PwC Herald Talks: Ignore Gen Z at your peril, warns digital marketing expert Sam Stuchbury

Sam Stuchbury, founder of creative agency Motion Sickness. Photo / Supplied

Understanding and effectively targeting Generation Z will be crucial to businesses in the future.

To do so, businesses will have to unlock the trends and behaviour of this generation, something that will be the focus of keynote speaker Sam Stuchbury at the PwC Herald Talks: Millennials Move Up, Gen Z Move In event.

Stuchbury, the founder of creative agency Motion Sickness, says businesses need to be cautious not to overlook the impact of Gen Z.

"Like with any generation, Gen Z will change the way we do business," Stuchbury said.

Generation Z – the demographic that follows millennials – includes those born in the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s.

Stuchbury says it's important for businesses to stay on their toes as trends and the way consumers absorb information rapidly changes.

"The way that people absorb information is changing so rapidly that you've kind of got to stay on your toes from a brand perspective and a business perspective to make sure you're communicating in the right way and places," he said.

"[Gen Z] is quite sceptical, which is interesting from a brand perspective. We've seen lots of campaigns where brands go out there with something they thought was good but might have come across a bit silly and Gen Z isn't afraid to rip them to bits and speak their mind over what brands and businesses are doing."

A large part of the changing in how people absorb information has come through advancements in technology, in particular, mobile phones.

Motion Sickness 2017 Showreel

Time bloody flies doesn't it? 2017 is almost over, and what a good one she's been. One of the best I reckon. Thank you to all of the people who have helped to bring this year's projects to life, couldn't have done it without ya. Voiceover by Alan Watts. A little reminder that the ordinary truly is the extraordinary - something that underpins all of the work we produce.

Posted by Motion Sickness on Tuesday, December 12, 2017

"With millennials and Gen Z, it's really interesting how their behaviour affects how we [Motion Sickness] advertise and the content we produce," Stuchbury said.

Stuchbury says 85 per cent of the ads and content that Motion Sickness puts out there is consumed on a mobile phone.

"Literally all of our content now is with mobile phones in mind," he said.

Stuchbury says digital and social media has been a game changer for smaller business to compete with companies with high advertising budgets such as the Coca-Colas and Nikes of the world.

"The big thing we've seen is that with really creative campaigns and through digital and social media, it's kind of levelled the playing field," Stuchbury said.

"A lot of these platforms have levelled the playing field in terms of creating a very low barrier of entry. It's not like with an ad in the Herald or on TV where you've got to pay a certain amount to get in there. You can get a return with quite a low investment."

Founded five years ago in a poorly insulated student flat in Dunedin, Motion Sickness has eight fulltime staff, with Stuchbury – 28 – being the oldest. Two of their staff are from Gen Z.

"It's really great for us to have millennials and Gen Z coming through to give us a really good perspective," Stuchbury said.

"One difference we've seen with Gen Z is that they are very socially conscious and they are also really hyperconnected."

Motion Sickness has worked with companies like Icebreaker, Bluint Umbrellas, Les Mills and Colliers International.