hi everyone I'm Megan lazovic vice president for medicine research and hello I am Gabriel Soto I'm a senior director at Edison research thank you everyone for joining us today this report we're sharing with you today was originally presented at prpd back in August we owe a huge thank you to prpd and our friend Abby Goldstein for funding This research and encouraging us to do such an in-depth study on gen Z and while we originally presented this to a public radio audience in the great City of New Orleans Edison research and prpd thought it would be valuable to share this with anyone looking to connect with this younger generation absolutely if you have joined today you already have some understanding that gen Z is different from the generations before them we'll give our take and we'd love to hear your take as well we have the chat window open use it responsibly um but also please feel free to ask questions throughout the presentation in the Q a box and we'll break at the end to answer some of them yeah of course please let us know what you're where you're from uh what you're interested in the webinar is being recorded and uh the video and the slide deck will be available on edisonresearch.com after this webinar ends and if you're watching a replay please email info edisonresearch.com with any of your questions oh and one more housekeeping note before we get started we are giving away one of these fancy Edison research sweatshirts at the end of this webinar um we may go almost the full hour today so hang in with us and maybe you'll be one of our uh lucky winners um of one of these sweatshirts super comfortable it comes in all different sizes so let's get started yes okay so as an elder Millennial I try my best to keep up but I often do find myself relying on my younger colleague here Gabe to translate the occasional meme or explain a trend but uh then I think this younger Millennial got a little too old uh that's right I'm no longer cool enough to to keep up with the latest trends like the tortilla slaps and the coin kids I'm still stuck on that and I know that was over the summer that's over now Gabe if you don't know what Gabe is talking about that's even more reason to listen up because that's what we're here to share with you today the complex media habits of Generation Z the future of audiences so today we'll consider gen Z those between the ages of 12 and 24. and while there are many things to learn about this generation today we'll focus on answering three main questions the first is how do gends see themselves the second how do they consume media and finally we want to know how do they share with their peers so gen Z make up one-fifth of the U.S population older than 12 what we estimate to be more than 58 million people this cohort is also more ethnically diverse compared with any generation before it the majority of 12 to 24 year olds on your left here identify with a non-white ethnic group and that's not the case with Americans older than 25. to learn more about this group we tapped into an arsenal of existing Edison research studies the bulk of the data you'll see today it will come from the infinite dial it's a national telephone survey that tracks media behaviors of all Americans share of ear it's a national diary study that that measures the time Americans spend with audio every day and of course you'll see some data from Edison podcast metrics it's a national online survey that captures the listening of the US Weekly podcast audience and thanks to prpd we were able to conduct in-depth interviews with Jen's ears from across the country now while we hope to characterize this group of people for you we feel it's best to start with their own words so we have a video to share here are the genziers describing their own generation So It's Tricky describing My Generation because I feel like this is how everybody describes their own generation particularly at my age but I'd say that we're a lot more um Progressive I'd say we're very um knowledgeable in terms of like world events and um you know things that are happening I think we're a lot more socially active we're a lot more flexible in ideas and um like I don't know I think that there's a lot more like fluidity with my generation my mom says she's open-minded and stuff she's she's not really and I feel like at some point you're just like okay I mean I guess my generation is just much more open to things I think where gen Z is coming from is the fact that they've had to literally live through so many once in a lifetime events where we've kind of gone past like the fur the old nihilistic Generations into one where everything and it's not that everything is funny but we need to be able to laugh about things because it's gotten to the point where it's kind of overwhelming just to exist we've seen like I remember Sandy Hook happened when I was 12 or 13. um and we've seen that growing up too I remember being told like this is what happened if an active shooter comes in and like being like ready for that or like knowing that it would eventually happen um as like being terrified or even like on my college campus being like okay like this is what's happening like if you hear a gunshot like walking down the street like this I'm gonna go into that building or whatever um and so I think like growing up with that fear um in terms of my generation we've all kind of understood that things need to change I think we like see a lot of things that are like messed up um that like people have done before us and we like really want to make a difference and to change things um and I don't know I think we like experience a lot of dread and a lot of grief and like we don't um necessarily have like Outlets or guidance and how to um move through that and deal with that that was a lot um a lot right at the start um we're looking at this group of people who are at such an important age so much of Their Own World Views are being formed in their