Influencer Marketing to Gen Z on Live Streaming

We all have some basic assumptions about Gen Z: They’re tech savvy, they value creativity, and social personas are just as important as their real life reputations. But diving deeper into how they respond to marketing reveals some interesting insights that set this generation apart. While they’re generally better versed in navigating marketing ploys, they’re also more willing to engage with marketing when it’s exciting and offers opportunities that wouldn’t otherwise be possible.

To get a more detailed look into Gen Z’s attitudes towards marketing, we partnered with online research data and analytics technology group YouGov. YouGov’s market research illuminates some incredible stats around Gen Z’s preferences online, drawn from a sample of U.S. based respondents 18 years and up. In this article, we’re going to present a selection of these stats with some insightful summary context of our own.

The key topics we’re covering are:

General Attitudes Towards Marketing
Popular Social Platforms
Popular Influencers
Popular Video Games
Popular Brands

Gen Z’s Attitudes Towards Marketing

Graph 1: Pop-up Marketing Event with 7UP - Stream Hatchet

Gen Z are generally disillusioned with marketing, with a cynical attitude that sees through the glitz of events and understand these shows are merely money-making ventures for brands. This leads Gen Z to be far more selective than the general population, being more likely to only buy from brands they already like. The upside here is that because Gen Z are more selective and better informed, they’re also more likely to convert once they’ve decided to engage with marketing. If you hook them, they’ll respond.

This stubbornness of only sticking to preferred brands can only be broken by marketing campaigns that demonstrate a brand’s ability to innovate. As touched on earlier, Gen Z demand creativity from marketing campaigns: Interactive events and celebrity endorsements (with culturally-relevant influencers) perform best and are key for accessing this demographic.

Gen Z are cynical because…

75% of Gen Z believe “brands need to find innovative ways to market themselves and their products”
52% of Gen Z believe “pop-up events are just expensive Instagram opportunities”

But receptive to marketing because…

34% of Gen Z “trust products recommended by celebrities or influencers” (vs. just 22% for the general population)
45% of Gen Z have “always got time for interactive booths at events” (vs. 37% for the general population)

When responding to marketing…

13% of Gen Z will buy the product (vs. just 9% for the general population)
17% of Gen Z will research more about the specific product being advertised, and 14% will research more about the product type in general (higher in both categories than the general population)

Graph 2: Vlogger on the Beach - Stream Hatchet

Of course, the form of marketing matters as well. Methods that were highly successful a few decades ago (TV ads and product demonstrations) have fallen out of favour with this new generation, while online advertisements have jumped regardless of the format (podcasts, social networks, etc.). Blogs and vlogs are an interesting case where Gen Z will actually check out the writer/presenter’s pitch for the product, despite these being longer formats. This bucks the common assumption that Gen Z have shorter attention spans.

Print is out of favour: Only 8% of Gen Z like printed magazines (vs. 13% for the general population)
Promotions and product demonstrations aren’t as popular with Gen Z, at 29% and 15%, respectively (lower than the general population)
15% of Gen Z like influencer blogs/vlogs (vs. just 10% for the general population), and 20% of Gen Z are willing to at least skim through blog/vlog content first before dismissing it (vs. just 15% for the general population)

Popular Social Platforms Among Gen Z

Graph 3: Popular Social Platforms for Gen Z - Stream Hatchet

Social platforms remain the modern standard for distributing advertisements, so knowing which platforms are popular is essential. As you might have guessed, Instagram and TikTok are far more popular among Gen Z than other generations, but platforms offering more than standard video/photo sharing are also popular such as Twitch and Snapchat. Facebook is an outlier here, being the only social platform surveyed that was actually less popular among Gen Z than the general population. Gen Z relies on these platforms to send their preferred content: Personal videos and memes.

83% of Gen Z use YouTube (vs. 71% for the general population), with Instagram coming in second at 69%
The biggest disparities are on Twitch, Discord, and Snapchat, where these platforms are used by twice as many Gen Z respondents when compared to the general population
45% of Gen Z share personal photos on social media, but this is only slightly above the general population. The big difference? 31% of Gen Z send personal videos vs. just 22% for the general population

Graph 4: Different Types of Streamers - Stream Hatchet

Given how many more Gen Z users are on Twitch, YouTube, and other live-streaming platforms, it’s no wonder that brands with a younger audience are focusing their attention there.

63% of Gen Z watch game streams (vs. just 38% for the general population)
28% of Gen Z create game streams (vs. just 15% for the general population)
If you’re a Gen Z gamer, these numbers shoot up: 83% of Gen Z gamers watch streams, and 40% of Gen Z gamers create streams

Popular Influencers Among Gen Z

Graph 5: Popular Influencers - Stream Hatchet

The most popular influencers among Gen Z are all legacy creators that have been building their communities since the early days of YouTube. Unsurprisingly (given that the respondents are in the U.S.), the most popular influencers are (almost) all from the U.S. as well. We’ll highlight the Top 5 influencers, but we also want to shout out some newer influencers that are making waves among Gen Z as well. If you’re interested in more, check out our other influencer posts and our rankings pages.

The most popular influencers among Gen Z include…

PewDiePie (48%)
Markiplier (45%)
Good Mythical Morning (45%)
MatPat (44%)
Mr. Beast (41%)

Some newer influencers catching Gen Z’s attention include…

Emma Chamberlain (40%)
JasonTheWeen (38%)
Lil Tay (36%)
Dixie D’Amelio (35%)
Kai Cenat (34%)

Popular Brands Among Gen Z

As mentioned earlier, Gen Z are all too aware of what kinds of campaigns brands will run to get their attention. This cynicism means that they’ll tend to gravitate towards brands they already trust – even more so than the general population. Knowing the most popular brands among Gen Z audiences, then, provides much needed context for brands hoping to enter that market. Additionally, looking at some of the campaigns run by non-endemic brands that are already popular amongst Gen Z can provide much-needed inspiration for future activations.

Below, we list out the most popular brands among Gen Z in a range of product categories, and also highlight some brands that are significantly more popular among Gen Z than the general population.