The Generation Gap Can Be Filled with Authentic Content
A day doesn’t pass in the marketing world without someone talking about Baby Boomers or Millennials. Broad stereotypes are used and ever broader assumptions are made. 
Olapic (an earned content platform) conducted a study (AdWeek, Jan 2017) find out how consumers use User-Generated Content (UGC). The co-founder of Olapic Pau Sabria said that more than 75% of consumers believe content that people share is more honest than advertising content. He described it as a wake-up call that brands need to use authentic going forward (authentic is real, genuine and human).
Highlights of the study:
- 54% of millennials use hashtags; 50% of boomers
- 47% of millennials trust UCG; 36% of boomers
- 75% of millennials prefer photos; 50% of boomers
Millennials prefer real people featured in images and video about a brand; boomers prefer focus on product or services and would rather have written content and video. That last fact may explain why boomers prefer written content and videos on Facebook and millennials have Instagram at the top of their social platform list.
This gap is in style and preferences. Authentic content is winning with both group. We all need to rethink how we sell and how we use iStock photos. Real wins with all groups.
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.