HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif.—“Millennials are not going to become like your older, established customers,” said Deirdre Carroll, VM’s senior editor and editor of the Vision Monday Millennial Project series, to the audience attending “Power in #s – Maximizing the Potential of the ‘Hashtag Nation,” a VM Live event, held here in front of a packed room of ECPs and optical retailers, earlier this month. “Your older, established customers will become more like Millennials. Their influence over other generations is part of what’s so important for all retailers and practitioners to know about this powerful group,” Carroll added, as she introduced the program including two guest speakers and a “Group Chat” involving optical retail and ECP experts with their own perspectives on the topic.

“Millennials want to be challenged. They are inspired by ‘us’ movements, not by brands about ‘me’ and so they are socially conscious. They value experiences; they are passionate about building things and love to share their lives with their friends. Having grown up with the internet and smartphones, they don’t want you to call. They prefer texts, emojis, short-cut communications for long-term gain.”

These are just a few of the observations of Millennials by a Millennial, Matt Rednor, founder/CEO of Decoded Advertising, and a featured speaker at the VM Live event. Noted Rednor, whose company has worked with brands ranging from Visa to Dollar Shave Club to reach out in new ways to this influential generation, “Marketers and businesses need to move beyond standard ‘demographics’ to develop connections to their businesses based on shared interests, shared beliefs. And new digital tools enable very customized approaches to campaigns and ads.” And, he noted, “We want things simpler, faster, we’ve come to expect it. Help make our interactions with you simpler.” Citing Uber, the mobile car transport company, “We’re seeing an ‘Uberization’ of everything. New expectations for retail transactions, travel, even visiting the doctor’s office, are being rehaped every day.”

Following Rednor’s broader observations and suggestions on how to speak authentically to today’s Millennials, Erin Gargan, founder of Socialite, LLC, an “experi-social” marketing agency, addressed how social marketing messages are the best way to reach Millennials in “Instant Messaging.” Her advice, “Successful social media to reach Millennials involves three key things: Social Good. Delightful Content. Shareable Experiences. Examine what people are looking at and what people are sharing. Think about what Millennials are experiencing in your shop. What can you offer them, what you can you create for them? Are you open to listening? They don’t want to be spoken ‘to’, they want to be spoken ‘with’.”

Gargan added, “Millennials will share a good experience.” She advised, “Don’t just focus on Facebook. Images mean a lot. Definitely explore Snapchat now, Instagram is essential. Could you do a tour of your shop? Of your town? What can you bring to the table that larger brands can’t? The hyper-local connection is a good one.”

Rednor and Gargan were followed by a moderated panel of optical retail and ECP experts who all provided a distinct point of view in “Group Chat” on how they have found success with the Millennial consumer as an eyewear customer and patient. Participants included:

Julia Gogosha (@gogosha) – owner of Gogosha Optique, two high-end, service and design driven optical boutiques in Los Angeles. “We have tried to find a way to engage. We work hard to have our clients become disciples of what we do. Sixty percent to 70 percent of our customers are Millennials—but 100 percent have a Millennial mindset. It’s about inspiring each person and matching those interests with your selection.”

Aaron Lech, OD – owner of ClearVue Eye Care in Roseville, Calif., and a member of the Primary Eyecare Network advisory board. “I have been 22 years in this business. I started as optician, then went to optometry school and have been in practice for 11 years. We are wrestling with this as perhaps about 12 percent to 13 percent of the patients in my practice, in a competitive suburban space, are Millennials, but a large majority of my patients are older. We want to be sure we are serving the eye health needs of all of them and so our strategies are a little different. It’s about training.”

Matthew Geller, OD (@MatthewGellerOD) – founder and CEO, OptometryStudents.com, NewGradOptometry.com and CovalentCareers.com (co-founder); optometrist at Lakeside Eyecare and Casa De Oro Eyecare in San Diego, Calif. “Hire a Millennial doc! Today’s Millennials are open and value the currency of trust. As patients, their expectations don’t change much but I speak to them as a knowledgeable friend. We have a common understanding. It’s critical today to understand the social dynamic of each patient. “

Kate Doerksen (@KateDoerksen) – co-founder and CEO of DITTO.com (@ShopDitto), an e-commerce designer eyewear site with proprietary 3D virtual fitting technology. “Millennials are not weird about sharing product ideas and buying experiences. They can send their ‘DITTO’ to a friend and get advice. We make it easy for them to try and share and change their eyewear choices. And we talk to our customers all the time, perhaps some 200 customers a month, about their experiences with us and their views about eyewear. We review boatloads of data, too. We’re now licensing our patented try-on technology to other groups; this is something that all ECPs might want to consider as they think of ways of enhancing the in-store experience with customers.”

Sponsored at the Premier level by VSP and by Essilor as a Supporting sponsor, the event was followed by a cocktail hour for attendees and speakers. View a Slide Show of “Power in #s” here.

The first of a series, a second VM Live Millennial Project event is planned for the fall on the East Coast. Details will be announced soon.