GenZers are about to become your most important consumer

Appeared in Stuff 28 October 2022

Antony Young is co-founder of The Media Lab (formerly The Digital Café). It is Wellington’s largest independent media agency and 77% of its staff are GenZers.

OPINION: Back in 2009 I was working in advertising in New York and invited the then-programme director of MTV to the agency to speak to us about their network’s strategy.

MTV had been moving away from its original music video format. He told us it was on a mission to develop programming that would speak to millennials.

It experimented with unscripted shows such as Jersey Shore, then released a programme slate that included Teen Mom to a Teen Wolf remake they felt would capture GenYs. At the time, I thought while fascinating, I couldn’t see how mainstream clients would want to target 18–24-year-olds, when the people buying their products were almost exclusively over 25.

Over the next two decades, Millennials would become the most important cohort in marketing. Bigger than GenXers and more influential than Boomers. Products from cars to cognacs would go on to specifically target them with advertising. Whole divisions at those companies would be dedicated to developing millennial strategies to capture new consumers and their effect on the cultural zeitgeist.

In 2022, Millennials have now reached their 40s, well beyond middle-aged when it comes to marketers. As Mark Twain once said, “history doesn’t repeat, but it does often rhyme”.

Now brands and businesses need to focus their attention on GenZers. How you appeal and communicate with them is very different to their predecessors. They are a more idealistic, entrepreneurial, tech-dependent and inclusive than GenYs.

Sustainable Idealists

GenZers are the most proactive in seeking out sustainable brands and are more willing to boycott brands that don’t fit this model or express their views about those companies online. They see Elon Musk as a better Steve Jobs. They are seeking out not just plant-based food but plant-based fashion. They are voting with their household wallets and investment portfolios to brands that are building a cleaner and more socially responsible world.

ZEntrepreneurs

GenZers may well be the most entrepreneurial generation since the Baby Boomers. Partly through necessity but also with the growth of online hustle culture. GenZers are using all these avenues and more to make themselves financially independent. An Australian survey found 42% of 15–24-year-olds have a side hustle.

Technology dependent

Engaging with online communities and absorbing digital information has become second nature to GenZers: 69% become uncomfortable after being away from internet access for more than eight hours and 27% can only last one hour! While millennials embraced the glamour of a perfect Instagram pic, GenZers are recording and sharing more fun and authentic TikTok reels. Social media is their primary source of communication, how they are seen by peers, and how they source their news. As an advertising agency, social media is our go-to branding medium.

Diversity, inclusion, equity

They are without doubt the most open when it comes to equality. Gay, bi, transgender, non-binary is not just accepted, but celebrated. They have grown up in the #blacklivesmatter era. Mental health and harm are an everyday concern. And they not only embrace te reo but have a far better appreciation of te ao Māori.

Don’t get trapped in the generation gap.

Connect, understand, and embrace your next most influential consumer.

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Antony Young is a co-founder of The Media Lab (formerly The Digital Café), Wellington’s largest independent media agency.  He spent twenty years heading media and digital agencies in New York, London and Asia, before returning back to New Zealand.  He is also a blueberry farmer in the Horowhenua.

Other articles featuring The Media Lab

Three reasons why you should consider an independent agency (Marketing & Advertising Daily)

Is Netflix about to transform TV Advertising in New Zealand (Stuff)

Why we’re opting out of WFH (National Business Review)