For years, Millennials have held the attention of marketers around the world as they have grown to be an influential, powerful demographic. But now it may be time to shift gears a bit and take a look at their successor, Gen Z.
Gen Zers were born roughly between the years of 1996 to 2015 in a completely digital world. The oldest of them experienced the post-9/11 America as well as The Great Recession of 2008. Growing up in these hard times has caused this generation to spend more cautiously in comparison to their older siblings, the Millennials. For that reason, marketers need to do a great job appealing to their interests to tap into their $44 billion buying power. Not to mention 40% of the U.S. consumer market is projected to be Gen Zers by 2020.
Tip 1: Don’t Use Celebrity Endorsements
Celebrity endorsements just don’t work like they used to on the younger generation. “So if we can’t use celebrities to endorse our products, who should we use?” Great question. Gen Zers would likely to be more receptive to viewing endorsements by their favorite YouTube, Snapchat, or Instagram influencers. According to a survey of Gen Zers, 63% said that they would prefer to see real people in brand advertisements vs. celebrities.
Tip 2: Have a Strong Online Presence
Gen Z prefers to shop, research, and communicate online; they do it constantly. So it follows that having a strong online presence is extremely important when trying to appeal to them from a marketing standpoint. That means you need a top-notch website and a killer social presence. Your website should have all the information they need to make a sound decision as well as links to your social channels to get the “real scoop” on your brand. Your social channels should include engaging content and, most importantly, evidence that you communicate with your audience regularly and transparently.
Tip 3: Integrate a Social Responsibility Element into Your Business
According to a recent study, 60% of Gen Zers are gravitating towards career paths that will have a worldly impact, and 76% are conscious and concerned about man’s impact on the environment. That being said, integrating a social responsibility element into your business could definitely give you a competitive advantage when trying win over Gen Zers. But be sure to actually stay true to your social responsibility claims; Gen Zers can smell a phony a mile away.
Tip 4: Be Everywhere Digitally Possible
On average, Gen Z uses five different screens to view media: smartphone, TV, laptop, desktop, and tablet. This means if they’re watching one screen and ads begin showing they’ll just divert their attention to the next screen available. Keeping this in mind is crucial when deciding when and where to have your ads show.
Tip 5: Create Content that Gets the Message Across Quickly
If you thought it was hard to get a Millennial’s attention, check this out. Officially, Gen Zers have an average attention span of eight-seconds. You read that right, eight seconds. Effectively communicating your brand’s message in eight seconds is not an easy task, but is necessary to reach this demographic. For this tip, we recommend that you seek quality content creators that will help your audience understand what the content is about and why it matters to them in that time window.
Need some help leveraging these tips? We’d be happy to lend a hand. Boxcar has experience creating content, interacting with social influencers, strengthening online presence through web design and social media, and much more. Hit us up!