The headlines keep coming.
MILLENNIALS WANT ONE THING ABOVE ALL ELSE
BOOMERS ARE BRAND LOYAL
GEN X IS LAZY AND DOESN’T CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT
GENERATION Z IS GOING TO BE THE MOST INFLUENTIAL GENERATION EVER
These stories all have one thing in common: they’re full of it.
The truth is that using data and stories to create valuable, meaningful marketing across generations requires more than just tactics and strategy…it also requires insight.
One of the reasons we started the Millennial Think Tank was to bust myths, and to get that insight. ArCompany Co-founder Amy Tobin felt there were too many simplistic statements posing as truths, and that marketers, brands, and even news organizations were snapping them up and spitting them back out as quickly as they could without thinking about context, and about deeper implications.
In the last 8 months we’ve gained a nuanced, thoughtful understanding of what matters to Millennials, which prompted us to kick off a Gen X Think Tank, and a Boomer Think Tank (at some point we’ll get to Gen Z!).
Some of the insights gathered there have confirmed what we already know, and some have surprised us. As we build across generations and feed ideas and social data back into our clients’ marketing, we’ve seen how important it is to set the stage, and talk to a variety of people from each generation.
All of this is in keeping with our primary mission – to live at the intersection of quantitative and qualitative social data, and to gather and implement meaningful insights. In the presentation below we share some of the things we’ve learned, and what it takes to gather insight across generations for use in improving your branding and marketing.
Photo credit: Too Much Bullshit on TV via photopin (license).
Joe is a product/ops guy working with the ArCompany team on content, growth, and analytics. He digs media, design, startups, data, rocanroll, anything science-y, and thinking about how to become a better human.
Amen!
Thank you Steve for your support! It is always nice to see you here or on Twitter.
I think that middle ground is really hard for people – there’s an emotional resonance that goes with “but I had X experience with Y person” and it’s hard to connect to more quantitative experiences. In marketing / comms I think of that as the “case studies or click-thrus” problem…neither of which can stand on their own.