Keeping up with Gen Z through Video Marketing

Over the past decade, social media has developed at a phenomenal rate – giving us access to all the information and entertainment we could ever need at our fingertips. And with the constant rise of short-form video content, being churned out by platforms like TikTok and Instagram reels, it’s no wonder Gen Z has the shortest attention span ever when it comes to consuming information.

Gen-Zers are highly likely to click off of a post if it hasn’t piqued their interest immediately. According to the stats, on average, someone born into this generation can lose interest in a post within the first 8 seconds of interacting with it, which is a decline from the average of 12 seconds with Millenials. That’s a significant drop off when you view it as attention spans dropping by a third. And while younger audiences don’t expect high production, conceptual content all the time, they do want fresh, fun content that makes an impact every day. 

Although challenging, Gen Z is a really marketable generation, and it’s important that businesses consider them when deciding on their marketing strategy. To stand a chance at obtaining the attention of this social media savvy generation, marketers need to up the speed at which they deliver their core message and – most importantly – make that message relatable.

Video is arguably the most powerful marketing tool for reaching current online audiences. Going back to the importance of relatable content, its ability to quickly connect with people and impact their emotions is unmatched by image and text led advertising because of how genuine it is. It’s the best way to get your tone of voice and personality across so customers can understand your brand better, and become intrigued to find out more.

Whether it’s a compelling story being told through an interview, or just a fun concept of a video that plays on current trends, within seconds it can have someone laughing or crying, and hopefully sharing it far and wide to their connections, which will boost your brand visibility and drive more traffic to your sites.

But how do you go about creating engaging content for the elusive Gen Z? Well, here are our top tips:

Kick your video off with a bang
To obtain your audience's interest in the first place you need to make your video exciting from the get-go. Start with a punchy opening line, use bold animated graphics, or create a suspenseful hook to make the viewer want to stay and find out more. Remember, with the short attention span of audiences using social media, the first 8 seconds of a video will determine whether they stick around for the rest or not – so it needs to be good and enticing.

Short and sweet
Think 60 seconds and under when creating your videos. Online consumers have said that short-form content is 2.5x more engaging than long form, and these days there isn’t much place for long-form videos on social media anyway. The only platform that it can really thrive on is YouTube, and even here we’ve seen the switch to YouTube shorts, which mirrors TikTok’s main qualities.

Get the format right
Social media works best with certain aspect ratios, like 9x16, which is basically any video content you can think of which fills your whole smartphone screen. Or 1x1, which is the classic square format Instagram is known for on its main feed. It’s important to create mobile friendly video content on social media, so you will need to think ahead and film and edit videos to suit whichever platform you intend to use to reach your audience. 

Create an eye-catching thumbnail.
The thumbnail for a video is often the first thing that someone visiting your page will see, and it will play a big part in making that initial click onto the video. So don’t let the thumbnail that appears on your main feed be a random frame that’s been selected from the video you’re posting. Instead, design a graphic with bold text and use an image that gives the viewer insight into what they are about to watch.

Work with us
OK, that’s our best tip. We’re well versed in creating compelling content for clients – especially for social – are used to targeting different demographics. So if you want help in pulling together a plan to get your brand engaging with Gen Z, get in touch.