Why Brands are using Cartoons to Engage Millennials
By Srinivasa Raghavan, Animaker
With more than 1.8 billion millennials, they constitute about ¼ of the world’s total population. Millennials have an annual buying capacity of over $200 billion in the U.S. alone.
Stats like these make millennials a large portion of target audience for businesses.
But marketing to millennials is a different challenge altogether. They don’t respond well to traditional marketing methods. If you want to appeal to them, you ought to do that in their own terms and in their channels.
Knowing this, businesses are constantly coming up with new ways to market to them.
Recently, I see a lot of businesses/brands use cartoons, animated characters to appeal to the creative generation of millennials. And it seems like a working marketing strategy; Here’s why,
Millennials and Cartoons – Nostalgia Marketing
Nostalgia is a very powerful phenomenon.
In a world that seems to be evolving rapidly, experiencing nostalgia is like going back to the good old days when things were simpler, and you didn’t have nothing much to worry about.
Millennials are very passionate about 90’s cartoons. Knowing that nostalgia enables millennials to relive memories, brands have started to adopt cartoon characters in their advertising.
This allowed them to break through the clutter by helping millennials relive childhood memories of their favorite cartoon character and associate that with the brand’s products.
Here’s an example of an ad by Apple featuring the cookie monster:
Known for its wide range of tech products and amazing design practices, Apple used the cookie monster campaign to show their audience that they have a fun and accessible side to their business as well.
Cartoons can boost social shares
Humorous content is some of the most shared content in social media. You can say so much through cartoons, with a simple caption and make people think, laugh and feel.
Cartoons are one of the most popular forms of humorous content online, and for good reasons. First of all, they work well with just about any social media platform and helps them spread like wildfire.
Secondly, millennials have very short attention spans online, so the concise nature of cartoons and memes make them a perfect medium for quick consumption.
Being a seasoned marketing professional, Gary knows that content without personality and soul won’t appeal emotionally with the Millenials.
He uses cartoon memes a lot these days to target Millenials’ emotional core. He knows cartoons make people laugh and associate with his content. This makes his audience to act on his content and share it.
Cartoons can close more deals
It’s important to highlight that email is one of the most powerful ways to get to your customers. The potential return on investment can only happen if your email is engaging and interesting to reply.
If you’re sending an email to a prospect/client chances are he/she is a millennial too. Using cartoons or memes in your emails can boost your chances of getting a reply.
Since cartoons are humorous, prospects will relate to them and it gives a sense of authenticity to your email. Thus boosting your reply rates.
Cartoons can aid corporate training efforts
Millennials today are exposed to a number of communication channels in their personal lives. This leads to short attention span and engagement in corporate training programs.
Knowing this companies have resorted to using cartoons and animated videos to create their learning materials.
Sometimes fun and fantasy can go hand-in-hand very effectively to convey a message. Cartoons are loved by millennials, and are likely to create better learning retention rates in the long term.
Moreover, watching cartoons can act not just as a learning experience but also as a stress-buster for millennial employees.
Here’s a great example of a training video by Hydro to promote workplace safety:
When you’re talking to millennials it helps to talk like one of their peers to establish that trust and make them build a relationship with your brand.
Businesses these days have already started to incorporate cartoons and animations in their content strategy. Don’t be too late to get on board and miss the opportunity altogether.