ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022 - 44

Career ❙ Interview
Why do you think Gen Z has a
different approach to advertising
and consuming?
First of all, you have to understand this new
generation, this Generation Z, that's coming
up. It includes everybody born between
1995 and 2010. Fun fact: we're right on track
to become the most well-educated generation
ever. We're also the most ethnically
diverse generation that's ever existed. We're
the first generation that has grown up to
be digital natives. We don't even remember
what the world was like before smartphones
existed. In terms of our behavior in response
to advertisements, my generation skips commercials,
half of us use ad-blockers. 70% of
us tend to ignore advertisements physically,
meaning we look away. What this implies
is that we'll be less likely to be attracted to
any traditional marketing techniques that
they've tried on us before; OOH campaigns,
bad FaceBook & Instagram Ads, unauthentic
influencer marketing, etc. Gen Z has a
built-in " bullshit " detector, meaning that we
can distinguish between brands that mean
what they say and brands that don't mean
what they saw. The key to success in marketing
to Gen Z is to understand the Gen Z
mindset, know how to leverage trends &
memes on big social media platforms, work
with authentic & trending content creators
and, most importantly, work closely with
Gen Z itself.
What does it take for brands to
stand out today on social networks ?
From my experience, as a brand, you should
not take yourself too seriously. That's
actually one of the first things that I always
try to explain to our clients: « Great guys,
you really put a lot of effort into your brand
communication guidelines. Yeah, I get it,
you want to use these emojis and only use
these words when communicating on social
media. But please, be open to our suggestions
and don't get lost in the attempt to
make sure you're always being brand safe.»
Often, that's exactly what's stopping big
brands from gaining the pop culture credibility
that you want to have as a brand. We've
had to convince so many of our clients that
it wasn't going to destroy their brand reputation,
if used the word " bro " or " sis " when
responding to comments in our comment
section. In any case, our aspiration is to make
every brand that we work with go viral. And
that means understanding how the internet
works, understanding how trends work, and
it's definitely not going to help if your brand
is scared to try something new.
How can brands connect with Gen Z ?
We have to understand how this generation
buys. According to a study conducted by
McKinsey, Gen Z makes up 40% of global
consumers and is already spending $150 billion
annually and demanding what they
want from companies. So, Gen Z is entering
the consumer market as we speak. We need
to look at how Gen Z make their buying
decisions in order to really determine what
marketing techniques will be the most effective
and win them over as a customer. While
price and quality are important criterias for
Gen Z purchase decisions, the deal-breaker
is social acceptance. Again, according to
Forbes, 81% of the consumers listed " friends "
as being their top influence when deciding
what to buy. Their friends' feedback reassures
them that the product will be socially
acceptable. Oh and did you know that 61%
of Gen Z follows their favorite brands on
social media? So tell me, what is your company
doing to deliver value for their customers
on social media? We all need to
understand that social media means higher
customer lifetime value!
What will be the role of TikTok
and other social platforms in the
future of marketing and advertising?
As of today, most of the biggest brands
in the US have recognized that Gen Z on
TikTok can dictate social trends and increase
in growing purchasing power from year to
year. Viral TikToks have sold out entire skincare
lines, makeup products and pairs of leggings.
You can find popular TikTok accounts
that are solely focused on reviewing and
recommending Amazon products. In fact,
some brands have begun writing things like
" as seen on TikTok " in their product description,
recognizing that going viral on TikTok
means having the ultimate social proof for
their product. Overall, not being on TikTok
is a bad marketing strategy, and it isn't surprising
that I see more and more sponsored
content whenever I open the app.
My theory is that in a couple of years, just
like in China, you will have these platforms
that merge social media and e-commerce
into one thing, aka social commerce. Things
like livestream & in-app shopping on SM
platforms will probably become the next
big thing. TikTok is also looking into ways
to leverage the potential of NFT's for viral
videos, that users could invest in. Imagine
you could invest in viral videos, instead of
investing in stocks. We must also not forget
the fact that a lot of us will dive into virtual
reality - Facebook just announced the new
big project they're working on, called the
Metaverse, which refers to the convergence
of physical, augmented, and virtual reality
in a shared online space. There's going to
be a huge marketing potential there. In
general, digital marketing will gain more
and more traction. It will be important for
us Europeans to closely observe trends from
China and the US, as they usually pave the
way for the future.
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44 ❙
ESCP Alumni Magazine Special issue ❙ 2022
ESCP ALUMNI magazine - Special Issue 2022

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