Generation Y has come of age in an amazing time. The last generations to grow up with such revolutionary upheaval in communications were probably when our great-great-grandparents first used a telephone and our parents first turned on a television. Like those eras, it is safe to say recent technology has fundamentally changed the way we communicate, consume media and, by extension, advertising.

So while current college students, our most recent segment of adult consumers, are part of Generation Y (years spanning 1977–1995), they might as well be called Generation How, as in, "How do marketers who for decades have built their brands with tried-and-true media reach a generation that for the first time has radically different media consumption habits than consumers before them?"

Take a look at some of the eye-opening findings from a survey of 7,705 of these students in the U.S.

97% own a computer
94% own a cell phone
76% use Instant Messaging
34% use Web sites as their primary source of news
28% author a blog and 44% read blogs
75% have a Facebook account
60% own some type of portable music and/or video device such as an iPod

Source: Connecting to the Net.Generation: What Higher Education Professionals Need to Know About Today's Students, by Reynol Junco and Jeanna Mastrodicasa (2007)

I recently had the opportunity to sit down with students from Kansas State University to discuss their views on advertising, the Internet and technology in general. While this was a small group, I believe they represent to a great degree their generation at large—and this is what concerns me as a marketer.

For instance, these students basically don't watch scheduled TV like the generation before them. They might catch a DVR-recorded program at a time of their choosing (with zipping through commercials as a given) or watch it a few hours later online with substantially fewer commercials. Even when "viewing" the live shows on an actual TV, they are multitasking by updating their Facebook page or Twittering, which competes for their divided attention span.

Forget about newspapers—they won't wait till the next morning to read them. For this reason alone, there isn't a chance this medium will ever resonate with this group. Sure, news is still important, but they are getting it online in real time through Web-based outlets or blogs. Maybe a side benefit to all this is we save some trees along the way.

Same with radio. They won't wait to hear a favorite song—even the most popular ones played in heavy rotation. They will simply download it and, if record companies are lucky, even pay for it, to hear music when and where it fits their world.
 
What's a poor marketer to do? We can't confidently rely on decades-old media to reach this audience. Just use online media, you say. Well according to these same students, they can't remember the last time they clicked on a banner ad (like 99.99% of the population), so I'm not sure even new media is getting through to them.

So while you shouldn't write off media as a whole, marketers must adjust to the new realities of advertising to this generation. We must find new and different approaches to connect and engage in relevant ways. The "How" for Gen Y are new venues such as mobile, social media and other personal forms of communication. These need to be woven into any attempt to reach this generation, since their cell phones and personal Web pages are as important to them as TV, newspapers and radio—or more important.

Whether Generation Y-aged consumers are actively using your brands today or will move into your core user group in the next few years, Barkley understands these new dynamics and is at the forefront of tackling these challenges. On the creative side, Barkley has extended the definition of ad formats by creating virtual worlds that are branded-entertainment experiences. We are crafting more contextually relevant messaging within social media environments to be both interactive and provide the user with value for engaging with your brand. One example of this is the Sonic Drive-In YouTube Challenge. When fans began creating parodies of the popular "two guys" spots, we decided to encourage the fun and extend the Sonic brand through social media.
 
On the media side, 30-second broadcast commercials can no longer drive business alone. Marketers must allocate a greater portion of their budgets to new technology approaches to reach this generation. Yes, CPMs might increase, but a greater percentage of messages will hit the mark and more than pay for themselves in effectiveness. Barkley is dedicated to working with these emerging, highly focused media to create custom opportunities for our clients that resonate with this generation. We are not content with off-the-shelf placements. In short, Barkley is helping its clients embrace new technologies so they can speak to this generation peer-to-peer, not brand-to-target audience—the historic mass media approach.

I'm sure someday when our grandchildren are deciding how media dollars are spent and the next wave of technology strikes, they will be writing about how their generation doesn't use media like the good old days of today. In the end, the one thing you can always count on in the world of media is change itself.