Consumers born between 1981 and 1996 make up the millennial generation, a broad age range that encompasses a variety of life stages. On the younger extreme are students entering post-secondary education, whose tastes and preferences are very different than older millennials, who might be homeowners and parents of young children. Effectively targeting within the millennial cohort is paramount, and increases the likelihood that brands will achieve relevance with this lucrative demographic.

• More than 7.3 million millennials reside in Canada, making them the largest age group since the baby boomers. Brands have long sought relevance with this group to tap into decades of future buying power.
• Millennials’ media consumption is fragmented across digital sources and devices. Digital media claims most of their time, but traditional media—especially TV—maintains a strong share of their overall time spent with media.
• Subsegmenting millennials into smaller groups makes sense to ensure effective campaign targeting. Personas that can be applied to this group include homebuyers, young professionals, worker bees, online shoppers and activist voters.