Brief:

• Millennial men are now recommending beauty, retail and household products more than other generations and millennial women. A study by social analytics and technology company Engagement Labs made available to Mobile Marketer found that this group is 69% more likely than all men to be influencers in the beauty category and 47% more likely to be influencers in the retail and apparel category.
• This group has approximately 11.7 brand-related conversations a day, compared to 6.5 for men ages 40-69 and 9.9 for millennial women. About 29% of the cohort's brand conversations refer to digital media or advertising, whereas that number is 21% for their female counterparts.
• Millennial men aren't limited to providing recommendations to traditionally male-oriented products and services like sports or cars, or in the expected generational categories like video games, the study found. They're 97% more likely than older men to talk about kids' products — the top brand they mention is the kids' clothing chain the Children's Place.

Insight:

The generation of people born between 1980 and 1999 is now the biggest demographic group in the U.S. with more than 83.1 million people. But, research like Engagement Labs underscores ways in which this generation is different from previous ones, challenging marketers to rethink their strategies to better reflect the attitudes and behaviors of this group. 

One way that millennial men are challenging preconceived notions of how to market to men is that their engagement level with brands and ads. Engagement Labs' study found that 73% of millennial men say they talk about marketing or ads they've seen, compared with 58% of women, which signals a shift in the balance of influencing power as well as a key opportunity area for marketers.

A recent survey by Saatchi & Saatchi NY suggests marketers should pay closer attention to how traditional roles are evolving in millennial families. Findings include that 74% of American millennial fathers said they think advertisers and marketers are out of touch with modern family dynamics, and 85% said they know more than people give them credit for. As gender and family dynamics continue to shift, advertisements portraying modern younger men should follow suit to reflect the changing times and tap into this progressive and digital-savvy group.

The challenge for marketers is in finding the right messaging for marketing to millennial men that appeals to them. Dove recently celebrates men who care in YouTube for Father's Day. Dove parent Unilever is broadening the definition of what it means to be male in its marketing for Axe as well.