What Do You Know About Generation Y?

According to the 2000 Census, Wisconsin is home to approximately 1.2 million people considered Generation Y - those born in the 1980s or later. 

American youths age 8 to 21 have $211 billion in spending power, according to the latest projections based on results of a nationwide survey of the Generation Y population. Fifteen percent of youth spending is conducted online and boys are more comfortable with e-commerce - they spent 1.7 times as much as girls. 

The leisure activities of this generation also differ from those of their boomer parents. A key characteristic of this generation is a love for risk-taking. A study conducted in January 2002 among 14,276 Americans nationwide by American Sports Data, Inc., showed the largest gains in sports participation have come from the new "extreme" sports, which have been dubbed "millennial," "alternative," "new age," and "action" sports. 

Some of these sports include skateboarding(+73%), artificial wall climbing (+57%), wakeboarding (+38%), paintball (+30%), and snowboarding (+25%). Although there has been a slight decline in traditional pastimes (baseball, basketball or touch football), overall, team sports (including the trendier activities such as soccer, Lacrosse and fast-pitch softball) continue to garner the most followers. 

Wisconsin is no stranger to extreme sports. Focus group research several years revealed the Department's need to let this generation know more about winter opportunities in our state. As a result, several winter television advertisements featuring Gen Y'ers snowboarding on one of Wisconsin's premier half-pipes were produced. 

But Gen Y'ers aren't just children. J. Walter Smith, a managing partner at Yankelovich Partners Inc. specializing in generational marketing, says "most marketers perceive this generation as kids and when you do that you fail to take in what they are telling you about the consumers they're becoming." Smith goes on to say, "this is not about teenage marketing. It's about the coming of age of a generation." 

Marketers who have been able to capture Gen Y's attention took their message to the places where they congregate: The Internet, extreme sports tournaments, or cable television. And the types of messages used have changed, according to James R. Palczynski, who is a retail analyst for Landenburg Thalmann & Co. and an author for YouthQuate, a study of young consumer trends. According to Palczynski, "the old-style advertising that works very well with boomers, ads that push a slogan and an image and a feeling, the younger consumer is not going to go for."

Lalia Rach, New York University associate dean at the Tisch Center for Hospitality, said the dusty marketing strategies used to attract travelers in the past need to be refreshed. "If the young people watch commercials, it's only to laugh at them," Rach said. Traditional marketing - pretty pictures - may work for older generations, but not for the latest crop of tourists. 

Take a good look at your website and ask yourself if it appeals to a generation that is constantly online. Keep your messages concise - think like Generation Y -- and take your message to where they congregate. 

To read more on the changing face of our target market as shared at the WCVB Convention in Racine, go to Twentysomethings Seen as Future of State Tourism, by Sheila Lalwani (Milwaukee Journal, 11/12/04).

For information on obtaining this or other Department of Tourism research documents, please see our Research page.