Why Ad Agencies lose relevance for GenZ
Advertisers lose GenZ interest.
It is perhaps one of the statements every agency man dreads hearing these days. The new generation has been labelled in many ways: from pretentious, difficult, too honest and harsh.
The difficulty comes with digitization, let’s not forget that GenZ is the first digitally native generation to produce nearly $150 billion in the purchase market. Basically, they’re the people who set everything in motion by promoting, distributing, and ultimately buying if they’ve been convinced by what they’ve seen.
On closer look, however, you’ll find that the younger generation isn’t so hard to understand. Advertisers lose GenZ interest because they forget that they’re not creating for a 35+ audience, but for a 20+ audience, which has completely different values.
What are GenZ’s interests
For the product to even make it into a GenZ’s feed, it has to be useful, presented outside the box and have a well-structured commercial. Not necessarily short, no. The temptation that agencies fall into is to think that because of TikTok the whole young population has attention span. Wrong! Advertisers lose GenZ interest because they forget to put substance into their ads. They are interested in the impact a product has: in the spot, in their lives, on the environment.
To better understand why you need to change your approach when you want to communicate with GenZ, here are a few brands that have done it successfully.
IT`S GUCCI, said the GenZ. The young wave of consumers is reinventing the phrase “it’s cool!” with “it`s gucci” so the brand gets it: we don`t do any more vitage campaigns for them. Add to that mentality the fact that they are one of the biggest luxury brands and you’ll understand why the fashion house does it. Gucci secured their NFT partnership with Superplastic and used TikTok to communicate. See the point now?
One more thing brands need to understand in this dilemma is that they need to speak the language of the audience. And GenZ communicates only boldly. Running a campaign or a simple commercial without risking something in the process is the guaranteed direction to failure. Advertisers lose GenZ’s interest because they stick to the same angle. Change it. Are you getting criticism for your last campaign? Great – insert evilish laugh. If you use your weaknesses to strengthen your campaign you’ve won. It’s that simple.
The Under Armour brand understands this. It has noticed that their image, Stephen Curry, seems to be overused and people are starting to get fed up. Do you think the brand has apologized, retreated to sob and come up with a new face? Think twice. Curry can’t be replaced, that’s how good he is. So they decided to challenge the target with a call to action at the end, but that’s only after proving why they won’t ever give up Curry.
Why advertisers lose GenZ interest, though
In AdAge’s annual GenZ study, 69% of young people were found to be more likely to buy from a brand that is involved in social causes. In contrast, 33% of them have completely stopped buying from brands that contribute to the negative perpetuation of causes they dislike.
Maybe that’s why Nike is so successful in its campaigns.
And this isn’t even a big campaign, it’s just promoting the new leggings designs. GenZ wants Netflix quality in the ads it sees, and that’s where the quality of the graphics and storytelling come in. Showing them a spot shot on your phone or a simple banner pushed on Instagram won’t work.
Fear not, we also have a major project. Did you know that Nike is actually the Goddess of Victory?
According to Forbes, GenZ prefers face-to-face interactions. That means cool offline activations, which we can confirm. Amplifying a campaign beyond digital will attract more young people than you might think. While they are experts in all matters Social Media and online, GenZ are also very aware: self aware, but also aware of their environment. They know how toxic an app can become and the differences between Intagram vs. Reality. A moment of escapism to outside will be the secret ingredient to your campaign’s recipe for success.
Remember, GenZ always speaks their mind. But only because they care.
