What is a Millennial, and why should a marketer care? That was the question Adobe’s Simon Nicholson asked me during Adobe Summit EMEA in London earlier this year.

I joined Simon in a live chat on the topic and have included the fun, casual yet informative conversation below…

Let’s start with this, the definition of Millennials is imprecise, with the consensus being they’re aged around 18-34. But one of the key points that I emphasized in our discussion is that marketers shouldn’t think of Millennials as a generation based on age, but on living a connected lifestyle.

I introduced the audience to the term Generation C (for connected). This would include ‘Millennials’ who have grown up pinching their screens, but also the older generations that have adapted from the heavy bricks with buttons to the connected lifestyle enabled by modern technologies. It’s an important distinction because as a marketer you may be creating your campaigns around mobile and tablet usage, but your target demographic might be older.

I see brands getting into trouble because they don’t make the time to explore this critical distinction, and have started trying to act cool without regard to whether it’s appropriate for their audience. I mentioned ‘Brands Saying Bae’ as an example of this, and it’s certainly worth a look. Sometimes brand try to hard without actually trying.

In our discussion, we also review whether brands need Millennials on their marketing team, how brands are adapting their campaigns to suit Millennials, and how marketers can succeed if they’re not from the Millennial generation.

You can watch a video of the live chat below.

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