• by Jeff Urban , Columnist, November 18, 2016

When marketing to millennials, understanding their needs and wants is of the utmost importance to create content that resonates. As an audience, there are many different demographics that make millennials the largest living generation currently. The Buzz Marketing Group did a study of 21-36-year-old multicultural millennials to get a pulse as to what they want, where they want it and when they want it.

According to CEO and founder Tina Wells, “When it comes to loyalty, multicultural millennials give as much as they get. They know what they like, and aren't shy about sharing that information with their friends and contacts.”

As a general demographic, multicultural millennials breakdown their preferences as the following:

• 93% download apps for their smartphones monthly
• 89% watch TV daily
• 87% read magazines monthly 

Daily News Consumption:

• TV – 81%
• Facebook – 73%
• Radio – 66%
• Friends – 63%
• Newspapers – 60%

Brand Loyalty:

• 95% consider themselves to be loyal to brands they like
• 83% like it when brands take a public stand for or against issues they believe in
• 78% feel like they have power as a consumer to influence big brands

What do we as marketers need to know about the millennial demographic to concept our content strategies?

Understanding millennials and the factions of the demographic are crucial to seeing success. In terms of brand breakdown, 38% of millennials state that from the brands, products and services, they purchase regularly, “they make their life better” is the most important factor in their choice, according to the report. That, coupled with the fact that millennials are consuming content on multiple screens at the same time, proves that we need to bring content to our audience and provide them with live streams, and total content, that excites, engages and makes them want to share it with their own networks.

A recent example of meeting your audience where they want to consume is live streaming. One of the newest, but widely adopted medium, live streaming has taken the scene, especially in sports, by storm. In the sports industry, rights to live coverage and ad cost and revenue are some of the biggest numbers across the entertainment board. But the live streams aren’t just about the content offerings, but about the community and the engagement that plays an integral part in creating a dynamic story around the content.

In a partnership this fall, we developed a live stream with ONE World Sports to bring 10 Ivy League football games live on Facebook. By engaging our fans and followers, this partnership not only tapped the linear audience with a traditional broadcast but also complemented with a whole new audience that would have probably never seen a Harvard at Brown game in September or Dartmouth at Princeton in November. Through comments and interaction through the Facebook Live offering, a whole new audience is able to consume Ivy League football.

Overall, creating content for the millennial audience means that we need to know the audience: what they want to consume, where they want to consume and when they want to see it. It’s a process that marketers are working to figure out every day.