Teh Millennials Part I

© 2009 Campbell-Ewald. All rights reserved. Proprietary Information. Not for further distribution without approval.

Millennials: Talking ‘bout their generation.


Teh Millennials. Who they are, what they’re like, how to manage them.


Oh Noes! Spelling Fail!


Teh, Oh Noes, and Fail! are Internet Speak


Failblog.org


So who are these millennials, anyway?


A simple list of Generational cohorts• Mature Generation

• Silent Generation

• Baby Boomer Generation

• Leading Edge Boomers

• Trailing Edge boomers

• Swing Generation

• WWII Generation

• The GI Generation

• The Me Generation

• Generation Jones

• Gen-X

• Thirteeners

• Millennials

• Gen-Y

• Echo Boomers

• IGen

• Cuspers

• WiiGeneration


Definition I’m using today

•Millennials are those born between 1982 and 2001. There are approximately 72.1 million of them.


Face it, we’re old. For them,

• The Tonight Show has always been hosted by Jay Leno

• Balsamic vinegar has always been for sale in the US

• Offshore drilling has always been prohibited

• Electronic tax filing has always been available

• The Royal New Zealand Navy has never been permitted a daily ration of rum

Beloit College Mindset List - Class of 2012


What shaped them

• 9/11

• Oklahoma City Bombing

• Columbine High School Shooting

• Copycat shootings

• D.C. Sniper

• Digital technology

Parent Advocacy

• In the decades right before and after the Millennium, Americans moved the spotlight onto kids and their families

• Protective parents tried to ensure that their children would grow up safely and be treated well

• This generation actually likes their parents, somewhat of a departure from previous generations

• When young people were asked whom they admired, ‘Mom and Dad’ were named most often 1

1



Families are important

•40% still live with their parents

•64% say they turn to their parents for advice (more than any other age group)

•73% received financial help from their parents during the past 12 months

•64% said their parents have helped them out with errands, homework, and home repair.

Pew Research Center, How Young People View Their Lives, Futures, And Politics, 2007 ncronline.org, Studies Put Millennials Under The Microscope, December 2007.


The result has included helicopter parents

• Who make frequent phone calls and send emails to school administrators regarding their children’s grades and academic progress; they attend job fairs, help write college admissions essays and sit in on campus interviews.

• (Not to mention moving them to campus, shopping at Target to decorate their rooms, or calling boot camp)

• They negotiate salaries and vacation time with HR managers


They lead very structured lives

• They’re shuttled from school to ballet class, to gymnastics, to soccer, to hockey, to music lessons, to play “dates” (nothing spontaneous, mind you).


They’re the most praised generation

•Raised in an atmosphere that deemed self esteem as paramount.

•Everyone gets a trophy. No one “loses”. Everyone gets an “at bat” Warning over narcissistic pupils

By Katherine Sellgren (3/16/09)BBC News, at the ASCL conference

The growing expectation placed on schools and parents to boost pupils' self-esteem is breeding a generation of narcissists, an expert has warned.Dr Carol Craig said children were being over-praised and were developing an "all about me"mentality.

She said teachers increasingly faced complaints from parents if their child failed a spelling test ordid not get a good part in the school pantomime.

She told head teachers the self-esteem agenda, imported from the United States, was a "a big fashionable idea" that had gone too far.


The expectation continues into college

“I tell my class that if they just do what they’re supposed to do, and meet the standard requirements, that they will earn a C. That is the default grade. They see the default grade as an A”

Professor Marshall Grossman, The University of Maryland, 2/17/2009


Yet, they’re extraordinarily accomplished.

• “What kind of kid doesn’t get into Harvard? Well, there was the charming boy I interviewed with 1560 SATs. He did cancer research in the summer; played two instruments in three orchestras; and composed his own music. He redid the computer system for his student paper, loved to cook and was writing his own cookbook.”

