• by Jeff Urban , Columnist, July 15, 2016

Over the last year, mobile advertising increased by 65%,according to PEW Research Center. Mobile-only platforms like Snapchat are no doubt capturing the attention of digital consumers. As such, it wouldn’t be a surprise if by 2020, viewership for streaming content on mobile devices will surpass traditional TV among millennials based on current patterns.

It further confirms the trend that marketers have been aware of for some time now: digital, mobile content is necessary to reach millennial consumers. Whether that be the option to stream traditional TV programming through OTT platforms, being able to watch video on social media or consuming content from a mobile phone, millennial preferences are crucial to marketers as they are more than one-fifth of total consumers.

These are three key trends that highlight millennial’s rising digital consumption patterns, and how best to understand this demographics’ content patterns as marketers try to engage with young consumers today.

• Eighty-one percent of smartphone users under the age of 25 now stream video on their connected devices, according to The NPD Group’s Connected Intelligence Smartphone and Tablet Usage Report. Anywhere you look, millennials are on their phones. And as marketers, that’s a good thing. You can meet millennials where they want to consume and create engaging and exciting content, whether it’s Facebook Live or Snapchat stories. 

• Sixty percent of time spent consuming content is on mobile, while desktop-based digital media consumption makes up the remaining 40%, according to comScore. This basic breakdown between mobile and desktop usage shows that digital consumption is not one size fits all. As consumers are becoming more digitally focused and inclined, the trend to mobile based consumption shows marketers that they need to be where their target consumers already are, and that is increasingly on mobile apps and social media platforms.

• Eighty-seven percent of millennials use social media to regularly consume sports-related content, according to our research. By breaking down consumption even further, for sports content, the majority of millennial consumers choose social media to engage with sports content versus traditional platforms. But it doesn’t mean live sports will ever go away completely. In fact, social media creates an all-encompassing experience for sports broadcast, enabling fans to engage and interact with athletes, brands and peers on and off the field.

Overall, millennial consumption is trending toward digital platforms — whether that be social media platforms, OTT providers, apps or other avenues. Marketers need to be smart in their strategies about where their content lives, but also what the content looks like and why millennials would want to consume it. Now is the time for marketers embrace digital as the industry’s new normal and plan for all of the future opportunities that digital will create.