Right now the 18-34 year old demographic that is so coveted among advertisers is almost exclusively comprised of people who are part of the Millennial generation. Millennials (also called Generation Y) are a highly influential group of consumers and as such market researchers seek their feedback on virtually every kind of brand, product and concept. Like all generations, there are aspects of Millennials’ communication habits and preferences that are unique from other segments of the population, and understanding these factors is crucial for researchers.
Millennials have never known adulthood without the Internet and mobile phones. For the younger half of the 18-34 year old group, social media has been part of their everyday lives since they were tweens. A staggering 95 percent of US Millennials own a mobile phone (more than 40 percent own a smartphone), and 81 percent use Facebook every day. Researchers who are eager to recruit and engage Millennials in survey participation clearly should strive to meet this generation on their preferred communication platforms. Certainly the market research industry is already undergoing a transformation to account for mobile and social media usage, but the question remains – are we evolving quickly enough?
Desktop Internet usage remains very high among the GenX and Boomer generations, however Millennials are a much more mobile-centric group. The mobile-only Internet population is expected to grow 56-fold from 14 million at the end of 2010 to 788 million by the end of 2015. That’s just a few short years away. And while overall social media usage is beginning to level off, the percentage of social media traffic coming from mobile devices is still steadily growing. This is a clear indication that the combination of the two platforms is where some of the most compelling and radical transformation of MR communications will occur. In order to engage the prized Millennials, as well as the generation coming up behind them, research software solutions simply must support full-function mobile and social media interaction…and the time for implementation is right now.
