The opportunities for targeting Gen Z align to where we see retail marketing headed: experience and immersion. With more than 77 percent of Gen Z identifying as creators, they will seek out brands that give them an opportunity to create within their experience. Customization is an easy and natural fit. The move for retail spaces to be community hubs is also primed to embrace and facilitate this customer experience.

Big retail brands, particularly apparel sellers, have traditionally operated with a stronghold on brand identity and messaging. To tap into the marketing power of UGC (and influencer marketing), brands are going to have to become comfortable giving the creative reins to their partners — for better or worse. As to the second question, Gen Z may have more creative prowess in the digital world, but you’ve gotta wonder about their fine motor skills! And while they’re getting creative inspiration from social media, friends, and personal experience, do they ever turn to great creative thinkers: writers, artists, filmmakers, etc.? It’s unclear whether the survey failed to account for this or whether they’re actually not doing it! Thoughts?

Creativity is subjective. Do I think Gen Z is more creative because of social media apps? Maybe, but only because it’s available to them. They were born in a time with instant access to smartphones; this gave them a digital advantage over older generations.

Much of our business is done in the creative industries. Crafts – crafters, creators, makers, artists, sewists, etc. – is a $36 billion dollar industry. According to the Association For Creative Industries (AFCI), Millennials ages 18-34 are the largest percentage of crafters. And like most retail, 90 percent of craft purchases are made in brick and mortar stores.

Many Millennial crafters are self-taught, having the opportunity to learn new crafts via the Internet and YouTube. Gen Z benefits here as well as more and more brands, retailers, and designers have amped up digital learning. The question is, how will Gen Z’s love for adding filters to photos translate into future creativity? And what will be available to Generation Alpha that will surpass Gen Z’s apps to stimulate creativity?

Encouraging Gen Z to create content using brands and sharing their creations would be a reasonable choice. However, it is risky for brands and threatening to agencies. By encouraging Gen Z members to create content the brand is no longer in control of the message. By encouraging members of Gen Z to make creative materials, what is the role of agencies? In spite of the issues, this is a road to pursue since traditional creative materials and outlets have little impact on members of Gen Z. How to encourage the creativity and engage members of Gen Z while managing the brand message and integrating agencies is a new challenge.

First of all, every generation believes it is the most creative generation evolution has managed to produce. It’s called generational hubris. What has changed with Gen Z are the tools, although in all fairness I bet there are plenty of Millennials, Gen Xers, and even some Boomers that use Photoshop (invented before the first Gen Zer was born, after all) with the same flair. (For scary examples supporting this hypothesis see all the grandparents on Facebook that used that creepy Russian aging app.) So the real difference is that Gen Z has been raised in an era when altering/interacting with digital brand content is as The Monkees once sang, “more or less a given thing.” I’m not so sure marketers have an “opportunity and challenge” here as much as an obligation. If you want to talk to consumers you have to contact them where they live and employ words, images, and messages that resonate with them. Again, not really a new idea. Oh, one more thought: my best is that the Alphas, or whatever marketers… Read more »

Well, here’s the cool thing about this: at least they realize that they CAN be creative! I believe that everyone is creative in some way, but most have their creative sensibilities squashed early on by “reality” lessons (“how you going to make money at that? huh?”). So, you gotta give it to Z. Keep it up. And YES, you are creative. Maybe not the “most” creative, but who’s counting and most of all, who cares?

Can Gen Z build a tree house? Its own physical toys? Do they know what an erector set is? Creativity is actually relative to the times in which we live. I would more compare Gen Z to the great composers of the 18th and 19th century. They were VERY creative, just 300-200 years ago!

Younger people, in general are truly driving marketing across industries — in case you haven’t noticed. Online creative is far more visually powerful than offline imagery, and Gen Zs are masters at digital marketing (from birth) whether they’re actually employed in the trade or just doing it for personal entertainment. I believe marketing will continue to be driven by the young as technology evolves even further.

I don’t believe this offers a tremendous opportunity — let’s not get carried away with self perception of creativity. After all, the mere word “creative” can mean far too many things. And my experience is that many executives project their own hope for creativity onto a word like this and end up not really hearing what is being said.

In part, most true creativity comes offline. So any Gen Z perception of creativity happens via narrowly restricted tools — making it not really “creativity.”

All this said, it does make sense to pay a bit of attention for advertising and merchandising purposes. There are opportunities to work with this self perception to make your retail brand stand out.

I admit it. I’ve read this piece several times and I don’t get the point. “Gen Zers use their phone at least once a day?” Who doesn’t? If indeed 77 percent of Gen Zs express their creativity the old fashioned way – offline – why all the discussion and marketing angst about digital tools? Having digital “tools” for creativity does not automatically lead to actual creativity any more than having a piano in the house means you can actually play it. The tools are NOT creative, only the human mind is and it’s been in play since the beginning of time. Show me actual creativity OFFLINE and I’ll be impressed. Frankly, it may well be that all these digital tools diminish creativity and the capacity to think for oneself. Heck, we don’t have to learn math anymore, there’s an app for that. Don’t go through the stress of learning a new language, another app that will translate your speech effortlessly. Perhaps 3-D printing will replace a modern day Michelangelo so no more original Davids. Breathtaking… Read more »