In his keynote speech entitled ‘future focus: engaging the millennials’, Scougal first asked who are the millennials. According to research conducted by himself and based on various sources, millennials are those aged between 19 and 36 years old, either just starting university or well into their careers.
He added: "They are music-loving rebels driven by art, are diverse and confident, can multitask and love social media".
Scougal said if we are to start engaging with this generation "we need to dig a little deeper".
He added emerging trends in social media are demonstrating the emergence and popularity of mobile amongst this generation, with 80% of Twitter UK’s 15 million users activating the website using a mobile device. Scougal also highlighted internet usage has doubled between 2010 and 2013.
"The challenge for brands is that a desire to be engaged and up-to-date with content is nothing new," said Scougal. "Consumption with news is nothing, it’s just the way in which we are doing it is different."
Scougal described Vine, Instagram and Buzzfeed as some of the most popular smartphone apps around because of their live publishing ability. "There is a desire for millennials to be connected to everything around them," he added.
Conversation starters
In a bid to reach the millennials, Scougal said there are several moments that shift and change conversations. "A lot of brands think of Twitter as a reactive tool for everyday moments, but it is more than that."
To demonstrate his point, Scougal cited everyday conversations on Twitter around the impending Fifa World Cup. He said conversations are growing 28% month-on-month, attributing it to spikes around certain moments such as the World Cup draw.
He added: "In order to belong in the everyday moment, there is a lot of planning from an event perspective. We should ask ourselves is there anything from the conversation stream that can be used to connect a brand with millennials?"
Just by preparing a simple tweet, Adidas was able to share a moment when Andy Murray won at Wimbledon in 2013, Scougal described. He also mentioned that Ellen De Generes’ 'sporadic' celebrity selfie and pizza delivery at this year’s Oscars awards ceremony were both brand sponsored moments from Samsung and Big Mama’s and Papa’s respectively. Both moments drove more conversation on Twitter than the film Gravity winning its sixth Oscar.
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