Marketing companies have been competing for the minds of millennials fiercely over the last few years – and for good reason.

Millennials represent about a quarter of the entire US population, and have over $200 billion in annual buying power. Though they have less discretionary income than Baby Boomers and older generations, they have a lot of influence – and are hard to reach with traditional marketing methods.

But are millennials still the hottest consumers out there? Or should we be focusing our efforts on a new generation of consumers? Here’s the scoop.

Millennials Are Still The Most Important Consumer Generation – For Now

Millennials are defined as individuals who were between 18-34 in 2015 by the Pew Research Center. They are just now entering the prime of their lives as consumers.

As millennials age, their income continues to grow as a generation. Most millennials are now out of college and working in professional careers, and millennials are the most educated generation to date.

This means that the buying power of millennials is only going to grow in future years, as they begin to start families and earn more discretionary income.

However, millennials will not stay at the top of the heap forever. As time goes on, Generation Z continues to grow – and a new generation of consumer is born.

Gen Z – The Largest Consumer Generation In History

Generation Z is defined as the “post-millennial” generation. While most definitions vary, it’s agreed that most Gen Z individuals were born around the year 2000 or later. This generation already makes up 25% of the population, and is forecasted to continue to grow.

As Gen Z becomes older, and younger people begin to enter the consumer market, they are likely to become the most highly sought-after consumer generation, just as millennials were before them.

Focus On Millennials In Marketing Efforts – But Don’t Forget About Gen Z!

How should brands market their products? Luckily, millennials and Gen Z both share a few common attributes. Consumers from both generations are tech-savvy and have quite a bit of influence on the market – and both Gen Z and millennial consumers do not respond well to traditional advertising methods.

While millennials should be the focus on most marketing efforts, Gen Z should not be overlooked. Brands should be using social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Twitter to reach a younger audience, and should always be on the lookout for hot trends that could appeal to Gen Z consumers.

Conclusion

As time goes on, millennials will become less important as a consumer audience, and the importance of Gen Z will grow. So focus on millennials for now, but don’t forget about the younger generation.

If you live in a major metro market, then you know what it’s like to walk down the street and see 90% of the people with their heads down buried in their phone. I was one of those people, until I found myself standing in the middle of the street in Manhattan writing a text and nearly getting hit by a taxi. From that point on, I made sure that I was always looking up. But I am definitely in the minority. And this post is not about the safety, or lack thereof, when it comes to texting. It’s about how marketers can capitalize on this Head Down Revolution.

According to Statista, the U.S. mobile phone penetration has reached 81%, representing 223 million consumers. And those consumers spend an average of 4.7 hours per day glued to their smartphones. More importantly, is the role that texting now plays in our everyday lives, especially when it comes to marketing. For an eye-opening example, texts have a 99% open rate compared to 20% for email*. Pretty amazing, huh? Now I imagine that smartphones are currently in the midst of fine tuning their hardware to introduce features that can block such correspondence. But who knows when that will come?

So until that day, marketers have a humongous opportunity to take advantage and focus their outbound efforts on the behaviors of the smartphone user. A behavior that is now second nature, and while receiving a text from a brand may seem like a nuisance at first, it is certainly less of one than an email. Also, if you’re sending info or content that isn’t selling, but more serving them something of value, then you’re more likely to be able to maintain that dialogue.

And isn’t a dialogue what we want? It opens the door, and leads to traffic. And when you have enough traffic, ultimately it will lead to transactions. It’s this approach to marketing, partnered with the aforementioned tactics, that can build the awareness and engagement you’re looking for.

Now how about a little “social experiment”: The next time you’re walking down the street, take note of how many people’s’ heads are down. It truly is a sight to see. Just think, those eyes could be engaged in your brands message. And if the message is “timed” to when your customer is in the market for a new product, it becomes relevant and timely — a very powerful combination.

*Credits: Jack Loechner — Editor of The Center for Media Research; SinglePoint; Statista

PetMatch will find you look-a-like pets in your area up for adoption at that exact moment. It can be as accurate as registering details like the shape of an animal’s mouth, the distance between its eyes, coloring and general size and shape. Though, there’s more to the relationship between humans and pets than physical appearance. The app can also help place pets based on personality, character traits and habits.

Superfish is also behind ShopScout, an app that uses the same image recognition algorithm and lets you take pictures of products and find similar ones for sale online (Something worth checking out).

What Sparks Our Fire: An app that takes image recognition a step further.

What is your view on the PetMatch app? Have any of you tried it? Let us know what you think!

What Sparks Our Fire:  The perfect Facebook feature to celebrate friendships on social media.

Will you be using Say Thanks? Create your personalized video card here.

ShopSavvy is a mobile app that scans products and finds both online and local stores who carry it. Once you scan the bar code, either at home or in-store, ShopSavvy makes a price comparison on the fly, displays user reviews, and searches for discounts. The app has updated SKUs so you’re sure to find the item in all stores listed. The brilliant app was developed by Rylan Barnes, who won “Google’s Android Developer Challenge”.

ShopSavvy can be downloaded on iOs, Android and Windows phones. There is also a website available for simple searches.

What Sparks Our fire: An app that will save us time and money.

Are you ready to give ShopSavvy a try and live a more frugal lifestyle?

