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How to Attract Gen Y

Y You know Gen Y, right?

Those are the folks now in their teens and twenties who are doing their best to up-end every aspect of media we used to take for granted.  God bless them.

But do you get their attention for your radio brand?

Here's some advice from Gen-Y personal branding guru Dan Schabel:
 
- Listen to them carefully and analyze their behavior. 

- Ask them how they want to be contacted before sending out a mass mailing or poking them on Facebook. 

- Be creative with your marketing because that's the only way you will attract them to your product or company. 

- Reward them with incentives and they'll come knocking on your door because they were raised to feel special by their parents. 

- Develop content they can share because they are already active online and have their own channels of distribution. 

- Recruit them to help you with your marketing to other Gen Yers.
View Comments
  • Mark the old dogs just don't get it! They actually think Ipods with FM built in are somehow going to make a big difference..
    it's just stupid! And I'm an old dog..
    It says to me radio is like the democrats, they just have no NEW IDEAS..
  • If daily contact with Gen Y was how we set the bar for "perspective" then every parent would be a marketing guru.
    I am sick and tired of shrugging off opportunities because, somehow, we perceive the task to be hopeless.
    Radio is facing a crisis of imagination, and pissing on the industry's prospects is not likely to promote change.
    Gosh, I guess I feel strongly about that.
  • "Gen Y Consults Radio"
    http://tinyurl.com/7c8lgg
    I really have to agree with Jerry, as he is a college professor at USC, and has daily contact with Gen Y. Radio realy only apeals to the baby-boomers, and I don't believe that anything will bring Gen Y to radio. Gen Y has a cell phone in one hand, an iPod in the other, and a laptop infrom of them. More than anything, Gen Y seeks out social networking technologies and their "personalized" music-oriented Web services, such as Pandora, Last.fm, Slacker, etc. How can radio ever successfully compete with these services. Sure, streaming on the Web might help, but it is still listening to short playlists, not necessarily of one's tastes. Hey, back in the 60s, we had great undiscovered artists, great playlists, and DJs that were as great to listen to as the music. Radio is becoming nationalized (CCU) and losing all of its local content. There aren't even any Gen Y'ers to listen to to get advice.
  • Great links ... thanks !!!
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MRM President Mark Ramsey has worked with innumerable television and radio broadcasters over his career, including all the biggest names, from Clear Channel, CBS, Bonneville, Sirius XM...

Mark Ramsey