At a recent Advertising Week meeting, CMOs discussed marketing to Gen Z. Turns out that many things that marketers have believed about this cohort are not accurate. 

If you think that Gen Z hates advertising and is not loyal to brands, it’s just not true. In fact, Gen Z expresses a high degree of devotion to certain brands. It seems that marketers just aren’t savvy about the type of content that resonates with this cohort. Gen Z is quite picky and prefers narrow-focused, tribal online communities, which can take some thought to find a way to enter into.

To reach Gen Z, marketers need to focus on content that is entertaining and emotionally resonant and consider advertising as an adjunct tool as opposed to the primary driver of campaigns. Jim Mollica, CEO at Bose, said his company spends about 90% of its budget and effort on content for Gen Z, although there is a portion used on advertising as well.

H&R Block made inroads with Gen Z with a reality TV parody on its YouTube channel called “Responsibility Island,” where denizens of the cohort were confined to a remote island while learning to complete their own taxes. The company says that the majority of new entrants into the US taxpayer pool are from Gen Z, so they’re looking for ways to connect with this group.

Because Gen Z has grown up with so much information available to them, they know how to access information, how to navigate it and how to manipulate it. For this reason, they tend to be loyal to one brand across all product categories.

To appear authentic and relatable, brands should work to establish consumer dialogues and work their way into relevant conversations, as in TikTok videos and Instagram comments.