It’s All About Me: Gen Y Sets Its Own rules for DM Engagement

That said, millennials are less likely to watch television than any other generation — at least as measured by The Nielsen Co. and the like. This is a generation that believes in the God-given right to tape shows and fast-forward through commercials. It also downloads shows to its iPods and watches them at its leisure.

“I don't have a landline and I don't have a television,” Graham says. “I download to iTunes when I want to watch “Mad Men.” I don't watch [“Mad Men” channel] AMC, but I interact with AMC when I download off iTunes.”

Interact, perhaps. But is Graham engaged? Thomson would say no, at least in this instance. “There have been some really great campaigns where millennials got the opportunity to develop a product,” she says. “To millennials that's normal, even if it's not to those who didn't have the Web growing up.”

Engaging millennials imbues a product with buzz and energy, she says. “If [consumers have] a hand in developing something, they're going to want to buy it and they'll want their friends to buy it. You're not handing things over to a bunch of 15-year-olds. You're asking them to be part of the development process, to be part of the brand story.”

Setting aside the actual product, DMers need to design campaign material that acknowledges this generation approaches information differently that those that came before it.

“Millennials have excellent visual-spatial skills,” Graham says. “They understand multidimensional visual space, and this is profoundly important in Web site design. Some generations want everything laid out nice and clean. This generation wants a more three-dimensional, dynamic visual experience.” Marketers that don't offer such a site will lose this audience's attention.

Graham cites the Ikea Planner Tools as a great example of a site offering that appeals to millennials. When downloaded, the planner allows shoppers to move furnishings around a virtual room and view them from different angles. “This is very interesting to someone with this mindset,” he adds.

Once a direct marketer has engaged millennial consumers, what's the best way of retaining them? Millennials are among the youngest of the generational cohorts DMers are studying, which means they represent some of the greatest potential long-term value.

Or do they? In several studies millennials indicate they don't plan to stay in a single career very long. This is a restless generation, one that constantly seeks new opportunities. Marketers will have to address similar tendencies if they want to hold on to these consumers — but it won't be easy.

“That sort of long timeline doesn't really resonate with them,” Graham notes, speaking about their professional development. “A lot of smaller deadlines is better for them. Marketers might want to think about this when constructing a communications engagement.”

In short, millennials will be loyal based on what brands can do for them — but not what brands have done for them. They'll always want to have their opinions considered. And DMers that want to retain them as customers will have to reflect the constant stream of recognition and reward millennials have received from their parents, teachers and contemporaries in their communications.