Study by Link and Zeam: Youtube works for GenZ; baby boomers ignore influencers
If you want to reach Generation Z with advertising, it's best to choose YouTube and social media - in contrast to all older consumers, who are best reached by far via traditional TV advertising. This is shown by a recent joint study by Link and Zeam.
The social and market research institute Link, together with the agency Zeam, which focuses on Generation Z, conducted a study on the media habits of different age groups.
A total of 4,150 people were surveyed, 2,080 from Switzerland and 2070 from Germany. Of these, over 1,000 were from Generation Z (15 to 26 years old) and over 1,000 from the 23 older generations, with at least 300 each from Generation Y (17 to 40 years old), Generation X (41 to 56 years old) and the so-called baby boomers (57 to 75 years old).
When asked on which channels they have seen and heard advertising in the past four weeks, among Swiss representatives of Generation Z (15- to 26-year-olds), YouTube is at the top of the list with 72 percent, followed by social media (69 %), websites (66 percent), billboards (64 %), television (63 %) smartphone apps (62 %), and radio (36 %), influencers (30 %) and podcasts (16 %).
Stefan Reiser, Managing Director Marketing Research Link, says: "YouTube is the new top medium in Gen Z - but influencers have the biggest growth with decreasing age. If you analyze only those 20 and under, about 4 in 10 already remember advertising through influencers - that's more than radio."
Baby boomers pay most attention to TV advertising - influencers are ignored
The situation is quite different among the oldest generation surveyed, the baby boomers (57 to 75 years): For them, traditional television tops the list at 92 percent, followed by billboards (74 %) , websites (66 %) radio (45 %) and smartphone apps (43 %) . YouTube is at a low 27 percent among this generation, social media at 20 percent - and influencers are paid attention to by just 2 percent of those over 57.
"To understand generations, you need to know their similarities as well as their differences. With our study on Generation Z, we have succeeded in building a steering wheel that can be used to optimally manage advertising spend to reach the young target group," says Jo Dietrich, co-founder of Zeam.
In terms of advertising recall, which was also surveyed, YouTube is also ahead with 30 percent, but closely followed by television with 28 percent. Among baby boomers, the TV figure is a high 61 percent, while only 2 percent of this generation can remember YouTube advertising.
Stefan Reiser from Link explains, "If we examine only those up to 20 years of age, a dynamic development becomes clear even within the GenZ: there, as many as 33 percent remember a specific YouTube advertisement; TV is already well behind here at 23 percent."
Another striking result is that traditional billboard advertising still attracts an average of 70 percent of all generations and, at 17 percent, can also keep pace with the other advertising channels surveyed.
