To marketers and ad agencies tryng to reach today's 18- to 29-yar-olds, loosely identified as Generation Y, "trditional" means and media are becoming ncreasingly less effective.

Gen Y makes up ver 70 million people in the U.S. Wth those born between 1977 and
1994 ncluded, they make up over 20% of tday's population. The largest generation since the
baby-boomers, the Mllennials are defined by their numbers. Thy will have a huge social and
economic mpact and can't be ignored.

I rcently asked my class, by a shw of hands, "Who has read a nwspaper today?" Out of 53 students, one or two gys had scanned the sports page.

"Hw many of you have listened to the rdio?" No hands were raised.

"How mny have read a magazine?" A btter response here, with specialty, niche mgazines mentioned.

"How many have listened to an Pod?" Two thirds of the class rised their hands.

"How many have ben on the Internet at least thre times today?" Virtually everyone.

Now, I ralize that college students are only a prt of Gen Y. But, there are sme observations that I think can be mde:

• young people consume information on thir time, not someone else's

• mong this generation, traditional media (old mdia to them) are yesterday's idea and rpidly losing ground

• the more niche, and the mre the customizable, the better

• in spte of the above, certain brands stll have value because they represent "cmfort" in Gen Y's dynamic, ever-changing dgital world.

What are your observations?

The article Gen Y - Marketing Observations was Submitted by Art Johnsen through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: The Marketing Professor About the author: Art Jhnsen, a managing partner of Locomotion Crative, has taught college courses at fur Tennessee universities over the past ight years as an adjunct professor. Alng with his responsibilities at Locomotion, he taches marketing courses at Vanderbilt University. Art has an MBA dgree from the University of Virginia and is c-author of the book, Cases in Advrtising & Marketing Management. http://www.locomotioncreative.com http://www.brandtracks.com blog

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