Made For Each Other: Gen Z & Video

Video is everywhere.With brands clamouring to learn more about what makes the real digital natives aka Gen Z-ers tick (move over millennials!), it looks like the medium of video has gotten more powerful than ever. According to a study done by Hubspot, 55% of people pay close attention when consuming videos — more than all other types of content. It makes sense. If a picture is worth a thousand words, the worth of a moving image must be compellingly larger.

In China, the sheer numbers and free-spending nature of Gen Z-ers from the affluent strata make connecting with this market imperative for all brands. (Source: Agility) From the same report, Gen Z-ers in China feel free, empowered and look at their mobile phones as a tool that allows them to do things more efficiently in order to engage more with life.

This is exactly what video marketing, when done right, achieves.

Sure, text and audio based information consumption still have the slice of the pie. Among all contents formats, video reigns supreme (especially in the mobile format) when it comes to the most efficient and effective driver to propel growth.

It’s been said that people decide what to eat with their eyes, and this goes for what they decide to buy, watch and more. And just like animals, if what we like moves, we are likely to go in for the chase.

While stimuli seems to be the name of the game with brands and media platforms coming out with numerous buzzy, bite-sized informational videos, the power of video does not exist without great story-telling. Gen-Zers (and prior generations) demand that brands take care of the message that they deliver. As stated by the research done by Agility, Gen-Zers in China expect brands “to have meaning to them personally, not just be expensive or high-quality, and they do not blindly follow trends.”

With that nugget in mind, there has been no better time for brands to focus on accommodating a community inclusive, video-forward and content-anchored growth strategy.

Outside of China, according to Wirebuzz, viewers retain 95% of a message when watched in a video compared to the 10% when read on text. This is another testament to how video marketing gives brands a vessel to touch people through a medium that allows for expansive creative manipulation without sacrificing authentic story telling.

It is an exciting time to be able to wield new media, push it beyond known boundaries and use it to communicate with each other in a mega-amplified, stimulating manner. With everyone sharing, downloading, liking, reposting, forwarding, streaming videos across multiple smart devices, we are definitely in an age of content - video content.

About the author

Anita Vachani is a creative problem solver with 9 years of experience at Microsoft driving global business transformation producing business results. In the ever-changing market of extreme uncertainty, she is driven to deliver what is best for the business and delight our customers.