Marketing to the Millennial age group--18-to-28-year-olds--can be more than tricky, but a new Minneapolis-based agency has the savvy and background to help. After all, it's run by a couple of Millennials.
Started in January 2011,
The Social Lights got started when friends Martha McCarthy and Emily Pritchard decided to combine their entrepreneurial energies while they were both attending the University of St. Thomas.
They did business plan competitions together and took classes in journalism as well as business topics. They created The Social Lights during their last semester at school, and McCarthy recalls that it wasn't easy. "We were doing homework and pitching clients at the same time," she says.
After graduation, they came to a full boil and took on numerous campaigns, focusing on others in their age group. "Sometimes companies that are trying to use social media can have a hard time reaching Millennials," says McCarthy. "They know how to use the tools, but they don't know how to communicate with them. Since we're in that age range, we have insight into what that audience needs."
With an increasing number of clients, the firm is getting ready to hire its first non-founder employee this summer. McCarthy believes that the hire will be another major step forward for the company: "We're not sure how large we'd like to get eventually, but this is very exciting, to get to this point."
Source: Martha McCarthy, The Social Lights
Writer: Elizabeth Millard