Unforgettable Experiences Drive Millennials
There are really two incredible concepts in this blog post today. 
The first is research from Pandora that says Millennial listeners would rather spend their money on “experiences” rather than “things.” And those experiences include: travel (81 percent), concerts (60 percent), movies (49 percent), music festivals (32 percent) and sporting events (26 percent). The title of the study is “Experiences are Unforgettable” and nearly 4,000 Pandora listeners were surveyed. One important nugget that Pandora unearthed is that the FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) effect is real and alive in Millennials. Twenty-five percent say FOMO is a driving factor to attending music events. That’s why sponsors of events and other experiences need to take advantage of the “before” or the anticipation time period as much as the event itself.
Millennials love brands that sponsor experiences: Eighty-two percent said they notice a brand sponsoring a music event. “And one in three have a more positive opinion of that brand after the event.”
The value added to this blog and the second incredible concept is that Pandora is doing research and sharing it with the world. They have a large universe from which to appeal to a large sample size. Granted, you would have to make assumptions about the universe, but it is captive and active.
Pandora is gathering reams of data about listeners in ways no other medium could hope to have. And now they are sharing with all of us, for free — just like their music.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.