It's no secret that Millennials are skeptical of traditional marketing techniques and gimmicky brands. Many articles have been written on this generation's mistrust of large institutions and disingenuous brands as well as their preference for things and experiences that are "real." Brands have rushed to assure Millennials and other consumers, of how "authentic' they are, particularly in natural and organic categories. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find a natural brand that doesn't incorporate some form of the word real or authentic in the brand positioning and consumer-facing campaign communication.

According to the U.S. Census Board, there are 92 million millennials, making this generation the biggest in U.S. history. The millennial is set to dominate spending, and consumer packaged goods companies need to adapt to tap into a generation who collectively are expected to spend more than $200 billion annually starting in 2017 and $10 trillion in their lifetimes. Mining data for insights on shopping habits and learning from the start-up community will be key to reaching the millennial consumer.

The growing expectations of mobile consumers have forced brands and retailers to adapt their service strategies around new technology trends. However, it is often hit-or-miss to assume a technology solution will solve the bigger issues at hand. By focusing on the customer need, you can build a service and technology strategy that solves a problem rather than adding more barriers.

In 2016, consumer packaged goods and consumer products advertisers in the U.S. will spend $5.97 billion on digital marketing, an 18.2% increase over last year. And why not: market research company IRI reports that 76% of CPG shopping trips start online, and many consumers continue researching products and comparing prices on smartphones while in the shopping aisles. Consequently, brands are targeting 60% of their digital spend to mobile devices.

Forrester predicted that as social media matures, branded communities would make a comeback. Marketing leaders report they're significantly less satisfied with Facebook and Twitter marketing. Along with that, Forrester found that 60% of businesses have a branded online community and 15% were planning to add one in the following 12 months. With that knowledge, many CPG marketers feel it is time to focus their engagement efforts on owned channels.

Time and again, industry experts assert that mobile is a critical component of the marketing mix. Yet for all of the years it's been "the year of mobile," only 3% of brands' marketing mix was spent on mobile advertising last year. Yes, marketers are increasing their mobile ad spend, but there is still a lot of ground to gain to catch up to consumer adoption.

A few decades ago, Frito-Lay was onto something. The year was 1994 and they realized that there were a lot of Latinos in Los Angeles. They also realized that Latinos had different taste palates and over-indexed in the salty snacks category. So they decided to launch "Sabrositas," a series of Latino-infused (Limon, Chile, etc.) line extensions for the Frito-Lay brand.

I am bombarded by content claiming to provide me with the insight to unlock the mystery that is marketing to Millennials. Born between 1981 and 1997, Millennials formed a crest of childbirths of 66 million during those years, considerably higher than the 55 million Gen Xers that came before, if not quite the pig in a python that was the Baby Boom at 76 million.

There is a tremendous amount of excitement about influencers today. Influencers can help CPGs solve so many challenges like saving de-listed items, launching a new product, educating consumers on complicated products or updates and helping increase basket size. But working with influencers is not as simple as it might seem at first glance and along the way you might find yourself in a bit of a pickle. Here are some typical influencer marketing mistakes that CPGs make.

When was the last time you thought about bumpers? Car bumpers, bumper cars, bumper boats, rubber baby buggy bumpers? Been a while? Well, there's another bumper in town, and marketers have noticed.