• “There was the girl who, during summer vacation, left her house before 7 each morning to make a two-hour train ride to a major university, where she worked all day doing cutting-edge research for NASA on weightlessness in mice.”

• “These kids who don’t get into Harvard spend summers on schooners in Chesapeake Bay studying marine biology, building homes for the poor in Central America, touring Europe with all-star orchestras.”

Source: Michael Winerip, The New York Times April 29, 2007



They want to achieve quickly

•Think they’re only one step away from fame - particularly on the internet: (Think Tila Tequila)

•Live in very speeded up, always on, instant answer world.


But are taking longer to graduate from college

•Don’t seem in a hurry to begin careers

•Don’t want to “get on with their lives” independently


Beyond that

• They’re Diverse

• They’re Digital

• They’re connected 24/7


Diversity in fact and attitudes



Millennials are the most diverse generation in America

• About 40% of Millennials are of African American, Latino, Asian, or a racially mixed background.

• 81% of those over 65 identify themselves as Caucasian

• 20% have at least one immigrant parent

• There is no majority race in Hawaii or Houston or New York City or California.

Washington Post, Make Way For The Millennials, yda.org, TRU research findings, IL


•“Have I read The Great Gatsby? I am the Great Gatsby” - Sean “Puffy” Combs

•“You’re not really considered hip or “you’ve made it’ if you’re rolling with the same people.” - Nelly.

•“Pop culture today rallies around an ethic of multicultural inclusion that seems to value every identity - except whiteness”. - Hua Hsu, The Atlantic

We share a diverse culture


Black or African American is not a monolithic culture.

• Yankelovich has identified 11 distinct segments within black America

• “Connected black teens” - tech savvy, optimistic, less familiar with the overt bigotry of the past.

• 68% use the internet (vs 70% of the general population)

• There’s an even split on which moniker is preferred: 42% favor “black”, 44% favor “African-American.”


An increasing sense of personal and national optimism.

• Barack Obama’s Presidency has given me more optimism about the future of this country:

• African-Americans 93%

• Hispanics 82%

• Non-Hispanic whites 62%

• Barack Obama’s Presidency has given me more optimism about my own personal future:

• African-Americans 87%

• Hispanics 79%

• Non-Hispanic Whites 55%

MMS Recontact Survey February, 2009


Hispanics share many characteristics with general population• Highly involved parents

• Career-minded

• Technologically-minded

• Multi-tasker

• On-line

US Navy Understanding HIspanics Millennials Research by Social Quest. April 2008


Hispanics differ from the general population in some dimensions• Parental influence is stronger

• College education is a privilege, not a commodity

• U.S. Immigration policies hit home

• Decisions include the family unit and heritage

US Navy Understanding HIspanics Millennials Research by Social Quest. April 2008


Net Result: A fusion lifestyle for all


Millennials base friendship on interests, not race.Closest Facebook friend may be from China


95% of 18-29 year olds approve of blacks and whites dating. 60% have dated someone of a

different race.

Washington Post, Make way for the Millennials, Gallup poll, 2006


Everyone listens to hip hop

Billboard Magazine, NY Times 3/23/09


Salsa is more popular than ketchup

Ad Age


Everyone’s got tats


Academy Award for Best Picture:


Perhaps most importantly, they’re the first internet generation.


This is a digital native


This is you (and me)


What does an immigrant do? Sticks his toes in the culture.

•You learn the culture from the outside in, but still retain large elements of your heritage: (like confusion over “summer camp”. You prefer face to face and telephone communication, relatively strict

guarding of online privacy

•The vast majority of online adults use email and search engines

•They research and gather information

• Older generations do not typically engage with the internet past e-commerce

•Less than one-fifth of online adults older than Gen-X use Social Networks. Generations Online

www.pewinternet.org


The digital native


The Digital Native grew up digital

• Today’s 18-year old:

• Was 1 year old when the CD-ROM was invented

• Was 5 when the internet entered almost every home

• Was 10 years old when Windows 98 was launched

• Was 13 when PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and Xbox were released.

