Making Gen Z adopt Web3: where marketers get it all wrong!
Up to 26% of the world’s population falls into the Gen Z category. Onboard half of them in Web3 and we’re already talking about over 1 billion people!
Behind this piece is a Millennial whose “no-time-to-waste” and “explain-this-to-me-simply-or-lose-me” personality identifies as a Gen Zer. I haven’t published anything on Medium in the past couple of weeks so today, I’m back with a topic that has caught my interest the most, in recent times: the mass adoption of Web3 through the onboarding of — well, you guessed it — Gen Zers.
Gen Zers are not “strange things”
First of all, there seems to be a major disconnect between Millennials (born in 1981–1996) and Gen Zers (1997–2012). If those in charge of building Web3 companies and products targeting Gen Zers are Millennials or from Gen X (1965–1980), chances are they don’t quite get their target audience.
Who are Gen Zers? What is their thought process? How do they behave? And what do they really want?
Fact: I almost wrote those questions using first-person plural pronouns. Every person above 25 has been younger before. Why should non Gen Z adults act like Gen Zers are from another planet?
The gaps to bridge in Web3: bad UX and technical language
For Web3 to appeal to Gen Zers, these four questions must be answered with near certainty. Empathy must be applied. And the earlier Millennial Web3 founders, marketers, product designers, and product managers realize and admit that they’re not speaking the language of Gen Zers, the better for the brands they’re building and the growth they’re seeking.
Unless one is a Crypto Native or die-hard NFT fan, the UX of signing up for and using Web3 wallets, for example, is an experience that can best be summed up in one word: anxiety!
I had my fair share of experience setting up a MetaMask wallet back in August 2021 as that was the only medium for me to invest in an NFT gaming project. The only thing that prevented me from giving up midway through the process was my goal to buy those coins. Just rewinding this experience triggers anxiety.
Another barrier to exploring Web3 is the jargon that is used. Don’t get me started on that, but I can’t help but ask myself: “Who are these brands actually talking to with such technical vocabulary?”
Speak to “us” in “memes”… or forget it!
Yesterday’s teens are today’s Gen Zers; onboard them young
In 2018, Pew Research Center carried out a survey tailored to 13 to 17-year-old respondents. Some of the key results from these folks who, five years down the line, are full adults forming today’s Gen Z, included the fact that:
- 95% have smartphone access
- 97% are on at least one of the 7 major online platforms (identified as follows in order of most used to least used: Youtube, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Reddit)
- 85% used Youtube
- 72% used Instagram
- 69% used Snapchat
- 51% used Facebook
- 45% were “almost constantly” online
- 44% were online “several times a day”
- 45% felt social media’s effects are neither positive nor negative
- 31% felt social media has had positive effects on fellow teens, citing the ability to stay connected with family & friends
- 24% felt social media’s effects are negative, citing bullying and the spread of rumors
Here’s a snapshot of how Gen Zers spend their time online, according to 99firms.com:
Millennial Web3 marketers don’t seem to know who they’re talking to
How many times have I come across funny marketing posts on Linkedin singling out the eccentricity of Gen Zers? Funny at first glance. Concerning, the more you think about it. Rephrase this as: how can you possibly capture the attention of people you just can’t relate to or don’t understand?
Call out Gen Zers as lazy if you want but that would actually be lazy stereotyping of who they truly are. Not only are Gen Zers in the United States more academically educated than any previous generation; they are also opinionated when it comes to governmental issues and up to 64% of them would pay a premium fee for environmental-friendly products.
7 interesting Gen Z stats for Web3 marketers to take note of:
- A third of Gen Zers block/unfollow brands weekly on social media (heard that? resonate with them or lose out!)
- 40% use TikTok over Google for search
- 61% prefer videos under 60 seconds (‘cause ain’t nobody got time for dat!)
- 83% of Gen Zers shop through social media
- Go peep BeReal, App Store’s most downloaded app of 2022 by a mile with 13.89 million downloads ahead of TikTok (7.51M). BeReal is Gen Z’s new home; it’s speaking to them in a way you may not have grasped yet.
- 85% of Gen Zers prefer chatting/chat bots over phone calls
- 39% [only] trust companies to protect private data
I see you’re already getting fresh ideas to go and fine-tune your Web3 marketing strategy. But not so fast. There’s one more step to consider. Read on.
Web3 marketers challenge
Now, talk to me or Gen Zers about Web3 without letting us realize that you’re talking about Web3… As I conclude this blog post, I’d love to give Web3 marketers a challenge:
Personally, I don’t remember getting fed the term “Web2” when I began acquainting myself with a computer and the internet, back in the early 2000s… I did have my own way of referring to Web2, then. As a former aspiring online journalist, I would daydream about having my articles published someday on “a page where you can’t delete the words”. That’s how I used to call it as I would compare articles published on the web by professional journalists to my offline articles in MS Word.
This has me thinking: shall I throw in “Web3” among the banned jargon in this Web3 marketing challenge? My mischievous self tells me I should…
PS: Product designers in Web3, I’ll get on your case some other time…
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By Dummy Xeca (younger sister of Ela De Sygns, both fictional characters of our anonymous author). Follow me on Twitter @CryptoWeb3Dummy and subscribe to the “Crypto & Web3 for Dummies” publication.
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