The Meh-llennials

 Not quite the mindless Social Media lemmings we were led to believe

Those darn kids.  Just when you think you've got them figured out, they go and do this.  A survey from Redshift Research in the UK has uncovered some interesting facts about the Millennials that counter what the experts say (not again!).  Here's what its infographic reveals:

Myth: Millennials spend their lives on Social Media

Fact:  Only 41% spend 3+ hours a week on Facebook and 29% spend 3+ hours per week on YouTube.

• 15% spend more than 3+ hours/week on Twitter. 43% don't use twitter

Myth: Millennials are all about smartphones and tablets, not yesterday's laptop/desktops

Fact:  65% spend more time accessing the Internet from a laptop or desktop than from their smartphone or tablet

Myth: Millennials spend most of their time chatting on Social Media and texting

Fact:  On average, they spend 108 hours/year browsing the Web for work and study—about as much time as they spend texting.

• They spend 77 hours/year reading news online, more than the 71+ hours/year spent on Twitter and 36 hours/year looking at celebrity gossip

Myth:  Millennials are obsessed with gaming and have no time for books

Fact:  61% of females are more likely to spend time reading books (26% list gaming as a hobby).

• 37% of males viewing reading as a popular pastime while 51% list gaming as a hobby

The "i" in Team!

In an effort to reduce costs and boost profits, Super agency BDBBOO & D has replaced its creative departments with a series of tablets called iCreate, These new tablets come in three models: iCopywriter, iAD, and iCD.

Sir Norbert Compostheap IV, the agency's chairman says that with the iCreate "We can produce a constant stream of innovative, engaging content and ads for our clients while saving a bundle."  Compostheap says it was only a matter of time before technology caught up to the creative process and "that time is now."  For instance, he expects to save $2.3 million on coffee and snacks at each agency per year and substantially more than that with the elimination of the Friday Beer cart.  "It's amazing how many things we found we could cut once we decided to move to the iCreate studio.  Hell, we don't even need to pay for heating or lights.  Win!" 

Here's how it works.  The account executive sends a six to ten key-word creative brief to a designated iCreate team.  Once downloaded, iCopywriter builds a copy deck from a database of 250,000,000 client- and legal department approved words.  At the same time, iAD, using a pre-approved colour palette and font, as well as the proprietary Logo-Be-Larger™ and Whitespace Eraser™ apps, produces pre-approved, press/html-ready Mac art.  Once complete, these documents are automatically uploaded to iCD, which combines the copy and artwork into a presentation format complete with 237 words of laudatory sell copy for the account executive to use during the client presentation.  The whole process takes about 3.5 minutes. Compostheap says clients will love it, too, because changes can be made in seconds and there is no, absolutely no pushback from iCreate.  "It simply makes the changes without the fucking attitude." 

Harvey's new campaign—oh so close*

A Marketing Magazine email blast arrived this AM and above the fold was a story on the newest Harvey's Restaurants campaign from BBDO Toronto that launched November 26. The goal is to reinforce its brand offering (build your own burger) and enlarge its customer base.  The idea is that people can log on to its microsite to build their own special burger and with the help of a "lawyer" they can get their burger copy protected.  Since the launch, people have registered 4,000 unique burger combinations—during the first four hours one burger a minute, on average, was registered (how many employees does BBDO have?)

Look, I like the idea (tho' it's obvious it has been watered down from what was presented to the client) but it's not quite there.  First, there are a few execution issues.  This isn't me being a stickler for the tiny details, because it's forgetting about those little touches that can ruin a concept.  For instance, on the site's video we are introduced to Morely Gunn, the guy who can register your burger and protect it from bounders.  Anyway, the image show him in his office, but notice the door.  Unless he is in the lobby, the lettering should be reversed.  It loses authenticity.

How do you think people would have reacted if that happened in, say The Maltese Falcon?  Either it was a dumb mistake or it thinks people are idiots.

The other execution problem is this: 

A Grammar Nazi's delight!

Second, I have questions about to whom the campaign is directed. Harvey’s (which makes great burgers, BTW) has an older customer base but wants to go after the Millennials. It wants to skew to a younger audience because the older ones, who just happen to represent over 50% of consumer spending, control 70% of all the wealth and dominate almost 95% of CPG categories just aren’t good enough. It would rather have the customer with the fewest disposable dollars and higher debt-to-income obligations than any other demographic. 

Finally, to grab that younger crowd, Harvey’s relies on Social Media. I guess that’s because, you know, the older crowd doesn’t use the Interweb. Don’t get me wrong here, I like the idea, but the targeting is misguided. It is based on an assumption that is can't possibly be verified.  

The way I figure it, if Harvey's is killing it with an older demographic, why not increase market penetration of that older segment instead of trying to increase market share with destitute Millennials?  And it wouldn't have to discount the product (and the brand) to do it. 

*DISCLAIMER My creation is "The Meat and Other Stuff Burger."