teens and young adulthood and some real anxiety anxiety inducing life-changing things have happened to them in their lives so far one of the young people in that video described their generation as flexible and it totally makes sense you have to be flexible when there is so much change happening around you they're flexible they're open they were also open to a homework assignment we gave them ahead of each interview we asked them to paste images into Google slides on a few topics just the nature of this assignment gives you a hint about this group not every person could easily complete this task but this generation is very familiar with Google Slides especially familiar with communicating using images so here's the assignment we gave them each participant shared 5 images that they felt represented them as a person the images you see here are directly from our participants these are the images they've chosen to represent themselves now they could have chosen anything they submitted links to websites their own personal photos or images they found on the web we even got a bunch of tick tock videos then we took all of these images and we grouped them and looked for themes to help us understand them a little more so here's what they shared the First theme we saw was music art and culture this was really important to their identities we see just pictures of a moon listening to music you know an artist on Spotify cartoons about music art and that picture there is um is Jane Austen um an average Jane Austen reader we also had food links to recipes and especially um for using Tick Tock that was a way that um that people you know use learn about recipes and they thought that you know was a big part of their identity now it's lunchtime one o'clock and seeing pictures of these Foods especially Ramen is making me super hungry well I'll dig up that link and I'll send it to you okay so you can make it after appreciate it of course next um we saw politics and beliefs um we have you know one person who's talking about the religion and using a funny mean from um Princess Bride uh we also had someone chose a picture of someone hugging a tree to represent um their um their passion for the environment um this next one is a funny one rest there's a picture of me in the morning um on the left there and then on the right we see um someone uh leaning back watching TV with their slippers on um I think it's really interesting that people chose images about rest to um to represent themselves um and this is a theme if you keep watching throughout the you know it's gonna pop up again um again and again where sort of rest and relaxation um is important to this generation potentially just because of their age after a night of partying but also just because this generation is it's important to them they have the boundaries and uh they're setting boundaries and making sure they have the time to rest certainly I think work life balance is very important for for this generation by the way is to have those uh same Homer Simpson slippers that I used to take to bed every day you don't have them anymore that's a shame it's an artifact somewhere all right next we have gender uh gender identity we did have one participant who identified as non-binary and is a super cute image from um Arthur cartoons uh labeled non-binary Vibes uh we also had feelings I thought it was interesting um I'm sorry character traits this person decided to um share sort of images that um describe some of their characteristics so uh she thought that she was organized so she chose a bunch of bins to show organization and that she was Thrifty so she used the Thrifty logo so she doesn't really have an association with rental cars exactly but thought it was a good she thought of a brand to demonstrate that she was Thrifty which was which was clever very creative yep yeah and it leads into okay and next is feeling similar to character traits um when I asked you know what represents you people chose feelings this generation thought that a feeling was a representation of themselves so we see some acute Hearts almost sort of hugging a heart um there's another heart I'm not sure what's going on in that one maybe um some conflicted feelings of the heart um and then um an emoji which is I don't know what would you say that is Gabe that's uh probably half of frown not fully mad but just half mad yeah I think it's like feels like it's judging me maybe that's how they felt about the assignment that I gave them next we have clothing and Brands um and that could be anything from this the hoodie sweatshirt that just feels like a part of you that you wear all of the time to um the idea of just loving clothes so much that you have too much of them um or you know aspirational brands that you that you hope to purchase one day we also had connections um people talked about family being really important to them and choosing images that that reminded them of family or the idea of being there for someone I'm here to make you happy it's a cute little dog image and then at the top here we had a participant who lived in a big house with a bunch of roommates and talked about how important it was them to them to sit on the porch and just have that hangout time with something that they did with their roommates quite often and that was a real that was a part of their identity this connection this you know these groups of friends was important to them um we had aspirations especially this time of life we have young people um who are you know considering careers um so we have pictures of Angela Davis Stacy Abrams people who are inspirational to them um and uh as one shared their aspiration to be a lawyer one day we saw images of meaningful places um the city where they internship the um the harbor that they walked past every single day on the way to school vacations um and other um you know hiking places that they that they go that are meaningful to them in their lives next