Last Updated on November 21, 2023
PART A -THE BOREDOM CRISIS
Did you see new ad for -?
Boring.
How was the game night?
Meh.
Wanna see the new movie?
Uhhh, bo-riiing.
Shall we eat out?
Whatever.
Netflix? Youtube? Amazon Prime?
Zzzzzzz.
And that’s how the current 14-40 year olds are in a nutshell. Yes, many of your clients are bored. The younger they are, the more bored they are. Studies say that millennials and post-millennials today are so bored that they even find sleeping boring! They are bombarded with entertainment, social media is bigger than ever before and there is personalised ad at every touch point and yet, Gen Y and Gen Z couldn’t care less. “Meh” has become among the most commonly used responses.
- The current generation is different from the generation before them in many aspects.
- They are very unlikely to pick up magazines when they are bored.
- They turn to mobile games and social media in the hopes it will clear their mind. It doesn’t.
- They trust news and media outlets less.
- They are no longer stimulated by technology.
- They are more likely to quit a job because they don’t feel they are “making a difference”
- They care less about brands- something that is noticed alarmingly among Gen Z.
- They are less likely to click on ads.
If they are not bored by you, they are something even worse- indifferent to you!
PART B – THE IMPACT
If a generation is bored by the sheer concept of brand– how do you get customer loyalty?
If they are just going to quit the job anyway, how can you even look at the long term?
How do you have a conversation with the generation that doesn’t go beyond monosyllable?
How do you reach out to a generation that is defined by a shrug?
Millennials and post-millennials are the largest workforce. They are diverse and global. They may have never stepped out of their street and yet they have traveled the world. They carry the universe in their pocket and know more about a stranger in South Sudan than they do about their next door neighbour. There are a number of young and successful entrepreneurs from this group, at the same time there are also still many 30 plus folks from the same generation, who are living out of their parent’s basement, hoping to create something that would revolutionize the world. They are the teachers, the fashion gurus, the filmstars, the football players, the app developers….
They are your employees, they are your clients, they are your audience and they are your family. You, the reader, could also be one. We, writing this blog, could also be in the same group!
The fact is that you simply cannot afford to ignore the new(?) generation(s). They drive the culture. They create opinions. They make things go viral.
Ability to engage this lot could mean the difference between making and breaking your business, your party, your nation. But then comes the biggest question of it all- HOW?
PART C- BREAKING THE BARRIER
When you have seen everything and can no longer find anything new, won’t you be bored? What the young adult of today faces is the continuous regurgitation of the same old stuff, and they are fed-up. They don’t feel as if there is purpose to anything. Bring out something new, they may try it but only till the next new thing comes along and the next and the next and the next, till they once again go back to feeling bored. But don’t feel too bad, making them “not bored” is not very difficult, once you understand the basics of how their mind works.
- Can you be authentic? The internet youth can take you speaking ill of their nation, they can take you trying to bring down authority, they can take anything, as long as you are genuine. And oh, yes, they are turned off by sleazy sales tactics and hardsell.
- Can they reach you? No one these days likes to be kept waiting. They will not stand the “red-tape” or hierarchy. They need to be able to reach everyone in your company- the CEO, the CFO, the Manager, the Junior, the Temp- everyone! So make sure you make the access to you easy. Leave email addresses, social media links, the works.
- Can you tell them how they fit in? They don’t just want to be your employee or your client. They want to see how they fit into the bigger vision- and the vision better be something bigger than “I want to make a pot-lot of money.” If they are investing in you, it better be worth their while.
- Can you be new? They want you to change, they want you to be fresh. But this doesn’t mean you bombard them with “new”. It means that you always make their life easy and keep up with the times.
- Can you inspire them, challenge them, include them? They are also a super intelligent lot- that’s the reason they are bored, can you do something that pushes them to create?
- Can you stand up for the world? The new lot hates the labels of the society and boundaries of the globe. They don’t just believe that world can be one, they believe it is. You go green, you respect the world, you stand against exploitation. And if you have any ulterior motive in doing all of this, you come out clean and tell them.
- Can you entertain? No more powerpoints, no more lazy websites, no more annual reports read from a paper. You have to think fresh. Think animated emails, think Gifs and SVGs on websites, think new colour combinations, think music and SFX in your speeches, think drones capturing your work day. Wake-up and think fresh, because that’s the only way you can wake this generation up.
At the end of the day, there is nothing boring. Only thing really boring is the mundane. If you are able to shake things a bit, be genuinely interested and ready to not resist change, you can go miles. So go ahead- think of your brand, your family, your work, your society. And think of this fresh-minded people in all these places. Then think how you can make the two fit each other. But don’t take too long to think- they may just get bored, and you may just miss out on the chance to create something better for the world.
