Gen Z subcultures—what brands need to know to reach these niche communities

Marketers eager to court Gen Z consumers will often point to the importance of creating social media content that appeals to the group. But with Gen Z becoming one-fifth of the U.S. population in 2023, according to data from Insider Intelligence, developing a social strategy that resonates with its roughly 70 million members is an overly vague, unachievable objective. Rather than target Gen Zers as having identical characteristics, a much more effective approach to reaching the coveted demographic—those born between 1997 and 2012—is to hone in on a handful of the thousands of internet subcultures around which Gen Z consumers increasingly base their identities, according to several marketing strategists. Many Gen Zers today specifically consume social content through the lens of these interest-based online communities, from the enthusiastic readers and book reviewers of TikTok’s “BookTok” niche to thrifty shoppers proudly sharing videos of their secondhand clothing hauls. For brands, engaging with Gen Zers increasingly means showing up in the internet niches where they’re spending the majority of their time. @joannahuczek If you need me, i’ll be on the couch with my book #booktok #books #reading #readersoftiktok #bookcommunity #throneofglass #assassinsblade #theassassinblade ♬ What It Is (Block Boy) - Doechii “If we’re looking at a map of the world and trying to figure out who we want to reach or who we want to work with, [subcultures] give us a small city or even a neighborhood to focus our attention on—for participation, for trendspotting, for finding creators,” said Matt Higgins, VP and head of strategy for Horizon-owned Blue Hour Studios, a social-led creative agency. “If you’re a brand that wants to reach sports fans, guess what? Every other brand in your space is going to be looking at the same audience and the same creators. Subcultures give us an advantage and something that’s more distinct—something that’s going to connect [brands] to a deeper level of fandom.” Blue Hour Studios collaborated with Horizon Media’s marketing intelligence practice WHY Group to identify nearly two dozen of these Gen Z internet niches across Horizon Media’s 2022 and 2023 “Gen Z Subculture Field Guides.” Their research, which included surveys of hundreds of Gen Z consumers, revealed that members of the demographic post or consume content across an average of 20 different subcultures, and that 90% of Gen Zers believe a broad pop culture mainstream no longer exists. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs In other words, Gen Z views these social media subcultures and personalized content consumption as the new “pop culture,” the report states. On top of that, the age cohort considers their interests, demonstrated by their participation in these subcultures, to “define their identity,” per the report. Gen Z’s gravitation toward these online communities to shape their self-image reflects social media platforms’ pivot over the past few years to focus their algorithms on interests and entertainment rather than who users follow—a process Higgins refers to as “TikTokification.” In this new social landscape, “TikTok, YouTube Shorts and [Instagram] Reels are almost a replacement for cable TV,” Higgins said. “When I was growing up, I had cable, and I would go watch [Total Request Live] to know what was cool. Imagine that times a thousand, where you now have creators providing those channels for [Gen Z] to kind of flip through and discover what's cool or what’s interesting.” The Webby Awards’ 2023 “Never Niche Enough” report, conducted in collaboration with market research firm YouGov, echoes Horizon Media’s findings about the connection between identity and internet subcultures among Gen Z. In the report, one-third of Gen Z said they find community on social media or in online groups, ranking higher than traditional sites for community such as work, school, clubs or organizations. @emilybruth Third places are so important but for many of us even having a second place would be an improvement 😅 #wfh #workfromhome #thirdplaces #homebody ♬ original sound - Emily Ballesteros “Brands sticking to one-size-fits-all messaging—without personalization—will continue to see their return on ad spend shrink as consumers disengage,” said Victor Gras, senior VP and head of commercial, U.S., at YouGov, in a Q&A about the report. “Understanding basic demographics is no longer enough. Insights around the consumers’ changing affinities, passion points and media consumption habits should be the starting point for … brand activations, ad creative and targeting.” Gen Z consumers similarly form their identities, along with the products they purchase, around various “core” fashion, beauty or lifestyle aesthetics, such as the floral prairie dresses and romanticization of a rural lifestyle involved in “cottagecore,” or “dark academia’s” gloomy outfits and idealization of intellectual pursuits such as reading or museum touring. Subcultures, however, run deeper than just an aesthetic, said Maxine Gurevich, WHY Group’s senior VP and head of cultural intelligence. For an online niche to constitute a true subculture, “it has to tap into or connect to key cultural drivers,” Gurevich said. For example, Horizon Media’s 2023 subculture report highlighted the internet niche of “Country Revivers” as one of the biggest to emerge last year due to the growth in popularity of the country music genre among Gen Z and the presence of cowgirl-inspired fashion in both Beyoncé’s Renaissance World Tour and the “Barbie” movie, she said. “[A subculture] has to have sort of a deeper resonance,” Gurevich said. “Subcultures might be tapping into ‘cores’ or aesthetics on a daily basis, but, to us, we're really looking for communities and spaces where people are connecting and bonding.” A few other online niches Horizon Media identified as particularly popular among Gen Z in 2023 include “Copyconomists,” or frugal consumers seeking out or sharing “dupes” of expensive viral products; “Tale-gaters,” Gen Zers more interested in learning about athletes’ personal, behind-the-scenes lives rather than solely their athletic performance; and “Nu Third-Culture Kids,” or mixed-race or multicultural members of Gen Z who were raised in a culture different than those of their parents and turn to social media to seek out others with similar experiences. @laparasian any fellow third culture kids? 