increased need for escapism in entertainment; more preferably, the kind of entertainment where content and characters are lighter, more absurd and more frivolous.

And it works! According to an article on YPulse, Jersey shore (by chance my favourite reality show became MTV’s most viewed series in the channel’s 30-year history by just showcasing characters whose main concerns were getting drunk, hooking up, having fun and not taking anything or anyone too seriously.

However, not only do we love the ‘empty’ content of reality TV, we love the reality stars even more, especially because they are ubiquitous on social media, just like we are. With a growing access to these stars’ lives, we get daily updates of their comings and goings through Twitter, Facebook & Instagram, which makes us feel like we are literally right beside them. It allows us to feel like we’re just staying up-to-date about the lives of the girl or boy next door.

And it feels pretty good, as Generation Y has a higher self-esteem and a higher need for self-realization and uniqueness than former generations. Proximity to the famous is a way of receiving this recognition and status for the self.  The continuous media and peer benchmarks, as well as society and parents stimulating Gen Yers to turn their life into a success story affect their thinking and behavior. And that’s where the obsession with the world of reality TV began…

Compared to the results found in 2006, 9 to 30 year olds are more proud of their country. The average national pride has increased with 6%. The Millennials who are most proud of their country are the ones living in the USA (90%), France (82%) and Germany (81%). The countries whose pride has increased the most since 2006 are Japan (+33%) and Germany (+27%).

Next to being more proud of their countries, Gen Yers would also like to maintain local traditions. The German, Chinese and UK Millennials especially, attach more importance to their local customs now than in 2006.

But not only local traditions are important to Millennials. They find it also very important to be welcoming and tolerant towards people from other countries. The most welcoming Millennials are the Indians (91%), Mexicans (86%) and South Africans (80%).

Overall, Millennials are connected and like to share things with their network. Most of them are curious about the world and very tolerant to each other. More information on ‘The Next Normal’ survey can be found here.

We can reach 1 out of 5 Millennials, but we can’t get them off your lawn

Let’s take a step back before we answer that question – but you can skip the next 3 paragraphs if you know all about NewFronts already.

Just like the world of TV media buying needs a moment to assess the upcoming landscape of small-screen broadcasting, ad buyers realized that the same is the case for digital advertising. Banner-based online advertising is just so 2001: there might be infinite digital space to fill with banners; but in today’s content-driven society, all the pixels in the world will not help you if the message you deliver is not compelling or engaging enough.

Enter NewFronts 2012, an opportunity to revise digital advertising strategies by marrying them to premium online video content. However, digital advertising has also become the victim of technology, which propelled our attention from large PC displays to the tip of our smartphone-savvy fingers. Ever clicked an ad banner on your mobile because you wanted to, and not by mistake? I sure haven’t.

With engagement power and relevance being once again the most sought-after commodities in digital advertising, the Interactive Advertising Bureau decided that NewFronts 2013 should be about more than just video alone.

Which brings us back to Zynga: when they decided to close the event schedule with a party on Friday evening, they took everyone by surprise. But as Adam Sussman, Zynga’s VP of sales, puts it: “Mobile video we believe is going to be the fastest growing ad format, and we’re focused on delivering that in the most engaging digital content, which is gaming”. And I can tell you one thing – Zynga did not just take the agency crowd by surprise by making an unexpected appearance on the event schedule. It blew their socks off by giving them an incredibly interactive and playful party experience.

From 6 to 9 pm, invite-only attendees flocked to the Openhouse Gallery in NYC where they could mingle, dance and explore the world of Zynga in an environment that took the concept of stimulation to the next level. As a Gen-Y stimulation junkie, I was ready to break my freshly-signed 2-BR/rooftop lease to move into the Openhouse Gallery for the rest of my days. Picture a traveling circus setting up shop in Coachella’s Sahara tent, directed by Terry Gilliam; or an offline version of everything lovable the online gaming and social worlds have to offer.

I find the lack of words to describe this experience fairly disturbing; but I will try to summarize its highlights in a couple of bullet points.

• Hands-on décor: the entrance area was flanked by a plywood wall full of hands. Yes, hands: Technicolor fake ones and real flesh and blood ones sticking out from behind the plywood, eager to welcome guests with fresh beers, high fives and prizes.
• Play brought to life: what better way to explain what business you are in than making people walk through it in real life? The FarmVille Petting Zoo was crowded with furry costume performers, ready to be hugged. A Drawsomething portrait artist made you forget about the pains of sitting in some touristy neighborhood for hours, waiting for your sketch souvenir, by swiping and tapping your smile on a tablet in under 10 minutes. Words With Friends came to life in both XXL and XXS formats: a photo booth prone to witty word combinations and Words With Friends trays carrying the food item spelled out with word tiles on the tray.
• Play becomes win: guests could earn a chip for each game they interacted with, and exchange it for a surprise reward, handed to them through the plywood wall.
• How to share data and not be annoying: instead of boring guests with endless slide decks or video loops about the company’s numbers, witty tweet-sized data points were hung all over the walls: “54% more time spent per user than Yahoo! (Call us, Marissa)” / “reach 1 out of 4 women. Yeah, thassright, ladies. You loooove Zynga. And Zynga looooves you”

