Hello everyone and welcome to our newsletter on all things Gen Z.

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

Ok, when one of the UK’s most august cultural institutions starts the search for a “Taylor Swift Superfan Adviser”, you know it is time to sit up and take notice of the Swiftie phenomenon, whatever business you are in.

The Victoria and Albert Museum in London - home of 16th century Persian rugs and priceless Delft vases - is looking for a Swiftie adviser alongside new roles for experts on emojis, Crocs, gorpcore* and Pokemon cards.

Now, we know that while some may express surprise at such a move, we clever bunch at Get to Know understand how much has changed in the way leaders have to consider the next generation of consumers. There is already discussion about the ability of Taylor Swift to swing political debates.

And now V&A director, Tristram Hunt, wants to make his museum more relevant to the conversations Gen Z and others are having.

And that means taking seriously superfan trends and “social driven” art forms.  

The V&A’s website features a section which includes a Taylor Swift quiz, asking questions such as: “According to Billboard, what is the net worth of Taylor Swift’s cat, Olivia?” and, “If you were ordering fast food with Taylor Swift, what would her order be?”

The answers are $97m and cheeseburger and fries with a chocolate shake - but you knew that already.

The key is leaning in whilst never looking like a parent trying to dance at the disco.

Natch.

*Gorpcore - the wearing of outdoor, often wet weather gear as street wear, for those of you who didn’t know

F*ck it mentality

A familiar scene: telling yourself you wouldn’t go out and have too many drinks, or spend big on a restaurant meal, only to find yourself a few hours later, in the company of your friends, saying “f*ck it”, and doing it anyway. But young people are increasingly seeing the harm in this mentality, noticing that peer pressure and making decisions that don’t align with your values can have a real toll on friendships. This feels like another example of the self-reflective, fairly restrained behaviour among many young people - and is certainly different from previous generations. 

PresidentTok

Last week, US President Joe Biden joined TikTok in an effort to woo Gen Z voters. But how is it going? A few videos have huge numbers, as you might expect, but there’s a predominant theme emerging in the comments: Gaza. Young people are using Biden’s videos to voice their opinions on the US response to the crisis - not quite what the President hoped to use the space for.

Gen Z boys

Three weeks ago we pointed to John Burn-Murdoch’s graph in the FT showing the gap between the ideology of young men and young women. It showed girls tend to be more liberal and the gap is widening. This article from The Conversation argues there is more to the story, and that Gen Z boys are “more nuanced than negative”. The whole piece is worth a read and draws on experiences of talking to young people in schools, what boys and girls say about double standards and the demands of masculinity. 

Skills Bootcamps

We talk a lot about the changing world of work and what industries will look like in the future. And here is an example of a practical way of equipping young people for their careers: the UK government is funding ‘Skills Bootcamps’ in cloud computing, cybersecurity, software development and more. The idea is upskilling young people to unlock better jobs (and earning potential) in the future. The marketing around the programme says that the types of skills will open up roles with average salaries above £70,000, two and half times the UK average.

And finally…

93%

Of Gen Zers have flaked out of a job interview, according to a new survey from Indeed. More than that, 87% have secured a job, signed the contract and then let the company down before their first day. The top reason for doing this is so people can “feel in charge of their career”. We can’t imagine that’s overly popular on the receiving end… 

Have a lovely weekend everyone, and stay Swiftie . . .

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

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