Millenials Are So Last Decade: Here Comes Gen Alpha (plus Smell-o-Vision)

Yep, the Millenials had a good run but their time has passed.

note: Generation Alpha is not nearly the same as alpha generation as your bonus pool will make clear.

First up,  the media and marketing mavens at DigiDay, October 2018:

Forget millennials, Gen Alpha is here (mostly)

Time to feel old. If you were just getting your head around marketers’ obsession with millennials, get ready for Gen Alpha to take center stage. Here’s what you need to know to get ahead, really ahead:

The Basics
Generation Alpha, also known as the “children of millennials,” is the first generation born entirely within the 21st century. (Gen Z stretches back to the mid-1990s.) Mark McCrindle, a generational researcher and consultant in Australia, coined the term back in 2005. It has stuck with generational forecasters so far.

The Numbers
Gen Alphas have birth dates starting in 2010, so the majority of this cohort are still sporting diapers, teething or have not even made it to the womb yet.
The year 2010 was chosen as this was the year both Instagram and the iPad launched.
McCrindle’s consultancy has predicted that 2.5 million Alphas are born around the world every week.
The generation will reach a total of 2 billion people worldwide by the time the youngest people are born in 2025.

The marketer angle
“[Alphas] are going to expect the same interactive, responsive experiences from every brand,” said Laura Macdonald, head of consumer of North America at Hotwire. “So if clothing companies start using AR to help people create bespoke experiences — which brands like Nike already are — while shopping, Generation Alpha will expect the same from grocery stores, or even when it comes to buying car insurance.”

Hotwire is already working with companies like software company McAfee and robotics company Anki to use its Gen Alphas findings to guide the strategy in their latest campaigns.

The media angle
Fullscreen Media, which runs its entire entertainment business with Gen-Zers’ multichannel use in mind, is already researching the young Alphas before they grow into its target audience and is finding that their attention spans are actually showing more promise. Crystal Surrency, vp of strategy and insights at Fullscreen Media, said that when watching content with their millennial parents, Alphas prefer to watch content eight minutes or longer....

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As just one example of the wondrous world into which the young'uns are being born:

You can smell and feel this virtual reality. pic.twitter.com/yP748mwni9

— PCMag (@PCMag) December 28, 2019

And from Interesting Engineering, December 2018:

Generation Alpha: The Children of the Millennial 
Generation Alpha, also called the iGeneration, is the most influential generation of the 21st century and here is why. 

By 2025, which is the year when the youngest Alphas are born, Generation Alpha will account to 2 billion of the global population. Generation Alpha is considered to be the most technological-infused demographic up to date.

Generation Alpha are children born from 2010 to 2025. They are the first generation entirely born within the 21st century. They are also known as the iGeneration. They are the children of the Millennials. 

Generation Alpha use smartphones and tablets naturally. These children were born along with iPhones, iPads, and applications. They don't know or can imagine how life was without them.

They are not afraid of technology or touching buttons to learn what those buttons do. Alphas learn by doing.

Generation Alpha is growing up with the familiar voice of Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant in their home.

In the world of the Alphas, interacting with Artificial Intelligence and voice assistants is simply natural.  Generation Alpha sounds like one exciting generation. The older Alphas at age eight are more tech-savvy than their predecessors....

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