is a fun one animals I think this is somewhat related to the idea of um of rest and self-care at least in the conversations I had with them um animals their animals were really important to them um some of these pictures are they're actual animals they're actual pets and some of them are just images um to represent the fact that animals are important to them and of course everyone loves Animal tick tocks so we um we saw some of those there's nothing more comforting than animals yes absolutely um uh I wouldn't be surprised if one jumps up on my lap at some point in this webinar today we've got education again makes sense for this age group you know we have we talk to people who are about to go to college or in college or just out of college so we see uh college mascots math memes um acute um SpongeBob meme about um being a freshman in college and feeling the need to write everything down I thought these were funny both of these memes very cute um we have um Sports and Fitness that was that was important to some of participants and finally and almost related to that um video games came up a lot especially with the um the young men in our studies um uh Esports um and I actually wasn't even sure which category to put this one in because um video games is now a sport especially in some high schools one of the participants um you know participated um in um in sports with their school but it's also a part of their identities and um you know they're giving me images of avatars they're talking about designing games um it's you know a big part of their of some of these people's lives I'm all for it I do believe video games are a form of sport training your reflexes and your mental ability definitely especially as we're like technology is just such a bigger part of our Lives exactly the idea of you know you know wasting time on video games it's it's like that's outdated completely so now we'll consider all of these images that we just looked at a good introduction to what's important to this generation what we saw here um also there were a bunch of nods to to the media in their lives so I'll hand it over to you Gabe to show us data on their actual media consumption behaviors thanks Meg um and you know thanks for highlighting video games I do think gen Z might just be the first generation to enjoy watching other people play video games more than they actually enjoy playing them themselves uh so let's start there uh in the infinite dial 2022 conducted last January uh one third of 12 to 24 year olds reported currently watching live streamed video games on services such as twitch YouTube live Facebook live or mixer compared with 13 of the population older than 25 that said the same now you know it's not just Mario Kart or fortnite Minecraft gen Z also likes to immerse themselves in audio stories and information one half of gen Z in the same survey reported ever listening to odd an audiobook at one point in their lives versus 43 of the rest of the population now you know growing up with these video streaming platforms Netflix Hulu and now Disney plus you know it's no surprise that virtually everyone within the 18 to 24 age bracket currently uses streaming video now we are showing 18 to 24 here from our online general population study of more than one thousand Americans that was conducted in the spring of 2022 still the Gen Z we do have in this survey do surpass the online population uh sorry the online 24 25 plus population and streaming video consumption you know this young group of people are consuming digital media at higher rates than the rest of us and it's an important part of their everyday lives so let's take a look at what they had to say about it so let's say when I wake up like I I get on my phone in the morning well immediately when I wake up I probably go on like Instagram or SnapChat to scroll through see what's going on over the time I was sleep I usually check Snapchat first um just to see if anyone's texted me at all okay so I wake up um I watch Tick Tock um until I have to get up and then normally when I'm getting ready I will listen to a podcast it's normally a news podcast when I like eat breakfast when I am like talking to my family I try to be like talk like engaged and then so I'll flip my phone over um but um after everyone's gone I'll probably go on my phone um I'll probably store on Tick Tock once I'm ready I usually go to breakfast um at the dining hall so I um listen to music on Spotify as I walk there um and then if the line is long I usually go on Facebook and just kind of scroll sometimes I'll listen to music in the morning I'll often listen to music or a podcast on my uh commute to work anytime really I'm in the car Apple music is being used sometimes I'll use the podcast app and I'll listen to a podcast they're in school you know that I have a phone although lunch I am on my phone Burns or whatever I mean go over the website YouTube videos on my character tutorials and stuff makeup tutorials too during lunch I usually um watch a little Tick Tock when I wake up from my afternoon nap that sounds like I'm a toddler but when I wake up from my afternoon nap normally that's when I like go back on Tick Tock and some times that can turn into a few hours of tick tock when I get home I'm probably gonna stroll in Tick Tock I might play a video game the video is probably going to be Animal Crossing because it's very relaxing at night we usually as a family will watch some TV shows we use Disney plus a lot we love our Disney shows Marvel's really awesome normally we'll watch like an episode of some form of media before going to bed sometimes I watch TV on like the big TV but a lot of times it's like I like to watch TV on my laptop like I'll watch um Gray's Anatomy is I'm a big fan of Gray's Anatomy but only the older Seasons I usually watch way too much Tick Tock at night it kind of sucks you in a little bit um and then I go to sleep when I get home at 11 it's like until