In recent weeks, a slurry of business-oriented outlets have published articles claiming that millennials now outnumber Gen X in holding managerial roles. The data seems to be mostly US-centric, but with several significant national economies boasting younger populations than the US, it stands to reason that this is, in fact, an emergent global trend. As a result, we are likely to see a broad global shift in corporate values and practices in the coming decade.
But if millennials are the managers, that must mean that Gen Z are the ‘doers’. And speaking as a millennial manager and former doer; they are not to be underestimated. Doers are the researchers, the planners, the bookers, the writers, the idea generators. If your message, your narrative, or your brand doesn’t resonate with the doers consider yourself dead in the water – forget about making it to arrivals.
This isn’t ‘cancel-culture on steroids’, or a misalignment of values that leave confused boardrooms shaking their heads. Most of the time it’s an oversaturated information landscape, an impersonal point of view, and frankly, a lack of respect for said doers.
The somewhat tragic response from corporate agencies is to ‘post on TikTok’, ‘invent a viral challenge’ or ‘start paying influencers’. Don’t do that. At least, not without meaning it. Gen Z is not an amorphous blob of chaos and undeserved socio-economic power that can be appeased with a cute aesthetic and a funny audio clip. Keep in mind that as a collective, Gen Z is the most educated, most digitally-savvy segment of our current and future workforce.
They can fact check your claims before you’ve even found the link-in-bio. Gen Z are building up their power across several realms: economic, voting, and brains. To take a broadbrush approach to engaging this collective would be about as effective as brewing tea in a chocolate teapot. That said, writing a communication strategy for Gen Z isn’t necessarily difficult.
To say that with confidence you need to understand what your communication strategy is for. Communication is much less about sharing information than it is about shaping behaviour. If the only purpose of disseminating your message is to let people know your message, you’re doing it wrong and people won’t remember, or care, or change their patterns.
Impactful communication disrupts the rhythm of life as you know it, it changes how you see, think or feel about something. By extension, it changes what you do about it. In the world of government communication, understanding what behavioral change should be is the challenge. This requires alignment at the most senior levels.
For the sake of argument let’s say that a government has identified food security as a significant issue set to become more prolific in the next 10 years. There’s fertile land but limited domestic produce being harvested. A recent census tells us that the number of agricultural experts in the country accounts for less than 0.5% of the working population. Rather than re-train the existing workforce, or increase the migrant population, let’s assume that the government has decided that the priority should be to increase the number of high school leavers taking up vocational studies in agricultural engineering and technology.
What does that campaign look like? It doesn’t look like influencers tilling soil between TikTok dances does it? Our messaging wouldn’t encourage anyone to ‘yeet that uni application’.
The campaign is more likely to divide its audience into 4 categories:
- school pupils aged 13-14; this group will make decisions about their future school pathway in the next 6-12 months
- school pupils aged 15-17; this group will make decisions about their further education in the next 12-18 months
- school leavers and recent graduates aged 18-20; this group might have made their career choice already, but many are still looking for a direction that feels right
- parents; this group are guiding the decisions of the first three groups, you could argue they are a channel, as well as an audience.
Audience groups segmented, we develop our narrative. What are the individual benefits to a career in agriculture? These might be financial, intellectual, or physical. What are the community benefits? These might be economic, environmental, or even social.
Through research, benchmarking and testing, we hone each message to ensure it resonates most effectively with each audience group. For example, while the relationship between parent and child is emotional, a parent is more likely to resonate with a message about the financial stability of a career in agriculture; a message that draws on logic, probably in the form of a well-argued article that highlights the size of the opportunity in the agricultural sector.
By contrast, a school leaver with no certainty about their future most likely wants answers. They want to feel like they’re being heard, and that their opinions are valued. Think cult recruitment, but less ominous.
This audience group should be targeted with in person outreach from academic partners who are able to articulate the significance of agricultural studies; how and why this career makes a person important, and how they would be perceived in the future. It’s an emotional conversation, not a logical one.
These examples are the subtleties your communications strategy needs. You engage Gen Z by actually engaging with them, understanding their spheres of influence, and entering those with a genuine and compelling message, delivered in a format that ensures lasting impact.
And yes, we should back that up with a heavy dose of targeted digital messaging – in this information age, it takes multiple attempts of relaying a message for anyone to pay attention to you – but this blanket approach won’t work on its own.
Communication is and always has been about purpose. Forget your purpose, forget about success. The age of your audience will never change that.
