Why Good Video Commercials Connect with Young Consumers

BY Rachel Cagle
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Admit it: Your client tends to overlook the younger generations when planning their advertising campaigns. After all, millennials are just kids and Gen Z is even younger, right? Wrong. “Millennials” may have developed into a term that coincides with younger people, but the youngest members are approaching their 30s, and Gen Z is now old enough to be a buying power. So, your client shouldn’t be overlooking them, especially when creating digital ads like video commercials.

Why a Good Video Commercial Connects with Young Consumers

Young Consumers Dominate Digital Screen Time

Online Video

The COVID-​19 pandemic did wonders for getting older generations more used to and involved with digital media. However, older consumers don’t let their digital time take them away from traditional media. Younger generations do. According to data from Hub Entertainment Research, 51% of consumers between the ages of 13 and 24 say that the time they spend watching online videos, specifically, takes away from the time they spend watching traditional TV. Only 21% of consumers over the age of 35 say the same. Overall, these younger consumers spend an average of 13.1 hours a week watching online videos. Consumers over the age of 35 only spend an average of 8.5 hours doing the same. So, it only makes sense for your client to target younger consumers with video commercials and older consumers with traditional TV ads.

Where to Place Them

Social Media

So, now you know who your client should primarily target with their video commercials. Where should they place these ads? Hub Entertainment Research reminds marketers that younger consumers dominate most social media platforms. According to Hub Entertainment Research, consumers between the ages of 13 and 24 are the top users of:

  • YouTube: 84% of these younger consumers have used this platform within the last seven days
  • TikTok: 65%
  • Instagram: 64%
  • Snapchat: 50%
  • YouTube Shorts: 26%

The only social media platform that consumers ages 35+ use more than younger consumers is Facebook.

So, with the exception of Facebook, your client’s social media ads, including video commercials, should probably be focusing on a younger consumer audience.

For more information on which social media platforms your client should be utilizing, you can get your guide here.

Online Gaming

Placing video commercials on online gaming sites and apps is an underrated advertising strategy. For one thing, according to a previous SalesFuel blog based on research from IAS and Insider Intelligence, 54.2% of U.S. consumers are digital gamers. About 165.3 million people play games on their mobile devices, with that number expected to increase to 172.5 million by 2026. (And 75% of gamers who only play on their mobile devices are women.) And, according to Hub Entertainment Research, consumers between the ages of 13 and 24 spend 22% of their entertainment screen time gaming. In fact, that’s what they spend the majority of their entertainment screen time doing:

  • Gaming: 22% of their time
  • Watching Non-​Premium Videos: 21%
  • Watching TV: 17%
  • Browsing Social Media: 15%

So, while placing your client’s video commercials on mobile gaming sites and apps is a great way to reach a huge and diverse consumer audience, don’t forget to dedicate some ads to the younger generation. (For your guide to creating effective gaming advertisements, click here.)

Other Media Types

Is your client hoping to ad video commercials to a multi-​channel ad campaign? Great! You can learn what other ad types to pair with commercials by looking up your client’s target audience’s profile on AudienceSCAN on AdMall by SalesFuel. There, you’ll see which types of ads influenced what percentage of the audience to take action within the last year.

Photo by Priscilla Du Preez

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