What Makes Them Tick – Gen Z Insights And Behaviours
Gen Z Insights And Behaviours
We recently attended a webinar hosted by Meltwater all about Gen Z and what makes them tick.
The data shows that this demographic uses up to eight different platforms, spending over three hours per day online. Instagram, What’s App and TikTok were the top three most used social media platforms by Gen Z, with TikTok being more popular than X. Influencers play a key role for this audience, and they are keen vlog watchers – they much prefer video content, especially short form.
Gen Z uses social media mostly to avoid FOMO but also to shop. Audience advertising profiling is most skewed to Gen Z on Snapchat, where 78% of total users are females aged 18 – 34. 81% use social media to research before they buy, and social media ads work and resonate with Gen Z. While they do love to shop, given the age of Gen Z, they have less disposable income as many are not fully in the workforce, but their future potential as consumers is significant.
Free delivery, discounts, and easy returns are universal influencers that drive online purchases, especially for Gen Z. They like to treat themselves, but the treats are different to Millennial and Gen X treats. A great example of this is food delivery – think JustEat – as they see using these apps as a treat rather than going out to eat.
While fashion is a big sector, so is beauty. However, Gen Z also shop beauty differently, especially fragrance. They don’t necessarily have a signature fragrance, they wear something that reflects how they feel – a good example of brands tapping into this is our client, Charlotte Tilbury’s recently launched fragrance collection of emotions!
Even though sustainability is key for Gen Z, it doesn’t always reflect where and how they shop. Given the lack of disposable income, they look for different ways to be sustainable like leaning more to a meat free diet – 20% are already plant based with 25% more planning to go plant based. They contribute to a sustainable food industry by choosing to eat plant based.
Gen Z is also big on community and collaboration (Reddit, Discord, etc.) and authenticity (Be Real). Gaming and Anime are big entertainment channels for Gen Z, as well as Sound Cloud – even though it is smaller than Spotify, it resonates more with Gen Z as it offers a discovery journey and a community aspect.
Gen Z mostly get news from social media rather than media apps. Medium and Quora are the main media outlets used, as again, they offer a community angle. When it comes to news, Gen Z looks at all the different angles and viewpoints and are very aware of the varying news agendas based on the different news sources. They are feeling the effects of the Cost-of-Living crisis and also the housing crisis here in Ireland, so they stay on top of political and financial news.
Overall, the insights from this webinar showed that while Gen Z has a varied approach to brand discovery between old and new media, (TV is important to them too!), they are digital first, app first, and community first.
For any questions/feedback regarding the above mentioned products/brands, please do contact us anytime by clicking here
