In a Pendulum Swing, Millennial Men Take On the Role of Key Consumer Influencers

NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwired - September 07, 2017) - While there have been a number of reports highlighting the consumer habits of Millennials over the years, there is an unexpected twist that may stun marketers. According to a new report by Engagement Labs, Millennial men have emerged as key consumer influencers -- a role that women have long dominated.

According to the data, Millennial men are 50% more likely to be consumer influencers than Millennial women. Not only are they more likely to be influential, but Engagement Labs' research reveals that young men between 25 and 39 years old are increasingly recommending beauty, apparel and household products, and not just for the usual male-oriented products and services such as sports or automotive, or in the expected generational categories, such as video games.

Unlike earlier generations, young men put less emphasis on the traditional masculine image and more on grooming, shopping, and personal style. They are 69% more likely than all men to be influencers in the beauty category, as well as 47% more likely to be considered influencers in the retail and apparel category. Not only is this fueling sales of beauty products and apparel targeted at men, but it's leading to more social talk -- both online and offline -- about the brands in these categories.

Additionally, Millennial men are more likely to qualify as key influencers than any other age or gender segment. Engagement Labs report finds that 14% of all Millennial men ages 25 to 39 are everyday influencers, a figure that is double that of men aged 40 and older (7%).

"Our report highlights the growing importance of peer-to-peer influence as a key driver of sales for brands," said Ed Keller, CEO at Engagement Labs. "Brand marketers are increasingly drawn to Millennials as a consumer segment, since they're at an age when households and brand loyalties are still forming. But they're also the nation's largest generation, as well as the most educated, connected, and informed generation, which has established them as one of the most lucrative marketing segments."

Keller continued, "Historically, many marketers have focused on women as the consumers with the most influence in the consumer marketplace through their knowledge and brand advocacy. Our data clearly illustrates that when it comes to the Millennial generation, the pendulum has shifted toward young men."

Engagement Labs refers to the most influential consumers as "Conversation Catalysts^®," those who have large real-world social networks and frequently give advice about dozens of leading products and services. These key influencers have 19 conversations a day with other people about brands, including both online and face-to-face conversations. By contrast, the average American has just nine brand conversations per day. Their advice is highly valued and has four times as much impact as recommendations from average consumers.

"While brand marketers tend to invest large sums to obtain celebrity endorsements, or identify key digital media influencers such as YouTube personalities and bloggers, they often overlook the influencers next door," added Keller. "These are the guys who we meet for a drink after work, say hello to at the local Starbucks or the other stay-at-home dads at the playground. In order to introduce or re-introduce products and services, brand marketers are well advised to put a priority on engaging Millennial Men, given their large social influence."

The new analysis from Engagement Labs is based on its TotalSocial^® data and analytics solution, which empowers marketers to drive ROI and grow their sales by bringing together social media listening insights with face-to-face conversation data into a single performance score. The full report, "The Remarkable Influence of Millennial Men," is available for download here.

TotalSocial is the world's only data solution that combines social media listening metrics with the measurement of offline conversations into a single dashboard to allow marketers the ability to measure performance, diagnose areas of weakness and opportunity.

To learn more about Engagement Labs or TotalSocial insights and how to increase your brand's word of mouth in real life and online, reach out at: totalsocial@engagementlabs.com.

About Engagement Labs

Engagement Labs (TSX VENTURE: EL) provides the world's leading brands with a unique and powerful data and technology solution to drive sales growth and improve marketing ROI. Our TotalSocial^® technology combines online social media listening metrics with the world's only ongoing measurement of offline word of mouth conversations into a single dashboard, to provide marketers with the ability to measure performance, diagnose areas of weakness and opportunity and identify specific strategies and tactics to increase sales and improve marketing ROI. TotalSocial is an "always-on" proprietary scoring system, based on the most important drivers of brand performance: Volume, Sentiment, Brand Sharing and Influence. TotalSocial tracks 500 brands across 16 major industry categories within the U.S., and 350 brands across 18 industry categories in the UK.

To learn more visit www.engagementlabs.com / www.totalsocial.com.

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