• by Jason Forbes , March 10, 2015

Millennial behaviors are shifting. In fact, Millennials themselves are shifting. While Millennials check their smartphone 45 times per day, 35% of Millennials now have their own kids to contend with. What’s clear, though, is for a segment that’s 25% of the U.S. population and worth $200 billion in spending, “classic” home pages and guides factor less and less in their decision making. In fact, when compared to search discovery, Millennials are 56% more likely to use native discovery through a widening array of social media.

For entertainment marketers at TV networks, or anyone publishing media content, this often translates to a major disconnect between where time is being invested and where time is being spent. There are exceptions: HuffPo, BuzzFeed and NBC are some of the most successful Millennial marketers and publishers on social media. Generally speaking, however, we need to recognize that native discovery on social media or on any site requires a reset in the fundamentals.

For Marketers at TV Networks and Publishers this means:

You’re in a feed –Twelve verticals including politics, parenting and travel enjoy greater than 50% daily consumption by Millennials. This means the entertainment marketer that posts in a Facebook timeline or social feed has to rise above a level of noise that never existed before on a home page or via search discovery. Optimizing CTAs, headlines, messaging and image visualization delivers higher success in engagement and sharing. Click-bait is fool’s gold. Today's entertainment marketers need to deliver on the promise made via native discovery or they'll quickly see Millennial trust erode.

You’re on a smartphone – While some entertainment marketers and publishers have begun to re-imagine their content through native discovery, even fewer are translating the 71% of social media being consumed on mobile into the same amount of time in design. This means every pixel counts in packaging available real estate for native discovery. Since Millennials are 3.6 times more likely to share content, making sharing compelling on mobile delivers a “social loop” that for the best publishers has become a primary driver of audience growth. 

You’re a moment of truth – Netflix CEO Reed Hastings highlights that tiny nuances in user journey friction can translate into massive differences in paths taken. This is even more true for publishers in native discovery. Taking time to perfect “frictionless” sharing is essential as 55% of Millennials will click on content because it’s been shared by one of their peers. Since we live in a world where 95% of people on Twitter don’t tweet, look at interactive one-click experiences like audience “sentimeters” that tend to drive higher active percentage participation than Twitter alone. Recently, shows like “Pretty Little Liars,” “One Tree Hill” and “Game of Thrones” delivered over 3 million audience votes in 48 hours via one-click experiences. 

It’s your (Millennial) relationship, make it work! 

At 97% daily consumption, entertainment as a vertical enjoys greater resonance with Millennials than almost any other. For marketers of TV-related content, this means re-imagining what type of content is produced given where it will be consumed. Fleshing out these user journeys that can begin (instead of end) with native discovery, opens new audience acquisition paths. New audiences can not only drive tune-in to a live TV show, but can create a 24/7 relationship that engenders deeper loyalty. With this comes greater responsibility in managing these ongoing Millennial relationships and the associated upsides in audience size, engagement and sharing they deliver.