Bonjour à tous! Et bienvenue dans notre newsletter sur tout ce qui concerne la Génération Z.

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

And we didn’t even use ChatGPT for that faultless piece of French. This week we have both been at Cannes Lions, the annual festival of marketing creativity which is 70 years old this year. Ok, so it’s not quite the film festival, but it does provide some deep insights into how storytelling is changing, the increasing role of diversity (admittedly we are little bit ick with that word) and why, if you want to create impact, you need to be focusing on the next generation of consumers (sweet spot for us, obviously).

Hearing about the Black at Cannes organisation and the Black CMO C-Suite Alliance were particularly exciting, as well as seeing the first awards in many categories for countries such as Kenya and India. The world is shifting in age - and geography.

One big takeaway for all of us who talk with and about younger demographics - get them in the room. Two members of our London team, Clodagh and Ollie, were with us alongside our co-founders, Chief Marketing Officer and head of events. What was striking on La Croisette was that so many conversations about younger audiences did not involve younger people - something to consider urgently (🚨🚨🚨) as we all think about how to be authentic (we know, a little bit ick there as well) about the future. See Clodagh’s Talking Point below.

And Spike Lee, of course, summed it up as he accepted the inaugural Creative Maker of the Year. He told a small audience of marketeers at the White House, up the hill away from the corporate beaches and the huge auditoriums:

“Your job is to sell soap. Soup. Fast food. Electronics. Your job is to sell shit, by hook or by crook. You do it with humour, there are many ways to do it - that’s up to your creativity.”

And he should know (see below).

Retro brilliance

Chatting to our very own Ollie over pizza, the discovery of “new” stars who are actually, like, old continues apace. He is loving Fleetwood Mac (who are having a renaissance) - and Elton John is still Still Standing for a whole new generation (that biopic helped).

The long tail effects of great creative work are substantial. At the start of a talk on black creatives and how to be more equitable in telling your story (or motivating your colleagues), Clayana Mayweather of Mars Wrigley asked people to put up their hand if they were wearing any Fila clothes. Two hands went up. She asked the same question about Nike, and a forest of hands went up.

Her point? Nike was one of the first mega-brands to understand the power of, in this instance, black consumers. And to understand that you need to remember It’s Gotta Be The Shoes by Spike “You gotta sell shit” Lee.

As many Gen Zs will tell you - retro is cool. We may even intro Ollie to Mars Blackmon.

Roblox and the real world

One of those gaming spaces, like Minecraft, that may have passed you by if you don’t happen to have children, the world of Roblox is ever expanding. The fact that Lil Nas X does concerts there tells you something.

Christina Wooten, Vice-President of New Ecosystems (now, there’s a title) at the tech mega-firm, laid out five rules of making things work on different platforms:

1. Don’t just think you can walk on there.

2. Don’t just sell, add value first.

3. Build a community before thinking about monetisation.

4. The metaverse can be a testing ground before launching new products IRL.

5. Be ready to share IP and let creators play with your content.

Truth social

We were part of a roundtable discussion at Goals House (a great place for conversations), where we talked about Goal 5 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: gender equality. Bringing a younger voice to the conversation, we were asked how brands can reach young women and create an impact. Our answer was quite simple - it’s all about being truthful. If a brand is walking the walk, it should be fairly straightforward to share that in an honest way. If they aren’t actually doing that, Gen Z have sharp antennae for spotting things like pink-washing and green-washing. We’d rather a brand be upfront with us - even if that means admitting there is work to be done (we like vulnerability) - than draw up a polished campaign we can’t relate to and feel sceptical about.

At the intersection

In partnership with the magazine publisher Hearst, we hosted a panel on the vibe shift in women’s media - the things that have changed during the pandemic and in the wake of George Floyd. We talked about access and diversity, and dug into class, socioeconomic backgrounds and how that influences who is able to succeed in different sectors. It was a reminder that there’s still so much to be done. While we’re getting better at improving gender diversity, we still need to address those intersections with class, race and disability. It’s not enough to have female leaders if some women (and men) are left behind.

And finally

65%

The percentage of Gen Zers who have used visual effects during video creation - landing the point that, when it comes to the next generation, they are already creators and may well be better at it than you are.

Back to US/UK reality next week. Have a good weekend.

Salut!

How can we help?

In my many travels and conversations, I’m increasingly talking to CEOs, executives and civil society leaders wanting to better understand the next generation of consumers and the next generation of employees. Gen Z is putting pressure on us all to transform in fascinating ways, and many of us are asking questions about how to cater for younger workers and future proof our organisations.

If this sounds like you, we’d be keen to have a chat and see if TNM can help. From our own content production to work we have done, for example, with The Oliver Wyman Forum, we have a raft of insights and data which can support you. We work closely with a number of global organisations – helping with high-impact story-telling, digital media, internal communications, through to employee benefits, HR and working structures.

Email me direct and all of us at TNM look forward to speaking further.

Kamal Ahmed
Editor-in-Chief and Co-founder
The News Movement