The irony, when I was skimming through this article I saw that it was about life insurance (became slightly bored) and then somehow caught number nine on the list...'easily bored'. As a Gen Y(er) I can't argue with anything on that list and while they aren't all flattering descriptions I think they offer a great insight on how to target this demographic. We do tend to engage our parents in daily conversation about tasks large and small, but has the executive ever thought we might just be willing to listen to our parents about life insurance? I don't expect that I will pick up the phone this weekend to call my dad and ask who his insurance guy is, even though it seems antiquated to call a human being to buy insurance instead of just buying it online, another generational gap. But if my dad called me on Saturday and told me I could get some life insurance coverage for cheap through his plan that ran until I was thirty five years old where I would need to then transfer the plan to my own account, I would listen.
You already know the answer to the question...'how do we talk to Gen Y', it's through our parents. Now you just need to figure out how to reach the parents to reach the kids. This way we get good solid information, or even a 'starter' life insurance plan to ease me into the idea of the necessity of life insurance. Then a few years down the road when I am married or have my first kid suddenly it seems much more necessary and I already have a head start.

Maria,
Glad you found my comments informative. I try and read most of the blog postings on here, but specifically I find Gen Y/ Boomer discussions very interesting. (Without any hard evidence) I would assume that these two generations have the biggest gaps in social and technology trends since the industrial revolution and perhaps ever. With many of the titles we are given, including the 'entitled generation', I believe that we will have a lot of say (with voices and spending) on the future of many industries.
As an antidote to how far we have come in just the past 15 years, as a seventh grader I took a computer programming class where we wrote ten lines of code to get a rocket (made up of green numbers on a black screen) to move off the screen (take off). Now I would venture these same age kids could be learning minor flash, web design, java script type applications with no problem. What that means is that in five years these high school graduates will have a basic understanding of many SEO, Web development, social media, etc techniques (skills that many Gen Yers need on their resumes to get jobs in marketing now, but may not have) before they even enter college let alone the work place. So in the span of 20 years the market has made industries such as ecommerce and web development from a highly specialized field to a hobby for 20 year old college kids to start in their dorms (facebook). No disrespect to experts in those industry, but even now we see websites that let the novice graphic designer, t shirt designer, or web developer compete with the big boys by under bidding or providing free design work in exchange for royalties.
These same kinds of trends will begin to lap into other industries, but who knows what shape they will take. People will buy a car from half way across the country with never test driving it, over the internet today. Who knows what they will be buying over the internet in ten years. "Buy a house without ever leaving your apartment. Online lawyers, real estate agents, mortgage brokers, and title writers will handle everything for you and send you the keys!"

merci