The saying “the kids are the future generation” is somewhat true. It it is especially true in the case of the digital era, where technology is at its peak. The millennial generation (those who are born between 1980-2000, a.k.a the youth of today) are the biggest consumers of digital product and media content in this day and age. In this week’s reading by Chris Lederer and Meghan Brownlow, it talks about the growth of E&M companies (Entertainment & Media) and how this affects consumers of digital products.
‘A world of differences’ is a special report by PWC of the Global Entertainment and Media Outlook professionals for 2016, in where it details the global trends of consumers when it comes to consuming digital content – and how the “global media landscape is multi-shifting.” (p.8) One aspect of this shift that they mentioned in the report, is how the demographic play a significant role on pin-pointing the type of consumers that these companies are having.
A great deal is made – in the US in particular – of the financial struggles of millennial…We’ve all seen the speed at which younger consumers adopt new consumption behaviours and their startling ability to multitask in different media [platforms]. The same attributes allow them to lead the way in setting trends and driving consumption in E&M markets around the world.
One of the reasons, in my opinion, on why millennials are leading the way when it comes to the consumption of media is because they grew up with these types of technology. Technological and media advancements such as the internet, smart phones, smart TV’s, Netflix, YouTube, live streaming of music, online content, has opened a whole new way of accessing information and media products to the mass. Gone are the days of reading news and other information on printed newspapers – you can now view them online, at a much efficient and effective way, and be able to seek further information if need be. No need for physical CD’s and DVD’s, unless you’re old-school and you collect these physical items for nostalgia’s sake, or just because. You can now live-stream or download music straight from the internet and onto your smart-phones.
Younger people consume more media than older people, and are more open to adopting digital behaviours – and therefore more open to digital spending.
It is considered that the millennial generation have a more creative mind, and therefore are easily able to adapt to the shift of E&M changes and technological advancements. Because of this, their consumption of digital media is more compared to the older generation because they are so immersed in the digital world.
What does this then mean for future E&M companies? According to the report, a large amount of youthful markets “have rapidly growing middle classes whose discretionary spending power is on the rise – and E%M spending is usually discretionary.” Meghan Brownlow states that “the opportunity for media companies is to understand how the young spend on digital content” and how these companies should take into consideration a country’s demographics along with its wealth or rate of economic growth.