Marketers are on a relentless quest to connect with Gen Z, and despite their best efforts, agency Adolescent Content is here to serve a cold statistic to corporate America: only 8% of the generation thinks brands actually understand them. That means the TikTok hashtag challenge you just launched, sustainable product line you announced and Women’s History Month pledge to throw a few pennies at a non-profit isn’t quite the serve you think it is, according to the report.
Black- and female-founded agency Adolescent Content, which consists of 93% Gen Z employees, didn’t hold anything back in its report “Do Not Disturb,” which outlined why young consumers keep leaving brands on read. After consulting 400 Gen Z respondents, the shop is suggesting that marketers start approaching today’s most coveted generation as if they were people instead of brands. Just as you would roll your eyes at a friend who constantly boasts about their sustainable lifestyle, it is actually acceptable to do something virtuous without turning it into a public charade, according to co-author and junior creative strategist Sydney Sweeney.
“It’s OK to do the work and not tell everyone about it,” she told Adweek. “You don’t always have to talk about things publicly, because if you do it just makes things look even more performative.”
Challenge the status quo
Adolescent Content found that 75% of Gen Z wants to leave the world a better place than they found it, which means they will show the most loyalty to the brands that make a deliberate effort to champion equity, inclusion and sustainability. As one of the first to place social justice at the forefront of their business values, the agency identified Ben and Jerry’s as the holy grail of Gen Z brand love. And while Amazon and Shein can tout efficiency and affordability, this generation would much rather align themselves with more ethical names like Parade and Girlfriend Collective, which breaks down the environmental impact of each product on its website.
Marketers have made a more active effort to lean into brand purpose in recent years, but in an era of greenwashing and rainbow capitalism, it takes much more than a few philanthropic moments to win over Gen Z. 78% of Gen Zers are skeptical of brands’ commitments to issues like equity, diversity and sustainability, and according to co-author and junior creative strategist Jeremiah Jones, the most successful brands have “cared about the cause more than the dollar” from the get-go.
“When the heat dies down, are you going to go back to your old ways?” said Jones. “You can’t just hop from bandwagon to bandwagon and think that Gen Z isn’t going to call your bluff on it.”
Gen Z knows—and remembers—everything
82% of Gen Zers research a brand before making a purchase, so if marketers aren’t standing by their mistakes, consumers will notice. But there is an exception to this rule for brands like Nike, which according to the report, has “enough clout to cosplay as a good corporate citizen.”
Aside from sustainability and inclusivity, the report found that affordability, ethical business practices and shared values are the central driving forces of Gen Z purchasing intent. 99% of Gen Zers also prioritize their mental health more than their career and education, and this generation looks for brands that align with that mentality.
While there are broad-stroke themes that can be drawn from this generation, Jones emphasized that Gen Z accounts for consumers between the ages of 10 and 25 from a wide variety of backgrounds.
“Clients often have general misconceptions about young people,” he said. “Most people think of Gen Z as 12-year-olds, but it’s a really expansive generation at all different life stages. There is often a one size fits all approach, but it needs to be much more nuanced.”
Credit: Emmy Liederman
