With a population of 75 million people and $170 billion in annual purchasing power, so-called Millennial consumers are hotly sought after by brands in almost every category of the retail world. Many Millennials — defined as people born between the early 1980’s and the early 2000’s — either already have or soon will start families, so their grocery store purchases are likely increasing.
Communicating with this generation can be challenging as they tend to reject traditional advertising. Instead, they are likely to seek recommendations from people they admire and trust. They also want to build relationships with brands that share their same attitudes and values. Many Kellogg brands are building on those insights and a recent report named Kellogg’s as one of the top brands for Millennial consumers. We ranked in 39th place on the list of the top 50 brands, but just as important is a 21-positionmimprovement from the previous year.
Kellogg’s growing appeal to Millennials is due in part to the great taste of our food, but also to engaging marketing programs such as these:
Eggo®
Millennials have fond memories of the Leggo My Eggo TV ads from their childhood, and Eggo brought back the famous tag line with a thoroughly modern twist. In a world where people share everything – photos, relationship status and opinions – one thing is still too good to share: Eggo waffles. The campaign featured bold visual representations and even a video of a grocery store “Sample Lady” given the difficult task of sharing her Eggo waffles.
Pringles®
Pringles connected with Millennials over a shared love of music with the 2015’s Summer Jam promotion, offering chances to win VIP concert trips or free music downloads. The brand also engaged through social channels with unique “Percussion Prodigies” videos — featuring incredible performances on drum kits made of Pringles cans. Additionally, the brand asked YouTube superstar M4Sonic to show his fans the fun ways you can use Pringles to make music.
Mini-Wheats®
Frosted Mini-Wheats is a brand that equally celebrates both its wheat and sweet sides. The marketing team realized that many Millennials have a similar duality as they reach adulthood – they embrace their grown-up responsibilities, but still don’t take themselves too seriously. We call them “Kidults,” people who balance the best of both worlds – their adult freedoms with their childlike permissions. The brand celebrated kidults in both traditional and digital media, and recently continued the campaign with a social experiment that sought to test the level of “kid” vs. “adult” among one cities daily commuters.
Open For Breakfast™
Like many people, Millennials are often keenly interested in knowing what's in their food, how it's made and what companies are doing to contribute to a better world. That's why Kellogg operates Open For Breakfast™, an open forum in the digital and social media space to hear what's on peoples' minds and share stories about Kellogg's food, our commitments to communities around the world and our pledge to care for the environment.
These types of programs allow us to interact with Millennial consumers on their terms – through the digital channels that they prefer, with appealing content and open dialogue. And it is how we will connect and form relationships that will help bolster our brands for years to come.
