Millennials, the demographic that content creators and advertisers cannot hear enough about, give new TV shows a 10-minute probation period and will not commit to a series unless Season 2 has the greenlight.
These and other pearls emerged from a panel discussion moderated by The Intelligence Group chief strategy officer Jamie Gutfreund at the Stream Market at Santa Monica’s Loews Hotel on Monday (June 2).
On the day when conference attendees learned that 22 is the most common age on the planet, a panel of five twentysomethings told Gutfreund, a Generation Y expert, that they thrive on friend recommendations via social media platforms, typically eschew cable in favour of streaming and use someone else’s log-in for HBO Go.
Netflix emerged as the panel’s favourite creator of original content and several commented how the Roku streaming device offered more channels than Apple TV.
Interestingly the speakers, whose ages ranged from 21 to 29, were broadly accepting of commercials, with one youngster commenting that an ad that would repeat itself during a binge viewing session on Hulu tended to stick in the mind after five hours.
“That’s the point,” said a senior audience member in her late thirties.
While the panellists agreed that visual commercials were bearable, one 25-year-old said ads on music platforms like Spotify were intolerable.
“I want to be able to listen to my music without interruption when I’m in the car for 20 minutes driving to work,” she said.
Another panellist said he practiced appointment viewing for drama series for fear that viral spoilers would ruin the experience of watching the show once it had aired.
Film viewing habits were mixed. One panelist said she rarely went to the theatre and when she did it was to see a tentpole in 3D because the experience was unique.
Others either visited the theatre once every few weeks or binged on Oscar contenders before swearing off cinema until the following awards season.
Turning to apps, the panellists struggled to remember the last time they downloaded something and said when they did so most likely it would have been free.
“When Millennials buy something, they’re not just shopping; they’re voting in you. We call this trend venture consumers,” Gutfreund told the audience prior to the panel.
She added that Millennial purchasing philosophy could be compared to shareholders investing in a company. “This audience [Millennials] wants a stake in the outcome.”
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