The generation of millennials is different than all generations before us. We are unique for a variety of reasons. But, I will admit we are tough customers. Generation Y seems to be the most challenging generation to market to and an article on The Huffington Post, “Why millennials love dope marketing, and how you can be dope too,” talked about why.

The concept is pretty plain and simple, our generation does like “dope” things and “dope” can mean so many different things, so how does a company figure out the right strategy to market to us? According to The Huffington Post, this is done through social media.

I could not agree more with that statement. I think I check all of my social media accounts at least five times everyday. It is fast, it is instant and pretty much everyone that is of this age uses social media too. What more could you ask for as a company?

The Huffington Post also stated, “the trick is to not really sell us anything. This is a major marketing rule already. Be helpful, or better; entertain the hell out of us. Be wacky. Be weird. We love it.” I can not say that I disagree with that either. I have the world’s shortest attention span and in order to sell me something you have to grab my attention.

A good example of marketing gone wrong is the mall associates that are forced to hand out those brochures and pamphlets. I can not stand it and to be very honest I do not even care what they are handing brochures out for because I am more annoyed that they interrupted my conversation with my friends. I just throw the pamphlet away without a single glance.

The Huffington Post is right, good marketing for this generation needs to be wacky, witty or just down right funny to even catch my eye. It also needs to fit into our world of Tweets, Instagram posts and Snapchats. It needs to be convenient for us; otherwise we just do not seem to care.

Our generation is also the generation of mad multitasking skills. I can be texting, writing a paper and watching television all at the same time without bating an eyelash. Try to catch someone’s attention and keep it when they function like that almost all day. It can not be easy.

A couple of companies have it figured out while others do not. A great example of successful marketing to millennials is all those posts on Facebook that get shared over and over again. Might sound silly, but with a catchy title and a friend sharing it, you are probably going to read or watch the shared post. But, the key is all the companies that advertise on the page that has your attention. You might not think you will remember them but somewhere in the back of your mind you do.

According to Millennial Marketing, 50 percent of millennials are willing to make a purchase from a company if their purchase supports a cause. That is very true. One example I can think of is Half United. Half United donates seven meals for every Half United product purchased. I own some jewelry from this company and it was a huge hit among people our age for a long time, as it still is.

Marketing to millennials includes showing us why we care to buy something from you. Why are you better or what sets you apart from everyone else trying to sell to me? Donating some of the money made is one way to show us that you are different from the rest.

It might be challenging but it is not rocket science to market to this generation. We are not going to waste our energy or time on things that we find boring or unimportant unless we have to. But, if you can figure out the right social media sites and the ‘formula’ to make us turn our heads, then you are probably heading in the right direction.