Stereotypes tend to find their way into everything, including social media trends. The Millennial Cringe social media trend refers to precisely that – stereotypes about the millennial generation.
Millennial Cringe refers to younger generations mocking and highlighting commonly used phrases, behaviors, and aesthetics associated with millennials. The trend is a mix of nostalgia, parody, and humor, mostly shared on TikTok and Instagram.
Today, we’ll explore the Millennial Cringe trend and its key characteristics, and provide a guide on how to incorporate it creatively and effectively into your marketing strategy.
Millennial Cringe: Key Characteristics
Here are the key characteristics of Millennial Cringe:
- The Millennial Pause: Hesitation before speaking on camera to confirm recording.
- Millennial-Specific Poses: Duck-face selfies and the peace sign are common for millennials.
- Millennial-Specific Fonts: Fonts like Proxima Nova, Lobster, Gotham, Montserrat, and Brush Scripts are some of the millennial favorites.
- Millennial Fashion: Skinny jeans, chunky sneakers, side parts in hair, dressing emo, and big wired headphones are common traits of millennial fashion.
- Home Decor: Millennials love wall art and inspirational quotes in their living spaces, like “Live, Laugh, Love”.
Why Is Millennial Cringe Trending?
The Millennial Cringe trend thrives on lighthearted, loving generational teasing, combined with social media’s love for quick, relatable humor, and younger generations rediscovering and redefining what once used to be “cool.”
Here are the major factors that drive this trend:
- Nostalgia Marketing Works: Brands and businesses tap into the early 2000s cringe aesthetics, which triggers emotional resonance, feelings of familiarity, and comfort for the millennial generation.
- Cross-Generational Appeal: Both millennials and Gen Z enjoy the trend, but from different angles. Millennials reminisce and laugh at what they used to find cool, while Gen Z-ers reiterate the trend with affectionate and, at times, satirical irony.
- Authenticity: This trend is considered authentic and relatable to various demographics.
This trend offers millennials a moment of self-reflection, a rite of passage for newer generations like Gen Z, and marketing value when applied strategically.
How To Turn Millennial Cringe Into a Powerful Marketing Tool
If you are wondering, yes, Millennial Cringe can be effectively implemented in both e-commerce and info product marketing. To do so, start by defining and understanding your target audience.
Once that’s clear, use the Millennial Cringe as a tool to connect with them. This trend highly resonates with various generations, which you can leverage to connect with your audience, build rapport, and make your content feel more relatable, relevant, and approachable.
The goal is to use Millennial Cringe not as your product, but as shiny wrapping paper to hook and maintain your audience’s attention. This approach is particularly effective for info products aimed at millennials or those who prefer the millennial style and vibe.
How and Why This Works In Marketing?
- Builds Rapport and Connection: Marketing for anything (products and services) often relies on establishing connection, trust, and authority. Using “millennial cringe” humor can help when dealing with a skeptical audience, making the creator seem more relatable and less intimidating and salesy.
- Increases Sharability: Resonant content is more memorable and increases shareability. Millennial Cringe is humorous, authentic, and relatable. This increases the brand’s exposure and engagement.
Incorporating Millennial Cringe In Your Marketing: Step-by-Step Guide
Here’s how to incorporate “millennial cringe” into your marketing funnel:
Step 1: Rethink Your Ads and Social Media Content
This is the first stage of your marketing funnel.
The goal is to be super relatable to the millennial generation by making content that catches your target audience’s attention. Here are some ideas:
- Make your content and ads look outdated. Create ads that look like they belong in the late 90s and early 2000s. Use cheesy Canva designs with relevant fonts.
Your message, however, should be delivered with an opposite “feel”. It should be sharp and modern.
Combining an outdated look with a modern message results in a catchy contrast, which sells.
For example, use the Lobster font and a cheesy quote like “Keep Calm and Download My Guide Now” or “Live, Laugh, Love, and Learn From My Masterclass This Saturday”. - Start your ad and regular content videos with the Millennial Pause. Pretend you don’t know whether the video is already recording.
Check and adjust the camera a couple of times, getting yourself in and out of focus. Stand for a couple of seconds in awkward silence.
You can add a cheesy comment before you start your actual video, such as “Is it recording already?” or fix your hair a couple of times and say “Can I start yet, or…?” - Create a series of cringy videos that lovingly mock millennials and post them on TikTok and Instagram. Find a way to incorporate your product or service into this series, but ensure it blends in without standing out too much.
Step 2: Lead Magnets and Webinars
Once you’ve captured your audience’s attention with relatable content and ads, it’s time to demonstrate your expertise. Keep the relatable humor, but tone down the cringe part – too much of it will feel unnatural and inauthentic and might even be offensive.
Use the following ideas for naming your lead magnets:
- Name your free ebook or checklist something that playfully mentions millennial culture. For Example, your ebook or marketing email could be titled: “I Did a Thing: 10 Email Subject Lines In Affiliate Marketing That Aren’t Awkward.”
- If you’re promoting a webinar, title it using a millennial pain point. For example, “Help, I’m 35 and I Still Don’t Know What I Want to Be When I Grow Up: Increase Your Millennial Income.”
Step 3: Landing Pages and Emails
You want your audience to understand your brand voice and what you can do for them from the moment they see your content, visit your landing page, become your lead, and so forth.
Consider using humor to overcome sales objectives and build even more trust while maintaining your brand vibe. Use the following ideas for inspiration:
- Acknowledge the cringe about your industry and the typical way most brands try to “close” their leads. For example, on your landing page, you can address the cringy parts of the online course and the Guru industry.
Say something along the lines of the following: “Look, I’m not going to promise you’ll be a millionaire by next Tuesday from a beach in the Maldives. That’s not the vibe. My course is for people who want to build a real, sustainable business without the hype.” - Keep your follow-up emails and communication relatable by telling stories that highlight the cringy moments of your journey and how you’ve overcome those.
The more your follow-up emails resonate with the millennial generation, the more likely the ones who understand the Millennial Cringe trend are likely to convert.
For example, you could say something like this: “My first attempt at launching this course was a mess. I used every cliché in my courses and sales approaches, right down to the ‘You only have 24 hours left!’ fake scarcity email. I’ve learned a lot since then, and I reveal it all in this new program.”
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