Gen Z 🤣
Because we track patterns in culture, we recognized — and coined — the emerging generation you now know as Gen Z.
Make your organization Gen Z ready
Gen Z 🤣
Because we track patterns in culture, we recognized — and coined — the emerging generation you now know as Gen Z.
Make your organization Gen Z ready
Gen Z Complexities: You've only heard half the story.
The one certainty today is uncertainty. Over two years into a global pandemic, along with rocketing inflation, climate disasters, and now, Russia’s war on Ukraine, Gen Z is growing up and navigating a complex and uncertain world with the rest of us — but they’re handling it all in surprising ways. Gen Z is rethinking foundational elements of day-to-day life, from building decentralized networks of emotional support to advocating for greater responsibility from brands to questioning the role they want work, money and relationships to play in their lives.
Building on our “Gen Z 2025” report, a team of experts from sparks & honey’s Youth Culture Practice utilized our always-on cultural intelligence platform Q™ to challenge the common assumptions of the Gen Z narrative. They reveal contradictions and nuanced behaviors driving Gen Z’s future, as well as the attitudes of your organization’s rising consumers, employees and the leaders of tomorrow.
Who is Gen Z?
Millennials have been described as the most analyzed generation, but we shifted the spotlight to Gen Z.
Born in 1997 and after, Gen Z know the world could change in an instant. They’re saving and planning for a paycheck later. Witnessing their millennial siblings flail, Gen Z have resolved to do things differently. Intrigued and challenged, they’re constantly searching for ways to hack life and work. Resourceful, creative, humble — and always connected — Gen Z possess the inner engines of a startup. With $44B in buying power, they are the financial influencers of the future. And if it doesn’t work, Gen Z will want to fix it.
We’ve helped some of the biggest brands in the world be relevant for Gen Z.
Here are some of the questions they are asking us:
How can I be relevant to my next generation of Gen Z consumers?
Why does pragmatic purpose matter so much to Gen Z?
What does inspiration mean for Gen Z?
What does “being woke” matter to Gen Z and their food?
What does privacy mean for Gen Z?
Our research has put Gen Z on the cultural map.
We were there in the beginning, and we’re still here today.
Download our groundbreaking Gen Z 2025: The Final Generation report here.
In 2014, our work on Gen Z introduced the world to this new generation with Meet Generation Z: Forget Everything You Learned About Millennials.
In 2015, we delved deeper into the behaviors and attitudes of Gen Z with our groundbreaking Culture Forecast report, Gen Z 2025: The Final Generation, covered in The New York Times in Move Over Millennials, Here Comes Generation Z, and many media since. Our Gen Z research has shaped influential headlines, books, conferences and keynotes, including those at NFL and RedBull, among others.
We’ve helped industries, tastemakers and organizations understand and engage Gen Z ever since, and we continue on that journey at sparks & honey every day. From our Gen Z collaborators to our Advisory Board and global network of scouts, our eyes and ears are on the ground with Gen Z.
Gen Z in their own words
Primary research from our groundbreaking Gen Z 2025 report, featuring interviews with Gen Zers around the world.
Special Edition: Gen Z Culture Briefing
We gathered a panel of lively Gen Zers and industry experts to discuss everything from diversity to politics and privacy in the age of social media with this budding generation. Livestreamed on Facebook, this Special Edition: Gen Z briefing has reached some 36,000 curious minds to date.
Some expert Gen Z voices from the Gen Z Culture Briefing
Nim De Swardt, Chief Next Generation Officer at Bacardi
Petra Viola, then age 10
Students from the Brotherhood Sister Sol
Jasper Nelson, then age 17
George Nguyen, Partner at Untapped Ventures
Gen Z May Surprise You
Millennials have been described as the most analyzed generation, but our research over the last six years shifted the spotlight to Gen Z. Building on that research, we hosted a special culture briefing live-streamed on Facebook. Special guests of all ages, from Gen Z to industry leaders, convened to discuss topics including politics, diversity, how the constantly connected keep some semblance of privacy in the age of social media, and what makes a brand relevant to Gen Z.
Read the full story here on Medium.
Curious? Tap into further Gen Z resources informed by our work:
Gen Z @Work by David Skillman and Jonah Skillman, featuring s&h
Calling All Tweens: Brands Begin Their Push For Generation Z - Forbes
Gen Z Is Primed To Save The world - The Atlantic
How Gen-Z is Redefining the Way Brands Approach Tech - Huffington Post
Preparing for Generation Z - Leading Edge
We thought Gen X was a bunch of slackers. Now they're the suits - Washington Post
Why Gen Z Spends More Money on Food Than Fashion - MarketWatch
The Future of Entertainment - Rolling Stone
Gen Z by the numbers
Gen Z’s world view is we-focused, not me-focused
Alarmed about climate change, they’re taking political action where grownups are not
60% of teens say they want their work to have an impact on the world
58% of teens say parents are their best friends
Drawn to perpetual reinvention, Gen Z are creating nonlinear paths of education and work
70% of teens are working entrepreneurial or freelance jobs
63% are worried about the future
60% expect to have multiple careers by the time they’re 30
60% of teens say they want their work to have an impact on the world
Privacy matters: Gen Z are intent on keeping their lives, especially online, sacred — and secret
87% say that keeping their posts private is more important than likes and shares
57% say they have not posted something online due to privacy concerns
Only 12% of teens share love or relationship information online