– TMW UNLIMITED PRESENTS –
5 things we understand about Gen Z & young millennials
And how to connect with them
With Gen Z and young millennials being key audiences for your brand, we just wanted to share with you our thoughts on how best to reach and influence them, as well as some recent work we've done connecting with them for other industry-leading brands.
1. Grab their attention
You only have 8 seconds to engage them – your content needs to stand out and be snackable.
Cementing Cornetto’s association with teen love, we teamed up with Little Mix to create bite-size, fun and engaging content to encourage teens to #MakeAMove on their crush, whilst building excitement around the launch of the new ‘Choc n Caramel Crunch’ flavour. A range of exclusive content was created for Cornetto's and Little Mix’s social channels including short videos of gigs, backstage content and social films. With Snapchat aligning so well with our teenage audience, four ads featuring the girls acting out flirty scenarios were also created, as well as short video edits for Spotify and Vevo.
2. Be Authentic
They want content to be believable – so use real people in scenarios they can relate to.
To celebrate the video camera capabilities of the Sony Xperia smartphone, we staged an online talent show to find and celebrate real people who are uniquely skilled at doing something ridiculously fast. We then asked them to record their talent on their Xperia phone and encouraged both new and existing audiences to vote on their favourite. Footage created by influencers and co-creators was edited into an engaging film to stimulate competition entries. All influencer, co-creator and approved UGC content was uploaded to a campaign hub.
3. Involve them
They want to participate – provide them with engaging brand experiences.
To launch a new understated grooming range – Lynx Black – and convince our audience that the brand has grown up, we developed a physical space that was an escape from the noise and excesses of urban life – Black Space. It was a place where guys could attend stripped-back, authentic events such as gigs, film screenings and talks. They could even get a haircut and enjoy a coffee. We live-streamed all events through Periscope using a multi-angled camera, all from within the walls of the Lynx Black Space. To create and amplify events at the venue, we created ads in Shortlist, OOH ads around Shoreditch, proximity SMS broadcasts and live window drawing controlled by Twitter.
4. Give them something they want
They want a fair value exchange – provide them with something useful, inspiring or entertaining.
We studied audience search behaviour to understand when girls were seeking out strong make-up looks such as at Halloween and during the party season. Beauty influencers were then identified and briefed to create a series of make-up tutorials that tapped into these looks, with Simple products being used after to showcase the cleansing benefits of the make-up removers. Videos were seeded across influencer-owned and Simple's channels, promoted with paid media.
5. Show you stand for something
They want to do good and are more socially conscious than any previous generation.
After years of being at the centre of lad culture, Lynx wanted to demonstrate more maturity and understanding of modern guys. So we identified a brave collaboration with CALM – a charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, the single biggest killer of young guys in the UK. The result was our Cannes Lions-winning #BiggerIssues campaign which got this highly taboo issue on the radar of young people.
SO WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD?
HOW DO WE KEEP ENGAGING WITH THIS AUDIENCE AND HOW MUST WE ADAPT?
They are super money conscious, conservative and genuinely worried about the rising cost of, well, everything.
They are consistently wanting to better themselves. Position your product in a way that shows them how it will enhance their lives.
They like to make decisions based on fact.
If your product is something these teens should have, prove it, tell them or show them why.
They belong to a series of different micro- cultures. Be prepared to go niche to get the greatest connections.
A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT US
TMW Unlimited is the UK's leading customer engagement agency. We were named Campaign Customer Engagement Agency of the Year and the Drum Dream Agency of the Year in 2016.
We help brands remain culturally relevant to target audiences by creating authentic and engaging content and experiences that leverage insight, influencers and technology.
Employees
Years in business
Awards won in 2016
Years working with our longest standing client
Strategy, creative and data sit at the heart of all we do.
In addition to these core capabilities, we also have a wide range of specialisms to help us deliver true customer engagement.
