Many advertisers want to approach the right users through the so-called advert. The demographics of their target depends on their category of business or strategy, but the most essential and critical users are “Millennial Generation” for many sponsors now. Generally, marketers can’t ignore the Millennials at all, and they struggle to deal with this kind of the primary target. Many companies have paid attention to Millennials so far, and I think this strategy is not bad. However, the time has been changing step by step. The thing we can say for sure is that people get old with absolute certainty. That means current Millennials will change. Since the content of generation will change, marketers have to change their target according to the changes of the age.
The Millennials is critical for many marketers as of now, but savvy marketers already started to pay attention to the existence of so-called Generation Z. Approximately, Millennials means the people who were born from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. On the other hand, people say that Gen Z means the young people who were born from the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s. Some parts of people overlapped, but the term “Generation” is ambiguous usually. The most important thing for us is that Gen Z is a genuinely new generation and the primary target for sponsors will change from Millennials to Z over time. The reason why many savvy marketers start to deal with Gen Z is that Gen Z is the next primary target. They have a significant meaning in the marketing and advertising field.
What is Generation Z? As mentioned above, they are genuinely new. They spent different environment compared to other generation. As a result of that, they have some unique characteristics. For example,
・Gen Z has been using the internet since they were born. Therefore, they are familiar with social media and smartphone device.
・They think a great deal with their own feeling and thought. Generally, they hardly follow so-called authorities or powers.
As a matter of course, the marketer has to deal with this kind of people in a completely different way.
The usual marketer tries to capture the Millennials, but savvy marketer already tries to deal with Gen Z. Many savvy marketers think Influencer Marketing is the most effective and efficient method among current possible options. The reason why Influencer Marketing has been getting popular recently is that the savvy brands started to pay attention to it to capture coming next target. I don’t think that Influencer Marketing is a perfect tool, but we have to admit they are the most useful methodology brand can take advantage of right now. As time goes along, not only the savvy brands but also many companies will start to face this unique but useful marketing method fully in the end.
I mentioned what the generations are and why some marketers started to utilise the Influencer Marketing until now. As a result of that, you may wonder if the generation is essential. I know some experts doubt the definition of generation. They say, “As a matter of course, everybody is unique. It is no sense to try to define many people as just a category.” I can understand their opinion. In fact, according to some information, Netflix doesn’t define their users as typical category or demographics. One-to-one marketing is ideal for marketers, and some ad-technology like retargeting method might be typical. However, this kind of ad-tech way might be limited in the near future because of the new mood like apple ITP2.0, ad-blocker tool, and GDPR. The marketers have to behave more effective and efficient in this hard and tough situation, though they can’t do perfectly. The definition of the generation is not perfect, but I think they are kind of useful and helpful in a marketing field.
Influencer Marketing is an advantageous and useful method for many advertisers, and I believe they will get shrive over time. On the other hand, If the platformers change their rule out of the blue and they ban every campaign post, everything will change dramatically. Third parties including Influencers won’t be involved with marketing campaigns at all. Other than such an extreme risk, we have to pay attention to a subtle change in Gen Z. According to some experts, young people who belong to Gen Z is about to be sick of SNS. If they are bored with SNS, of course, the prerequisite of Influencer Marketing will change to the full extent. We have to be careful with this possibility because human being often gets bored with something.
In conclusion, the so-called generation is not wrong for marketers, though one-to-one marketing is ideal. The critical generation is Millennials now, but savvy brand already starts to take notice of Z. We must not forget that the definition of the generation is not perfect. The most important thing for marketers is that we continue to give considerable attention to the subtle change of their customers. If marketers can’t keep up with the leading-edge trend, the campaign they’re involved with would not work well.
Daisuke Kobayashi (Opt, Inc)
I have worked for OPT, the digital marketing agency in Tokyo for more than 14 years. OPT has played an active role in this industry, and we have many clients who are brands companies in the Japanese Market. I started to deal with “word of mouth” service on a Twitter platform in 2010. I’m in charge of Influencer Marketing business now. Primarily, I have focused on the reach for so-called Influencer Marketing in the global market recently.
