A look into the GenZ’s and their use of Influencers

 The next generation of consumers is growing up! 

 

There is an estimated 2 billion GenZ’s (born between 1996/7 and 2010/12 - depending on which research document you follow) that are starting to enter the work force and will dominate the consumer market over the next few years.  They have lived through a pandemic which has shaped their thinking, likes, dislikes and general characteristics.  They are unique and we better all get our thinking right as to how we are going to attract this powerful customer.

 

By now their predecessors, the Millenials, are well established and financially independent.  GenZ’s are living through this crazy, uncertain and changing world which is in lockdown one minute, open the next only to be locked down again.  As we are shaped by our reality, and things that happen in our world, this becomes ingrained into our philosophy and the GenZ’s are showing signs of great resilience, strength of mind, agility, ability to make quick decisions while not afraid of change.    

 

Having plenty of GenZ influence in my life currently, I cannot stress more their need for authenticity.  Those as young at 8 years old can smell ‘fake’ a mile off!  And those 8 years old also want to consume from a brand that gives back to communities. They are also completely dedicated to their influencers.  I have not come across a single GenZ that does not have their favourite list of influencers that they religiously follow.

 

The recent statistics indicated that this maturing generation’s spending power exceeds $600 billion, which includes direct and indirect buying (the influence they have on their parents)

 

What also makes them unique is the fact that they were born into the world of advancing internet, and their brains are completely wired for technology.  They understand how it works and if they come across a tech problem, their mind can solve this within minutes.  Whereas the Baby Boomers and Gen X’s are often weary of all the apps around, the GenZ will gaze at us in disbelief as on their phone they will have 30 to 40 apps that they make regular use of.

 

It is the influencers that I am most interested in.  One of the new buzz words is ‘filter fatigue’, a term used to explain how the GenZ’s flick through their social media platforms quickly and distrust and discard with disdain all the unrealistic once-off brand mentions from influencers.  They know their influencers well and know very well what the person likes and dislikes, and a sudden promotion of something out of character is seen as the person jumping on the billion-dollar bandwagon to earn a quick buck.   This is just out of order!

 

In the US alone the influencer industry is estimated to exceed 4 Billion dollars in 2022.  It is interesting to know that GenZ’s will trust friends and family more than influencers, and celebrities and social media stars they trust even less.   All this is due to their filter fatigue and distrust of advertising motives.

 

So what does this mean?

 

Enter the nano-influencer. The regular person without the massive following but having enough following to be seen as real.  Their posts are important and show their everyday life without the enhancing apps that change their appearance and everything else about them.    In a recent research by Student Beans, 82% of GenZ’s in the US and UK said they don’t trust traditional influencers to give an honest opinion on a brand or product. 

 

There are a myriad of nano-influencers varying in ages from a young pre-teen to a grandparent.  Many of them are young leaders, such as university or college graduates, sports fanatics, those in the sciences, gamers and so forth.  The Student beans survey found that 45% of GenZ’s followed nano-influencers with 5 000 to 20 000 followers and found them as the most trustworthy.  This went down to 30% who trusted those between 20 000 and 100 000, 15% only trusted those with 100 000 to 1 Million and only 10% trusted anyone with over 1 million followers.

 

I have a couple of young early 20 GenZ’s in the family, whose budgets are limited, yet health, wellness and beauty are important.  They follow nano-influencers that use make up and other products that are easily accessible and can be bought within their budget.  They also want to follow influencers that promote themselves flaws and all.  They also sniff out all the giveaways and discounts as this directly impacts their budget!  They might follow celebrities and will see the sudden promotion of products, but they will not rush out and buy the product.   

 

Then we get the younger GenZ’s.  They follow completely different influencers, but the general feeling is exactly the same.  This category of consumer are influenced by their peers so they will follow the high profile influencers, such as YouTuber, Mr Beast, but they are also disparaging about anything that is not authentic.  Many a time I have listened to the youngsters chatting about posts that they found ‘completely fake’.  Sometimes I wonder if they are looking for fake posts!

 

I asked an 11 year-old, Cole,  why he loved Mr Beast’s ‘50 hours buried alive’ video (I personally didn’t get it).

His response; “It was interesting!  I felt scared for him and I wondered what it would be like.  I also like it because he gives a lot of his money away to all sorts of different causes.”

I asked what the experience taught him; “I leant about ‘Trust’ as he had to trust his support team completely.  I would never have done that and I watched his team prepare him and look after him.”

I asked the 13 year old GenZ and he said “I really liked it, it was cool!” and that was the end.

 

In conclusion, influencers are mushrooming, from the celebs to the nano-influencers, and this is great news.  There are so many topics of interest in the world and there is an enormous choice and consumers, including every industry, even the public relations companies such as Intune Communication, can draw on influencers to get our message across to the GenZ’s.  However, keep them authentic, unfiltered, genuine and what is so fantastic is that we can all use raw content as that is what the world is all about.  No one is perfect!  GenZ’s know this and they want to see brands they can relate to. Nano-infuencers can make a huge difference in successful campaigns.

 

The stumbling block is that there are a millions of nano-influencers – choose wisely!  The good part is the ability to change tactics if something isn’t working!  After all, we are now completely used to change, the pandemic has given us this excellent ability.