Marketing To Generation Z With Experiential
Marketing to Generation Z is a challenge
Just when most brands and agencies have figured out how to market to the Millennial generation, another new challenge is born. That challenge is marketing to Generation Z: a generation born roughly between 1994 and the early 2,000’s that makes up more than a quarter of the U.S. population, according to Freeman XP Insights.
This generation was born into the digital world and they expect every interaction they have to be supplemented by at least one digital component. Digital marketing is king right now (but not for long) and companies have a multitude of ways to interact digitally with their audience. If you aren’t already using social media or video to interact with your audience it’s too late and you’ll soon be lost and forgotten if it has not already happened.
Being present in the digital world is critical to marketing to Generation Z as they have accumulated friends who are crowdsourced through blogs, social media outlets, and a variety of other fan boards and chat groups that bring people together based on a similar interest. Instead of a small group of friends, this generation is now part of a full-fledged online community consisting of people from all around the world. These online communities give brands an excellent way to become a part of the conversation and not be too pushy in selling, but the current trends with social media of users gumption from site to site are making it difficult for companies to stay in tune with its audience.
This is why an experiential activation is the perfect component of the marketing mix to reach Generation Z. Through a live experience, groups of people from all over the world can come together based on their similar interests and interact face-to-face for the first time. According to Freeman XP Insights, an in-person experience is something that is very important to Generation Z as it enables individuals to be present and interact with other people and brands in a unique and memorable way. Not only is Generation Z interested in live, unique experiences, they also love sharing their memorable experiences through pictures, videos, and social media postings.
For brands this is the ultimate prize: a consumer who wants to interact with my brand and share their great experience with their friends both in-person and through social media. An experiential activation allows the brand to become a part of the conversation in a relevant manner and enables the company to show how they bring a much bigger value by immersing the audience and making them a part of the process, rather than the value produced by the product or service alone.
This generation does not want to be sold to, so experiential marketing to Generation Z is the perfect component to interact with the desired audience, generate brand awareness, and get the audience sharing their experience, all of which help in increasing the chance that the consumers buy your product or service over another company who is only wanting to sell sell sell and not interact!
Three reasons why experiential marketing will work in engaging Generation Z:
- Experiential lends brands the opportunity to become a part of the conversation and engage with its audience without being intrusive and overly sales focused
- A unique, immersive experiential activation will resonate with Generation Z and be highly shareable to online communities across the world
- Generation Z consumers want to be a part of the conversation not just the ones being sold to and experiential allows these consumers to interact with brands in a tangible, unforgettable way
To learn more about Generation Z, check out the Freeman XP Insights report here.
