The Observer Generation

HOW TO REACH OUT TO MILLENNIALS IN CROATIA

Croatian Millennials are more into content consumption than creation, they love Instagram and prefer foreign webshops over domestic ones – these are some of the Gen-Y top trends from Croatia, presented by weCAN partner agency Imago. 

Passive networking

Google Consumer Barometer’s survey on Croatian users’ connectivity reports that Croatians have the habit of using a range of connected devices simultaneously. One way of people using their connected devices is going online while watching TV. In this manner, mobile phones are used more than tablets, a fact that originates in the relatively low overall usage of tablets. Multitasking means that content consumed on mobile phones attract less attention of the users, and it is often completely unrelated to the programmes running on TV.

Millennials in Croatia are considered as less active users, more engaged in quick content consumption than real content creation, which is very often listed as number one within all trends. They prefer reading articles and posts, watching and following pre-created content (videos, articles, memes produced by third parties) and participate as observers – rather than engaging in the creation of their own content. This is especially evident on social media with reports on higher frequency of liking posts and pages than commenting, sharing or publishing self-made content. What is more, information consumed and received online is the topic of social conversations with family and friends – offline.

Instagram is the thing!

In Croatia, just like in other countries, the most famous social network – Facebook – has been experiencing a decline in popularity. As a consequence, the leading role has been taken by the popular photo application Instagram. Since advertising on Instagram became available for Croatian advertisers in November 2015, actual national statistics have become available. The photo-sharing application possesses 190,000 Croatian users, of which 43% are women and 57% are men. Moreover, the majority of users (67%) are part of the Millennial generation (84,000 users are between 18 and 24, 45,000 users are between 25 and 34).

There is a reason why Instagram is so popular among consumers and brands, in Croatia as well as worldwide: it’s visual. Simple as that. It is rewarded by such extraordinary engagement because people crave to share images. Photos are easier than words to communicate, and Instagram offers the perfect solution to share stories and experiences, with built-in social discovery. What is more, Instagram in Croatia is gaining extra benefit from the emergence of applications nad social networks like Msqrd, Boomerang, or even Snapchat – which was created as a self-standing social network. People use these to create content (videos, memes, funny images), but still tend to publish them on Instagram. Although Snapchat is well known and sometimes used by younger Millennials (those around 18), they use it only as a tool to exchange jokes, funny videos and images, while the real conversations remain ongoing on traditional networks.

Shopping fever

Croatia is among the countries of Europe with the lowest rate of purchases made online. However, the situation has recently changed, and the country has undergone the fastest increase in e-commerce within the European Union. Last year, the volume of online shopping increased by 92% from 12% to 23% (source: Interni podaci – Prezentacija Internet retailing in Croatia). The fastest growth has been experienced in the segment of clothing + footwear (503%) and consumer healthcare (74.8%).

As for many other trends, the early adopters are Millennials. The most popular product categories among Croatian internet shoppers are clothing + footwear (58%), tech products (56%) and books + literature (26%). Product categories representing a great potential among Millennial online shoppers range from fashion accessories (34%), cosmetic products (32%), gadgets (29%), baby products and toys (26%), car equipment (22%) and sporting goods (21%).5

However, apparently, domestic online retailers are not as popular as foreign ones: three quarters of Millennials are shopping in webshops from abroad. According to researchers, lack of interest in online shopping had originated in the lack of trust in domestic retailers and the limited range of products they had offered for years. Therefore, e-commerce industry in Croatia is facing the challenge of how to get closer to Millennials and use its potential for further development and growth.

Author: Iva Bokšić, Strategic Planner Junior, Imago

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