why millennials aren’t millennials

Anthony J James | Chief Innova3on & Growth Officer, DDB Asia Pacific Republished September 2015

What Use is the Internet of Things to Marke3ng? | Published Aug 24, 2015



Last week the US-‐based Pew Research Centre published some research no;ng that the majority of Millennials -‐ people aged between 18-‐34 years -‐ didn’t associate

themselves with the genera;onal label ‘Millennial’ at all.

Why Millennials Aren’t Millennials #agencypublisher



Further, they considered themselves as more self-‐absorbed than any other living

genera3on, and nearly half considered themselves wasteful and greedy.

“Clearly, and by their own es3ma3on, Millennials

have a bit of an image problem.” At the risk of incurring the wrath of those who abhor commentary about Milliennials

from people who aren’t of the genera3on, I’m going to explore why the label

‘Millennials’ probably no longer maZers, and why as marketers we need to be

sensi3ve to their labelling resistance.



Firstly, let’s think about the term ‘Millennials’. In jus3ce, it ought to refer to people born on or around the turn of the century, but in fact it applies to people born from 1981. Some became adults before the turn of the century, and even the youngest probably remember the celebra3ons. The millennium came a^er them, and was not a marker of a change in their prospects. If anything, the rise of the consumer internet, from six years before the millennium, was a much more significant marker in their personal journeys.

And the millennium itself was for most of this genera3on, largely insignificant. They inherited none of the aspira3ons held about the millennium by previous genera3ons, shaped and reinforced as they were, by decades of science fic3on. Instead, this genera3on beheld the new century with a strong sense of its limita3ons and flaws. From climate change to terrorism, economic instability and allega3ons of government spying on personal communica3ons, this genera3on were not exposed to the space-‐race fuelled hope of the Boomer genera3on, nor even the Wall Street opportuni3es and excesses of Genera3on X.

The Term Millennial…



"Is it any wonder that they regard the millennium as essen4ally broken?.”

Anthony J James

Chief Innova3on & Growth Officer, DDB 2015



Then there’s the marke3ng prac3ce which has dogged Millennials since they were early consumers. Marketers always pandered to this genera3on, and while ac3vely cri3quing their culture of self-‐absorp3on, they also sought to exploit it, launching campaigns that allowed Millennials to share more and more about their tastes and personal lives. They were acutely aware of the control that Millennials had over brand experience, so by enabling the sharing of personal stories, marketers were able to maintain some control over brand messaging. And this cult of the personal culminated in the (in)famous Time Magazine Person of the Year cover of 2006: You.



So to a very strong extent, marketers have been responsible for the current percep3on held by Millennials about themselves. But the accuracy of this percep3on is inconsistent with actual behaviours of Millennials.

According to research conducted by Goldman Sachs and DeloiZe, Millennials are actually much less acquisi3ve, much less interested in flamboyant exhibi3on of their personal success and wealth, and they are much more likely to be diligent workers in their careers. While they do move from job to job more frequently than previous genera3ons, they tend to have a more sophis3cated awareness of the value of their contribu3on to a career, and they will exit a role when that contribu3on begins to decline.

Millennials are cost-‐sensi3ve, health-‐aware, and they prefer the recommenda3ons of friends and family in purchase selec3ons. They aspire to leadership, but they are concerned about the disconnect between company agendas in large corpora3ons, and the need to improve society.

Marketers Are Responsible!



In other words, Millennials are actually less self-‐absorbed and more realis3c than previous

genera3ons. And as they rise to execu3ve posi3ons within the workforce, this divergence

between perceived selfishness and actual behaviours is widening.

As marketers we should be acknowledging that our old

percep3on of Millennials is widely off the mark. And we

should be aware that labelling of any kind is probably

unhelpful when trying to sell to this age group. As this

group ages, and their priori3es consolidate, it is important

to acknowledge that their resistance to labelling is, at least

in part, because their prac3ce doesn’t match their profile.

What Are The Immediate Opportuni3es?



Published by: Anthony J James Chief Innova3on & Growth Officer, DDB Asia Pacific originally published on LinkedIn

It might be easy to call them ‘Millennials’. But we should be calling them ‘today's new leaders’.

why millennials aren’t millennials

Marketing