I pass out with the phone on my chest I'm like on my phone um Google searching you know looking at Facebook looking at videos or anything that anything I didn't chance to look at it earlier in the day all right so the smartphone the smartphone was mentioned about 10 different times in that clip and you know Megan while I think it has uprooted the way in which we live our lives or in a way which we lived Our Lives as Millennials for Gen Z it has always been a part of you know their lives had always been part of their Roots um we know that 93 of 12 to 24 year olds own a smartphone versus 87 percent of the 25 plus population now that's not surprising to anyone anymore let's remember that it wasn't long ago that the norm for 12 to 24 year olds was to not have a smartphone it you know it's what makes Generation Z unique um it's evident in the qualitative videos that we just showed the smartphone is how they find out about Trends so how they learn new things and of course it's how they consume audio in our share of year data from quarter to 2022 out of all the time that 13 to 24 year olds reported spending with audio the majority of it occurred on a smartphone that's more than double of what it was among Americans older than 25. so the smartphone has really granted gen Z this ability to listen to whatever audio they want these kids do prefer to tap into digital audio sources over radio when they do listen so take a look at this this one is from again share of year Quarter Two 2022. uh and we're showing 25 plus population first we understand that 43 of the time Americans older than 25 spend with audio comes from AM FM radio content and that's that blue section among gen Z radio the radio share is 15 percent they prefer to spend their time listening to streaming audio in Orange the Pandora's and spotifys and YouTube for music and that's in purple um so in this case digital is much larger among gen Z it gives this diverse open-minded group of access to content like music that they can access on um that they cannot access on radio you know that they can access on digital audio sources absolutely quite a difference music of course is deeply rooted in gen Z's lives but don't take that from us listen to what they have to say about music in this next clip basically anytime that I'm in the car I'm listening to music it's pretty important I feel like I said some mood for everything like the gym I would listen to like stuff that would pump me up from the shower sometimes be more chill like if I'm stressed or I just want to be alone music is what helps me out but like during homework if I can't focus on my homework I listen to music to help me out um my dad calls it having a soundtrack to your life I always have music going whether it's in the shower or when I'm I don't know washing the dog anything and everything I play music for basically so you know Megan other than the smartphone music is another driving force behind the time gen Z spent with audio they just said it themselves in the second quarter of last year Americans 13 to 24 spent three hours and 43 minutes listening to music every day as noted by the red section in the top bar and that's an average of 40 minutes more than the rest of the population so music is a great way to appeal to this generation especially if it involves hip-hop and R B the top music genre gen Z report listening to most often is hip-hop and R B they also over index on top 40 in the second section here and alternative rock a third from the top now as we saw earlier gen Z prefer digital sources of audio but what do they think about radio we asked them that as well let's take a look I haven't listened to the radio in like I don't know how long it feels so old-fashioned optionally no but if I'm in the car with my parents or something I'll listen to them well in a car sometimes I'm listening to the radio that's about it I mean I grew up listening to the radio um but I don't think I've listened to the radio with unless I didn't have a choice in a long time I have like the Bluetooth in my car and stuff so I'm usually just using like my phone and the apps on my phone to listen to music if I'm like really bored and like my phone's gonna die and like I forgot to charge it or something I'll put it on but if not I'd rather just drive in silence not really no I did I used to a little bit in high school but we only have like two stations your pop station your country station and yeah good music but I need some variety I don't know with like Spotify like I can kind of pick whatever I want to listen to but um if I'm just listening to the radio then um I kind of like I don't know like I don't need to decide um and yeah it feels like something that's like pretty consistent or like I turn it on and I kind of know what I'm gonna get um and that can be really comforting some the radio station I listened to has like they say off of politics and everything they um they have a segment called like good news or whatever and they tell like nice happy stories about like you know how a puppy saved a little boy or you know just like very like light nice little things and you're like okay that's good um and you just like to hear him go back and forth I mean I can listen to Spotify or whatever all the time you know while I'm at work and everything why not listen to something else while I'm driving so those were some of their thoughts on radio you know some people said that they listened because their parents listen or because they're in the car others said that it's uh old-fashioned it needs more variety I used my phone instead um but you know the the landscape has really changed throughout the years today we know that 37 of 12 to 24 year olds listen to AM FM radio content every week versus 60 among the rest of the population and as an extension of that we do see usage for AM FM radio in the car among gen Z at 40 up at the top while the rest of the population is at 77 percent now this is