4 Tips on How to Market to Millennials
Location-based entertainment is predicted to grow to $12 billion by 2023. A significant reason for its growth is millennials. According to a report by YPulse, 36 percent of survey respondents between 19 and 37 years old are spending money on events and experiences every month. The report also found that 42 percent had spent money on a concert ticket in 2019.
Marketing to millennials has thus never been so critical in the event space. Not only will attracting more of this demographic to your event increase your bottom line, it will also help secure your reputation as a go-to event provider for this demographic. If you’re unsure how to market to millennials, this article will highlight four crucial ways you can effectively go about it.
1. Turn Up Your Social Media Game
One of the most important ways your event can cater to millennials is to turn up your social media game. Millennials are highly active social media users, so connecting with them via your event’s social media channels is essential to capturing a share of this demographic.
Research by eMarketer indicated that millennials were the most active social media users in 2019, with 90.4 percent using some form of social media. If you compare their social media usage with Gen X (77.5 percent) and baby boomers (48.2 percent), it’s clear that millennials place importance on social media.
It’s no wonder, then, that before attending an event — particularly one they’ve never been to before — many millennials will check the event’s “socials” — the social media channels run by the event.
To ensure your event is accessible to millennials on social media, you’ll need to set up and maintain an active presence on the most popular social media channels with them. According to Statistica, WhatsApp is most popular, followed by Facebook and Instagram. But before you start posting, read our next tip to know what and how to post.2. Talk the Talk
In order to fine-tune your marketing to millennials, you must learn to talk the talk. In other words, you must work out how to connect with them in a way they’ll respond to. There’s no point posting on Instagram every day if your posts are out of touch with their interests. Likewise, bombarding potential millennial attendees with emails that sound outdated may make them reconsider attending your event.
Experts suggest being personal, casual and flexible in your communications with millenials. One of the most important things to keep in mind is to be authentic. Millennials can sniff out inauthenticity in a second, particularly from brands wanting to capture a share of this demographic. It’s worth keeping in mind that 90 percent of millennials surveyed said brand authenticity is important.
So while it might be necessary to adjust your way of communicating in order to connect with millenials, don’t forget about your own brand’s voice and values.
3. Ensure Your Event’s Aesthetics Are on Point
Getting your event’s aesthetics right is one of the easiest ways to attract more millennials. In an age in which social media plays a significant role in guiding consumer decisions, making your event “Instagram-worthy” matters more than ever. That’s not to say you have to completely transform your entire event’s aesthetics to make your millennial attendees happy; it’s about making a few eye-catching modifications.
Your decor should convey to millennials that your event is fun, exciting and original. Meanwhile, your food and beverages should not only taste good but look appetizing. You should also work with your event provider to ensure your event’s acoustics and lighting are perfect.Remember, millennials will want to post about your event on Twitter, take photos for Instagram and share some “snaps” on Snapchat, so give them something to work with.
4. Build Hype Around Your Event
A final tip on how to market to millennials is to build hype around your event. If nobody even knows about it, you’ll have a difficult time selling tickets. That’s why you must make millennials excited about the prospect of attending. Your objective should be to make them so excited that they tell their friends.
An easy way to build hype is to run a competition prior to the start of your event. Your competition should be designed to maximize the exposure of your event and get people talking about it. For example, you could run a competition to win event-related merchandise on Instagram which requires people to tag their friend to enter.
Another way to draw attention to your event is to highlight to potential attendees why your event is worth going to. This will require you to pinpoint what makes your event unmissable. Is the headline act noteworthy? Is there a special dress code that will make for great pictures? Will you be giving away amazing prizes? Use these features in your advertising and related media to drum up attention and create a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out). If you want to partner with an event provider that has the know-how to ensure your event is a complete success with millennials and other attendees alike, Magic Box @ The REEF.