The attention to detail, combined with a seamless transition experience between interactive, musical and visual elements, succeeded in energizing a crowd worn out by a week of digital content presentations. Suited up guests were blasting soap bubbles at the dancing crowd; ladies rocking 9-inch heels and psychedelic plastic glasses were high-fiving adults in chicken costumes; everyone was taking pictures. When the 3 hours were over, the bouncers had to put quite some work into making sure everyone was ready to leave the premises.

Whether this party will turn Zynga into a contender of advertising dollars in the digital playground or not is yet to be defined, but I know for a fact that I had a memorable night. And judging by the social media buzz around the party, so did everyone else.

Next to this, there’s also a contest called ‘Around the world in 80 jobs’, where 8 graduated Gen Y’ers are getting the chance to test their qualities jobwise, and to pimp their experience by practicing different jobs at different locations.

The WayToWork campaign’s focus is not mainly on the competition, but more about coaching recent graduates into getting the right job. For example, jobseekers also had the chance to meet Adecco coaches on April 30^th ‘in the streets’ of 50 countries. Although results are not yet known, I believe this effort meant a lot to youngsters who are dying to start the job of their lives.

All traffic to the WayToWork website is generated by a viral spot on social media, so I think Gen Y’ers will find their way quickly.

-Albus Dumbledore (in J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter’)

And apparently a lot of Millennials have found the light switch, according to The Next Normal survey of theVIACOM International Media Network. The results of the survey, conducted among 15,000 Millennials, from 9 to 30 years old and across 24 countries, are published on the VIMNInsights Tumblr.

Gen Y is a very happy generation

Three out of 4 Millennials consider themselves very happy. Gen Yers in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil especially, are walking on sunshine. The main happiness drivers among Gen Yers are being happy together with their family (49%) and friends (46%), followed by being successful (34%) and, having time for fun & relaxation (33%). The top 5 of the happiness drivers is closed by going on holiday (33%).

No stress

The global stress level among Gen Yers is at 33%. Millennials in China, Greece, Japan and Italy particularly, are stressed out. But on the bright side: the happiness level is more than twice as high at 76%! The most popular ways to relax when they’re stressed out are watching TV, talking to friends and listening to music. More information on ‘The Next Normal’ survey can be found here.

And to help a little with the happiness:

Eating carrots alone will first turn you orange and then kill you. [Steven Pont]

Developmental psychologist Steven Pont claims to not know much about marketing. What he does know much about, are the four important education styles parents appeal to: indifferent, setting free, authoritarian and concerned. Ideally we use a mix of all four styles. As it’s not an option to only eat carrots (he did really say that!), it’s also not an option to tenaciously cling on to one single style.

An over-concerned style, for example, might result in a lack of training for children for their future lives. We replace the experience by an instruction; this already starts with the pedagogic crèche employee who tries to avoid that a building block tower falls over. However, negative experiences during childhood are also important. Children get a burn-out as a result of their parents’ instructions. Children feel an incredible need to experience things. That is why they withdraw from the pedagogic domain where they only too often get a don’t.

There are two ways for children to learn: play (experimenting) and learn (instructions). Boys and girls are different (try letting them play with clay; on the boys’ side it will get everywhere, even on the ceiling!), but they both are children. From a pedagogic point of view it is much more interesting to let the boys experience first and to give them instructions later. Boys prefer playing behind the shed; for girls it does not really matter where they play.

If a boy aged 7 starts a sentence with ‘Can I…’, then a woman’s brain automatically opens the door towards a ‘Maybe better not’. Fathers are being involved increasingly in the domain of education. Maybe it’s time for a first masculine wave as trend for 2014? Steven is aiming hard at it. It is not about macho behaviour but about allowing risks – learning through experience, not through a manual. There is too much protection these days. “Pont’s law” says: back to the experience, away from the fear.

Mix fun and education messages together. People want to party! [Jacqueline Harding]

Jacqueline Harding at Tomorrow’s Child (UK) promises to break the code of the ‘Cosmic Digital Media Generation’ (CDMG) in an unlimited world. After all, you don’t want your brand in a museum; you want it to continue to appeal to today’s children.

Jacqueline’s main advice: “Make the world a better place.” If you do so, 83% of the consumers will consider buying your product. People look at value, not at boring stuff such as the price. Furthermore it no longer is a mother’s world. Father and grandparents also check a brand’s message.

