Do Millennials have preferences for digital ad strategies?
Blog-post authored by BSc Psychology student Luiza Quinn
With the increasing usage of digital media by consumers, more companies are using digital marketing to reach their target audiences. It is important to study this in order to understand the psychological mechanisms behind preference and online behaviour.
Smith (2011) explored various marketing strategies that are commonly used in digital media and determine which ones are preferred by Millennials. While there have been numerous studies about online advertising, there has been little academic research focused on what types of digital marketing strategies are preferred by Millennials and which ones influence their behaviour
How was this done?
571 Millennials were surveyed on their preferences for an array of digital advertisement strategies. These included:
· Pop-up ads
· Side-panel ads
· Coupons
· Email updates
· Advertising in the form of a game
· Video advertisements
So, what did they find?
Millennials' preferences for type of ad were: coupons (73.6%), side-panel ads (70.3%) and video ads (52.5%). Conversely, they reported that the top things that marketers should avoid as being: pop-up advertisements, un-closable windows and mandatory downloads.
In terms of things that grab Millennials' attention, the top three elements included: graphics (73.4%), bright colours (53.6%) and interactive elements (50.6%). Finally, the most popular incentives to encourage Millennials to repeatedly visit a given website included: competitive prices (69.4%), good shipping rates (67.2%) and coupons (57.7%).
Implications for this research
Results of this study indicate that Millennials prefer certain forms of digital advertising, while avoiding others. These results give insight to marketers and businesses for the best way to sell products to this generation of individuals.
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