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Fueled exec: Engaging millennials a challenge but authenticity is vital

Author

Brielle Jaekel

NEW YORK ? A Fueled executive at the Global Mobile Internet Conference New York 2015 explained that while it is difficult to track what engages millennials, it is important to start with authenticity, due to the evolution brought on by mobile and social media.

During the ?Millennials: Make it Personal and Customized? panel at the conference, the strategist described that with an abundance of distractions for consumers, it is difficult to determine how to engage many brands? ideal demographic, the millennial. However, one detrimental factor to millennial engagement is the lack of authenticity, with so many outlets for consumers to respond with disapproval, brands must do what they can to prevent that.

"It is tough," said Ryan Matzner, director and chief strategist at Fueled. "I think authenticity is a big part of [engaging millennials], I think if you look back to pre-digital media was one way."

"Media is now two ways and a lot of that media is user generated from the start," he said. "So as a result people have a lot of choice about where they go, what they look at and what they spend money on and if you are inauthentic there are a lot of opportunities for people to respond to that.

"So if you are advertising for a game, and you are not showing clips of the game there is a forum for people to respond to that. Then what happens is because there is a forum to do that, whatever that forum may be, they start to gain momentum in that feedback and it becomes something that is written about in the media." 

Past versus future
In the non-digital world of the past, content was one-sided. It was difficult for consumers to react to brands and media companies were the only ones controlling the media. 

After the boom of social media, digital and mobile consumers are now driving how brands connect and the content produced. It is now a two-way conversation, and consumers have numerous outlets to express their feelings about a brand and its content. 

If a brand forays into something that consumers feel is inauthentic, or in any way that rubs people the wrong way, there is an abundance of channels for negative sentiment to take off.  It can quickly become a trending conversation through social media, which in turn causes media publications to take note and join in. 

"Before, let's say that same ad for the game aired there might have been hundreds of people that felt the exact same way but because there was no good forum for them to have the communication they kind of just mentioned it to their girlfriend who ignored them and it was then end of it," Mr. Matzner said. 

Social media allows for these conversations to become widespread, when in the past it would be a small discussion between friends that would be forgotten. Outlets such as Twitter and Reddit allow for these issues to gain moment and quickly become cemented in users minds when media companies publish content regarding the negative content.  

The threat of this possibility means that brands need to work even harder to ensure that everything they do generates positive sentiment. Millennials are a digital-first generation, meaning they grew up in a world already digital, and engaging them is more difficult than ever. 

Engagement evolution
The method to engage this demographic is open for evolution and new frontiers. However, a sure way to turn the younger group away from a brand is to cause social media firestorms that show inauthenticity. 

Recently, a network advertising NBA finals caused a stir on social media after promoting advertisements full of intense graphics and overly produced content, but lacked any footage of the actual games. Millennials were angered by this and took to social media to voice their complaints, which was then picked up by the media. 

This negative coverage is something brands should try hardest to steer clear from. 

"So authenticity is really important and part of the problem that I see is the push to get your company live and your product out there early and we see companies go out too early," said Mark Weinstein, founder and CEO at MeWe, the panel moderator. 

"You really ought to be careful," he said . "There is a push from investors, there is a push from everyone to get to the market fast. 

"But you have to have a system in place especially the pieces that may cause for a negative viral conversation."

Final take
Brielle Jaekel is editorial assistant at Mobile Marketer