The WEALTHTECH Book

Becoming Millennial-Minded is Key for WealthTech

By April Rudin

President, The Rudin Group

View any television commercial targeted at millennials – that is, young adults born in the 1980s and 1990s – and you’ll immediately notice that these commercials are very different from those targeted at older folks. A recent Groupon commercial, for example, contrasts a millennial stressed by a sink full of dirty dishes with short scenes of young adults having fun eating out at restaurants, ending with the message: “Save up to $100 a week on what you do every day”.¹ By comparison, dining-focused commercials targeted at baby boomers tend to feature scenes of families enjoying a meal at home around a dinner table. The unique qualities of the Groupon commercial make sense, as it appeals to millennials’ prioritization of experience, such as dining out, over ownership.² Meanwhile, the latter commercials speak to baby boomers’ continued faith in the American Dream of home ownership. Yet, despite the obvious differences between the two generations, too often wealth management firms attempt to reach millennials using the same marketing strategies that worked on baby boomers. I’ve seen time and time again that this “one-size-fits-all” approach simply will not work; rather, firms must use digital technology to reach millennials the way they want to be reached, and appeal to the values that matter most to this unique age group. Otherwise, they risk losing the $30 trillion in generational wealth ...