Marketing to Millennials in a Data-Driven, Post-Campaign Era

With the influx of mergers-and-acquisitions activity in the marketing technology industry, there is a clear demand for technology that enables brands to more efficiently and more relevantly engage with their customers.

This demand stems from an important transformation currently taking place in the minds of the current and next wave of consumers regarding how they choose to interact with brands. With digital channels, social media and mobile communications, today’s millennial generation in particular orchestrates its own experience. Millennial consumers no longer follow predetermined, linear routes from exposure to conversion to brand advocate; rather, they utilize a variety of on- and offline channels to start, stop, rejoin and jump engagement levels, carving out highly individualized paths to purchase. As a result, the conventional marketing funnel is now irrelevant and traditional campaigns are extinct.

Forrester Research has even reported that we’re moving into a “post-campaign era,” where people despise and distrust push-style marketing methods that interrupt or intercept them -- 49 percent of consumers don’t trust digital ads, 38 percent don’t trust emails, and 36 percent don’t trust information in branded apps. Today, marketing success depends on customers seeing, engaging with and sharing content within their trusted social networks. No one is waiting to be wooed by elaborate campaigns. The challenge for marketers, then, is to break through the overcrowded personal junk filters set by millennials with relevant, targeted, valuable and non-promotional interactions.

[O'Neill, Chief Marketing Officer, SDL]