… and it’s not a new taco or burrito but an App for iOs and Androids that allows users to order and make payment via their smartphone. They’ve eliminated the need to get out of the car and make the line; they’ve mostly eliminated the need to speak to anyone. In a nutshell, this is how it works:

1. Browse the menu
2. Select an item, or customize your order ingredient-by-ingredient, or re-order a meal from the past
3. Submit and pay through the app using debit, credit, or Taco Bell gift cards
4. Go to your nearest Taco Bell and skip the line to get your order

As part of the new app launch, Taco Bell Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, and even its website have all gone dark, with only one message available for users to see “The new way to Taco Bell isn’t on [insert social media name] it’s #onlyintheapp”

The idea was to play up the announcement and attract attention to the new release. In addition, they invite you to join the conversation with its Twitter hashtag #onlyintheapp.

“Today as food culture changes and generations grow up with smartphones, our customers seek restaurant experiences that fit their lifestyle,” said Taco Bell Presiden, Brian Niccol, in a statement. Taco Bell assures the process is safe and secure. Two startups: Cardfree and Tillster help handle the paymenst.

This year has proven to be the year of mobile payment and ordering in fast food and is undoubtedly going to be the norm at fast-food chains within the next years. Wendy’s in March introduced a payment-by-app nationally; Burger King this year also said it was expanding its mobile-payment offering and lately McDonald’s has announced its collaboration with Apple Pay.

Sadly, you still need to drag yourself off the couch to get your food since Taco Bell doesn’t deliver…yet.

What Sparks Our Fire: An innovative app that makes it easy and simple to order food even faster.

Are you ready to satisfy your Taco Bell craving in a new fashion way? Download the app here for iOS or here for Androids

It is undeniable that touch screens are popular in today’s world but, something people tend to forget is the importance of physical buttons which can sometimes make your life easier. For instance, a single click on a button could automatically launch and turn on your flashlight app without having to even unlock your phone.

Meet Pressy, a tiny button that sits in your headphone jack and allows quick access to frequently-used functions and built only for Android devices (sorry iOS users). When using headphones, a user can plug Pressy into the included keychain and if the headphone features a volume control button, the app allows that button to get access to all the Pressy features. How cool!

Pressy also allows users to set up multiple functions with different combinations of presses and works along with an app. The Pressy app allows users to choose from a variety of different functions such as turning on the flashlight, instantly taking pictures, calling a number in your contacts, and so on. For instance, two short presses could tell it to call “Mom” and two long presses could cause it to play your favorite music.

Another major part of this project is the API which allows third party developers to build their own functions and features. And if you have multiple devises, you can use Pressy for all devises.  The project was Kickstarter funded and received more than 17 times its initial pledge of $40,000. You can now, order the device on Pressy’s official website.

What Sparks Our Fire: An innovative little button that brings back simplicity to Android phones for quick access to frequently-used functions.

Are you ready to make better use of your headphone jack?

There are many task manager apps out there but Wunderlist remains our favorite with its eye-catching design and a set of handy tools. The option to assign tasks to specific people and monitor all parts of your team’s projects alone makes Wunderlist arguably the best task management app out there.

Wunderlist is simple and comes with a minimalistic interface to help you create as many lists as you need that instantly sync between your phone, tablet and computer, making them accessible anywhere. In addition, the app makes it easy to start conversations about your to-dos with family, friends and colleagues. Also, you can attach photos, PDFs, presentations, and Dropbox files to share your work and delegate to-dos. Finally, Wunderlist is equipped with a reminder function to ensure you never forget important deadlines ever again.

Wunderlist is free to download and Wunderlist Pro is available for under $5 to help you experience even more: unlimited access to files, subtasks, etc. You can find the app for  iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows Phone, Windows, Chromebook, Kindle Fire and on the Web.

Last week, Wunderlist introduced Wunderlist for Chrome. With this new functionality, you can replace your new tab page with a lightweight version of Wunderlist that lets you quickly add new to-dos straight into your Inbox.

‘Ideas can strike like lightning. Now when they come to mind, you can instantly capture them just by opening a new tab’. -Google Chrome

What Sparks Our Fire: A simple tools for team collaboration and task management.

Have you ever tried Wunderlist? Share your experience.

Automatic Smart Driving Assistant is a gadget designed to unlock your car’s full potential, making driving safer and more efficient. Automatic can help you spend up to 30% less on gas (about $800/year) by learning your driving style and giving you real-time audio feedback when you do something that wastes gas. Automatic also monitors your car health and warns you when something is wrong. It provides written details of the problem and possible solutions; it tells you if it is something you can do yourself and save a trip to the mechanics or if needed, helps you find a mechanic nearby. But most importantly, if you are ever in a crash, Automatic provides a full-service crash response 24/7 and alerts 911 with your location and can even contact your loved ones to let them know what happened and that help is on the way.

Automatic is extremely simple to set up and use: plug the Automatic link into your car’s onboard computer with no tool required and connect it to your smartphone via the App (on iOS or Android). Automatic is only available in the US.

What Sparks Our Fire: A gadget that redefines people’s relationship with driving, making it safer and more efficient by giving you useful information.

Are you ready to be a better driver and adopt a smart driving Automatic Assistant?

If you have a smartphone, you’re most likely typing fast and while doing so, you may have fell victim to autocorrect failures. Luckily, there are apps out there to help you avoid such typo mistakes. Our favorite so far is Swiftkey, a free predictive keyboard app for Androids and iOS that helps you type faster on your phone or tablet. It works by replacing your on-screen keyboard with one that adapts to the way you type. What is magical about Swifkey is it uses algorithms to learn your personal writing style and uses all information gathered to fix typos by suggesting your next word for faster and more accurate typing.

What Sparks Our Fire: An app that makes it easy to create and communicate on mobile.

Would you download Swiftkey?