In the second part of our series on the importance of the Millennial generation to Financial Services businesses we look at the new challenges they present vs previous generations.

Part 2. The challenge

It’s pretty clear that a younger audience presents a unique and timely opportunity for financial services businesses. However, we understand that they come with a number of challenges. Perhaps the biggest is simply that they are so different from previous generations in their values, their world view and their media consumption.

In terms of values, this audience are considerably more likely to put themselves at the socially liberal and politically radical end of the scale vs. previous generations. They see problems in the world, and they want them fixed. They apply the same criteria when they are thinking about their investments as well. This has been amplified by the pandemic with this generation worrying more about the environment, social responsibility and company governance than any other age-group. In general, our research shows that they worry far more than other generations.

They are also a generation that has lived through, and to a great degree driven, a complete changing (change) of the media landscape. These were the people who first opened Facebook accounts and took out subscriptions when Netflix sent DVDs in the post. They use traditional media far less than any other audience, and expect their services to be delivered digitally first, they don’t worry if their bank doesn’t have a branch. They expect the next financial revolution to come from a tech company not a bank.

If you are trying to get your brand across to them you need to be in more places and speaking their language. The average millennial has nine different social media accounts, each of which has their own requirements be it technical or tonal. Making a campaign work consistently across all of them takes a strong and recognisable brand with the flexibility to adapt. It’s not good enough anymore to have a brand identity and a logo. Your brand needs to mean something that resonates with the value set of this audience, and it needs to be delivered in a way that not only works in various media but also stands out in a crowded space.

In the final part of this series we will look at what that means for brands…