• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, November 9, 2014

Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about Millennials. WPP media shop Mindshare North America is out with new research. Badge Brands and the New Millennial Identity, takes a look at the importance of intelligence and friendship to the Millennial generation -- and how brands can capitalize on Millennials who value intelligence and friendship. Of the study, Mindshare Head of Insights Mark Potts said: "Millennials' digitized social lives create a whole new way of showing their identities and also means they belong to larger active social groups. This has created a higher premium on showing the world that they can navigate social relationships. This means a new role for today's badge brands: helping Millennials externally communicate that they have friendship and intelligence values. Many of the old badge brand values around exclusivity don't work anymore for this audience. Brands need to be inclusive and adaptive in their approach." In terms of Millennial mindset, the study finds they expect good intentions from brands: 62% of Millennials say that supporting their employees show a brand has good intentions. Empathy is a strong driver, with 74% of Millennials indicating they "understand people's flaws and accept them." The desire for fun, meaning and happiness distinguishes Millennials from Gen X: 79% "want their lives to have as much meaning as possible." Experiencing the Great Recession heightened Millennial's value of pragmatism: 76% believe "drive is just as importance as intelligence."

Now this happened one of two ways. In August, Chicago-based Lake Capital acquired Engine, an agency with offices in New York, San Francisco, London, Brussels, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Edinburgh. The agency was co-founded by Peter Scott in 2005 after having founded and built UK agency WCRS into the powerhouse it became. Now, Scott is out. Either he left of his own volition -- having achieved career greatness -- or he was pushed out by the youngsters who, sadly, have no patience for the wisdom that came before them. Of the exit, an Engine spokesperson said: "This follows the recent transaction and careful thought about the future strategy and direction of the group. We thank Peter for all he has done for Engine and wish him well with his future ventures." You decide how this went down.

Full service! Integrated! No, wait, unbundle! Specialize! Wait, what? Integrate again? Hmm. We wish the ad industry would make up its mind. Back in the day, all services were under one roof, and everyone was perfectly happy with that setup. Then media agencies broke off. Then interactive groups. Then, well -- you can't go to a meeting now without there being more than five different companies in the room. Maybe Havas CEO Yannick Bollore would like to return to the good old days of one-stop shop. During an analyst call last week, he said: “We are pursuing a different strategy [from Publicis] – to integrate – because we believe the customer journey is not different in a digital world. We need to be able to deliver networks who are completely fluent in traditional, digital and mobile to meet our clients' expectations, and so far we are very satisfied with the results of our strategy based on integration.” 

And while Havas is busy integrating, Anomaly is going in an entirely different direction. The agency has hired former international soccer player Edgar Davis who will have the task of applying sports-related insights to campaign briefs. Yeah, talk about specialization. Of the hire, Anomaly Global ECD Mike Byrne said: "He's a professional athlete, he has opinions and he's not afraid to share them. We do Dick's Sporting Goods and other sports-related projects he'll be able to contribute to." Agency Partner Richard Mulder added: "He has everything you want in a young talented creative. He's a pop-culture addict, he can tell you a lot about China and has an interesting perspective -- he plays with kids and then meets with high-powered businessmen." Hey, agencies will try anything, right?

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