this in car listening is Shifting to online audio and podcast we see gen Z over index significantly on usage for both of those digital audio sources and Megan you know better than I do that spoken word audio has increased throughout the years especially among younger audiences and podcasts have been a big reason for that uh today about half or as reported in in the last year's infinite dial in 2022 about half of 12 to 24 year olds reported listening to a podcast in the last month uh and one third of the rest of the population report reported the same yes we saw a younger listening and podcasts jump up we go into it in detail in the spoken word audio report which you should check out if you haven't already um but okay so half of gen Z our uh our podcast listeners half or not it makes sense when we did these in-depth interviews that about half of them had something good to say about podcasts and about half of them had something to say about the medium let's take a look I like to have conversations in person like I like the face-to-face um like contacts so I think like podcasts for me it just kind of like gets boring and I kind of get off in my own thoughts and like not really um pay attention if that makes sense yeah I've heard of them but they don't really they just I don't know I like when people do stuff you know not just I talked about their life oh my this is so boring some of my type friends go back to them like this is boring and I kind of just started getting into it like the past like years and a half two years maybe I like used to like listen to podcasts to help me sleep I would like listen to um there's this one podcast called snap judgment that like it was like a storytelling podcast and I would I would like need to listen to an episode for me to be able to sleep I love a story especially a story about someone's like real life something that I can relate to um there's this one podcast program that I listen to called This American Life and they just they choose random things just in current America it could be politically related could be socioeconomically anything like that and they just talk about how someone deals with the challenges they're going through and I think that's super cool that others are able to deal with they're certain challenges and you know I have my own that I'm going through and we can all make it through together all right so it is great to hear their thoughts you know generation uh that is leading the way in podcast listening and great to hear why some of them don't listen uh but of those who do listen to podcasts here's an Insight on how to reach them this is from our Edison podcast metrics Quarter Two survey data of us weekly podcast listeners and while we understand that recommendations from friends and family is the most popular way for podcast listeners older than 25 to discover podcasts we also understand that among 18 to 24 year olds the most popular form of Discovery is by searching YouTube and you know Megan I always found it interesting that the the power that your podcast have uh the power that you're to promote your podcast on social media is somewhat outperformed by the power to promote it on one single platform right at the top which is YouTube yeah um I feel like that was the story of all last year we heard all about YouTube but of course social media still is very important um and virtually all personalities um in in the podcasting space have a strong presence on social media platforms like Tick Tock and Instagram or at least they should so let's take a look at how social media plays a role in gen Z's lives social media is like really great about like I don't know kind of figuring out what's going on and like connecting with old friends but I think it also um is something that I find really overwhelming um and um sometimes I like can't control my consumption of it like I see people who are like ah no I'm not gonna get Tic Tac and then they get Tic Tac and they're like absorbed in it like they can't like there's I feel like there's no way out once you're in yes I spend way too many hours on tick tock I think a lot of my generation kind of uses things like Tick Tock as like a coping mechanism like almost like uh like a 20-something pacifier because life gets a little scary and it's just easier to turn on your phone I think it consumes a lot of I mean even just with this interview I see I'm like dang I'm always on my phone I have like mood swings with it um some days are better than other some days I go on there and I'm like super excited to see what people are doing and be like oh my God I'm so happy for you um and then other days it can be like almost a Debbie Downer in a way um it can make me feel like really insecure sometimes I grew up with Instagram and Twitter um and I know that if I like start my day with Instagram and Twitter it's like it's bound to not be a very good day because it's normally like a comparison game it's like you know on Instagram it's like oh my God my friend Susie she's in Italy I'm so jealous you know so it's better to do that like later in the day it can definitely be too much it can definitely um you need a balance of like the time that you're off of social media so these these uh you know the interviews show that uh these kids do have an awareness of the negative and the positive impacts of social media um but whether it's you know an addiction or to stay connected 93 of uh Generation Z currently use at least one social media platform the top three to be on to connect with this audience are Instagram tick tock and Snapchat so gen Z the over index on all of these when compared against the 25 plus population and Tick Tock presents a unique opportunity in my opinion considering it's grown tremendously in the last two years so the fertile ground compared to others and there's also Facebook so 43 ever use the platform under indexing compared to the 25 plus population so another way to look at this is by