• Gets an incorrect grade when identifying a typewriter as a “keyboard” on an I.Q. test.

seattlepi.com Millennials Thrive on Choice


90% of Americans between the ages 12-24 are online.

- Generations Online in 2009, Pew Internet & American Life Project January 2009


What does a native do?•A native embraces the culture. In fact the culture and the native are inseparable. The native contributes to the culture, is completely at ease in the culture, and socializes openly and freely

•Millennials play games and enjoy online videos•Engage in passive and active social media•Uses Web 2.0 tools•Creates Social Network profiles, writes blogs, etc.


Data from forrester.com


Privacy does not appear to be an issue

"Kids should be taught that sharing digitized images of themselves in embarrassing or compromised positions can have bad consequences” -ACLUA 2008 national survey found 20 percent of teenagers say they have sent or posted online nude or semi-nude pictures of themselves, and 39 percent say they have sent or posted sexually suggestive messages, according to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.


The more they reveal about themselves online...

The greater the opportunities: Romantic, Professional, Creative.


Adults don’t get kids

They have no sense of shame. They have no sense of

privacy.

They are show-offs, fame whores, pornographic little

loons who post their diaries, their phone numbers,

their stupid poetry - for God’s sake, their dirty

photos! — online. They have virtual friends instead

of real ones. They talk illiterate instant messages.

They are interested only in attention—and yet they

have zero attention span, flitting like hummingbirds

from one virtual stage to another.

Adult POV

Source : NewYork magazine 2007


Whenever we are allowed to indulge in

something

you are not allowed to, it makes you bitter.

What did you have? The mall and the parking

lot of the

7-Eleven? It sucked to grow up when you did!

And you

are mad about it now. You are always eager to

believe that your behavior is a matter of

morality, not chronology.

(But the truth of the matter is) you didn’t

behave like that because nobody gave you the

option.

A kid’s POV

Kids don’t get adults, either.


For Millennials, everything has to be convenient and accessible

• “News finds me. I don’t mean it’s offered to me on a platter, but that if it’s a particularly relevant piece of news, someone is going to blog about it, send me an email with a URL attached, or just tell me about it on MSN.

• Blogger Daryl Tay, on foruniquefrequency.wordpress.com


They expect control over everything• What they watch

• When they watch it

• What they listen to

• When they listen to it

• When they talk to someone

• What media they use to do it.

• (By the way, voice mail’s way too slow)


They get their news where and when they want it

DIGG.COM11.4 Million views per month (US)

source quantcast.com


TMZ.COM6.3 Million views per

month (US)

source quantcast.com

Perez Hilton.COM

5.8 Million views per month (US)

They get gossip where and when they want it


Where do they find the time?

•81% of the time young people spend some of their time using more than one medium at a time (Media Multitasking)

•Nearly 2/3 of the time they’re also•Eating, doing chores, talking on•the phone, doing homework. •(Overall multitasking)

Kaiser Family Foundation


Continuous Partial Attention

87% Use the internet

65% Instant Message (IM)

44% Go online every day

29% Keep several IM

Conversations going at once

29% Have more than 50 “buddies” on

regular IM list

25% IM people in the

Same room

Source : Pew Internet Research


CPA in Action:

•While you’re doing your homework, you’re listening to music on your iPod, texting two people at once, with the tv on in the background (a rerun, since you only have to pay half attention to it), posting on a friend’s facebook page, twittering your followers about an upcoming concert, and talking to your dorm mate who’s sitting on the bed next to you doing the same thing.


To us, they’re a generation of dichotomies

• Confident

• Demand Respect

• Want to Achieve now

• Narcissistic

• Yet yearn for praise

• Without experience

• But move home after college

• Yet Civic-Minded


Even X-ers are confused.

“Teenagers scare the living shit out of me”-My Chemical Romance

Business

Teh Millennials Part I