Ahead of our latest research on young adults and membership, due to be released on 1 May 2025, we recap on last year’s release which looked at the changing habits and preferences in member engagement strategies.

In February 2024, Our Media polled a nationally representative sample of 3,000 UK adults about their media habits and attitudes to membership content. Questions distinguish between charity memberships (for example, a cause or benefit-led charity) and non-charity memberships (for example, a union, mutual or professional association).

Here are the five main takeaways from that report:

One

There’s no such thing as typical in media consumption (apart from Facebook).

A ‘typical day’ of media consumption in the UK has changed out of all recognition in the last generation. In fact, it’s fair to say there is now no such thing. Newspapers and print magazines have been largely overtaken by digital channels, led by Facebook (used by 62% of people daily) and YouTube (53%).

There are wide variations in media habits across generations. The older you are, the more engaged you’re likely to be with print magazines and direct mail.  YouTube, Instagram and audio/podcasts skew towards the young and middle-aged. TikTok is wildly popular with under-25s. Although (almost) everyone is still on Facebook.

Two

Open (but more commonly used) channels mean less recall.

In direct channels such as e-newsletters and direct mail, there’s a higher level of recall than usage, suggesting an outsized share of voice for membership organisations. But in the big, open channels such as Facebook, YouTube and podcasts, it’s the reverse – less recall than usage. That raises a choice: do member organisations choose to be big fish in the smaller content ‘ponds’, or try to make a splash in the bigger seas of content our audiences are swimming in routinely?

Three

Member content is the most trusted content.

In an ever-more-congested media landscape, how much is member content really valued? Very highly, our research suggests. 71% say it’s more trustworthy than other online content. Almost two-thirds say it’s an important factor in membership renewal. Nearly three-quarters say they would log in to a website to access it, and more than half want to continue to receive communications even if they weren’t a member. As the media landscape expands, more value is being ascribed to content from trusted sources – and membership is strongly aligned with trust.

Four

There’s perceived value in digital frequency and personalisation.

One of the common concerns around a shift from print to digital channels is in perceived value. A printed magazine (or newspaper) is a physical object, delivered through a letterbox; it feels worth paying for. Online content is intangible and can feel impersonal – even if it’s created with all the same rigour and creativity as print.

Middle-aged and younger audiences are more price-sensitive to digital content, but also far more demanding that it be personalised to their needs. They also expect it more often – weekly or daily, versus the monthly preference of older audiences.

A new communication model is emerging, with younger audiences more open to frequent contact from brands and organisations, but with higher expectations of relevance and value in return.

Five

Millennials are where the action is.

For most charities, membership provides both a source of regular income and a ‘base’ of people to support the cause. Encouraging members to act – whether through voice, money or behaviour – is a cornerstone of charity comms.

But which channels are most likely to trigger those actions, and who is most likely to take them? Aligning motivations with channel preferences suggests (perhaps surprisingly) that the most activist age group are those in the 35-44 range – Millennials. Their channel preferences are Facebook, YouTube and online content, suggesting these are the places to target action-oriented member communications.

Summing up

Our research of 2024 shows that the idea of membership is evolving, from a one-to-many conversation conducted in a few dedicated channels (such as a magazine) to an always-on, ever-more personal exchange conducted across web, social, email and offline. Ultimately, good engagement depends not on one specific channel but on delivering high-value, relevant content where your audience is. But as the research also shows, member content is highly valued, and audiences of all ages are open to communication – but what they want from it, what they consider valuable, evolves over a lifetime.

Stay tuned for our latest research investigating what membership means to young adults (18-26) which we will publish in May 2025.

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