This is a guest post by Anna Kassoway, CMO of Crowdtap.
Millennials are forecasted to have record-breaking purchasing power, but they are notoriously difficult to reach. They treat their phone like their lover, social media like their career, and TV like an old buddy they hang with for live events.
So, the question becmes how can brands influence these hard-to-reach millennials? Enter, user-generated content (UGC). According to a study conducted by Ipsos MediaCT in partnership with Crowdtap, millennials spend roughly 30% of their media time with UGC, rivaled only by traditional media at 33% (print, radio and TV combined).
The study, which can be found here, reveals that millennials spend a whopping 18 hours with different media types per day, often viewing multiple devices at the same time. Millennials are most influenced by UGC, which they trust 40% and remember 30% more than other media (including traditional media and other non-UGC media).
Given the study’s results, it’s no surprise that marketers have begun to leverage UGC to deliver brand messages through a more trusted and memorable channel. Although it may be difficult for brands to give up some control of the content and messaging they’re putting out, the shift can be very powerful. With 71% of millennials engaging in social networking on a daily basis, the combination of social media and UGC gives brands perhaps the most influential media channel in history.
The infographic below highlights some of the key findings:
Anna Kassoway is CMO of Crowdtap, the Leading Social Influence Marketing Platform (SaaS), making it easy for marketers to inspire a crowd of consumers to create quality content, drive unmatched social activity and provide real-time insights.
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