by looking at which they reported listening or using most often Instagram's the winner here with a quarter of gen Z saying they use the brand the most uh followed by a close by a close three-way tie between Facebook Tick Tock and Snapchat by now every brand knows that social media is an essential part of strategy so uh if you do have a presence on social what do you what do you post that will be seen by and Amplified by this younger generation social media is all about sharing we thought it would be good to understand what gen Z chooses to share with each other what are the types of things that speak to them so much that they're compelled to share it with one another What feelings are drivers behind the sharing so we gave our panel of gen ziers another assignment we asked them to give us five examples of things they would share with their friends again this could be anything images that they have themselves links tick tocks whatever and then we once again grouped these responses and looked for themes so let's take a look at these themes that we found first is pretty obvious personal photos or experiences someone went to Chicago they sent a photo um or went for a walk even text messages it's just a way that people are sharing next is memes to express emotions we saw a lot of memes throughout this um this study um and I could have just said memes but instead we labeled this memes to express emotions because um that's what they were doing with memes that's when um like they were communicating with memes using it sort of as a language so instead of saying I'm feeling down you're you know sharing an image that conveys that you're feeling down um and um you know so you're really learning you know a lot from from it from an image although I did have to um ask Gabe what the SpongeBob one meant I wasn't sure what that was and that's just a way to mock people so you know if you get a text message saying memes to express emotions you can mock them back with the SpongeBob Meme here and say memes to express emotions you know I'll send that one to you later um what else did we get um people are sharing music we talked about how important music is to this generation um they love their Spotify playlists or any playlists they share YouTube links um shopping came up again in this section before we talked about shopping as a part of their identity um can flip to the next one Gabe do we have shopping a little delayed here there we go I panic for a minute I thought you were Frozen um so um they were they have you know sending links to things that they want to buy to their friends or they have Amazon Wish lists so we saw a bunch of that from some of our participants we also got recipes again that came up as something that they share again Tick Tock recipes um you know before we talked about video games and how video games were sort of important to people's identity here you know it's an another way to communicate with people just as memes as a way to express your emotions people are you know using video game references and conversations it's part of their language they're sending things about sports um news about sports or interesting things that happened um and then um social media trends now this was really interesting I spent two weeks talking to people um you know and I would click on every image they sent me and watch the video with them so for about two weeks I was like watching Tick Tock for my job um which was new I was learning all types of things I think Gabe we have to click on this Tick Tock video let's do it Gabe mentioned tortilla slaps in our intro earlier today and this is what it is they're holding in water um the rock paper scissors that that looked like it hurt um so anyway he was on concussion protocol after that one they're sharing they're sharing funny trends that are on on social media but they're also just you know recommending different accounts hey I watch this person I really like them I think you'd enjoy them too um of course we heard in some of these videos how um interested in the world they are how important um you know different issues are um so they're they're sharing their their thoughts political beliefs um and then sort of to balance all of that out um they're also sharing humor um and this might be my favorite page here coming up um uh I mean Drake may maybe could have been its own slide that we got a lot of um Drake imagery for some reason um but we're getting a lot of humor um it's just you know something that you want to share with your friends um my my favorite image is um how to find Kentucky on a map because it's funny and useful um and now I know um and then finally the last theme of what gen Z sharing with each other um animals again it comes up again um you know and I think it it plays back too it you know it it's it makes you feel good um it makes other people feel good too in terms of having a connection so Gabe let's say you were having a bad day I'm gonna send you that duck video let's hit play on that duck video it'll make you feel better I promise be wondering if yours to feel better too I have died every day waiting for you darling and when I watched this video I thought with you know with this participant I thought I have the greatest job in the world Duck videos yes um but anyway these videos that we saw there these items that we saw um they're a great starting point for you if you are a content creator I'm sure you already have content that fits into any one of these categories that we've identified that gen Z likes to share with each other but how do you know if what you are sharing will resonate with them or if you're sharing things that will hurt you in the eyes of gen z um for that I thought um to finish up here um I'd embarrass myself a little bit more with one last activity um inspired by my 10 year old daughter um who often tells me that things are cringe or that I myself am cringe um and I know there's not much I can do to be cooler