Digital Media's Best Bet to Success? It's Generation Y

A recent study conducted by New Zealand-based global technology partner Gencom Technology examining upcoming media trends and challenges in 2015 underscores one important ethos that should guide digital media businesses: when it comes to breaking through the business, appealing to Generation Y is your best bet to success.  

Accounting for 28 percent of media consumers in Australia, Gen Y, or people aged 10 to 29, are the “holy grail” for marketers of digital media products and services. Gencom Technologies notes that demand for technology and innovation won’t further if not to capture and hold Gen Y’s attention.  Gen Y are highly tech-savvy too and have a voracious appetite for entertainment and media, but they almost always tend to have a sophisticated and discerning taste when it comes to choosing which one to patronize, which traditional broadcasters find challenging.

The company also noted earlier reports that Gen Y is peer-focused and is always on the lookout for the latest news and trends to keep up with their community. As a result, they tend to favor “on demand” media providers who can always meet their demand for content. They are always connected with their peers in all modes of communications from text to social media.

The challenge of marketing to Gen Y, however, is that they tend to demand for things they want “right here, and now.” While they earn higher and are reported to have “lots of disposable income” and show a “willingness” to splurge on value services and content, they tend to have a highly evolved “taste” for things, which makes tapping them as customers all the more difficult.

“Generation Y doesn't readily trust a marketer's effort to sell them anything,” Sarah Sladek, CEO of management firm XYZ University, told Business Daily News. “They value trust, which is why they frequently seek out the opinions of their peers and consult user-generated review sites like TripAdvisor and Yelp.”

In the United States, a 2013 article on Barron's revealed that there are 86 million people from Generation Y accounting for $1.3 trillion of consumer spending, Business Daily News reported. This represents over 20 percent of the nation's total.

Meanwhile, GenXers, or those aged between 30 and 44, and account for 21 percent of Australia’s general population, also proved to be a potentially profitable target segment for digital media company as they strive to “keep up with technology.”  

“Some are ready to adopt the new IP enabled technologies, while for many others it is simply too difficult or onerous. If an easy-to-use solution is placed before them, then they are happy to adopt it, however it must be simple and work ‘out of the box,’” Gencom said.

A report on Bidness News said Generation Y is likely to stream media, particularly music, online than spend time downloading. And they are most likely to do it through their mobile phone on high-speed internet connection. As for video, half of young people or 44 percent paid for streaming services to watch or download films and TV programs.  

Streaming services such as Pandora P, Spotify, Audioboom BOOM, YouTube, Netflix, and others are primed to benefit from the trend as they focus on beefing up their services. As long as they can satiate Generation Y’s demand for digital content 24/7, then they could generate huge returns for the long term.