“Tell me and I’ll forget, show me and I might remember, involve me and I’ll understand.”

Benjamin Franklin, a Founding Father of the United States

By Bret Wallace

Benjamin Franklin certainly was a forward-thinking gentleman, but it’s doubtful even Good Ol’ Ben could have imagined the kind of future today’s youth are experiencing.

With the Generation Z audience accustomed to accessing so much knowledge right at their fingertips, breaking through the noise and getting your message through is more challenging than ever, especially to a generation that expects fresh content that works across the spectrum of media.

Marketing to Gen Z, generally regarded as those born between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s who are just entering their adult lives now, requires crafting a clear message, delivering it quickly and broadly and creating interactive videos to involve them an elicit a positive response.

Beyond Video

“But wait,” you say, “we’re already loading our website, our emails, our social media with video.” While that’s an important piece to your marketing, to reach Gen Z’s, you need to address three focus points:

• Messaging: While Millennials showed a strong desire to change the world, Gen Z’s expect to become the change leaders in the world. Therefore, your message must convey how you can help them become those change leaders, or they will move quickly to the next option.

• Attention Grabbing: Gen Z is the first generation to grow up fully connected to the Internet and they expect to find the answers to their issues, not in weeks, days or even minutes, but seconds. The mantra now is you have 8 seconds to grab the attention of a Gen Z before he or she will look elsewhere. As lifelong Internet users, they also expect high-quality production that works whether they are accessing from their phones, their tablets, their laptops, their desktops or their televisions.

• Giving Control: Gen Z also expect to control their journey to the solution, and the entities who give them that control are the ones they are likely to join.

Get Interactive

The way to grab attention and release control to this target audience is through interactive video. Your Gen Z audience won’t sit quietly while you to tell them the entire story; they want to take control and follow the story in the directions that interest them.

Interactive video offers you options for involving your audience:

• Create the Journey: At its most elaborate, your interactive video allows the viewer to control the journey, following the paths they choose, such as an interactive map that allows the potential customer to view areas that interest them.

• Ask Questions: Popup boxes allow your visitor to ask questions, even of a chat bot, without ever leaving the video screen.

• Call to Action: Visitors can easily download a white paper, complete an online application, make a phone call or purchase your product, all with a simple click.

The more options you create for your visitor to interact with your videos, the longer you will keep them involved in your website and your message. You also will be creating a sense of community with your visitors, another aspect of online life that appeals to Gen Z.

As you strive to reach out to the most tech-savvy generation, you must strive to combine message design, the best production techniques and interactive delivery to achieve your goals.