Reaching Generation Z is one of the great obsessions of brands. The millennials are no longer young , leaving room for a new generation. As with their older brothers, brands have had to forget what they had learned and investigate again how to position themselves in the market and what avenues to follow to connect with these audiences.
The Z are not in mainstream media, so advertising in those settings has lost weight and you could almost say that it made sense. Advertisers have taken refuge on the internet and on social media. Organic content is one of the ways to reach these consumers, but since the algorithms of social networks make achieving it without going through the box very complicated, advertising is also very present. Ads are key to impacting those audiences. But the truth is that, as they are doing right now, advertisers and social networks are simply burning their audience.
Young people are fed up with the number of advertisements that serve them and the type of advertisements they use to reach them. The most tragic thing is that, in addition, young people are quite receptive to advertising, that they understand that it has a role. Brands have a receptive audience potential, but they are losing it by not doing things well.
Receptive to ads, but too many
That’s what the latest study on the Unidays question shows. Nearly half of Gen Z members are theoretically ad-prone. 49% say that the ads on their social media feeds don’t matter to them as long as they are relevant. However, the amount of ads they receive is overwhelming. 76% say they are seeing too many ads right now.
The advertising load has become excessive, so advertisers – and the platforms that serve those ads – are risking burning and losing them forever. What about the other formats? Are they managing to connect with these audiences beyond what social media ads do and could they cover that niche? The truth is that it is questionable.
Only 14% of Z say they would try a new fashion brand after seeing it in a television commercial. Higher is the percentage that would test it after crossing it in the recommendation of an influencer (26%), but the figure is not as impressive as it could be. Therefore, it is not that the brands have exactly such a clear replacement.
They still need ‘lifelong’ digital advertising to connect with those consumers and to get their messages across to them. Burning them by abusing the only thing they have does not seem like the smartest idea to maintain and establish an advertising strategy and to continue reaching that market. And, in the end, the Z Boater Alert isn’t all that different from what other demographic groups have been rolling out before. The excessive advertisements have worked almost as a scorched earth strategy with other consumers and in other media before, from the network itself to television, managing to completely satiate audiences.