How to Market to Generation Z

Generation Z, Gen Z, iGeneration or even Post-Millennials, as they are also known, are currently the youngest generation in UK’s (born in or after 1996). Using an average of five screens to a millennial’s three, these digitally-savvy, young prospects have grown up in an age of constant technological advancement. Having never known life without smart phones or social media, this generation will have seen approximately 200,000 marketing messages before they reach the age of 15, so marketers need to carefully consider how to cut through the noise that Gen Z are becoming ever-immune to.

Mobile First

In today’s digital climate, it’s no surprise that Generation Z is a mobile-first segment. Of their five screens (smart phone, tablet, TV, desktop and laptop), Gen Zers spend most of their time on their smart phones, meaning that marketers need to be red hot on ensuring that all content – website, social media, etc. – is optimised for smartphone screens. This new, ever-digital generation access anything and everything on their mobiles, meaning that companies should be thinking about moving towards generating mobile-first content before optimising for desktop and laptop.

Utilise Video

We strongly recommend keeping video central to your Gen Z marketing strategy. 70% of Gen Zers would rather stream content than watch television, with more than one in four regularly posting their own content on YouTube. Video and animation marketing is also a great way of cutting through competitor collateral and communicating your message succinctly and without ambiguity, so if you’re aiming to connect with younger prospects, ensure that you create content that they find engaging, entertaining and relatable.    

Be Transparent

Even more so then the millennials that proceeded them, Generation Z prefer brands that are honest and authentic. Keep your brand personality strong – without distracting from the clear message of your activities, ensure you add value to communication with your prospects. Whether this is to entertain, to inspire or to add brand purpose, be sure to humanise your brand – more than ever before, prospects don’t want to interact or engage with a faceless company with no personality, instead, they seek brands that share an affinity with their beliefs and reflect real life (McCain, Samsung) rather than unrealistic ads portraying apparent ‘perfection’ (Hollister, Dior).

Rethink Your Social Media Strategy

While millennials let their digital lives play out on Facebook and Instagram, Generation Z favours younger social media channels like Snapchat, Whisper and Secret. Conversely to millennial preferences, this may well be a matter of privacy, as while Secret and Whisper posts are anonymous, media sent on Snapchat disappears after a matter of seconds. Nevertheless, Generation Z still has a huge presence on social media, use this to your advantage by listening to what Gen Z has to say. What are their interests? Their hobbies? Their ambitions? Collect these insights for a new input – from your audience, about your audience – on your marketing strategy and activities.

Summary

With 40% of all consumers expected to be Gen Z by 2020, this new generation of prospects brings marketers a whole, new opportunity. In order to ensure this doesn’t pass your organisation by, audience segmentation is vital. Lazily grouping Gen Zers and millennials together will cost you. Instead of trying to repurpose what you’ve learnt about marketing to millennials, take the time to understand these new, tech-savvy consumers and reshape your marketing strategy for this younger, digital audience.

If you need assistance restructuring your marketing activities, help with mastering social media or adopting a mobile-first strategy, get in touch with Generate UK today. Alternatively, you can email us at info@generateuk.co.uk or call 01635 88711.