The Millennials

The term Millennials is usually considered to apply to individuals who reached adulthood around the turn of the 21st century. Also known as Generation Y or the Net Generation, birth years used to describe millenials range from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. Millennials grew up with computers, the Internet and the graphical user interface (GUI). This familiarity makes them adept at understanding interfaces and visual languages. They tend to adjust readily to new programs, operating systems (OS) and devices and to perform computer-based tasks more quickly than older generations (e.g. Baby Boomers). Although it’s been proven that multitasking is not usually an effective way to work, Millennials may be the employees that are most likely to pull it off. Millennials ranked “Technology Use” first (24%), followed by “Music/Pop Culture” (11%). In contrast, Boomers ranked “Work Ethic” as the most defining characteristic of their generation.

For the My Sky brief we have been asked to use Millennials for one of our scenarios. This means that we will require a persona (or three) to denote such individuals. Conveniently, being part of the Millennial generation, we have some more insight into the user motivations. Because of the generation’s digital tendencies,  marketers and brands need to step up their games in order to keep up and engage with them. Access to technology and devices is fueling Millennials’ ability to stay social 24/7. Younger Millennials access social media sites more on their laptops rather than mobile devices, while Older Millennials log in more on mobile apps. Regardless of device, both groups are checking in socially between 20 and 21 hours each month. This means that a social element will be very important for our solution to the brief.

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