There’s nothing like a reminder that you’re old, but here’s one for the many of us in marketing and advertising who aren’t under 30.

Seriously though, as a strategist at heart, I love learning about different groups and the insights that seem completely foreign to myself – a bit of a dorky confession, I know. This time around, it was an interesting insight into the Millennial, and more so Gen Z, group and their willingness and attitudes towards data sharing and tracking that caught my attention.

Nielsen’s Trust in Advertising 2021 Survey revealed that for this younger generation of Australians, it’s not about choosing to share data or not – they’ve cracked the system and worked with it. There seems to be a growing behaviour around creating multiple profiles online (one private and one more public). Now, both are obviously curated, but they’re curated to present a different version of themselves.

That got us thinking – what does this mean for marketers? Which of their “me” are we marketing to and targeting? How do we get it right? Which is more authentic? Which one is more likely to respond and act?

Is there an opportunity to enhance our segmentation and data collection around our customers to tag if we are interacting with their public or private profiles? To what degree are social media platforms that offer advertising (yeah, that’s you, Facebook) addressing this and providing capabilities or technical sophistication to experiment and test in this space? Because, let’s face it, that’s the most interesting and directly related channel for this to play out.

Transparency in advertising and communications is a driver for all audiences in today’s age and will continuously prove to aid in that stickiness and loyalty that brands aim for, particularly when there is transparency around the value exchange in any interaction.

So, based on that, the first instinct is that it is easier to connect with the public profile, without intruding on a desired sense of privacy around the individual’s more private profile. It would sort of be like you buying your neighbour a nice pot plant that matches the one they have out on their porch as a house warming gift vs getting them a lavender candle because you noticed through their bedroom window that they had one like it already…creep-central vibes for your neighbour, I’d say.

Perhaps, then, the angle is around the tactics used to connect, because let’s face it – public or private, data still gives brands access to your behaviours and tendencies. So, this could mean more obvious and blatant action=reaction type of next best actions and suggestions to the audience based on their public profile, but mean more considered and subtle actions with the data from private profiles to deepen the brand relationship without feeling intrusive.

The other point of consideration in this whole insight is the ol’ opportunity lens – one Gen Z prospect or existing customer now equals two. The opportunity is there for more interactions, more awareness and more information to understand them in order to therefore deliver more in terms of the overall customer experience that is even more relevant to them.

As always, I’m left feeling excited by learning something new about an audience segment, all while wanting to sit in a blanket with a warm cup of tea in the comfort of my sofa before falling asleep by 9pm on a Friday night because honestly, it sounds exhausting to be young these days! Power to you, Gen Z and those that follow!