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HELLO EVERYONE! I am so thrilled to be back and walking you through part TWO of the brands that GEN-Z is absolutely LOVING right now.
These brands are totally doing it right when it comes to best practives for marketing to GEN-Z successfully.
They’re smart, they’re silly, they’re fun, they’re adaptable… they’ve got all the right stuff and I’m here to help YOU get (and use) that stuff too.
First up on our list? Liquid Death.
I’m sorry-- liquid what?
You heard me. Liquid DEATH. Doesn’t that sound metal af?
But here’s the kicker… it’s water. Just wayyyyyy cooler sounding.
You know what? I was a little scared of Liquid Death at first, I’m not gonna lie. But they have this ad that goes “Don’t Be Scared. It’s Just Water.” -- and I was like “okay FINE.”
But I still hadn’t tried it.
And THEN. Literally 2 nights ago. I was dying of thirst after seeing Hozier in concert (you know the vibes). Every water stand was closed and, all at once, every single person who had been at the concert started to cascade out of the amphitheater. I had to act fast. I had to find water before all of these other people did so I could sprint to my car and go home before the post-concert traffic got me.
And who was there to save me?
A very nice food truck owner with a can of none other than… Liquid Death.
Liquid Death saved my life that night.
And it’ll probably do the same for you one day.
Metal af is right.
They’re also hilarious and repost their hate comments on Instagram! GEN-Z marketing win!
Next up, Spotify.
Spotify’s advertising is AMAZING. I love it so much.
They’re funny, they’re relatable, they’re as excited about the new Taylor Swift album as I am…
I could talk about this brand (and Taylor Swift, honestly) all day.
The ads are visually appealing, consistent, and vibrant. They are excellent at incorporating meme culture and slang that’s trending on TikTok into their ads. Their headlines are short-medium length and hilarious.
Everyone I know uses Spotify constantly for streaming music, and rightfully so. It’s a fantastic product with fantastic branding and I am obsessed with them.
Now onto… Specsavers!
There’s a reason why “Shoulve gone to Specsavers” has stuck for the past 22 years.
Yes, that was on purpose.
The Specsavers ads are sooo clever and we LOVE them. Especially these and the others in this campaign! They’re eye-catching, the copy is spot-on, and-- despite it not being specifically geared towards GEN-Z, it’s got GEN-Z moments of humor.
Keeping the use of the iconic slogan across 2 decades while updating your marketing and infusing it with modern humor is a fantastic way to create generational brand loyalty.
And Specsavers is killing it with the humor aspect-- it’s silly and fun and so, so accessible.
NOW GET READY FOR A WORD TONIC FAVE… RYANAIR
Okay, so, if you’ve interacted with Word Tonic or our Instagram at all, you know we love Ryanair.
Wanna know why?
We love cheap flights.
Okay, okay, AND we love memes.
Ryanair has BOTH. And not just memes, but an AMAZING social media presence and an impeccable grasp of GEN-Z humor.
The way they interact with their audience too is so spot-on with GEN-Z humor and perfectly self-aware. They know what they’re doing and they’re doing it SO WELL.
They’re so up-to-date on GEN-Z trends and always have content that reflects how tuned-in they are to us. They’re consistent in their approach and their commitment to being unpredictable.
It’s a perfect example of GEN-Z marketing.
Have room for one more Word Tonic favorite? drumroll …DUOLINGO
Does GEN-Z love to learn? Heck yes we do!!
Does GEN-Z love to laugh? Heck yes we do!!
Does Duolingo offer both in addition some of the most visually-pleasing and user-friendly formatting I’ve ever had the pleasure to lay eyes on?
HECK YES THEY DO!!
Listen, on top of all of this-- they’re also ADAPTABLE as all get-out.
Duolingo used to be a lot less GEN-Z kind of silly, but they hopped on the GEN-Z humor train super quickly and have absolutely mastered the art of GEN-Z marketing.
May I present to you the best example of adapting to GEN-Z-geared marketing that I have ever heard of?
Of course, because that’s why we’re here. :)
The Duolingo Evil Owl.
(The lore here is that the Duolingo notifications get increasingly passive aggressive when you haven’t kept up your daily language-learning practice streak-- GEN-Z started making memes of the brand’s owl mascot threatening users, and Duolingo RAN with it in the most perfect way.)
They also have an amazing social media presence and love to “bully” their audience, which we just can’t get enough of. Duo is up to date with trends and is also incredibly unpredictable on the internet. We’re obsessed.
Specifically, me-- I’m super obsessed with Duolingo’s marketing. But so is the rest of Word Tonic and GEN-Zers everywhere. I’m just really loud about it.
Finally, I’m throwing this in here for fun-- but also because it’s a great resource!!
WORD TONIC, of course.
Okay, so I’ve talked about it a lot but WHAT is Word Tonic?
Get this-- Word Tonic is THE go-to resource for all things GEN-Z copywriting, GEN-Z marketing, GEN-Z values, and GEN-Z insights all across the board. It’s by GEN-Z, for GEN-Z… and YOU! We don’t gatekeep all of this amazing knowledge that we have, we like to share the wealth over here at WT. We even have a cutie little GEN-Z insight newsletter AND a nice little link to our services page (to get you started if you want to get involved with us) -- we can even hook you up with some of that sweet, sweet GEN-Z recruitment service that we offer.
I know, I can’t believe it’s real either. But it IS. It’s the best thing around.
AND our GEN-Z marketing is great. ;)
Want more of these articles? Check out our GEN-Z Insights blog by yours truly.
Maddy