Account Director, Olivia Collins, attended The Grocer annual conference. The theme…
How to win with gen z?
Apparently, the one thing keeping CMOs up at night is how to target Gen Z. Reaching this audience is key to futureproofing their brands. Gen Z has a combined disposable income of $360 billon and will account for 27% of the workforce by 2025.
The overarching theme to come out of the conference was the importance of authenticity to Gen Z. In this summary of the conference I’m going to dig a little deeper into why authenticity matters and how brand’s should be communicating with Gen Z authentically.
1. support social causes
The latest research into Gen Z shows that to gain trust, businesses and brands must unite for change, connect and care for people:
- 70 % of Gen Zers are involved in a social or political cause
- 9 in 10 want the brands they buy to do the same
The real test is how brands treat their people. Some of the brands the panel championed included:
- M&S, who empower their local store staff to create engaging content on TikTok and even launched a Christmas song
- John Lewis, who engaged with a deaf employee to give a store tour on Instagram to open up the accessibility of the store
- Colgate, who partnered with a homeless charity to raise awareness of dental hygiene within this disadvantaged community.
2. let social lead
There’s no denying that social should form a key part of the media mix. The best social platform varies based on the objective. For example, Pinterest (best as part of a long-term strategy) is an inspirational platform that allows brands to reach niche verticals, while TikTok is fast, vibrant and highly discoverable, allowing brands to easily take advantage of current trends.
Influencers certainly have a role to play in engaging with Gen Zers. Their entertaining content combined with a strong relationship with their followers makes for a winning combination, provided brands adopt an open and collaborative mind-set.
It was recommended that brands leave a space in the budget for original ideas, as the influencers know what will best resonate with their audience. We found this to be true on a recent campaign for the UK and Ireland Mushroom Board.
3. Protect authenticity
The buzzword of the day was without a doubt, authenticity. Followers of influencers know immediately when a brand doesn’t fit in with their normal content, so the best results will come when creators have more freedom to do what they know.
This was something that PepsiCo’s Marketing Director Lee Houston proved worked so well for Doritos. Finally, your employees are not going to dance around a supermarket unless they want to – so brands need to be authentic to themselves and brand managers may need to trust in this seemingly more chaotic / less structured approach.
