 I'm Rajni, like the host just introduced. Today we are going to be doing a discussion on the impact of Gen Z on brand building. Do we have a lot of Gen Zs here? I think I see some. Maybe you all can wave out, show your enthusiasm a little bit, because that's what we're going to be talking about today, right? About how y'all are impacting brands who've been here for so many years, and they have to change their marketing strategies to sort of reach out to you, make sure you consume their products, buy their products, et cetera. So here for all the Gen Z in the room, guys. Of what we know as Gen Zs, we are all digitally native, right? We've grown up with internet in our lives. We adapt very, very quickly to technology. And if we can sense an influencer collaboration from miles away, if someone is trying to sell us something, we're just like, please, guys, stop it. I know you're trying to sell me stuff, right? Marketing to an audience like that who's so aware is quite a bit of challenge, especially for brands who've been here for years. And they are all learning newer ways to sort of reach y'all and understand the audience better. So today, that's what we're going to do with the panel here. They're going to break down what they see all as consumers. What are the challenges we face in sort of marketing to Gen Z audiences? And then what are the good parts about doing all of it together, right? I'm going to open with Pradhania. I think let's delve a little bit in understanding Gen Z first. So how does Gen Z differ from millennials, boomers, all of us sitting on the stage in terms of values and priorities? And how do you think that affects the purchasing decisions? So I would like to call out the three things mainly in the Gen Z. One, that they are digital natives, right? So they are much ahead and they are more savvy than a million years. Number two is I think they are a silent generation because they are discovering, learning, revalidating, and being on a social platform, online platform so much that they are making judgments also. So therefore, whatever you have to really understand what they are up to, to really make a difference and start having an impact. And the third thing is they just don't have patience. I mean, I search on the internet that what is their attention span. And the last study was 2015, which is eight seconds. But I don't think it's eight seconds. It's just a split of a second. So it's really challenging stuff. Eight seconds is what Meta's trying to sell to you. And the thing is Gen Z's are from 12 years to 27 years. And 12 to 14 will behave differently from 14 to 16 and 16 to 18. So there are so many cohorts within that Gen Z. So it's like you have to have a different strategy. Just for an example, for Samsonite, it would be mainly 24 plus. And therefore, what is it that we are doing? It's basically Gen Z is all about authenticity. So we are taking the route of tell what you actually mean, walk the talk. And we are taking this realistic approach and our authenticity to show what we are. While for the American tourists from, actually, we have a primary age group also. So we are doing a lot of stuff, which is at the last mile, how we can make a difference. Simple like a 12-year kid can get to know, scan a QR code, and check what they can pack in a bag. For a 20-year-old, especially those who are looking for going abroad, we have a different type of content and the products introduced so that they can pack more. Like a volume is their best concern. And that is what we are providing them. And all that communication is provided to them between July till December so that they can reach out to. So there are like 1,000 ways. And we are doing a lot of, it's never enough. But yeah, we're trying to put in our efforts in each way to have us impact and get their mind space. That's good to know. In fact, purchasing decisions of Gen Z is something, it's very, very difficult to predict. So it's good that you're trying multiple things. That's how we get it. My next question is for Sanjana. What are some common misconceptions about Gen Z that brands should avoid? We've seen a lot of examples of force-fitting Gen Z into this certain type-casted audience. What are those misconceptions if you can highlight some? Thanks for the question, Rajni. So I think a lot of us believe or a lot of brands even believe that Gen Z has this fleeting attention, like we just spoke about, even in terms of, let's say, sticking loyal to a brand as such, I've found that to be not true. I think if you are being authentic, right, like was just mentioned, if you're being more authentic, more real, walking the talk, like she mentioned, and on top of that, if you're providing them the right value, they're just very value-conscious. They're constantly seeing and evaluating your brand that if you're giving them their money's worth or they'll definitely switch, right? How we try to go about that at Triya is essentially that it's not just that, okay, we made a sale to you of a hair treatment plan and then, okay, you're on your own. We are providing a lot of value in terms of free follow-up consultations. Is there a doctor intervention needed at some stage if they are not seeing results with the brand, right? And all these are additional complimentary services that we try to provide to keep this audience hooked to us. I'll agree that they're still low on, let's say, patients, like someone who's a 35 plus 40-year-old customer that we'll have. If you tell them you have to take this treatment for eight months, 10 months, they'll do it, right? They'll just stick to it. Gen Z will need a lot more hand-holding and support and constant reassurance that this will work, constant motivation that this will work. You know, why don't you just stick to it for another month and you'll see the positive outcomes for yourself. So I think it's just about providing value and being real with them and they'll definitely be loyal as well. That's quite right because I think very recently I heard that boomers had a lot more income at the age that Gen Z are right now in terms of disposable. So definitely they need to be value conscious about everything and I think Gen Z also has a lot more options available, right? Which we didn't or boomers didn't have in their times. So great, thank you, Sanjana. Next one for you, Tashar. How is Gen Z shaping expectations for brand communications, you know? Like, for a brand like Bislady who's been around for so long, how do you align yourself to a newer audience, a newer messaging and sort of attract and reel them in? So, I mean, I've kind of lost my voice because I was at Lola Polosa last week. So I'll try to make myself heard. So yes, did what the Gen Zs do, right? But for any brand today, you know, especially a legacy brand, there is a transformation of the brand which happens between generations. And it's important