Advertising Target: Male vs. Female Millennials

I was passed along this research report from Nielsen that really stuck with me. Gender Divide: Reaching Male vs. Female Millennials.

I’m 24 years old, tech savvy, and constantly either on my phone, the internet, or have the television on. Marketers can have a field day with me, whether it’s ads on my applications on my phone, targeted campaigns across the websites I visit, and commercials on the channels a 24-year-old male watches. The issue with me for marketers is how to distinguish themselves from each other, since there are so many opportunities for me to get inundated with content.

Targeted Channels

Personally, I mainly watch a certain few TV channels with most of the content either being sports games, comedic sitcoms, and dramatic programming. One of the easiest channels to pick for marketers is ESPN. This is a set target of primarily male, not easily offended, loose around the edges viewers.

One of the more difficult stations in my mind is TBS. As a millennial I watch a ton of this channel after work, as they syndicate great shows that were in their prime just before I was really able to “fully” understand all the references made. But how do you market to a lineup that consists of Friends (female), King of Queens (split), Seinfeld (educated guess, more male, but close), and Family Guy (very male)? This is where you’ll see more commercials for diverse programming, and gender-neutral products like car insurance. It’s why you’ll see the ads for Flo from Progressive reaching out to females, and the Mayhem ads from Allstate (probably my favorite campaign on TV) during the same commercial break.

Targeted Content

Males:

The Nielsen article makes this point: “Humor, an established characteristic of highly memorable ads, is an element that requires a different approach based on the audience’s gender. Slapstick, edgy and sarcastic humor resonates highly with men.  Silly, off-beat humor that’s not mean-spirited tickles the funny bones of young women.” I really couldn’t agree more as my personal favorite campaigns right now are the aforementioned Mayhem commercials, and the Old Spice campaign with Terry Crews.

Females:

I showed the article to one of my good friends (she’s 23) and asked her if any commercials on TV resonated with her that fell in the description of appealing to women her age. Her response was a bit of an eye opener to most in our group, but one I very much agree with: “I would wager that for the majority of women, especially women in their 30s and 40s, the descriptions Nielsen came to are correct. But for women my age, we identify with a completely different attitude. Why does really funny stuff have to be masculine? Girls is one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen and I would say its heavily rooted in edgy, mean-spirited humor — and it’s created, written, and directed by Lena Dunham and has an excellent all-female cast. The same goes with the movie Bridesmaids. We’re moving away from this gentle, careful idea of female humor. But ‘offensive’ humor is such a masculine trait, because it’s aggressive, and requires a certain attitude that traditionally women aren’t expected to encompass. I think millennial females are moving past this.”

Is my friend an interesting exception, or is the research flawed by lumping all millennial females age 13-34 together? Millennials: who do you agree/disagree with?