“If you think you’re following your kid on Instagram, you’re not.” says Jane Buckingham, at PromaxBDA’s The Conference 2017. Founder of Trendera, a brand strategy and marketing firm, Jane warns that Generation Z thinks differently. And with a population size of approximately 65 million, ages 4 to 20, it’s time to pay attention.

And it hit Jane, personally, when her Gen-Z daughter asked a surprising question; “Mom, are we white?” Jane answered an obvious “Yes,” but her daughter snapped back “Isn’t there anything we can do about that?”

As the audience laughed, Buckingham continued “Today, to just be one thing is not interesting. They [Gen Z] are always experimenting with what they want and what they want to connect with. For them, they can try on different personalities. Unlike the Breakfast Club, there’s no such thing with this generation because they have many sides to them.”

Similar to the words of Justin Simien today, “We’re kind of bored seeing the same thing and the same faces over and over again.” Or even the words of Jess Weiner who popularized the “Yes, and.” philosophy. “Yes, girls love pink, they like to kick around the soccer ball and they also think about running for office one day.” People are multifaceted, the stories are endless.

And while attention is shifting from millennials to Gen Z, Jane left us with an important insight for the former; “They crave filtration. Just give them other places to go. Let them find something. The biggest problem is to go away for too long because they forget about you.”

What’s worse? If you don’t stand for something, they may go elsewhere. As Jane put it “There are so many crises in their world, they [Gen Z] believe they’re responsible for helping. They feel they can help, and expect you to have a purpose in what you’re communicating.”

These feelings aren’t new for a generation, says Buckingham, but with abundance of choice, it’s more pronounced. And with a session titled “Move over millennials,” one could expect only the finest jab. “Its not their fault they were given gold stars for going to the potty.”

Whether your audience is Generation V, X or Y, it’s imperative we understand them, meet them where they are and give them what they want.

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