Before the 1960s, young people were considered an undesirable marketing audience and were largely ignored. However, with the rise of the Baby Boomer generation, marketers were forced to rethink their approach. Since then, marketers have been trying to reach a revolving door of youth generations, from Gen X to Millennials to Zoomers and now Gen Alpha. Reaching young people and penetrating trend culture has become a consistent hurdle.
As Casey Lewis, a social media consultant and author of the After School newsletter, notes, “Any brand not actively trying to reach Gen Z and Gen Alpha is doing themselves a disservice. Even if you don’t care to be in the zeitgeist, they are our future consumers, so you need to have them in mind – even if you’re not trying to reach them today.”
For decades, marketers have struggled to crack the code on how to effectively reach young people without seeming insincere or forced. The rise of social media has only added to the complexity, with different platforms and formats offering distinct opportunities and challenges.
In this guide, we’ll explore how Gen Z wants brands to show up on social media and what’s required to market to them in the right way.
Gen Z has grown up with social media and the internet, and it’s woven into their daily lives. When we asked Lewis how she would describe the way Gen Z uses social media, she replied, “A better question is how don’t they use social? They use it for everything – from customer service to commerce, discovery to community.”
Data backs this up. According to the Q1 2024 Sprout Pulse Survey, Gen Z is most likely to use social media to discover new products, stay up-to-date with news, and reach out to brands with customer care needs.
Let’s break down which platforms occupy most of their time online and the types of content they engage with.
Which platforms does Gen Z use and why?
According to the 2025 Sprout Social Index, 89% of Gen Z social media users are on Instagram, 84% are on YouTube, and 82% are on TikTok, making these platforms the most popular for Zoomers. They’re most likely to use both channels for entertainment and connecting with friends and family.
Digging deeper into how they use certain platforms, Gen Z consumers report that TikTok is their favorite channel for product discovery, closely followed by Instagram, according to the 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report. The same research found that they’re also most likely to use TikTok and Instagram for staying up-to-date on news and Instagram for customer care.
What brand content does Gen Z engage with?
On their top two most-used channels, Instagram and YouTube, Gen Z is most likely to engage with brand posts that include video or static images, per the 2024 Social Media Content Strategy Report. On YouTube, they’re looking for long-form content (over 60 seconds) and brand-influencer collaborations.
Lewis suggests that all these channels and formats could be interconnected. “We all have short attention spans, along with our preference for short-form video. But it’s interesting to see Gen Z podcasters uploading one to two hour-long episodes, then slicing and dicing, and uploading videos across short-form platforms.”
While Gen Z ultimately consumes all content on most platforms, the key is understanding the nuance and culture of each platform. That doesn’t mean completely recreating posts from scratch and overtasking your team’s bandwidth. It means charting multiple points of distribution and connection, and prioritizing the platforms that matter most to this generation.
Regardless of format, the characteristics Gen Z cares about most in brand content are authenticity, entertainment, and reliability, according to Index data. They’re also most likely to favor brands that prioritize direct engagement with their audiences – whether it’s resharing posts, responding to questions, or jumping into the comments section. The bottom line? What you publish matters, but for younger generations, how you interact is just as important.
As we delve into the latest trends, we’ll explore what it takes to market to Gen Z and build a lasting connection with this generation.
Brands Gen Z Flocks To on Social
As we’ve established, Gen Z is a cynical generation. Overly promotional tactics, forced authenticity, and jumping on trends doesn’t win their favor.
Here are four brands that have mastered the art of Gen Z marketing and found a way to break through in a way that feels true to their image.
Marc Jacobs
Luxury brand Marc Jacobs is an unexpected Gen Z darling. The fashion brand is well-known for including Gen Z, TikTok-famous comedians and influencers in its content. But somehow, these personalities all capture the essence of the brand.
Topicals
Skincare brand Topicals has mastered the art of brand trips and influencer marketing. Like their recent campaign #FadedFamilyVacation proves, the brand is in lockstep with their Gen Z audience and deeply understands their nuances.
Puresport
Puresport, a UK-based wellness and fitness brand specializing in natural supplements, was founded in 2019 but has quickly earned a Gen Z fandom. The hype is due in large part to the brand’s social presence.
ServiceNow
Software company ServiceNow isn’t your typical Gen Z marketing inspiration. But the brand exemplifies a well-known Gen Z trait: subverting expectations in content, like in the video where they literally interpreted cringy corporate jargon like “low-hanging fruit” and “ducks in a row.”
Reaching Gen Z is crucial for long-term brand health
Each new generation brings its own set of challenges. Reaching Gen Z requires brands to rethink how they engage.
Brands who successfully reach Gen Z understand the generation’s unique values, preferences, and nuanced behavior in the social media ecosystem. From platform choice to content style, Zoomers are looking for brands that facilitate genuine, community-driven interaction.
For social marketers, that doesn’t mean recreating every trend, but instead forging a distinct identity across platforms. That is the key to building trust and loyalty.
Looking for more insight into how each generation wants to engage with brands on social? Download The 2025 Sprout Social Index.
