Northwestern Univ. Medill School of Journalism Professor Candy Lee offered three tips for connecting with Gen Zers: be tech-savvy, be mindful of content to win attention and be responsive, as the average response time for those in Gen Z is eight seconds. Lee discussed how the habits of Gen Zers compare to those of millennials during a two-part presentation at the ’17 Intersport Brand Engagement Summit. Some interesting qualities of people 20 years old and younger that Lee highlighted were diversity -- she cited a 50% increase since '00 in youth identifying as multi-racial -- an affinity for mobile apps like Snapchat and a love of reading. Lee also pointed out that Gen Zers are more conscious of money than millennials. Her presentation was followed by a panel featuring six college students: Sarah Musaali, Kelsey Horvath and Cole Murphy from Depaul Univ.; and Lauren Crittenden, Garrett Jochnau and Fredrick Bugyei from Northwestern. The students answered a wide variety of questions submitted by the audience, revealing everything from their viewing preferences to their favorite social media apps. Here are some of the highlights:
* Jochnau on 10-year-olds: “They are obsessed with personal brands. These guys are bandwagon fans when it comes to teams and when it comes to players. I wouldn’t be surprised if next year they all come to camp with Big Baller Brand shirts and shoes.”
* Horvath on Snapchat: “I use Snapchat every morning. It’s the first thing I look at because in one place you can get CNN, the Economist, the Daily Mail and ESPN all in one place. It tells you the top stories that happened the day before.”
* Murphy, on how they watch live games: "I go to a lot of Chicago Bears games, and I don’t like taking out my phone and looking at my screen. I like looking at the screens they have in the stadium. … I just like watching the game.”
* Musaali: “When I’m at a live game, I like taking my phone out, but not to do anything else but Snapchat the fact that I’m at the game. I’ll probably send a couple Snaps and maybe put it on my Instagram story, because that’s a thing now, and then I’ll put my phone away.”
* Jochnau: “When I’m at a game or watching, I always have Twitter open and I’m reading the conversation that’s happening about the game, what are the numbers, what are the trends.”
* Horvath was one of the three panelists who say they stay for an entire baseball game they attend, saying, "My whole thing with games is if I’m paying the money to be there, I’m going to stay the whole time, I’m not going to leave early. Tickets to Cubs game aren’t cheap, so when I do go, I get there early and I’m one of the last few people to leave.”
* Lee said that she recently took 50 students to a Cubs game, and about half left after the seventh-inning stretch.
* When asked which sport most requires their undivided attention, three of the six said football.
* On the one thing the sports industry needs to do a better job of, four identified engaging/personalizing, while two said in-stadium Wi-Fi.
