Gripping Gen Z’s Attention in Online Advertising: What Works for the New Generations?

Labeling generations and generalizing them has become one of the most controversial topics of recent years. We agree that generalizing a whole age group may not be healthy in many cases, but for the marketing industry studies on generation behaviors are gold. Therefore, we are going to be sharing lots of useful insights into the behaviors of the younger generations and, in this article, we are going to be focusing on the best ways to grab the attention of Gen Z through online ads.

Generation Z, gen z, Homelanders, Homeland Generation, Zoomers, New Silent Generation. Two young Happy girls friends having fun in the summer park.

First Rule: Make Them Feel Unique

Gen Z was born into the online world. Thus, they are fully aware of the ways ads are trying to make them take action. So, finding the idea that’s going to trick the most people is not as desirable as it used to be. Instead, the key is making your target audience feel included. When it comes to Gen Z, personalized and interactive ads are the answer. According to a study by MarketingDive, Gen Z prefer ads that they come across that are related with their search histories and online behaviors.1 In addition, to increase interaction, they need to be included in the process. Considering TV and movies, music, and mobile games are the top three interests of Gen Z, you cam build the perfect online ad campaign for the young users, and speaking from experience, we think playable ads are the key to their hearts.2

Gaming is the Key to Gen Z’s Heart

Studies show that every new generation is more and more interested in gaming, and in Generation Z’s case, they were born into a world where mobile gaming was already a norm. According to AdColony’s report on the effect of Gen Z in the digital world, the generation is 36% more interested in gaming than the global average. Compared to millennials, Gen Z is 22% more interested. Playable ads are already up to seven times more effective in terms of conversion than video ads3, and looking at the online behaviors of Gen Z, it is safe to say that these numbers are only going to rise in favor of interactive ads. The best part is that playable ads are not exclusive to gaming brands; they are for everyone. 

How Non-Gaming Companies Can Take Advantage of Playable Ads?

Interactive ads, or playable ads if you will, have been generally used for promoting mobile games. However, in the past couple of years, it has become the most popular type of advertisement for marketers from every industry. Following the gaming industry, mobile applications gave playables a shot and saw an incredible result. Today, you can find a playable ad for any branch of business. Gamification works in two main ways for non gaming companies; ads as mini games and mini app demos that let potential users try a highlighted feature of the app within the ad. Here at Playable Factory, we find the best idea to suit your product and design a mini-game from scratch, whether it is for a gaming brand or not. Our playables have already broken records in terms of ad performance. To get a hint of what we can do for your next successful online marketing campaign, you can check out our case studies.

Sources
  1. Study: Gen Z opts for personalized, interactive content over privacy | Marketing Dive
  2. Gen Z Effects In Today’s Digital World – AdColony
  3. Mnectar gathers momentum for ‘playable ads’ | VentureBeat