Research reveals captive audience in millennials 
ConvergenceAsia staff
16/09/2009

Epsilon International, a global data-driven digital marketing technologies and services provider, has announced results from the Epsilon Global Consumer Email Study of Millennials.

The research shows millennials, a term used to describe 18-25 year olds, are more wired and willing to receive commercial email messages. However they are also more wary and concerned with security.

Compared to other age groups in Singapore, millennials are more likely to use tools such as instant messaging (IM) and text/SMS messages in addition to email as their primary tool for personal online communications, but very few chose to use social networks.

Nearly half (46 per cent) of them cited instant messaging as their primary tool for personal online communications, whereas 33 per cent cited text/SMS messages and 20 per cent selected email.

The survey also reveals that 18-25 year olds are viewing personal emails on the way to and from work more often than their elders. That may be the result of a greater penetration for the use of PDAs or smart phones to access emails amongst millennials.

A notable characteristic of this age group in Singapore (79 per cent) is their desire to receive email containing health information. The millennials in general are interested in many different kinds of offerings and in receiving information preferably in their web-based email account.

The top three types of commercial emails Singapore’s millennials report that they want to receive in their web accounts include: grocery coupons (80 per cent), health-related content (79 per cent) and household & crafts tips and recipes (78 per cent). The findings also indicate a large variance amongst the Singaporean millennials in terms of how frequently they would like to receive email offers from online merchants, traditional (offline) retailers and catalogue companies.

Millennials in Singapore are also more willing to stay in email programmes compared to their elders who are more likely to unsubscribe. This appears to be in line with global trends in North America and the Asia Pacific region as a whole. However over two-thirds of millennials (73 per cent) will unsubscribe to irrelevant content, and a higher percentage of them – when compared to other age groups – unsubscribe due to suspicion of permission or privacy violation.

The survey found that millennials are – as expected – savvy online users, demanding personalisation and regularly filtering emails from familiar brands or companies. They are particularly responsive to subject lines that contain discount offers (72 per cent), the names of familiar brands or companies (64 per cent) and free product offers (62 per cent). Personalisation to their needs at the time (89 per cent) and interests (79 per cent) strongly or somewhat increase the likeliness that they will respond.

The 18-25 year olds in Singapore are also more receptive to certain types of cross-channel email than other age groups, including clicking to websites (90 per cent), playing games (64 per cent) and listening to audio clips (59 per cent). About half of them would make purchases at retail stores (52 per cent) and online (44 per cent) as a result of opening promotional emails.

Additionally, Singaporean millennials are very wary of all types of threats related to their use of email and the Internet, with viruses, identity theft, phishing and spyware are their biggest concerns.

The Epsilon Global Consumer Email Study is based on an April 2009 survey of over 4000 consumers in the US, Canada, China, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, India, Malaysia, Japan, the UK, France, Germany and Spain. The survey, conducted by ROI Research, of Lancaster, PA, explored email practices in various parts of the world.

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