Offline Conversations Rule for Millennial Word-of-Mouth Marketing

Published September 25, 2014 | By Elaine Fogel

Millennials are tech-savvy. Millennials live in their social networks through mobile devices. But, guess what? They share most of their conversations offline in person!

According to Keller Fay Group’s TalkTrack^® May 2013 – April 2014,Despite their tech savvy, 84% of [Millennials’] WOM (word-of-mouth) impressions are as a result of offline conversations, primarily face-to-face.”

This is quite shocking considering that Millennials are a communicative generation, accounting for 689 million WOM impressions about brands per day. And, I always thought they had their thumbs buried in Facebook pages. Who knew?

So, what are they discussing?

The study demonstrates that their word-of-mouth conversations cover a pretty wide span of categories.

They are more than 50% more likely than the rest of the population to engage in daily conversations about technology and 25% more likely to talk about technology brands.
Nearly two thirds of Millennials’ conversations about brands include references to things they see online, or on TV, or at the point of sale, or other contact points that brands use to reach them.
They are about 10% more likely to discuss media or marketing when they talk about brands than other Americans.
For Millennials, digital media is #1, with 25% of their conversations including references to things they have seen on digital media, vs. 19% for non-Millennials. (Brand websites lead the way, followed closely by internet ads, social media, and online reviews.)
TV is second for Millennials, taking a spot in 17% of word of mouth conversations.
Magazines, email marketing, and radio all play a smaller role in Millennial conversations relative to digital media and TV, but they are talked about in larger numbers by Millennials than by those who are 35+.

Bottom line advice from Keller Fay Group?

Brands that wish to establish a powerful social strategy for Millennials should take a ‘total social’ perspective and consider all the marketing touch points that reach Millennials and make their way into their conversations, and also consider all the channels through which Millennials share their brand stories, including the overwhelming majority that take place in the real world.”