Generation Y (AKA ‘millennials’) are currently between 25 and 39 years old and have outgrown the trappings of teenage angst, only to find themselves drowning in debt with about as much chance of owning their own home as Prince Philip has of tying his own shoelaces.

Then there’s the current youth crop known as Generation Z – the newest tranche currently aged between four and 24 years old. To add context, this ‘Z list’ makes up 25% of the world’s population and, as such, shouldn’t be treated lightly. In the US alone there are nearly 74 million, enough to make any Gen X marketer reach for their skateboard in a doomed effort to engage with them.

You need to cut through billions of bytes of trash before you can even think of capturing Gen Z’s interest.

According to research by online bank Kasasa earlier this year, the average Gen Z human received their first mobile phone aged 10.3 years, grew up in a hyper-connected world and on average spends at least three hours a day on some kind of mobile device. Notoriously cynical and, rather unsurprisingly, untrusting of their Gen X forebears (they are their parents, after all), communicating with these teenagers is a minefield, leaving in its wake a cemetery of misplaced adverts, ill-judged products and cynically rejected politics.

It should be no shock to anyone in marketing and advertising that teenagers think we’re dicks.

According to Kat Krieger from coffee brand Joyride: “Authenticity may have been a buzzword years ago, but this goes way beyond that. […] Younger generations are more aware and politically astute than ever before. […] Marketing speak just won’t cut it anymore. Consumers want quality, but they also want brands with integrity.”

In addition to Krieger’s unequivocal assertion in a 2018 report by Forbes, the following checklist is a good starting point if you want to earn trust and gain integrity with the Gen Z consumers:

Earn their attention – Generation Z is known as the social generation and you need to cut through billions of bytes of trash before you can even think of capturing their interest.
Tell the truth – counter-intuitively to our marketing tutelage, brands that speak plain truth are achieving cut-through faster.
Work with influencers – but be aware of how easy it is to burn money and integrity when this (frequently) goes wrong (plus nearly 10% of Instagram accounts are bots according to several reports).
Treat them as individuals – 25% of the world’s population plugged into social media means that they are fervently and constantly trying to express their individuality, so true personalisation should be the norm rather than the exception.
Practice what you preach – you’re speaking with digital natives who smell bullshit like you sniff a decent pinot noir. Define your positioning, make sure it resonates and plant it as a rock-solid foundation to every campaign or communication you send out.
Focus on brand values – having brand integrity, humility and purpose is no longer just desirable but absolutely essential.
Admit you don’t know anything – this should be the start of pretty much any brief assessment anyway, but it’s always worth a reminder.
Media wise, we know mobile devices are the first port of call for Gen Z so it stands to reason that your content should be designed to sit comfortably on these devices (very comfortably – see points 1, 5 and 6 above). As a kick start, these are the big four content types commanding attention from their eyes, ears and fingers:

Social Media – Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and TikTok; Tencent’s QQ and WeChat and Sina’s Weibo in Asia; and VK in Russia are a few of the front-runners. That said, despite Facebook’s apparent efforts to become the social channel for old people, it remains the world’s favourite across the board

Streamed Video – Google’s YouTube remains the king but don’t discount other young upstarts, most notably Amazon-owned Twitch, a favourite of the esports community on which over 350 billion minutes of streamed content has been viewed this year alone.

Music – Apple, Amazon and Google still have their claws deeply embedded in the music scene but smaller, more niche apps and video-streaming services have significant numbers of loyal Gen Z tribes among their followers.

Esports – According to a recent study ‘From Nerdy to Norm: Gen Z Connects Via Gaming’ conducted by Whistle, 91% of Gen Z males regularly play video games, only incrementally higher than millennials (84%). Among both generations, the stereotype of gamers has eroded. ‘Gamer’ no longer conjures the negative affiliation of a lazy guy in his parents’ basement but rather playing (and crucially watching) esports – it’s seen as an essential social interaction.

Gen Z is a misleading, buzz-phrase term – a chuck-away line much better expressed as simply ‘young people’. They exist in huge volumes, they’re fed up with their circumstances – socially, environmentally and financially – and they actively challenge the patronising way in which they’re currently marketed to. In the same way that many Gen X-ers would reject a pro-Brexit rant from a far-right 70-year-old UKIP member, Gen Z have their own opinions and have expansive means of sharing them.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.marketingweek.com