PivotCon Day 1+

Last night was the first night of the Pivot conference here in NYC.  I was slightly annoyed at having to give up a precious Sunday night off but found myself stimulated by the speakers, panel and interview with the author of The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick.  Overall, it was a good show followed by some quality networking. And the truth is I probably would have worked anyway.  Here’s a quick recap from last night.

Carol Phillips, a Notre Dame professor and President of Brand Amplitude, provided some great insights into Millennials, the focus of Sunday’s conversation. According to Phillips, Millennials are:

• not as likely to engage with advertising
• excellent filters
• unless there is a coupon or something in it for them, they won’t bother following brands
• reject ads that don’t mean anything to them (DN: what group doesn’t?)
• will accept ads on phone if they get free stuff
• they actually love brands and they talk about brands
• they use brands to express their identity
• more brand conversations that older consumers
• brands that go their own way resonate w them
• brands trying to be cool can be uncool
• Lady Gaga is an exemplary Millennial brand
• striving to be awesome
• delaying by marriage and buying cars
• unique personal narratives will define then

Carol noted that for Millennials, brands happen at intersection of culture. She pointed out that NASA has done an especially good job of appealing to them.  As proof, she showed NASA’s engagement on Twitter, Facebook and Slideshare presentations created by four Millennials on why NASA was relevant.  AstroMike, a NASA character, garnered over 1 million followers on Twitter.  NASA also orchestrated a geo-caching scavenger hunt partnering with location-based service Gowalla. For Millenials, engagement begins with discovery and ends with advocacy. So the challenge for marketers is to figure out how to “be found” to get Millennials to tell your story.  As Carol put it, “its not what you say, its what you do.”

More to come.