A Tale of Two Gen Zs – And What it Means for Brands

Thinking about Gen Z in simplified demographic terms could limit marketers’ ability to engage this audience, Nancy Hall, CEO of WPP Media US, argues. 

If you’re focusing your marketing efforts on simply reaching Gen Z, you may be doing it wrong. 

We all inherently know that there are going to be differences between a 14-year-old and a 29-year-old. But when it comes to understanding the audiences we need to reach, marketers have a tendency to latch onto the latest generation to enter adulthood and treat them like one giant homogenous group. 

Consider our industry’s obsession with Generation Z. Born between 1997 and 2012, they’re the first completely digital-native generation and the first mobile-native generation. Gen Z has only ever known the vast, scattered cosmos of media fragmentation. 

It sounds straightforward. But it’s not. 

The COVID Divide 

There are, in fact, two Gen Zs. 

As researcher Rachel Janfaza, founder of The Up & Up, has written, older Gen Z were kids who grew up with flip phones, Facebook, and text messaging. Younger Gen Z grew up with smartphones, Snap, and TikTok. Older Gen Z is encountering AI in the workforce. Younger Gen Z is using it in school. 

But there is something more here than tech choices and age differences. There is a stark divide between those between 25 and 29, and those 25 and younger. 

And that divide was marked by COVID-19. 

Older members of Gen Z were already out in the real world when the pandemic hit. Younger members spent their formative school years physically alone and, during that time, social interactions were relegated to screens and digital platforms. If they wanted to hang, it was via phones, iPads, and gaming consoles. Even checking out a movie together happened via virtual watch parties on TV screens. 

Ultimately, it’s the COVID-19 experience – as well as the political and economic uncertainty that came with it – that has truly made the younger half of Gen Z strikingly different. 

The biggest difference? Faced with loneliness during those formative years and missing out on even the most basic day-to-day interactions that previous generations took for granted, they’re now desperate to have real-life connections, real-life communities. They want tactile experiences, to touch and feel the things they’ve seen online. 

The IRL Impact 

You can see this divide play out with the resurgence of high-end shopping centers in the US. It’s the one bright spot in the blighted landscape of the American mall, and it’s not being driven by nostalgic GenX-ers. 

In fact, NielsenIQ has found that Gen Z is outpacing all other generations when it comes to retail spending growth, leading The Wall Street Journal to dub them “a new generation of mall rats.” 

But this retail resurgence is being driven largely by the younger half of Gen Z. According to Circana data cited by the Journal, “shoppers between the ages of 18 and 24 bought 62% of their total general merchandise purchases in stores last year. Shoppers ages 25 and older, by contrast, made 52% of their purchases in person.” 

These shopping centers, like other retailers, coffee shops, and event spaces that are seeing success with younger Gen Z, are catering to the generation’s IRL desires while also leaning into their digital upbringing by making spaces that are social-worthy. 

Between Two Worlds 

Obviously, members of Gen Z who are 25 years old and under don’t live solely in the analog world. 

They seek inspiration and education online. And online is where they share their real-world experiences with the rest of their community. Look no further than the very recent younger Gen Z uptick in Hacky Sack, a real-world rediscovery that is also extremely meme-able. 

Young Gen Zers also see their digital relationships and communities as every bit as valid as real-world ones. 

This is apparent in how smoothly they move between the digital and real worlds in things like sports, gaming, and entertainment. Today, younger people become fans via live events and traditional media, but also via video games, fashion, and parasocial relationships online. 

And they express their fandom both online and in the real world. They’ll go to an NFL game – and engage in virtual activations while there. They’ll catch one night of Coachella IRL and the next via YouTube or even Fortnite. And the avatar they use in Fortnite? They may very well make a real version to cosplay at a convention. 

They also see influence as bidirectional. According to data cited by Ogilvy in a report about Gen Z and Gen Alpha, 83% of Gen Z fans say they know their engagement shapes how creators and brands develop content, from concept to release. In other words, they expect their interactions to impact how brands talk to them. 

They also want to be part of the content development. Sixty-four percent of Gen Z describe themselves as video content creators, according to the same report. 

What it Means for Brands  

Brands and retailers are taking cues from the younger Gen Z shoppers. Some brands that were purely digital are opening physical retail spaces. And brick-and-mortar retailers are making their spaces more photogenic for social media, or whatever comes along next. 

Modern marketers are also learning how to give up a little bit of brand control and letting Gen Z take the reins with creative storytelling.  

So what else should brands know and act on when it comes to Gen Z?  

• According to an Edelman report, older Gen Z trust institutions and brands until they do something wrong. Younger Gen Z tends to be skeptical and is disillusioned with institutions – though they do trust favorite brands.  

• Older Gen Z favors platforms like Instagram and X. Younger Gen Z gravitates toward the social video platforms like TikTok and Snap, as well as digital “third places” like Discord, according to GWI.  

• Older Gen Z expects digital convenience but still values utility and authoritative (or official) perspectives. Younger Gen Z expects seamless, fast, creator-led experiences on platforms they prefer. 

Older Gen Z marketing should feel useful, credible, flexible, and progress-oriented. Younger Gen Z marketing should feel culturally fluent, emotionally intelligent, participatory, and community-centered. Put another way, older Gen Z wants brands that help them advance, while younger Gen Z wants brands that help them belong. 

Brands will have to navigate the convergence of identity, community, culture, and commerce to build meaningful relationships with the younger half of Gen Z.  

And that can’t be done by lumping everyone under 29 into one large group and talking to them all in the same way. We can’t underestimate the tremendous impact that the pandemic had on those currently under 25, fundamentally altering the way they approach everything in life, from tech to socializing, from learning to shopping.  

If we can understand and embrace how different they are, we can tailor messaging and media to engage with them on their terms, leading to customers (or fans) for life. 

Read the article on WARC and explore the latest industry thinking.