The Peter Pan Generation

Better known as the “millennials” this generation is also sometimes referred to as the Boomerang Generation or Peter Pan Generation, because of the members' perceived penchant for delaying some rites of passage into adulthood, longer periods than most generations before them. These labels were also a reference to a trend toward members living with their parents for longer periods than previous generations.

What makes them interesting to marketers and media planners is that having been born somewhere typically between the late 1980’s and 2000, they are the last of the children of the 20th Century and therefore know nothing else other than digital communication and being part of online communities across a diverse number of platforms primarily mobile. Those in the workplace like structure and working in a team and because of their digital literacy are able to multitask like crazy.

Some really interesting research carried out by Nicola Payne working for Eloqua Limited shows that the millennials are mad about Facebook. They can’t get enough of it. According to Quantcast, 76% of Facebook users visit the site at least 30 times per month. If my children are anything to go by its more like 100 plus! Twitter has a rate of 57% and sites like Linkedin and Foursquare less than 1%. When advertising to the millenials the same rules apply as when talking to most groups, especially in social media circles. Be transparent – engender trust. Be interactive – they liked to be entertained. Be generous – they like a deal as much as anybody else.

So media selection seems pretty straightforward but engaging with them is something else. The Peter Pans can become the Lost Boys if you get it wrong.

Ian Prager, Planning Director

Hunt ready to clear News-BSkyB merger

This morning’s news that Jeremy Hunt is prepared to clear the News Corp/BSkyB merger signals exciting new potential for us as data led media planners.
Both News Corp and BSkyB are both capable of, and interested in, generating consumer data for advertisers.

They either have (in the case of Sky) or are creating (in the case of News) subscriber relationships that allow them to create a rich depth of data on consumer behavior. They are investing in teams and tools that enable the utilization of said data.

What is really interesting is that we will potentially have access to single source data, allowing us to track consumers as they move from the emotional environment of broadcast to the more rational environment of “print”. We know from single source media research tools like Touchpoints that these journeys are crucial in improving media schedule effectiveness. This merger may eventually allow us to replicate that at data rather than survey level.

Mike Colling
Managing Director