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We’re so over you, millennials

Nancy Marshall-Genzer Jul 1, 2015
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We’re so over you, millennials

Nancy Marshall-Genzer Jul 1, 2015
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Move over, millennials. Marketers are zeroing in on the next generation — people still under 18 — whom they’re calling centennials.

Advertising giant WPP has just announced a new partnership with the Daily Mail newspaper and Snapchat. Why Snapchat? It has a reputation as the app for teens. So that’s where advertising money is going. 

But these aren’t your father’s ads. They blend in with Snapchat videos from your friends.

“Consumers are consolidating their time into a handful of apps,” says Julie Ask, a vice president, principal analyst at Forrester Research. “They tend to be apps that are social media, instant messaging,” 

Ask says these kinds of ads are the best way to reach busy, distracted teens.

Another reason advertisers like apps such as Snapchat? It helps them get around government regulations against advertising to the very young. Especially because apps like Snapchat don’t verify ages. 

“So once you get past the lack of age verification, it is the wild West,” says Adam Hanft, CEO of Hanft Projects, a brand strategy firm.    

That’s extremely creepy for, say, a parent of centennials. But for advertisers? It’s gold.

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