1.
Introducing…
GENERATION Z
(CHARITIES & CAUSES EDITION)

2.
Callum McGeoch
Executive Creative Director
Livity
@callumity

3.
© Livity 2015
WHO WE ARE
A youth specialist, multi-discipline, insight-driven creative agency, based in
Brixton, London and Johannesburg and Capetown SA.

4.
© Livity 2015
WHAT WE DO We work directly with young
people from a broad range of
backgrounds everyday to co-
design campaigns, brands,
content, communities,
services, products,
entertainment and education
based around a deep
understanding of what young
people need and love.

5.
© Livity 2015
WHO WE DO IT FOR

6.
© Livity 2015
WHAT WE DO
We also deliver long-term national youth services, including somewhereto_,
which gives young people free access to empty or underused spaces to help
their ideas, business, hobbies or creativities come to life.
Originally funded by the Olympic Legacy Trust, and for the last few years by
the BIG Lottery Fund, we are now exploring a cross-subsidy business model
that will also help charities generate income from their underused spaces.

7.
WHY WE DO IT
By involving hundreds of young people
in the research, creation and delivery of
our work and helping them onwards into
higher education, training and careers,
and via the millions more that our work
reaches, we deliver on our social
purpose – to measurably improve the
lives of young people.

8.
© Livity 2015
NOT WHY WE DO IT
(BUT NICE ANYWAY)
And over the years our unique
model has helped us deliver
ground-breaking and award-
winningly effective work, and gain
recognition from the Queen, two
Prime Ministers and many others
for our social impact and
innovation.

9.
Understanding
Youth Audiences
Before I talk about WHAT this new
generation think, feel and do, let’s
remind ourselves of the WHY, the
underlying social, psychological, even
biological drivers of young people’s
behaviour and attitudes.

10.
Drivers
And it turns out that the vast majority of what drives behaviour and decision making
is motivated by basic human needs, particular to teenage years, that change very
little from one generation to the next.
Which means most of what you need to know about teens today, you can get from
thinking back to your own adolescent years.

11.
So let’s go back…

12.
Way back…
To a time when your bedroom was
your refuge, and an expression of
who were and what you loved…

13.
Friendship
When your friends, were suddenly the most
important people in the world. The only
people who really understood each other.
And as long as you were together anything
was possible.

14.
Freedom
Your first tastes of freedom – going off on
adventures without parents. Earning freedom
and trust. The first scary / exciting feelings of
what being an independent adult might be
like.

15.
First Love
Your first infatuation, whether requited or not –
and just as importantly, your first embarrassing
knock back and heartbreak. Your first clumsy
bumbling sexual negotiations.

16.
Transition to
Adulthood
All of these things are as true and powerful now as they were
then. And they all stem from the key life stage of the early
teens to mid 20s, the slow transition from childhood to full
adult independence. Like a hermit crab moving between shells
it is a period of vulnerability, as you transfer or sever the
safety nets and dependence of parents, school to self-
established relationships with friends and partners.
And in doing so, figuring out which values, beliefs, behaviours
from childhood you want to keep, which you reject, and which
new ones to try out, adopt, adapt or bed in.

17.
Social Acceptance
As such, anything that provides an opportunity to establish or strengthen new
social or sexual bonds will be valued above anything else. The need for social
acceptance will override even the most powerful previously held beliefs.
Conversely anything that threatens to break or weaken social bonds or lower
status, such as losing face, embarrassment, breaking unwritten social codes,
FOMO or sexual rejection are equally powerful motivators.

18.
Mastery
At a time when much in life is beyond control, mastering a specific skill,
interest or behaviour gives a much needed sense of empowerment and
achievement on their own terms.
Sticking to what you know you are good at also minimizes the risk of
embarrassment or failure and helps them to define their identity. This can
manifest in anything from gaming, street sports, mc-ing, or “trainspotter”
knowledge of a genre, films, cars, fashion etc, but also in promiscuity,
drinking and both legal and illegal forms of enterprise etc.

19.
Masking
Young people have always been drawn to opportunities to safely experiment with
image and identity, dressing up, make-up, adoption of style tribe uniforms and role
model mimicry as they move from the over-riding desire to fit and confirm, to the
desire to stand out and be noticed when they want to be.

20.
Melodrama
Young people are attracted to
extremes. With emotional
intelligence, empathy and
diplomacy skills still developing
tthere is a tendency to keep
things simple by view life in
black and white - all-or-nothing
friendships, polarised opinions -
and demanding the same
treatment in return: love me or
hate me, indifference is an insult.
Give me 100% loyalty or forget it.
Creating your own drama draws
attention and emotional
investment towards you, acting
as shortcut to social bonding.
This is why providing a running
commentary of your life through
social media content and
narrative appeals.

21.
Generational Trends
Tracking the changes
Some caveats… The marketer’s relentless desire to characterise entire generations, is not
something we as an agency generally believe in. It can be more misleading than useful. An inexact
science anyway, it is generally done with at least a few decades of hindsight. What we are doing,
attempting to skewer the defining characteristics of an era of human beings before most of them
have even come of age, is pure folly….

