Connect with Gen Z [part 2]
Part 1 outlined Gen Z, focusing on their lifestyle, sports, social, and content habits. In Part 2, I look at how brands can connect with this crucial generation using three main areas:
Creating Active Content.
Building a Collaborative Media House.
Developing a brand that aligns with Gen Z's values.
As challenging as this is, it presents an excellent opportunity for a team to break through and become Gen Z's team. To rise above the clutter and build a long-lasting bond with the next generation of fans. To become the first sports and entertainment organization to develop a lifestyle brand that resonates with Gen Z. To become a local, national, and international brand. To do this, we have to rethink our brand and marketing strategy.
Rethink Marketing and Develop Active Content
Laidback, passive content is dead in Gen Z's world and will soon be finished in the sports world. Gen Z wants to participate and become part of the action. This desire drives the need for Active Content: content and a structured system to encourage participation. It goes far beyond typical UGC; it's much more profound.
Active content gives control to fans who are not on your marketing team—letting them take video, audio, or photography themselves and allowing them to create. It can also include giving them access to in-house video or imagery, letting them tweak it into a new format, and allowing these fans to create something new. This form of outsourced creativity relinquishes control of the creative process. And this is a good thing. It opens the boundaries to new ideas and eliminates groupthink. It opens up the door to entrepreneurship, which Gen Z wants.
This new focus leads to the most significant change sports teams must undertake, collaborating with Gen Z to rethink our marketing. To become part of Gen Z's lifestyle and a symbol of our city's youth by positioning the team as one that aligns with the same core beliefs and values. Then, create a youth ecosystem to foster fan community engagement and include Fans in the marketing team. Active Content powers this model.
A New, Collaborative Studio
In a separate post, I discussed the need to build an internal Studio, and it's well-documented that content - specifically video - is changing the fan experience and how we market. Including fans in marketing is simply another layer in the mix.
This content Explosion, led by Video and Mobile, is the norm for Gen Z. Video is their medium, and mobile is their device. But we don't create content for the sake of creating; we need a strategy behind it (yes, as I type this, it sounds ridiculous, but I'm surprised how many people don't have a content strategy). At a high level, there are three key content types that all sports teams should execute simultaneously across multiple platforms.
The first is branded content that delivers an emotional connection with the fan. Use 30- to 90-second clips and build on the emotion for a video. Even consider a 1:20 to kick off the season. Here, there is less of a focus on the game and more of a focus on the lifestyle of the brand. Connect with the passion and desire of Gen Z to inspire, motivate, and engage. Release a new cut every month. For inspiration, think of Nike or Apple. They rarely talk about a shoe or product but relay their beliefs.
Next is best classified as Seasonal Storytelling. It's the Rollercoaster Ride from the beginning of the season to the end. This content is part branding, part storytelling, and is long-form (20 - 30 minutes). This content is sports-focused and takes the fan through the ups and downs of the season.
Follow the games, challenges, and successes - but also incorporate player stories that cover on- and off-the-court activities. Get to know the players authentically. Each season follows a story arc; this is the content that takes us through it. From the tip-off to the quadruple bounce, last second, game seven, buzzer-beater to send the 76ers home - a dagger in my heart still hurts. Develop this content weekly.
Finally, what everyone does is the sports highlights—delivering the sizzle from the game, practice, or interview. However, since every team and league does highlights, we need to find new and unique ways (Different angles, illustration, design, motion graphics, etc) to show the action. Continuously try and test new creative formats. The snippets of content (8 to 15 seconds) are short and to the point and are perfect for producing both in-house and through outsourcing to Gen Z content creators. This content is daily.
These three types are high-level outlines, but we can execute each in many different ways, all with Gen Z participation. The branded content may require a little more oversight to ensure everything is on brand, but each type has a model.
Align with Gen Z’s Values
Only some teams are aligned with Gen Z and their values (as of this writing). The industry's need for alignment is an opportunity to be one of the first sports teams to position itself to lead a youth movement. Powered by Gen Z's ideology of inclusion, equality, and the desire to make/achieve something great, our team should inspire, engage, and develop an ongoing, two-way conversation focused on emotional connections. This transformation will position our team as the premier partner to your city's youth cultural champion.
The process includes the development of a messaging strategy that is authentic and resonates with each segment to foster dialog. Uncover the interests of your Gen Z fans (or potential fans) and align with their thinking. Each unique segment will require a slightly different and targeted message.
A few examples:
Sports Participants: Connect with fans who play the game. Focus on the game, competition, determination, playing the game, and entrepreneurship.
Gamers: Connect with fans who participate in the gaming industry. Being part of a sports gaming community, competition, drive, and the overall gamer community.
Creators: Connect with the designers, musicians, illustrators, filmmakers, copywriters, and motion designers. Your message should be about them using their creativity and turning their art into a career, becoming independent of a traditional job, and expressing themselves.
Within these segments, weave in messaging that resonates with Gen Z. Develop opportunities to better the world, openness, and doing good. If you say these things, you must follow through. If you will save the planet, you better show how you are helping with climate change.
One Final Thought
The model is simple: develop a new content ecosystem to develop active content, encourage collaboration, and align your brand with Gen Z's beliefs. The hard part is the execution. For this, every team must hire a group of Gen Z associates and collaborate with them to develop a detailed plan.
No one understands Gen Z better than Gen Z.
