Dive Brief:
- This month Fluent surveyed college students between 17 and 24-years-old, and found that demographic was comfortable with relevant targeted advertising.
- More than half (53.4%) of respondents said they wanted to click on a Facebook ad if it was for something they wanted or cared about, and 49% reported the same for YouTube ads.
- Breaking the results out across social media, about half of respondents were positive about targeted ads as long as they were relevant on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Meerkat, Periscope and Vine.
Dive Insight:
Yahoo research from February on attitudes toward targeted advertising found millennials (expanding from the Fluent research age range to 18-34-year-olds) reported having a more positive attitude than Gen X or Baby Boomers. Younger audiences said the reason for their rosier attitude stemmed from ads being aimed specifically at their generation, and advertisers finally recognizing that their generation shops too. They said they were generally more likely also to make a purchase from a particular brand if an ad is specifically targeted at their generation.
The results of these two studies should give marketers some relief that personalization, relevance and even targeted advertising – a tactic that can potentially be seen creepy by some people – are all effective in reaching the highly-coveted younger demographic.
The new findings also corroborate previous research revealing that the key to engaging millennial audiences was authenticity.
Last fall, Curalate CMO Matt Langie told Marketing Dive, "The most important thing to remember is that ultimately, millennials are a diverse generation of consumers. They lead varying lifestyles and can't be reached with a one-size-fits-all approach. The best thing marketers can do is to be educational, entertaining and visual."