22.
Baby Boomers
Teens in the 60s, now 65+
OPTIMISTIC
IDEALISTIC
ENTITLED
EXPERIMENTAL
Besides, nobody likes being pigeonholed or stereotyped, least of all young people - when you are
in the process of trying to define your unique identity and role in an overcrowded, competitive
adult world. That said, over the last few years we’ve observed a more seismic series of profound
changes in young people’s behaviour and outlooks than we’ve seen in the preceding 15 years of
working with young people. And a generation that for once, really does demonstrate quite
remarkable shared attributes.

23.
Teens in the 80s, now 40+
Generation X
RESTLESS
CYNICAL
DISENFRANCHISED
OPPORTUNISTIC
Today’s young generation are broadly speaking the children of Gen X, Thatcher’s children, and
they actually have more in common with their parents, culturally and ideologically, than previous
generations have had with their parents.

24.
Millennials
Teens in the 90s, now 22-40
AMBITIOUS
NETWORKED
HEDONISTIC
FRUSTRATED
The previous/incumbent ‘youth market’ generation, some now edging toward middle age. They
grew up in one world, but came of age in a very different one. 9/11, the economic crisis, the rise of
4g and broadband, affordable tech, social media, all emerged in their teens and twenties causing,
enormous upheavals, disappointment, dejection and excitement in equal measure - a confused,
varied bunch, for a confused varied era.

25.
WHO’S COMING NEXT?
iGENERATION?
POST-MILLENNIALS?
ACCELERATION GENERATION?
THE PLURALS?

26.
GENERATION Z
BORN AFTER 1995 (oldest now 21)
This group numbering 4.5m in the UK are more autonomous, self-determining and self-motivated
than generations previously. Inspired by pioneering enterprising influential Millennials, they
distrust old cumbersome institutions and hierarchies, but are empowered by tech and each other.
This ‘networked generation’ is the first that doesn’t have to wait for permission from the adult
world to speak to the world, publish, start a business, create change.

27.
THE SCREENAGERS
Gen Z have no recollection of a world before touchscreens, 3
or 4G mobiles, connected games consoles and high-speed
internet. Over 90% of 12-year-olds have a smartphone or
tablet. Tech and social are not exciting new frontiers to them.
They are just an essential and central function of life. They
expect all sites and apps to be 100% intuitive, effortless,
responsive, interactive and smooth.

28.
DATA DEPENDENT
Gen Z has never had to learn how to read a map, memorise a phone number or
make firm advance meeting plans, they have outsourced multiple skills,
functions and data sets to their mobiles. So while they love the freedom of
movement and privacy (from their parents) that phones give them, they get
frustrated at how utterly dependent they are on them. To the extant that f they
even get close to running out of battery they get anxious or have to go home.

29.
Death of boredom
Gen Z have grown up in a post-boredom era. Rainy Sundays
with nothing to do but make your own fun or watch Murder
She Wrote, do not happen any more. An entire world of
endless distraction, participation, communication, creation
and entertainment is always available to them. This is good for
those already motivated to explore, learn and create, but it
also makes having to use your imagination and the chance
discovery of more esoteric interests or hobbies less likely to
happen for those content to be passively entertained.
TEENAGE BOREDOM
1950 - 2010 RIP

30.
“FILTER TUNNEL”
SYNDROME
Personalised search, algorithms and recommendation engines
only show you things very similar to what you’ve previously
viewed, bought or liked. The effect is that young people’s
exposure to ‘stuff’ starts narrow – through their peer networks
– and is made narrower, making their online experiences
homogenized, and the chance of encountering ideas or
opinions from far outside their experience less and less likely.

31.
PREPARED TO GRAFT
Unlike pre-downturn Millennials,
Gen Z didn’t grow up expecting free
university tuition and a career
handed on a platter. And their Gen X
parents, who grew up in a similar
economic climate, helped instil the
over-riding attitude of this
generation, that if you want
something only you can make it
happen – be self-starting, proactive
and seize every opportunity.

32.
SELF-TEACHING
SELF-FUNDRAISING
SELF-MANUFACTURING
SELF-RETAILING
And thanks to the tech they’ve
grown up with, they can. And they
are. In an amazing spectrum of
ways. From teens teaching
themselves japanese, coding or
online trading, building publishing
and fashion empires from their
bedrooms, crowd funding, 3d
prototyping and mass producing.

33.
ENTERPRISING
The no. of young people aspiring to
entrepreneurship and self-
employment in the UK has gone
from the lowest levels ever
recorded in 2008, to the highest
ever in 2015. The credit crunch
coinciding with the rise of social
and affordable tech was all that was
need to inspire a generation that
feels no just empowered but excited
about taking its future into it’s own
hands, and not afraid to fail a few
times as they learn to fly high.

34.
ALTRUISTIC
There is plenty of evidence to suggest
that this generation is more socially
minded that any before – in their career
aspirations and consumer choices. Why?
“It’s hard to be what you can’t see” but
this gen have been exposed to more
types of ‘success’ from their peers or
empowered millennials beyond the
traditional ideas of ‘house, car, job, kids’
and so a wider range of aspirations, and
a greater sense of (collective)
empowerment has emerged.

