Appealing to millennials is about meeting them on their terms, Revolt CEO Keith Clinkscales told iHeartRadio’s DJ Envy during their keynote session, “Uncontainable: Multillennialz and the Rise of Generation Z,” at PromaxBDA The Conference 2016 in New York on Tuesday. Here’s an edited excerpt from their on-stage conversation:

DJ Envy: How do you get into the mindset of the millennial audience?

Clinkscales: Sean Combs, the founder of Revolt, he’s religious about this. He says, ‘make sure you listen to the young people, make sure you stay engaged with them. If you can’t be in the clubs, make sure you have someone who is.’ Most of my career has been about telling people what to do. I don’t think this is a generation you can tell what to do because they have so many choices. That whole empowerment of young people has changed the entire game.

DJ Envy: Millennials and younger individuals want more. They don’t want to just see their favorite artist, rapper, athlete – they want to know everything about them. How do you give that to them?

Clinkscales: it’s about access. You have to work hard for that access. Every time something goes on in the world, you have to have access to it. That was one of the most important things I learned at ESPN, you have to know what’s happening behind the scenes.

Access is the most important thing, that’s what young people respond to the best.

The main rule is paying attention to who has influence. The people who have real influence, you want to go ahead and make sure you are drafting them or paying attention to which way they are aimed. People like Beyonce have real influence and the Beyhive (Beyonce’s fans) has real influence.

DJ Envy: How are you listening to millennials to program Revolt?

Clinkscales: If you don’t listen to them, they will complain loudly, to millions of followers. [The Golden State Warriors’] Steph Curry is a world-class basketball player who has a great deal with Under Armour, but when he released a new line of sneakers, millennials on social media were clear that those sneakers he put out weren’t going to work.

DJ Envy: How do you get millennials’ respect?

Clinkscales: The main thing is hustle. You also have to go out and touch it. Make sure you see some of these things that are happening.

Tags:


  Save as PDF