Original Thinking and Millennials: Ad Age Profiles Relish Marketing & Kimberly-Clark

Millennials – people aged 18-34 – have surpassed baby boomers as the nation’s largest living generation and, no surprise, have also become a prized target audience. Google “How to Reach Millennials,” and you’ll get somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000,000 results. Or just search the Advertising Age website – they’ve published more than 1000 articles on the subject. And most recently, Ad Age has highlighted how Relish Marketing is helping our longtime client and partner, Kimberly-Clark, to better position the company’s employment opportunities for millennials at its North American Consumer Headquarters in Neenah-Appleton, WI.

We began our work together by exploring what matters most to Millennials when looking for employment. Through focus groups and primary and secondary research, we learned that Millennials want to make a difference, to know that they can add value and are valued for their unique perspective and capabilities.

Kimberly-Clark and Neenah-Appleton, WI are a great match for those desires. With a 140+-year history of innovation and original thinking, Kimberly-Clark hires the best talent and then clears “a beautiful space for them to keep reinventing how the game is played.”  The Neenah-Appleton area offers affordable housing, short commutes, great restaurants, breweries and an active music scene along with sports and festivals, year-round outdoor activities and a ranking as one of the top 10 affordable places to live in the U.S.

With these findings informing the creative process, Relish Marketing and Kimberly-Clark developed “Welcome Original Thinkers,” an initiative designed to acknowledge the array of individual attributes that contribute to original, innovative thinking. We identified eight Original Thinker types – including Nonconformists, Disrupters, Makers and Adapters among others. Then, we created a BuzzFeed-inspired quiz and invited people to discover their own Original Thinker type. Quiz-takers are then rewarded with a new emoji badge suitable for social sharing, and they receive an invitation to find out about original thinkers at Kimberly-Clark.

The heart of the campaign is WelcomeOriginalThinkers.com, a content hub launched this summer, which introduces visitors to real-life Kimberly-Clark Original Thinkers, Neenah-Appleton, WI and careers at Kimberly-Clark. An expanded social media presence is coming soon with organic posts and paid advertising.

We look forward to sharing results in the coming months. In the meantime, why don’t you take a minute and find out what type of original thinker you are?