Supercharge Your Gen Z Marketing For 2023: Key Trends & Insights You Need to Know

What are the hottest trends and themes for Gen Z marketing in 2023? What are the insights driving change? And what steps can you take to supercharge your brand’s youth engagement this year? To welcome in the new year, we teamed up with our youth insights agency, Voxburner, to present the ultimate marketing webinar, Supercharge Your Gen Z Marketing for 2023.

Understanding what’s important to Gen Z consumers will empower you to launch carefully crafted marketing campaigns, boost engagement (and spending!), and gain loyal customers. But what are they tips and tricks for making the most of this generation and their enormous spending power? Below, we share some of the key themes that we discussed in the session?

I don't Google, I TikTok

Research from Voxburner revealed that Gen Z are choosing to use TikTok over more traditional search engines, such as Google - logical when we consider 77% of UK and 73% of US Gen Z students use TikTok. But why this? Well, as discussed by Voxburner’s Managing Director Rick Jackson, content creators on TikTok offer a 360 view of a product or brand, making it reliable and trustworthy in the eyes of Gen Z viewers. Rick went on to say, “Taking note of this significant shift and building it into your marketing strategy will drive engagement and make your brand directly resonate with Gen Z” - you can hear more about this in the webinar.

The return of longform

Brands infamously only have eight seconds to catch Gen Z’s attention, but once you’ve got them, you’ve got them for life! In a perhaps unlikely turn of events, longform content is regaining popularity amongst young people thanks to their desire for additional education and a sense of belonging. Rick shared insights on which platforms young people are using and why, saying: “The number of young people taking to community-focused social platforms is increasing, with 19% of UK and 24% of US Gen Z students using Reddit”. Using this knowledge to create a community on these platforms presents brands with the opportunity to create lasting customer loyalty and trust.

Gen Z panellists were in favour of the platform, too, with Casey saying: “I love Reddit - everything I’m interested in, there’s a community of people posting about it. If there’s a Reddit for the medication I’m on, I’ll go on it, just to find people’s experiences!”, going on to describe it as a “safe space”. Meanwhile, Connor praised the diversity of the platform, stating that he likes “how Reddit has quite a broad spectrum of opinion”.

The return of the nano-influencer

“I used to follow a lot of influencers, but over time, the content just got less relatable. Influencer’s promotions can become really sales-y and not very relatable” said Aradhana, one of the Gen Z panellists. Bigger isn’t always better when it comes to influencer marketing, and authenticity is a priority for this generation, which has resulted in the rise of nano-influencers. In the words of Rick: “2023 will be even bigger and more exciting than ever.” 

Smaller content creators are capturing the hearts and spending power of Gen Z thanks to their authenticity, reliability and responsiveness, and in the webinar we shared why they’re a highly cost effective marketing tool for brands looking to increase ROI. “Smaller audiences mean [nano-influencers] have time to engage with their audiences and understand their interests and promote products they genuinely believe in” said Rick, “Gen Z are more likely to part with their money when they believe content is credible and legitimate.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by olivia ejjaouani (@oliviayasminn)

So there we have it  - some key takeaways from our recent webinar to set you up for success in 2023. Make sure you catch the full session, available on demand now, to hear more from Rick and our Gen Z panel, as they discuss other topics, ranging from inflation and summer travel plans to Reddit ads and BeReal. 

Watch the full session on-demand here.