🙋🏻♀️ #tck #thirdculturekid #globalcitizen #relatable #immigrant ♬ original sound - laparasian Showing up in subcultures Connecting with consumers through these internet niches is a fine line for brands to walk, as Gen Z is quick to point out when a brand doesn’t truly understand a subculture or when its attempt to integrate itself within the niche is inauthentic, Gurevich said. Take Pepsi’s infamous commercial starring influencer Kendall Jenner, which was widely ridiculed for its clumsy attempt to appeal to young activists; or the backlash against Levi’s after the brand sought to cater to the importance of diversity among Gen Z by using AI to generate models with a range of body types and skin tones. Many consumers shared social media posts questioning why the brand didn’t just hire more diverse human models. @_ashleyvgraves nah this is insane #fyp #levis #foryou #viral #ai #diversityquota #models #greenscreen ♬ Monkeys Spinning Monkeys - Kevin MacLeod & Kevin The Monkey Before jumping into an internet niche with a social post or campaign, marketers should spend at least a month simply combing through related hashtags, posts and comments, and should set up an ongoing social listening system to stay tuned into key trends, vocabulary or creators within the community, Gurevich said. Unlike participating in a fleeting TikTok trend, which requires a brand to move quickly to avoid being considered out of touch, subcultures generally stick around for months or even years. Literature enthusiasts turned to “BookTube” on YouTube or Instagram’s “Bookstagram” communities for years before the emergence of BookTok. Duolingo, for instance, looked to its employees already active in the anime subculture to determine which references to various anime series and phrases popular among anime fans to include in social posts tied to its collaboration with streaming service Crunchyroll, Duolingo’s U.S. marketing director Michaela Kron previously told Ad Age. “The only thing worse than not thinking about social in this [subculture-oriented] way is thinking about social in this way but then just jumping into some subculture because you think it's cool, not because there's an actual connection to the brand,” Blue Hour Studios’ Higgins said. me pullin’ up to shibuya like:#JujustuKaisen #jjk https://t.co/rffvPq3akT pic.twitter.com/44RhzFgfLU— Duolingo (@duolingo) August 24, 2023 One reliable and Gen Z-tolerated gateway into online communities for brands is partnering with content creators popular in a specific niche, Higgins said. Those creators can either be Gen Zers who are deeply immersed in the subculture themselves, or older creators who “can speak to that subculture … and have a large amount of influence or a deep connection to it,” he said. To connect with Gen Z members of the BookTok community, for example, Penguin Random House hired two creators already participating in the niche to produce content for the publishing company’s TikTok account. Collaborations with brands already popular within a niche can also help a brand appeal to that subculture, said Aurelia Ammour, founder, strategist and advisor at Gen Z consultancy IconX Labs. She pointed to a 2021 partnership between luxury grunge fashion brand Rick Owens and footwear brand Dr. Martens, a longtime staple of the grunge fashion community. Rick Owens also collaborated with Converse and Adidas, also popular brands among Gen Z consumers, to boost brand awareness among younger fashion aficionados on social media and make its pricey products a bit more accessible, Ammour wrote in a newsletter. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Dr. Martens (@drmartensofficial) But these subcultures are increasingly pivoting from TikTok or Instagram feeds to engage with other members of the online communities in “more intimate spaces,” including Discord, WhatsApp or DMs on social platforms, Gurevich said. WhatsApp was Drone Racing League’s fastest-growing channel in 2023, league Chief Marketing Officer Anne Marie Gianutsos previously told Ad Age, and sports leagues such as Nascar have also leveraged these communities. But Gen Z’s movement from social media platforms—where marketers can easily see which posts or types of content they’re engaging with—to private channels is throwing a wrench into brand’s efforts to engage with consumers in those niches, Gurevich said. Though marketers can’t necessarily follow Gen Z consumers into those channels, brands can instead invite consumers to their own private communities on Discord or Geneva or foster community in other ways, Higgins said. “Traditional media planning tools aren't going to really be able to help us understand what's happening in those private chats or those Discords, whereas [on social media] we can see the signals from subcultures,” Higgins said. “We may not be able to activate in their private chats or in their private Discords, but what we can do is create opportunities to connect with them in more channels and spaces—everything from social to out-of-home—so they can feel seen and feel connected to the brand and to the community that they’re part of.”

Gen Z subcultures—what brands need to know to reach these niche communities

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