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

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In America the political conversation has been dominated this week by that mugshot and the first Republican presidential candidates debate. Which involved, frankly, quite a lot of hollering.

If you are not already, we recommend following TNM’s US politics business The Recount. On its website and across social media, it’s the one place where you can sensibly gauge how young people are responding to the political conversation - and it is certainly a very different vibe from traditional media approaches. Do watch Grace's ‘WTF America’ to get the tone.

One fascinating trend that is bubbling up in our conversations is how varied US political opinions are amongst our demographic. The gender split on propensity to support the Democrats or the Republicans is growing - not, as some have argued, because young men are becoming more conservative but because young women have become much more motivated to change the world we live in. Take a couple of minutes to read this fascinating piece on why.

With elections in both the US and the UK next year, we are thinking deeply about fresh ways of bringing politics alive. The data tells us that younger audiences want different entry points into contested debates - and that they want nuance, not binary “right and wrong” and “you should think this” shouting matches. For brands, the vital point is that young people don’t fit many of the stereotypes that are already being confected for them. Support the spaces where Gen Z conversations happen, rather than saying what those conversations should be.

Gen Z and that retro thing . . .

We talk a lot in Get to Know about Gen Z’s whole “things my ancient parents think are cool could actually be, erm, cool”. (If you haven’t seen the Gen X flute call on TikTok, rectify immediately.)

Next, the humble, and once uber-uncool, CD. They make up a tiny percentage of the music industry’s earnings: about 3% in 2022, down from 96% in 2002. But that isn’t stopping some young people from collecting. Despite not owning a CD player, 23-year-old Kate Carniol collects all the Taylor Swift CDs for the “emotional aspect”, that “having something physical to hold”. For the younger generation, the convenience of streaming is often superseded by the novelty of collecting things that represent their interests and identity.

And don’t start me on work…

In this suitably professorial article we can understand a little more what Gen Z wants from the workplace. Rather than honing in on the (often negative) differences (see: articles about young people and work ethic), he argues that all ages want similar things (work-life balance), and the fact productivity has consistently increased over the past 30 years proves there isn’t a weak link in Gen Z. Rather, common criticisms fall more into a long tradition of older generations bashing the young - a tendency that dates all the way back to, ahem, 2800BC.

IJBOL

You read that right, IJBOL is the newest bit of Gen Z digital speak to add to your vocab. Can you guess what it means? We’ll give you a clue: it’s being used in place of ‘LOL’.

Quit vaping

The proliferation of vaping is something we talk about a lot at The News Movement - God, it is hard to resist. And now, the brains behind Starface (zit stickers loved by Gen Z) and Julie (a brand changing the image of emergency contraception) have come out with Blip. It’s a Gen Z-friendly competitor to Nicorette which helps people quit. Blip sells nicotine gum and lozenges in bright packaging with cool fonts and flavours. The product came after the founders worked with content creator Princess Gollum, who said she was struggling to quit vaping. With 30 million smokers and vapers in America (more than 50% of which are young adults), we expect this model of taking an approved drug and marketing it to a targeted segment to flourish.

And finally…

38%

Of our demographic thinks that generative AI will take over at least 50% of their job by 2050.

That sounds scary, but rather than running around channelling our inner Terminator (AI as machine-toting cyborg) it’s time to focus on education around the technology - emphasising how it can work in harmony with what we do, and dial down the fear mongering headlines and misinformed LinkedIn posts.

Have a lovely weekend everyone . . . (and given that it is a holiday weekend in the UK, and not in the US, some of us have JBOL.)

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