(Expansion) – They want real changes in consumer culture, they value diversity and sustainability. They feel more authentic than their predecessors and are concerned about online privacy: double click on generation Z, the digital natives that brands want to talk to.
They watch YouTube in a restaurant while their parents have lunch, Google their teachers, spend hours watching TikTok videos. But what really distinguishes this group of new consumers? What are those codes that brands want to incorporate so much and have become an obsession for marketing professionals?
Have the lines between the one who creates and the one who consumes content been blurred?
In the 1990s, legal action was taken to remove Mickey Mouse from the walls of kindergartens in the United States. At that time, Universal took the opportunity to replace the most predominant superhero, with characters like Fred Flintstone. (Polygon). Today the reality is very different: digital omnichannel allows you to see, for example, the Minions on TikTok (generating 8 billion views), Minions in memes, Minions on murals in children’s rooms, Minions in costumes, Minions in everything and everyone. .
Copyright litigation from Universal? Any. Generation Z appropriates culture, makes it viral at will, mixes it and cooks new dishes with it, and incorporates it into their daily lives, even in the name of a WhatsApp group, and Universal knew how to understand and take advantage of the change. When was the last time you saw the image of Mickey Mouse?
they are all unique
If in the 80’s and 90’s we all dressed similarly, we bought the same recognized brands, we saw the same shows, the proliferation and acceptance of options led generation Z to want to be unique, not the same.
In the United States, 20.8% of this generation define themselves as LGBTQ, double the number of millennials and five times more than Generation X.
Lil Nas X, Olivia Rodrigo and Charli D’Amelio represent their culture
While millennials grew up honing and filtering their lives on Instagram, Gen Z wants authenticity and is tired of over-production.
Disney singer and actress Olivia Rodrigo (High School Musical) generated 1 billion streams upon the release of her first album. His songs like Jealousy, Sour and Traitor talk about heartbreak and photos of perfect women on networks.
privacy conscious
Kaitlyn Tiffany (The Atlantic) recently opined that ‘personal branding’ is disappearing. Unlike millennials, Gen Z cares about privacy and prefers to be anonymous online, limiting who they share their personal content with.
Know the future through TikTok
My 12-year-old daughter knows all the songs in the fourth season of Stranger Things before she watches the episodes. Why? He learned them on TikTok. If brands are still wondering how to be relevant to generation Z, it is impossible not to mention the content network that already exceeds 100 million users in Latin America, according to the “Latin America Social Network Users 2022”, prepared by eMarketer.
The social network of series and movie audio, of the dances that make hits explode on Spotify, of the dubbing that creates art on top of art. The platform that marked a before and after when it came to connecting emotionally with children and adolescents and that led them to implement tools to create their own content.
Author’s note. Diego Prusky studied Chemical Engineering in Uruguay, but discovered that his mission lay elsewhere. Twenty years ago he worked in large companies in the world of music and was the driving force behind their digitization process. He has been leading the InPulse Digital team from Miami for more than 15 years, with an expert team in digital experiences, media and technology. He loves 360 campaigns and digital transformation projects in various industries such as Entertainment, Lifestyle, Trends and Mass Consumption. Follow him on his accounts and The opinions published in this column belong exclusively to the author.
