From social media leaders to agency founders, these 20-somethings are ones to know across brands and agencies

..But as we saw on Black Friday, Gen Z’s bleak hopes of achieving traditional markers of financial success stand in sharp contrast to their heavy spending. In the luxury sector alone, Gen Z and millennials accounted for “the entire growth of this U.S. market in 2022” and are predicted to represent 70% of spending there by 2025.

Pervasive financial pessimism is in the air. In a recent white paper published by Ogilvy Consulting, we dig into how FinServ brands should be thinking about their relationship to Gen Z and how to better engage and support them in their financial well-being. (AdWeek 2024)

Younger generations expect more from in-person shopping experiences, and there’s a huge opportunity for brands that evolve to meet their needs. (2024 Campaign magazine)

Perhaps no two groups are seen as more dichotomous than Gen Z and baby boomers. To Gen Z, boomers are old white men deeply out of touch with societal problems. To boomers, Gen Zers are lazy idealists who traded work ethic for participation trophies.

So, there is no way to reach both groups at once—right? In fact, these cohorts are unexpectedly similar and there are opportunities to create shared communities where both feel heard. To do so, we need to bust three myths about their incompatibility.

Today, financial institutions – educational, corporate or otherwise – have the rare opportunity to take a leadership role in culture. Instead of pushing the same products or conventions to the next generation of consumers, companies and organizations can actually educate and support youth, helping give back control of their financial futures. And while some organizations have begun offerings such tools, we have to recognize when a moment calls for more holistic support.

As with most issues paramount to Gen Z – their calls for change and improvement are explicit, even if we’re not all behaving accordingly. It’s clear that more that can be done to help curb Gen Z’s emotional spending and facilitate financial wellness that ultimately stands to benefit us all.

More than any previous generation, Generation Z or Gen Z wants to be involved in the ideation and curation of culture-led participatory moments with the brands they care about.

Reid Litman, Ogilvy Consulting’s global consultant of futuring and author of “For Gen Z, brand is what you share, not what you sell”, said that from a market size standpoint, Gen Z – the demographic born from 1997-2012 – has the largest purchasing power the world has ever known.. (WARC)

For me, the biggest obstacle for brands is that Gen Z is a cohort of plurals. They’re hard to pin down because they refuse to be pinned down in a world so used to the binary. This group is poised, but also paradoxical. Highly entrepreneurial, but also highly cautious. Highly confident, but also highly anxious. We are disruptors, but nostalgic. Contradiction and exploration are built in.

Despite the dualities, nuances, and contradictions within this massive cohort, there is one thing we see consistently: Gen Z views creativity and individual expression as a core attribute of daily life. To this end, I cut through the noise by building with Gen Z rather than for them – tapping into their individuality and self-expression. Co-creation, creativity, and partnership WITH youth culture sits at the heart of our approach.

We’ve conducted new research and sat down with brand leaders from across the globe in working sessions to craft a playbook that addresses these shifts. In its most basic form, we propose that business leaders must grow comfortable co-creating and giving up complete ownership to gain the next—and largest—generation of potential new users. Such radical decentralization of brand control will likely change business models and internal team dynamics - the cost of entry for winning with Gen Z.

Brands that share offer a mix of digital & physical destinations that encourage consumers to meet, engage, co-create, and discover novel ideas and experiences within its own expanding universe of tech-enriched touch points. Winning with youth isn't about brand management at all, it’s about developing a system to cultivate and share with a community who’s passionate about your purpose.

A study into the future of mobility and how all companies, not just those invested in moving people or goods, can use it as a platform to win customers for life.