In the time that I have spent in college (which sadly ended in May), my entire viewpoint of media has changed drastically. It started with solely relying on the traditional mediums such as radio, television and print in order to reach everyone, because you could. However, over the years I have seen the transition to today’s advertising mediums; the switch from mass communication to personalized communication in order to run after desperately seeking the attention of the target consumer.
The Gen Y demographic (born between 1985 and the present) is selective in its communication. They determine when and where the messages they receive --- and if they will interact with the message.
Let’s take the news for instance. Not only can we receive the news in print, on the radio, and on television, we are now able to receive customized updates via Twitter, Facebook, and specified genres online and on our iPhone app. If we aren’t interested, we can literally tune it out.
This is the same for advertising. Companies are revamping their brands entirely in order to get through to their target consumer and give them what they want. They are learning that they need to actively engage them in their product or service to hear how they can improve and in turn have better brand awareness.
The first example that pops into my head is Domino’s. They recognized that people did not like the product and they challenged consumers to tell them how to fix it. They even encouraged customers to send in pictures of their pizza where they critiqued them online and in their television advertisements, now that is quality control.
Now what have we at The Odyssey learned about our select Greek students of the Gen Y?
An article by Kenneth Gronback in AdAge had an interesting insight about the Gen Y demographic, “Difficult to reach with marketing messages, their principal medium is cyberspace. Unlock the formula for efficient marketing to Generation Y, and you will print money. One anomaly: They love snail mail and anything with their name on it.”
Now I agree with most of this assessment, but I think we need to dig a bit deeper. I do not believe as a Gen Y-er that my principal medium is cyberspace. Yes, my eyes are infiltrated at every turn at every website where I am bombarded by messages, and frankly I just get annoyed. Advertisers think that if they go online then they will automatically see results. What messages mean most to me? The tailored ones, the ones that are just for me. I love snail mail, I love reading emails that call me by name, I love when I am being sent a message on purpose. I like when advertisers actually care about me, what’s going on, and what I’m interested in.
At The Odyssey, we are able to put out a product that is incredibly specialized to our target consumer, our demographic, our fellow Greeks and the messages that are being sent to them from our advertisers are being received. They have cut through the noise level in print and seeing great returns and better relationships with their customers, (who knew you could still do that with print!)
Bottom line: don’t just do a knee-jerk approach and immediately run to the dim light of a computer screen, remember the personalized tailored messages are best, even if it is a “dying” medium. Trust me, we will all benefit.
Adrian France, Chief Creative Officer
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