360 digital influence blog has some interesting observations from the millenial conference (remember, millenials are the generation born between 1980 and 2000). read the whole post, but here are his four key observations:

Millennials describe themselves as “non-white” – Mike Vorhaus shared an interesting stat about how a recent survey noted that 40% of all Millennials describe themselves as non-white. Young people today are more likely than ever to associate with a range of cultures and heritages and unlikely to define themselves narrowly. They have grown up in a world of interracial relationships and often see themselves as a product of this world.

Interest matters more than ethnicity – Whereas much of marketing has been focused on separating audiences into neat demographic groups based on race or ethnicity, Kevin Walker of Culture Lab shared the interesting perspective that Millennials today are more likely to be aligned by interest rather than ethnicity. This clearly has big implications for anyone planning a multicultural marketing campaign and hoping to gain a better understanding of the audiences they are likely to reach with their efforts and how to craft a smart strategy. It is an effect we are already starting to consider in any of our own multicultural marketing efforts targeted at the Millennial generation.

Friendship is no longer tied to locations – With the rise of social networks, it’s clear that Millennials have friends from many different cities and parts of the world. In the process, they are redefining the idea of a “friend” to include those acquantainces that are listed as friends on their MySpace pages, and those that they actively communicate with. Close friendships are no longer dictated by geography and as a result cross-country and international friendships and conversations are flourishing online.

Music discovery and experimentation rules – Jay Frank of Yahoo Music shared the interesting anecdote of youth five years ago and how many of them would have answered that they like every type of music, except country. Today, Millennials are listening to every type of music and there are no exceptions. International music, ethnic music, mashups, and independent labels are all finding new popularity as Millennials discover new music and share it with friends around the world.

(ht to bob c, via email)