There are other notions starting with M that need to be taken into account:

• Move it: day turns into night and vice versa; learning becomes playing; education does not only concern intellect, children also need to learn about failure
• Mobility: how flexible is your brand?
• Mind it: the importance of media and mirror neurons; children want interaction with brands
• Mash it up: a mix of fun and education makes your brand more relevant; your brand/product/service is chosen emotionally
• Multi-talk it: there are many ways to communicate your message

The theme ‘responsible children marketing’ could not have been on this congress’ programme 10 years ago. [Moniek Buijzen]

Prof. Dr. Moniek Buijzen (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, Bitescience) wrote a SWOCC publication (in Dutch) about young consumers, in which she gathered all her knowledge. She is proud to be a ‘moral crusader’ and share her 5 golden rules for responsible children marketing.

1. Avoid materialism idealisation. Children should not grow up thinking that you can buy happiness; that does not bring on happy adults.
2. Don’t let them whinge.
3. Make it recognisable. Children are less good than adults in spotting what is advertising.
4. Avoid their being misled. What is acceptable to the target group?
5. Limit sugars, salt and fat. Things could be better.

Bonus: Act as if they were your own. This is the easiest rule, which would allow forgetting the previous five. Moniek accentuates that she is not in favour of protecting, but of making them resistant.

Later this week we’ll share the review of the Youth Day, the second day of the Trends in Kids and Youth Marketing Congress. For a full review of the Kids Day (in Dutch) click here.

A great example of a female GenYer with a successful career is Lena Dunham, aka the voice of this generation (or at least a generation), as she puts it herself. At the age of 26 she already wrote, directed and starred in the independent film Tiny Furniture, created the critically acclaimed series Girls, for which she was nominated for an Emmy, won 2 Golden Globes and signed a book deal. Quite impressive, isn’t it? And she’s just one example of the many Millennial women who are taking over in comedy!

Having a successful career does not come at the expense of having a successful marriage and a family though. Being a good parent and having a successful marriage are still perceived as more important than a career, which is why Gen Y women consider a good work-life balance to be very important.

Thinking about this good work-life balance, Adele is one of the first examples that come to mind. Last year she won 6 Grammys for her album 21. This year was her year off; she became a mother. Still she managed to theme the last James Bond film and go on to win an Oscar.

Of course there are lots of women outside of show business who have a successful career too. When we take a look at some people on the Forbes 30 under 30 lists, we find a lot of examples:

Carly Cushnie (Fashion designer), Leslie Dewan (Co-founder of and Chief Science Officer at Transatomic Power), Jennifer Fan (Founder of Arbalet Capital), Kim Swift (Creative Director at Airtright Games), Rachel Haot (Chief Digital Officer at the City of New York) and the list goes on…

So, to end the same way we started, a summarizing quote of Beyoncé, also a great example of a Generation Y woman with both a career and a family: Strong enough to bear the children. Then get back to business!

And when you think about it, their ideas indirectly change the world. Think about youngsters’ social skills that positively influenced all communication on the net. Without such high level of social interaction, I personally don’t think Facebook would have made it this far. Miniblogs like Twitter and mediaplatforms like YouTube are also unmissable, even for other generations than Gen Y. You have to admit, User Generated Content rules. Thank you Generation Y.

But I’m not only talking about social media here. I also want to point out the importance of the Gen Y ideas on the music industry. Gen Y has the MP3 player in the pocket, mostly in the shape of a smartphone. This way of life changed the music industry completely. Music is digital, downloaded or bought on iTunes. With the introduction of MP3, Generation Y decided to download music into their pocket.

Even the fashion industry changed. Millenials have the habit to put different clothing styles together and create their own new ensemble. To Gen Y, It’s all about being creative in life, in search of their own personality.

What do brands have to learn from this?

In 2012, research revealed that ‘creativity is a brand’s best weapon’ (Smith, 2012). Certainly when you try to impress Generation Y. Brands should be relevant and interesting for them. Brands have to inspire them. And, trust me, it pays off. If a brand doesn’t show creativity and socialization, Gen Y will search for your services elsewhere. They want challenging projects and creative expression.

But what are the effects of creative brands on Gen Y?  Till et al. (2005) discovered that creative commercials help to remember ads much more than other kinds of advertising. Sounds interesting, doesn’t it? Some brands already got the message.

Case Tipp-Ex: Hunter and Bear’s 2012 Birthday Party

Who remembers this campaign? I certainly do. It’s about a bear having a birthday party, and with just one Tipp-Ex erase, you can enter any date you want. Depending on which date you entered, you see different videos based on true historic facts. For example, when you enter 1989 you see the breakdown of the Berlin Wall. Here Tipp-Ex, just a product used mostly by Gen Y’ers in school to rewrite on mistakes, got with the launch of this campaign 9 million views in only 2 weeks, got an average of 1 tweet per second and got hundreds of press articles and TV reports. Doesn’t sound bad from my point of view, being a Gen Y’er myself.