35.
SELF-CONSCIOUS
They are as self-conscious
as teens always have been
but with added pressure of
constant self-broadcast
and the hall of mirrors that
is social media. And as
they have been self-
publishing from the age of
12 or younger, they have
learnt that the subtlest
changes in what they
share, the camera angle,
their choice of captions,
when they post etc has a
big impact on how much
and what kind of feedback
they get.

36.
PARTICIPATORY
Participation, being
invited to have a say, a
stake, a role in any
engagement with
brands, broadcasters
or each other goes
without saying.
Passively receiving
communication is a
thing of the past. UGC
is the norm.

37.
SENSIBLE*
The Z’s drink and smoke
less, have less risky sex and
take fewer hard drugs than
their predecessors.
Convictions and cautions for
10-17s fell from 111k in 2007
to only 28k in 2013.
Thanks to better critical
thinking teaching, and
having grown up in the big
digital playground and had
to learn fast, they are less
gullible and more savvy to
online dangers.
*On the whole.

38.
ACCESS OVER
OWNERSHIP
Gen Z has a profoundly
different attitude to owning
stuff to previous
generations. Entertainment
has only ever been
something you stream not
own, and the same attitude
is now being applied to
many other areas – sharing
access to cars, airbnb,
hardware etc allowing
greater freedom and
flexibility. Buying physical
things, books, vinyl etc is
now about the artifact and
demonstrating fandom.

39.
GLOBAL NICHE
FANDOMS
GLOBAL NICHE
FANDOMS
Most young people belong to one
or more fandoms – communities
centred around a shared passion
or interest, genre or specific
person or band. The virtual
friendships and sense of
belonging within these fandoms
are more important that the
relationships with the stars
themselves.

40.
VISUAL
COMMUNICATORS
In order to process the vast volume
of information, conversations and
content they are sifting through
every day fast enough, they have
evolved to prefer visual cues over
text. Gifs, emojis, youtube
thumbnails, memes, instagram, vine
and snapchat - images are now the
primary unit of communication.

41.
This is an example of a product we
created for Childline to help young
people avoid being pressured into
sending and receiving sexual
images, without losing face or
feeling prudish. Visual, humorous
communication affords them a tonal
confidence that they struggle with
with words alone.

42.
ALERT TO
INJUSTICE
In young adulthood memories of childhood emotions are
still keenly felt. One of the most powerful of these is the
feeling of being hard done by, of not being treated even-
handedly by adults, not being listened to, being powerless
orunable to get your way.
So if issues are presented in the context of unfairness,
imbalance of power, they will respond to it powerfully in an
almost reflexive way, their indignation and passion ignited.

43.
COLLECTIVE
STRENGTH
This absence of power in childhood and
adolescence – whether it is the lack of
financial muscle or having to defer to others
over decisions that effect your life – is also
what makes feeling part of large peer
movement very appealing. There’s the social
belonging side, but with social media, also
the very real feeling that collectively young
people can create headlines, trigger U-turns,
force policies or petitions. Charities can
trigger and facilitate this to great effect.

44.
RELATABILITY
In adolescence human brains are temporarily
reconfigured to respond much more
powerfully to faces that look like our own. So
normal, imperfect young faces are much
more likely to draw engagement than a
faceless organisation or a stock picture of
distant beneficiary, a doctor or worse still a
model pretending to be any of the above.

45.
PERSONAL
NARRATIVE
Add to this a journey, or a
personal, emotive reason why the
young person has taken on the
mission – like Claira Hermet here
who is documenting her travels
around the world after having a
double mastectomy following the
loss of her mother and sister to
breast cancer – and an unfolding
story that other young people
can follow, become invested in
and rally around.

46.
BE REAL
Two Dan’s in their mid 20s. The one on the left holds enormous
influence over the 5.6m youtube subscribers who have watched him
grow up and shared every aspect of his life for more than 7 years.
The other is known to millions for pretending to be a wizard in the
movies, he is admired as an actor but has no deep relationship with
fans. This is useful to remember when figuring out who to buy or
borrow influence from, but also in how your own brand image,
openness, honesty will engender greater loyalty.

47.
BE IMPERFECT
And one way to do this, to be more likeably human, is to make
mistakes (the good kind) in public, don’t develop everything behind
the scenes until it is perfect, put it out there when it is good enough
and they will love you for it and help you finish it. The Japanese call
the beauty and humanity and acceptance of imperfect Wabi Sabi.

48.
GEN Z TO DO LIST…
MOBILE FIRST, VISUAL FIRST
OFFER VALUE, BE USEFUL
BE WHERE THEY ARE & PORTABLE
SOCIAL PROOF / VERIFICATION
MAKE IT FUN, PARTICIPATORY
BE OPEN, HONEST, FALLIBLE & REAL
24/7 ACCESS & INSTANT RECIPROCITY
INVOLVE THEM ALL THE WAY

49.
hello@livity.co.uk
Thank you