Increasing competition in the realm of point-of-sale installment plans will push existing buy now, pay later firms to diversify their offerings and target consumers beyond the existing core of Gen Z and millennial users.

B2B ad spending will total over $35 billion this year, up 9.3% from 2022, according to our forecast. As millennials and Gen Zers become the dominant players in the buying process this year, B2B marketing will shift to keep up with their digital inclinations. Expect B2B marketers to take a page out of consumer marketing and invest more in influencers.

The digitally native generation does not watch TV the same way baby boomers, Gen Xers, and even millennials might. Here are five tips we picked up at NYC Advertising Week that marketers can use to engage Gen Z with TV.

Millennials are parenting. Gen Z is entering the workforce. And the never-ending wheel of time has spun a new generation for marketers to watch: Generation Alpha. The oldest members of this digitally native, pandemic-influenced generation are tweens now, and marketers need to pay attention to how today’s children differ from their Gen Z older siblings.

Millennials and young Gen Xers commonly turn to WebMD and Google to answer their health-related questions. Those sources are also used by Gen Zers, but YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram have emerged as go-to channels for young adults looking for health information.

Currently, 40% of Gen Z and millennial borrowers say they would use future inheritance to pay off debt, and 69% say they’d only need $10,000 to pay it off. 66% of borrowers say they save less for retirement so they can make student loan payments. These borrowers may be able to get back on track with the new relief. How can banks inspire customers to make the most of their extra cash?

However, just 15% of Gen Zers say the same today. 57% of students feel sad or hopeless most of the time, which is up from 36% of millennials when they were in school. This translates into the most formidable emotional spending habit of any generation—something 59% of Gen Zers admit they struggle with. Gen Zers have also taken to Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), which makes emotional spending even easier.

I think it was smart of Claire's not to think how can we grow up with millennials, but instead how can we stay young, get young millennials, old Gen Z, and then get those millennial's children?

Beauty was perfectly positioned to capitalize on consumers’—particularly Gen Z and millennials—desire to buy lower-cost alternatives to premium beauty products. Leaning into “dupes” helped the brand approach the $1 billion sales mark. TJX thrived as value-oriented shoppers gravitated toward off-price merchants and other discounters in search of deals.

Despite the majority of BNPL users being millennials or Gen Zers, older generations are warming to the payment method. About 29% of Gen X used BNPL in 2023, but this share will jump to 40.5% by 2027, according to our forecasts. The share of baby boomers will jump from 13% in 2023 to 17.9% in 2027. More use cases. Consumers can use BNPL in more product and service categories.

Gen Zers and millennials are becoming B2B buyers. These generations are getting older and taking on more decision-making in the B2B buying process. People ages 25 to 34 make up nearly a quarter of US TikTok users in 2024, a higher share than any other age range.

If consumers make a purchase without fully considering it, they could end up regretting the decision and return the product. 58% of Gen Zers, 55% of millennials, and 56% of Gen Xers regret at least one impulse purchase they made after seeing a product on social media, per an August 2023 survey from Bankrate and YouGov. That number rises to 62% for baby boomers.

Capturing the sandwich generation’s loyalty via clear pricing and education is particularly important today since many millennials and Gen Zers are likely to follow their Gen X parents’ healthcare preferences. Sources. Aflac. American Cancer Society. Bankrate. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Exact Sciences. Federal Reserve. The Harris Poll. Kantar. National Alliance for Caregiving.

It helps 37.4% of millennials and Gen Zers become aware of a bank’s products, versus just 16.5% of Gen Xers and baby boomers, per our October 2023 US Banking Consumer Habits survey. And 35% of consumers cited social media as one of the places where they are most receptive to advertising, while just 12% cited financial services websites, per the IAS survey.

About half of internet users ages 10 to 41 spend money on video games worldwide, and younger users are more likely to cough up.

Plus, 54% of Gen Zers are interested in AI-enabled banking services, and more than one in three Gen Z and millennial investors said they would have more trust in a financial advisor if they used AI to inform their recommendations and counseling. These particular improvements could help FIs build stronger relationships with young, digital-native investors.

I was going to say though, isn't YOLO a millennial term? Sara Lebow:. Oh yeah, but I'm a millennial, so-. Jasmine Enberg:. Same. Sara Lebow:. It's fine. Sky says that sometimes. And so that's what I was thinking is she's like, "They're feeling YOLO." Okay. Continuing on, what is an interesting side conversation that you've had at Shoptalks? Jasmine, you take this one first. Jasmine Enberg:. Sure.

And by the end of 2024, more than $5.39 trillion will be spent on the cohort (per McCrindle’s research cited by Harvard Business Review), outpacing millennials’ $2.5 trillion as of March 2023 and Gen Z’s projected $3 trillion purchasing power by 2030 (per ESW research and a March 2021 Oxford report, respectively, cited by Harvard Business Review).

Gen Zers and millennials in our study placed little value on most forms of ads, including traditional TV, out-of-home, radio, print, and podcast ads.

Partnerships will also help win over Gen Zers and millennials—two groups key to future growth. Gen Z is the only generation increasing life insurance ownership, while millennials have the greatest unmet need for coverage. More than 6 million Gen Zers will add life insurance from 2022 to 2025, a 3.5% increase in penetration, per our forecast.

On social media, younger shoppers are far more likely to trust brands and influencers, while older shoppers prefer retailers. Just 9% of baby boomers worldwide follow and buy from accounts run by influencers, compared with more than 40% of Gen Zers and millennials.

Trends and Predictions for 2024” summit last year. 53% of Gen Z and millennial shoppers prefer self-checkout over traditional manned registers, according to a recent survey by NCR Voyix. The retail media lesson: Gen Zers aren’t afraid to use in-store technology, as long as it helps them shop quicker or smarter.

Young adults use multiple platforms and are harder to pin down. After video, Stories are the second-most-popular social activity. Gen Zers do a lot on social media, but they don’t participate in every activity. They engage in a median of six activities out of the 14 we asked about. Not surprisingly, video is their favorite activity.