How Mass Entertainment Media Can Respond to the Millennial Audience
Currently, many studies have identified that the mobile segment controls the digital activity. This observation has been noted even in countries like the U.S, where the usage of the internet is ubiquitous. The observation covers all the age groups such as the Boomers and the Gen Xers. However, the Millennials take the leading position among all the age groups. Companies that are responsible for mass entertainment media face many problems in relation to this generation. Studies have shown that the adoption of a mobile content is a crucial tool for the millennial audience (Ferri, 2010). The mobile content acts a significant mechanism of engaging and satisfying this audience since it has unique preferences, and the high quality presentation of contents can be achieved via the mobile. Such a presentation has a blend of interactivity, localization, visual stimuli and call for input. Entertainment industry faces tough challenges in coping up with the trends of the millennial age group. Thus, researchers have made efforts to unveil issues that can help entertainment companies understand this age group. This paper champions the thesis that mass media entertainment is significantly affected by the forces within its own industry, especially the difficulty of entertainment companies to capture the attention of the millennial audience.
Millenials can be referred to as the Generation Y. This is the largest generation of all and comprises internet pioneers. It is made of individuals who were born between the late 20th century and the early years of the 21st century. The range includes those who were born in the period between 1980 and 2005. In the United States, studies have shown that this age group comprise of 150 million people (Ferri, 2010). Thus, there exist several people from the millennial age group. The Millenials are characterized by the use of smart phones and mobiles in servicing their mode of choice. This implies that the entertainment companies need to direct their contents towards mechanism that are accessible to these devices.
In relation to the information obtained from the examination of mobile utilization, researchers pointed out the demographics that have a high penetration. The focus was on the Millenials who take online operations by means of mobiles. The data indicated that 92.3% of this age group used mobile phones in the year 2012. Besides, the research established that 63.2% of this population employed the mobile web for their activities, whereas a small number used smart phones (Ling, 2013). Millenials often have a high penetration of the social media sites such as Facebook and twitter. Lately, they constitute half the number of twitter users despite the old generation being the first to use this service. Moreover, researchers have projected that the number of Millennials who use the social networks will continue to rise in the coming years. Statistical data regarding digital video consumers indicate that the millennial age group account for 40% of the consumption level. This is because video, mobile, and social networks play a crucial role in their lifestyle. The survey conducted by Harris indicates that Americans, who are aged between 18 and 34, have a high potential to consume a wide range of entertainment. For instance, among the listeners of music, those aged between 18 and 34 have a higher chance of listening to recent music than those who are over 55 years (Rinallo, 2013). Many teens have also been associated with the consumption of online videos. This implies that marketers should focus on the recent issues of entertainment so that they can manage to meet the expectations of the millennial generation.
There are huge implications that are linked to the marketers who target creation, management, and marketing based on the cross-platform content. Understanding the mindset of the millennial audience has always been a significant challenge to many marketers. Entertainment companies need to ensure that they understand the mindset of their audience given that they are Millenials. It is crucial to note that the mindset of the millennial generation is often focused on the social media. This often includes liking, sharing and tweeting in relation to the current entertainment issues. Social media acts as a platform on which members of this generation exchange their views regarding matters of entertainment (Ferri, 2010). This implies that marketers should explore such sites in order to enable them obtain vital information on entertainment preferences for the Millenials. The tendency of entertainment companies to advertise or display their contents on television is being faced out gradually by the use of Web. Sharing, liking and tweeting issues can be achieved efficiently by means of mobile. The millennial generation often opts to seek information related to the entertainment contents from mobile devices and smart phones. Thus, entertainment companies should ensure that they are involved in developing, executing, and optimizing contents in a manner that compliments the mobile environment. This will enable them satisfy and engage the millennial audience. The millennial generation tends to spend more time on the mobile phones than on the desktop. On the contrary, most of the entertainment companies display their content on such devices. This leads to mismatch between the expectations of such companies, and that of the target audience (Ferri, 2010). Many companies have lost their revenues because they spend many resources in displaying contents on wrong channels. The main threat that is associated with the continuation of this trend is the collapse of many entertainment companies. Success of entertainment companies is linked to the ability of their contents to trigger brand authority, audience engagement, and brand depth. These goals can be accomplished effectively when companies have a paralleled and robust mobile experience. This implies that mass entertainment media companies need to focus on the issue of mobile. They should inquire on the considerations and appearances of mobile devices, as well. This can be achieved by focusing on the engagement, stimuli, localization, personalization, and input on content. All these elements need to be considered in relation to the available mobile experience.
