Category Archives: Trends

Chevy <3’s Millennials

Chevy-Goes-Emoji

Visual mediums have taken a larger role in consumers’ lives and has started to trickle into brand storytelling and communication. We’ve written about the latest trend of brands creating their own emoji keyboards, and now Chevrolet has gone one step further and released a press release for the 2016 Cruze, written entirely in emoji. Released this morning, Chevy will give consumers a chance to decipher the statement written in modern glyphs before releasing the translated version this afternoon.

Chevy, not traditionally known for their ground breaking marketing initiatives, is taking a big step in the right direction. No other company has released a formal press release written almost entirely in emoji, though Domino’s did write hundreds of Tweets using just a pizza emoji a few weeks back. By embracing the “emoji” trend and adding an element of social media driven gamification to the sometimes stale press release ritual, Chevy is taking great strides in effectively engaging with the target millennial audience.

Take a look at the full press release, and see if you can piece together the full story.

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What Sparks Our Fire: A unique integrated campaign targeted at millennials.

A Missed Opportunity From A Millennial’s Perspective

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I am a millennial.

I graduated from New York University in May 2014 with some hefty student loans. And, aside from my savings and checking accounts, these loans have been my entrée into the complicated world of financial institutions. While I won’t name the specific institutions I’ve worked with, I will say that almost every interaction I’ve had has been unpleasant. Calling, waiting on hold for hours, speaking to agents who have no ability to help me, transferring to new agents and explaining issues all over again, and very little email correspondence– I would characterize every step as the antithesis of what millennials expect from a reputable business. If this is our first interaction with a financial institution, is it any wonder why millennials want nothing to do with them?

This morning I came across a great article from TechCrunch, “Millennials Are Destroying Banks, And It’s The Banks’ Fault“, that poses a lot of interesting questions, and even more creative challenges to the financial institutions vying for millennial customers. With an estimated $30 trillion wealth transfer from baby boomers to millennials coming up, banks are realizing that, despite astronomical student loans and a new set of recession-influenced priorities, millennials will not be poor forever. But will they trust the traditional banks that their parents used for their own wealth? That much is unclear.

Why aren’t financial institutions catering to millennials in the same ways that seemingly every other industry is? This article rightly points out that, in most cases, the changes that millennials want are happily accepted amongst members of other generations. Simplicity, transparency, and efficient communication. I’m not the only millennial who has not experienced any of these attributes when dealing with my student loans, and I can’t help but wonder if that’s how the remainder of my financial experiences will be, until financial institutions learn how to engage with millennials.

Offering creative products and services that cater to my generation, as this article advises, is one of the ways that financial institutions can start to win over millennials. Using thoughtful and efficient communications is not a small component to overlook and at Canopy, I’m learning how to find the right way to engage millennials, instead of just talking to them. One thing is clear–the financial institutions that are not offering or marketing their financial products and services to tomorrow’s largest market demographic are missing a huge opportunity.

by: Jacqueline Goldberg, Canopy’s Resident Millennial

Daddy Issues

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Just in time for Father’s Day, Y&R has released a new study outlining the shopping habits and behaviors of North American dads. Cleverly titled “Who’s Your Daddy?” the study also shows how millennial dads are “redefining fatherhood.” Here are five of the most impactful takeaways from the study.

  1. Dads will pay more for convenience. Knowing that they can get all of their shopping done in one place is important to dads, and they’re willing to pay a price for the time savings. Compared with 32% of moms, 49% of dads are willing to pay more for “one-stop” shopping.
  2. Being first is important. Just like their hunter-gatherer ancestors, dads are always on the the lookout. Except, instead of looking for wild beasts, dads are looking for the newest and coolest products. 59% of dads said that they want to be the first of their friends and family to try new products.
  3. Loyalty is king. Loyalty is the top value for both dads and men in general, and it shows in their interactions with brands. 48% of dads consider themselves “loyal to brand-name products,” as compared with 35% of moms.
  4. Millennials are changing the game. As millennial parents adopt the idea of co-parenting, and distribution of responsibilities gets closer to even, brands should consider the impact of shifting habits. For instance, 80% of millennial dads take primary or shared responsibility for grocery shopping, as opposed to 45% of dads in general.
  5. Put the coupons down. Dads aren’t particularly interested in saving money on purchases they’re already going to make, even compared with men who are not dads. In fact, only 43% of dads are proud when they “get great value for [their] money,” as compared with 70% of moms. 59% of dads even think using coupons or flyers at checkout makes them look cheap.

Read the full study here.

What Sparks Our Fire: Great insights into the maturing Millennial market

Google Results In 140-Characters Or Less

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If you’ve made a Google search on your phone in the past week, you might have noticed a some interesting new results pop up. The “Popular on twitter” section debuted last week and is the first project to come from Google and Twitter‘s new partnership. Google will now show relevant tweets on some of it’s most popular mobile search results.

Displayed just below Google’s own “In the news” section, this new feature will allow searchers to see the most up-to-date information on the subject they are searching for, and help them gauge the public conversation around that subject. The prominent placement of the tweets on the search results page highlights the relevance and importance of social media by prioritizing it second only to “news.”

This innovation is just one of a few that Google has introduced this year to help make their mobile search tool as user-friendly as possible. Earlier this year, Google changed it’s mobile search algorithm to prioritize mobile and responsive websites. They’ve also created new ad experience options for brands advertising via mobile search.

Google and Twitter’s partnership enables social media commentary to become an even larger part of the information-gathering process for search users. And while tweets will only appear on certain search results with enough popularity, it is easy to see how this integration of facts and commentary could potentially help brands. By seeing non-affiliated tweeters talking about a brand, consumers can get a better, more organic sense of the brand’s personality and benefits to them.

What Sparks Our Fire:  Elevating the credibility of tweets as a source of real time information

Dinner is (Instagram) Ready!

Screen Shot 2015-05-15 at 4.45.20 PMChili’s, the international chain of casual dining restaurants is upgrading their menu to bring more to the table.  We aren’t referring to increased portion sizes or even changing menu items, Chili’s is changing the way they present food in an effort to draw more tech-savvy millennials.

Think this sounds a bit farfetched?  Think again. Instagram has over 300 million active users, 75 million of those users are active on Instagram daily, and every single minute an average of 90 new photos with the hashtag #foodporn are uploaded. 

The presentation of food, known as plating, is a longstanding important element of all upscale restaurants and their dishes, but since instagram hit the scene, users across the world are posting filtered food pictures constantly.  It’s a wildly popular trend that has withstood tons of backlash from chefs, restaurants and journalists.

We aren’t sure if this result in an increase of social media posts or sales for Chili’s, but we commend them for tailoring their product to meet their audience’s desires.  Good job Chili’s, we hope this marketing tactic doesn’t backfire like endless apps at TGI Fridays.

What Sparks Our Fire: Brands that pay attention to their customers