FOver the past few weeks, the marketing and advertising industry seems to have turned their full attention to the next wave of consumers, Generation Z. Gen Z, those born in 1995 or later, are already the biggest generational group in the U.S., making up nearly 26% of the population. For higher education, they arrive en masse with the high school graduating class of 2015.
Much of the research comparing the two generations calls out that while Millennials grew up with the web and have embraced technology, Gen Z is growing up with social media and are digital natives. Social media has shaped almost every aspect of their lives from everyday personal moments to what they buy to their academics, and Gen Z expects to virtually engage with brands in the same way.
Gen Z are entrepreneurs, independent, and creators of their own success. As the NY Times notes, they are “already out in the world, curious and driven, investigating how to obtain relevant professional experience before college.” They attend conferences at the age of 16 because they want to, not because their parents told them to.
The article makes a noteworthy conclusion intended for the workplace, but that is incredibly relevant to higher ed. The author notes, “Even well-known organizations will have to rethink their recruiting practices to attract this group, and now is the time to start. Those who want to take advantage of Gen Z talent in the future need to develop relationships today with teenagers in grades seven through 12.”
As a higher ed marketer, what does this mean for your institution and your recruitment efforts? How do you begin to cultivate those relationships? How do you reach them?
The good news is that over the past year, we’ve started to see strong data that provides insight into their preferences and consumption habits. For example, Ad Age reports that Millennials prefer email marketing while Gen Z is much more tolerant of online advertising on the whole. Gen Z’s favorite website is YouTube, while Millenials prefer Amazon.com. On average, Gen Zs spend more than 22 hours viewing online videos each week. Gen Zs prefer visuals over text, and they spend their time on social media channels that are dominated by video, photo, and emoticons.
These specific insights are important to consider when marketing to this emerging consumer group and lend itself to audience-segmented efforts that support the level of personalization and channel-agnostic approach expected by Gen Z.
While employers and corporate brands have many years to target and serve Gen Z, higher education is in a unique position: The next generation of students is here, and they bring with them a new expectation of personalized communication and flexible educational offerings that present an opportunity for new thinking and strategies.