in the eyes of my daughter but I was interested in understanding the quality that makes something cringe how does one avoid being cringe um so we decided to ask the experts uh please join us in watching this last video foreign so I want to play a game that I'm calling cool or cringe I'm gonna list something you tell me if that item is cool or cringe okay the first thing is stranger things cool Marvel selfies Elon Musk thrift shops oh that's cool 80s music cool your parents Facebook cringe memes oh podcasts cringe radio cool radio super cool radio millennials Millennials are cringe yeah that's heartbreaking it hurts it's heartbreaking now we compiled all all the responses from these interviews and came up with a cool or cringe score keep in mind this is just based off of 12 interviews that we conducted so it's not considered gospel but this activity does point us in the right direction um here are all the things that we asked about the items at the top of the list were the coolest with no or few cringe responses stranger things and tattoos are firmly in the cool category then they're those things in the middle that were neutral either having as many cool as cringe responses such as influencers and school from home then the items at the bottom of the list were the most cringe-worthy including nfts and Tick Tock dances now we could do this exercise in three months and perhaps all of these items would change Trends after all do come and go but here's the big Takeaway on the slide most of the things here are cool the general feedback was it might not be my thing but if it's yours and it makes you happy then cool um someone pointed out as long as it's not hurting anyone then cool um this speaks to how open-minded this generation is they're not quick to label things they're not quick to dismiss something unless they sense that it's harmful or fake and perhaps because they are so open-minded they don't respond well to someone who is not being their authentic self if they sense you are being something or someone you are not you're more likely to fall into that cringe category the millennial thing though Gabe I can't explain it I think we're great um but gen Z thinks I have to agree um so we did start this uh webinar with the goal to answer these three questions how did gen see how did gen Z see themselves how do they consume media and what do they share with their peers and what did we learn Gabe well first we learned that they are diverse and open-minded this ethnically diverse group understands there will be people with different tastes cultures and Norms which has naturally LED them to be more accepting and open-minded of course and you know we know that they consume digital media unless influenced by their older Generations like Mom Dad grandparents or the environment having a car without access to Bluetooth or aux cable and finally we learned that they have a lot on their minds they are constantly inundated with messaging on social media and these past three years with covid and culture wars has been a lot for people of all generations but um now imagine this happening to a person who is still trying to figure out who they are and what they like and what they don't like what makes them happy what makes them unhappy gen Z is still forming that world view in a time where the world is so rapidly changing so what can you do for Gen Z well if you are producing any type of content for Gen Z you can provide context around the important issues and events in their lives make sure the content that can help gen Z understand the world is available to them in their own world are your stories also Instagram stories if you produce audio content are you also on Tick Tock is your content accessible on Smart speakers and other emerging digital devices or platforms is it accessible in a way that makes it easy for them to share with each other uh second you can find the right meme that expresses the feeling that you wish to communicate I'm sure that memes it can be funny but as Megan said they're also used to express emotion it is a totally different language and you know dare we say a skill um are you speaking their language absolutely it's such a learned skill I'm still learning um and I you know lean on other people uh to to help me with that so you need to have someone on your team if you don't understand it you need someone on your team who understands it um okay next is be one of the places they can go to relax the fact that some people in our study used sleep or rest as a way to describe themselves speaks volumes and there's something to tap into here um can your content help them recharge or rest and um if it does are you presenting it to them in that way another um way to connect with Gen Z and what you can do for Gen Z is to consider music as a Gateway if you specialize in non-music content consider incorporating ways to talk about music if you double down on music initiatives and you might just be able to appeal to these open-minded and diverse listeners that spend about 40 minutes more uh than older Generations listening to music every day and finally what's the last one Gabe and the last one is to not try not to be cringe you know be authentic um I realize that's easier said than done but the good news is that most gen zeers say as long as you're not hurting someone then you're you're pretty cool and there's one additional layer here to trying not to be cringe it's being authentically you you can't be a boomer pretending to be a gen Z but you can have an authentic interest in what gen zairs find appealing and you can recruit and partner with Gen Z voices to have authentic and appealing content so Megan and I hope that you can put some of these takeaways to good use use we'd love to hear your thoughts on how you successfully connected with Gen Z in the past or how you plan to do it in the future um so please reach out to us let us know at info edisonresearch.com info edisonresearch.com