A Small Age Difference Makes for a Big Buying Difference

eMarketer reports on, “How Younger and Older Millennial Shoppers Differ”. For this study, millennials are looked at through a more detailed lens.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the older millennial households (25- to 35-year-olds) spend an average of $49,547 while households with younger (those under the age of 25) millennials in-charge spend an average of $32,179. The Bureau compared spending on things like furniture, healthcare, pets, and entertainment, all of which the 25- to 35-year olds spent significantly more.

From an advertiser’s standpoint, this information can be very useful. Since we know that older millennials have more money to spend on all the “extras” in life, we can accommodate more of the budget towards these consumers, whereas it may be beneficial to target younger millennials with less expensive or budget friendly advertisements. 

The Unclear Yet Promising Future of Advertising on Snapchat

It is no real surprise that Snapchat is becoming increasingly popular in the social world. I can still remember when I first downloaded the app and saw no point in sending a picture that my friend could only view for ten seconds or less. A few years later and you can still send short pictures to your friends, but you can also send videos, make stories, follow celebrities, watch clips from live events, read Wall Street Journal articles, and much more. The Snapchat world has taken off and advertising with the growing network is ready for launch.

Currently, you can watch paid videos from a select group of companies in the Discover tab where you see their stories and read their articles. Companies can also advertise with sponsored geo-filters that users can use for 24 hours. The rest of the advertising possibilities are still in the preparation phase.

Snapchat has tossed around the idea of improving ad targeting in the Discover portal to track the content that each user is specifically viewing and then following their off-site browsing and searching activity. This is an upgrade from Snapchat’s current strategy of targeting ads based on what channels people are checking out.

Moat, a third party measurement company, has become of interest to Snapchat who wishes to track the success of their advertisers better. Currently, there is no length tracking on “views” to see how long a user actually views an ad for. For example, one user could click on an ad and immediately click off while another user clicks on the ad and watches the whole thing. According to Snapchat’s current measurements, both are considered a “view”. By partnering with Moat (as Facebook and YouTube have already done) Snapchat will be able to assure their advertisers that they are getting the biggest bang for their buck, or at least let them know how long users are keeping with their ad.

Lastly, Snapchat is contemplating with the idea of a redesigned feed to combine personal stories, Discover, and Live and Local Stories. This redesigned feed would have a back-end algorithm to personalize each feed to each user.

While many of these advancements are still in the developmental stage, the future for Snapchat is promising with opportunities for growth and expansion through advertising. 

Millennials Win the Prize for Most Active Online Video Viewers

According to research conducted by TiVo, Millennials are the most active online video viewers of any US generation. With that, TiVo dug deeper to find what type of video said Millennials are viewing.

The graph above shows that full length television shows are by far the most popular video streamed online by Millennials. The one surprise on the list, “videos of people playing video games”, but I guess if you’re a true gamer (unlike myself), it’s a necessity.

eMarketer expects to see a growth in online video viewers in upcoming years although it will be gradual since Millennials are already streaming at a high rate. 

Predictions to (Probably) Come True in 2016

With the New Year upon us, society is filled with new predictions, goals, and resolutions (that might not last through the month of January). Many of these goals are on a personal level: I want to lose weight, I want to travel more, I want to get married, I want to go to college. All of these are great, but the New Year brings a fresh slate to the business world as well. Here I’m going to share some 2016 predictions as they relate to the wonderful world of marketing.

Ari Kepnes, a content strategist for Contently, expects to see more branded content in the form of GIFs, interactive infographics, videos, live streaming, and web series.

Meaghan Moraes, a senior content specialist at Responsive Inbound Marketing, foresees an increase in relationship marketing and says companies can improve their relationships with consumers by using data that allows marketers to meet consumers where they’re at. 

Moraes suggests an increase in location-based marketing technology by utilizing Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology to connect with nearby devices and offer special deals right then and there.

Kieran Dahl, a social media editor for Contently, predicts an increase in Facebook as the main channel to get information shared and viewed. Dahl projects that businesses will follow the lead of the well-delivered BuzzFeed and New York Time publishers.

Andrew Hutchinson reports for Social Media Today that we’ll likely see an increase in emoji usage on social media platforms. Hutchinson predicts that emojis will take over Instagram posts making text a minority.

For me, I wouldn’t be surprised to see advertising on Snapchat jump drastically. Once Snapchat opens up their advertising platforms on a more local level, I assume businesses will jump on board with sponsored filters, promoted “stories”, and increase their (possibly) already existing Snap-accounts.

Over the past few years, days such as National Cheeseburger Day, National Brown Dog Day, and National Best Friend Day, have popped up all over social media. I would predict that in 2016 marketers will jump on board with these “days” in order to create a connection with their consumers outside of traditional advertising.

What do you think? Are these predictions going to make it past the month of January? Will they come true in 2016? What predictions do you have of your own? Who knows, 2016 might be the year pigs fly, cars drive themselves, and the Cubs win the World Series. 

The Next Level of Advertising

If you’ve never watched the show, “The List”, I would highly recommend it. It’s an entertaining show filled with “trending topics”. As I watched a recent episode, I was intrigued by story covered by Jimmy Rhoades about taking advertising to the next level. Rhoades introduces three new and different ways for advertisers to get their message across.

The first is a simple solution from Slidejoy. This smartphone app allows the lock screen of smartphones to be turned into advertisements. Swipe left for more info, up for a new ad, and right to unlock your phone. This might not sound all that exciting until I add in that users get paid for their eyes on advertisements. Now your eyebrows have risen in interest. Unfortunately, this app is only available for Android phones. Fortunately, for advertisers, this allows them to have a very specific audience for their product and advertisement.

Prepare for your eyebrows to rise even higher… next up, advertisers are renting space on people’s bodies to place advertisements in the form of temporary tattoos! Lease Your Body allows willing participants to fill out an application and have the opportunity to be a walking advertisement for up to $5,000! Lease Your Body hopes to make this advertising medium a staple in the community, my thoughts, no way! The only way I could see this making sense is if it was utilized in the crazy atmosphere in Miami Beach.

Want a way to travel with checked luggage, for free? Orion Travel Tech will give you that opportunity. They’ll not only pay for your luggage fees, they’ll also provide you with new luggage. The only catch, no longer are your bags a solid color, they’re now an advertisement. This could work for companies that are on a global scale, but not so much for your local grocer.

So, what’s next for you? Any plans to rent someone’s forehead? Maybe have your left bicep rented by an advertiser for some big bucks? Or maybe you’ll fly to sunny Mexico with “Southwest Airlines” printed on a suitcase. The advertising world is becoming incredibly creative and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.