Magnises selling point for its growing network of young professionals includes exclusive outings and brands welcome the access to their target customers
Chris Khan was all packed and ready for his private jet flight to Exuma, a cluster of islands in Bahamas, and a chance to swim with the tiny swimming pigs of Pig Beach. There was just one thing that was missing his passport.
Even though they were flying on a private plane, I needed the passport, says Khan, 24. I had to miss it and live vicariously through photos, which is obviously heartbreaking. The trip was organized as an exclusive outing for a group of Magnises members, which Khan joined two years ago after graduating college.
Khan is part of the highly targeted millennial demographic. The median age of Magnises members is 28 years old and the majority fall into the millennial classification. Millennials also known as Gen Y or those born between 1980 and 2000 are a coveted demographic for brands and businesses looking to grow.
They might be debt-ridden and living with their parents rather than their significant others, but at 92 million strong, millennials represent the largest portion of the US population. They have jobs, and even if underemployed, dream of having careers someday and a lifestyle to fit those careers. With the paychecks they earn, they are estimated to collectively have a purchasing power of nearly $200bn, according to the US Chamber of Commerce foundation.
Magnises originally started as a series of social events that would allow its exclusive membership to mingle with people from other industries and build up a powerful network. The annual $250 membership still comes with a heavy black card, which contains information stripped from members regular credit cards issued by their banks and which was responsible for a lot of the original buzz around Magnises. However, now the real draw of Magnises membership are the members-only offers like a batch of discounted tickets to events such as Kanyes The Life of Pablo tour, whiskey tastings, Samsung devices demo with giveaways or a trip to Exuma many of which come straight from the brands.
Billy McFarland, the 24-year-old CEO and co-founder of Magnises, says that the community is what powers the value. Young professionals want to meet other young professionals. And brands many of whom partner with Magnises on special events and offers want access to these young professionals in hopes of making them into future customers.
If you are a young professional and you live in a major city, we are a way to help you experience the best of that city whether its professional growth or a fun social event, McFarland says. We are this buddy that follows you along, shows you or hopefully helps guide you to the best of your city.
Karen Coviello, 27, lives and works in New Jersey, but is often in New York for her work in public relations. Thats when her $250 membership comes in handy. Not only does it give her access to a co-working space where she can catch up on email or hold meetings, but it also provides her with a selection of networking events for later.
Thats why I love Magnises because you meet members from different industries, says Coviello, who hopes to move to New York one day.
Khan says he first signed up for Magnises after finishing graduate school because it sounded cool.
After graduation it sounded like the perfect thing to be a part of. Its a network that you are paying for, he explains. When he is in New York, he attends at least two events a month and often uses the 24/7 live concierge services offered by Magnises to book restaurants and figure out where to go for coffee, lunch of dinner. The cool thing about it is takes the guesswork out of your social life.
Khan has been a member for two years. A year ago, he was invited to join Magnises Plus a membership that costs $1,000 a year four times the regular $250 fee. Despite the fact that he spent chunks of the year traveling between Boston, Massachusetts and Bay Area, California where he had left his passport that one time he jumped at the chance.
One of the guys in Magnises Plus owns a realty firm in NYC and he has 200,000 Instagram followers. He is just one of those really cool kids that everyone wants to know. I have met a lot of people like that, which is kind of nice and makes Magnises special, said Khan.
The reason I signed up for that with absolutely no hesitation was because at first it was offered in a gold credit card made of actual gold, which is cool, he explains. But also the events they were publicizing in the beginning were pretty fantastic.
As Magnises took off, McFarland found himself with a growing group of millennials and has over time become a matchmaker of sorts not just peer to peer, but also members to brands.
Either side wouldnt work without each other, he explains. Members form their connections and then brands see all this networking and the community going on and they want to participate.
The latter is what keeps Magnises growing and financially sustainable. Brands want access to millennials with disposable income and here is McFarland, with a few thousands of members who are willing to pay $250 or more a year for access to experiences.
The $250 fee is a pretty low fee for access to clubs and other concierge-type assistance, says Jason Dorsey, millennials researcher and marketing expert at the Center for Generational Kinetics, which focuses on how to attract and keep millennials as customers, clients and members for companies around the world.
Last year, one of the members was quoted as saying: I definitely drink more than $250 worth of [complimentary] alcohol a year as the reason why the fee was a bargain.
Its cheaper than joining an airline club or getting a fancy credit card that gives you access. So in many ways it also delivers on what millennials can afford: accessible luxury, says Dorsey. He added that whether Magnises has long-term value will depend on the culture its able to build and maintain.
I assume a lot of people that are part of Magnises have a reasonable amount of disposable income, which is nice.The events are definitely catered toward a higher-end kind of experience, says Khan. To him, the relationship between Magnises and brands makes a lot of sense.
Go to a Magnises event and you see this group of young, good-looking people with jobs and disposable income, cool life and cool personality. Advertisers really love that. I can imagine why they have all these cool events Hey, I want 15 to 20 people from your group to come to this experience and maybe they will come back and give me some real money some day.
Most of the offerings as McFarland refers to brand events and partnerships come from the members themselves, who connected Magnises with their employers.
Madeline Coite, 29, is one of those members. Having moved to DC, she thought Magnises might be a cool way to get to know some people in the area. Earlier this year, she renewed her membership and convinced her husband to join as well. She has also suggested that the real estate management company she works for pair up with Magnises to offer memberships as perks to residents at their new properties.
It is a really cool way to pull people with similar interests, who are already sharing a space, and do that soft intro for you so its not the awkward elevator conversation, she says.
While Coite has made some friends through Magnises, its not a ton.
For a little while they were kind of duplicating what they were doing in New York, which is popular enough, but not my scene. I am not really into a nightclub scene. I can be forced out, but I am not going out of my own way, she says, laughing.
Still, she describes herself as Magnises believer and predicts that they will grow hugely over the next few years. I cant wait to see what they do in other cities, she says.
At the moment, Magnises operates in Washington DC and New York and is expected to launch in Chicago and San Francisco later this year. The Magnises membership page describes the network as having more than 8,000 members, but according to McFarland the membership is now in tens of thousands. The membership has doubled so far in 2016, he says. The goal is to have a million members by 2019 a mark he himself refers to as idealistic.
At a recent members event, held at Central Parks Tavern on the Green, McFarland looked comfortable in jeans and a grey T-shirt with Magnises logo. Most members that the Guardian interviewed, knew him by name. Laughing, he admitted to attending too many of the member events. Its important for the staff to have hands on experience, he added.
They said: We should try to see if our planes can reach the Bahamas.. So, we said OK. We put Magnises sticker on the plane and did the trip four times, explained McFarland. The trip was slightly different than other Magnises events as it was a members-sourced activity and those attending split the gas and chipped in for housing.
The swimming with the pigs was probably the best experience, said McFarland. They are really mean and they bite.
- This article was amended on 11 June to correct the spelling of Billy McFarlands surname, from MacFarland to McFarland.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/jun/11/millennials-magnises-members-only-black-card
