How do gen Zers want the marketing industry to change?

Generational thinking is inevitably, to some extent, an exercise in oversimplification. The constituents of each generation are as varied as all that came before, so it’s inevitable that we feel unfairly reduced by declarations that our generation has shared characteristics.

But we can’t help it. For a long time, it was millennials’ supposed obsession with avocado on toast preventing them from buying houses. More recently, it’s been gen Z’s turn: they have hard lines in the sand around representation and sustainability, it’s said; they hate hard work; and have had their attention spans melted by TikTok.

To be clear, those are all oversimplifications, and mostly untrue. In an effort to let (some) gen Z-ers speak for themselves, we convened The Drum Network’s semi-regular panel of gen Z new entrants into the marketing industry to find out what they actually care about in 2024.

Chelsea Mtada, creative strategist, Amplify: “I would like to see more marginalized communities in C-suite and director roles. Remember the black square pandemic, when everybody was hashtagging Black Lives Matter and saying ‘we’re supporting marginalized communities’? And when June comes around, now every brand is waving the pride flag. There’s a lot of performance in corporate spaces when it comes to how they are representing and championing marginalized communities. It’s discouraging to look at all the interns from black, queer, or Asian communities, then look at the leaders and directors, where that diversity is not the case. And of course those C-suite executives are the real decision-makers; they’re the wall behind which is real change. The more we can women, queer people, and people of color in those roles, the better. Otherwise, for young marketeers on the outside looking in, it can feel like there's no room for you.”

To read the full article, visit The Drum.