In 2018 Good Relations launched the ‘iGen Report’, an event series and research project in conjunction with Instagram, BuzzFeed, VICE, Snapchat and Redbull, to help brands connect more meaningfully with the next generation.

Dubbed the ‘iGen’, these 16-23 year olds born between 1995 and 2012 are best described as mini marketing directors with a flair for channel specific communications. They’re more likely to look at their phone within five minutes of waking than they are to ever read a magazine.

Over the event series, ‘The iGen Sessions’, Good Relations shared some of what we’ve learnt about what it’s like to be born at the turn of the millennium, and how marketers need to update their approach to this unique audience group. Alongside the series Good Relations commissioned an in-depth report into the psychographics and media consumption habits of the iGen which included three weeks of qualitative research with 80 iGeners and supported by a quantitative survey of over 1,000 of the same demographic.

SPEAKERS

David Wiles, Good Relations

Gord Ray, Instagram

Fintan Gillespie, Snapchat

Nina Caplin, Redbull

Amanda Warren, BuzzFeed

Priya Matadeen, VICE Media

Key take outs:

• They’re not just playing with their phones, they’ve integrated technology into their lives. Most iGen got their first smartphone at just 12 year old (13%); 2% of respondents got their first smartphone at just 3 years old; 65% look at their phone within 5 minutes of waking; 60% look at their phone within 5 minutes of sleeping.

• They’re not just taking selfies, they’re managing their personal brands. iGen use social media as a tool by which to manage their personal brand and believe that it determines a person’s future success, socially, professionally, and romantically. 23% actively run four social media accounts; 42% say your social media account determines how people see and perceive you; 39% say it defines your popularity; 33% say it affects your job prospects and your influence externally.

• They’re not vain, they’re worried about their careers, politics, and their future. Given the age they’ve grown up in, it’s no surprise that they hyper-curate their online lives, selecting who to send what, where and when. In terms of their view on the future, the iGen are most worried about: 66% career, 47% terrorism, 44% health, 33% political uncertainty, 11% none of the above.

• It’s not a short attention span; it’s an eight second filter. iGens control so many accounts and channels that they are suffering from an attention diversion crisis which has changed how they observe life around them. Brands now only have eight seconds in which to grab consumers’ attention. Brands must remain clear about context. Why are people viewing it? What are their motivations in engaging? When are they viewing it? Can it be summed up in a second?

• They’re not consuming new things, but consuming them in new ways. When it comes to engaging the iGens, the simplest and most useful thing a brand can focus on is adapting to the sheer speed of their communications. From the moment they wake up in the morning to when they go to sleep at night, the efficiency of their communications and content consumption is, regardless of channel, neck-breakingly fast and highly reactive. Speed, as opposed to scale, will be the one to watch for brands looking to lead the pack in 2018.

MEET THE IGEN

Visit Good Relations' showcase to read the full report

CONTACT

Holly Dedman, Head of Business Development, Good Relations, [email protected]