Studies have proved that the millennial generation depends on both video and social channels for engagement in the mobile environment. Thus, both their connections and considerations are done through the mobile. Engagement within the mobile environment can be accomplished when Smart marketers adopt content solutions and video advertisements as opposed to desktops. For instance, both the vine and the Instagram brands that are driven visually are designed for the hand-held environment. Furthermore, the two have been identified to compete for the millennial market. The Instagram have a shorter time content of 15 seconds than the twitter’s vine, and this makes it to match the millennial attention span. The two brands compete for the mindshare of the Millenials in several ways. Their main target elements are creative flexibility and content as they exploit new target horizons.
Millenials are different from other audience because they cannot manage to stay on the television attentively. This also applies to their attention when they browse on the internet. The millennial generation is often associated with operating in spurts through the mobiles. Thus, marketers can manage to accomplish their goals through the utilization of this opportunity. Consumers have been identified to employ their internet ready-devices to conduct research on the latest events in the entertainment industry. Both Bing and Google are the main applications that the millennial generation uses to accomplish their goals. These applications offer several opportunities such as the top placed movies, songs and other entertainment issues (Lucas, 2013). Thus, most teens can search the entertainment modes of their choice, and watch through other site such as Youtube. In the developing countries where many youths are not accessible to smart phones, watching movies and songs via You Tube has been a problem. This forces many of them to move to the cyber cafés where they can access these services. Millenials always use their mobile phones to check on the prices of entertainment commodities. The marketers, therefore, face challenges when marketing the entertainment products such as movies and songs via other means, which are not linked to the internet. Marketers who can manage to reach Millenials at the stage of mobile to shop can benefit extremely. This is because they can drive the traffic associated with brick-and-mortar. This does not imply that marketers should engage in the development of shopping applications for the millennial generation. Many brands such Axe have been noted to be successful when integrated with mobile games and applications for the Millennials. The beautiful game is also one of the successful executions in relation to this generation. This brings the concepts of localization and personalization of the mobile contents, and their effectiveness in the promotion of mass media entertainment activities (Ewing, 2013). These two concepts have been identified as being significant in the driving engagement, interaction, and desired traffics.
Millenials are always more tolerant than other generations when it comes to one-way brand communication. They often want to have both direct participation and input. Studies have indicated that Millenials desire to contribute content themselves. In relation to the concept of personalization, this age group often wants to their entertainment experience with others through creating and sharing their contents. (Jiyuong, 2013) The question that entertainment marketers need to ask themselves is how to incorporate this aspect into their mobile experience. Teenagers always want to associate themselves with celebrity actors from the movies that rated highly. In most occasions, they attempt to dress, talk and act like these individuals. This, therefore, provides a suitable ground for marketers to gather information on what should be included in the movies, songs and other entertainment activities. This idea is not limited to the markets only, but also to the developers of mass entertainment media activities. Information that relates to what the millennial generation desires can be obtained from the social sites. Communication of ideas should be based on the current issues, which are appealing to their lifestyles. This can act as suitable mechanism of reaching them alongside satisfying their desires and expectations. Marketers and developers of entertainment activities should ensure that all their operations match the interests of the Millennials. These should comprise soliciting opinions, spurring social connectivity, and soliciting feedback. Uploading of photos and language choices are some of the mechanisms of achieving a successful personalization process, in relation to entertainment activities. Integration of mobile, social and video in the promotion of mass entertainment media products is critical for their success.
Both marketers and mass media entertainment developers, who spend adequate time to understand their audience, have a significant head start in relation to the development of digital channels. This is because these individuals gain adequate knowledge regarding the behaviors, preferences, lifestyle, and modes of the target audience (Coffey, 2013). The unique preferences that the millennial generation has in terms of mobile, social, and video intersection present adequate opportunity in playing to that environment. Engagement and driving interaction imply that those who target them possess powerful choices at their disposal.
In conclusion, the issue of responding to the needs of the Millennials has been a challenge in the mass entertainment media industry. The millennial generation is known to be focused on the current lifestyle issues. This makes them have dynamic needs that can be identified through a continuous research process. Studies have shown that the millennial generation often spends much time focusing on the use of mobile and smart phone devices to access entertainment activities. This implies that devices such as desktops cannot be the best channels of displaying the mass entertainment media contents. Marketers and developers of mass entertainment activities, therefore, need to ensure that they develop operations that match the mobile environment. Such operations need to be designed in a manner that suits the emerging trends in order to meet the expectations of the millennial generation. This will enable them access adequate information concerning the interest and preferences of this generation, in relation to mass entertainment media activities.
References
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