that you understand the next generation as a brand as well. One of the things about Gen Z and the role of water is what we've kind of researched with them is what does hydration means to Gen Z, right? And they would ask a question like, what do you do to keep healthy? So there's two things. We exercise and we have water, right? So hydration is a very, very important point. It's beyond the functionality of water just to quench your thirst. It's a way of life. It's about staying fit. And that's when our journey began with sports marketing, you know, a couple of years back where we associated first with the pro-cam marathons, right? And then we launched this campaign called Carrier Game where we had four award-winning national athletes on board and we made a DVC, right? Very high octane talking about what the role of water is in a sportsperson life. And since then we've forged many sports associations. We have four IPL teams as hydration partners. We have five ISL teams. We did the national games. We did table tennis. We did Commonwealth. Now we've just done Dubai marathon as well and we've got five teams in the Dubai IoT20 as well. So we are changing the role of water to something which enables peak performance, fitness, health. And in the post-pandemic world, that's a concern with everybody, not just Gen Zs, right? And we've taken that mantle and there is a lot of exciting stuff coming from us. Now we went a step further. We are saying that, you know, how do we make everyday hydration fun? And that's when we got Deepika Padukone on board as a brand ambassador, right? She's a global youth icon today, right? And who better to spread the message that hydration is fun, hydration is cool? Water is the only beverage, right? You don't need anything else. And we got this fantastic video which was shot by Prakash Verma as well. So we are going all about Gen Z as far as brand communication is concerned, right? And we're getting really good response as well. All our online metrics have got a 98, 99% approval metrics as well. So I think for a brand to be future ready, you have to also talk to the consumer of the future. That's very interesting. I think what I took away from that is more of aligning with where your audience lies in their interests, like in sports, in finding the right key KOL and sort of getting there to meet them is how to attract Gen Z. I think for Chirudha and Ravi, open question, Gen Z is an important audience, right? For both cosmetics, L'Oreal Paris in general and for Tim Hortons considering the hottest international brand in India, right? What are your biggest challenges in reaching Gen Z? Considering you are a brand that's already Gen Z-friendly, but what are the challenges that you face if you can highlight that for us? I think the biggest challenge is learning the language and the slang, but jokes apart. I think this is a generation that's grown up on a lot of awareness and a lot of acceptance. So I think these two factors present both a challenge and an opportunity. Why I say awareness is because the world is connected. They are ahead of beauty trends even before we can tap into them. They know the 20-step Korean skin regime before we launch any products in that zone. So they constantly keep us on our toes and we have to reinvent in terms of innovations, the new products that we get into market, the claims that we have on our products, which influencers are we collaborating with, how digital first are we? And I think our entire strategy then is revolving around that because while this generation is just coming into adulthood, it's very critical for us to portray them and keep them at the forefront of, as our core brand TG, when we design communication. That's one. The second thing is about acceptance, right? Because it's a woke generation. There are a lot of different kinds of cohorts within the generation. So you will have extremely opposite cohorts and both coexisting, right? So people who have maybe never read books to those who are complete geeks and all the different types. So you have to cater to the vegans, you have to cater to gluten-free requirements and maybe even more so for you. But the challenge and the opportunity is how do you keep abreast of all these new trends, have your products integrated and have those claims on packs, build your credit as a brand. But at the same time, through the use of digital marketing, you can very much shop shoot these different cohorts. And I think that's a beautiful opportunity for us and we do that at L'Oreal. Yeah, I'll just add to what Charuta said here, right? So when we all talk about what is our TG and for a brand like Tim Hortons, right? When we define in a typical marketing manner, right? Oh, 18 to 35, urban audience, you know, upper NCCS and that's the general demographic that one speaks, right? And like Charuta said, right, within this 18 to 35 also, there are a lot of sub-TGs and one of them is Gen Z, a higher TG or higher consumption, cohort is still millennials. But even in today's day, there was a time when we used to say that coffee starts maybe at 24, 25, your teeth will get black or we are a T nation by large. But now, I mean, I've seen my cafes all the time, even 12, 13 years old are having a frappuccino and black coffees and that's how the habit has changed. And I think the challenge and opportunity lies in this single statement that they are brutally honest and authentic. You can't, as a brand, you can't bluff around them. And let me give you an example, right? In our cafe, we generally do a very quick and dirty test with our consumers, right? When we're coming with a new product, we just go around sampling it and we take a response. And my brand manager was doing that and I was sitting there and observing what responses are coming. And there's this group of millennials who were, and the drink was popcorn latte. So we were trying something different. We wanted to come out with a winter offering and there is a coffee with a popcorn on it. And there's this millennial cohort who said, yeah, it's good but I would still prefer my latte and cappuccino or hazelnut americano or whatnot, right? And then there is this group of young, maybe 13, 14 years old and we went to them and they were like, I don't like it, what is this? I don't want popcorn in my coffee, man, give me a coffee. So they are brutally honest and that was pushes the boundary to the brand as well that you can't, there were days where things were brushed under the carpet if I can say that, but you can't do that anymore. All this habit of the back of the pack coming at the front of the pack, reading every label, being conscious about every calories that they are having, every interactions that they are having, that has to be brutally honest. Let me give one more example, right? We speak about sustainability and Gen Zs are very sustainable and everything, right? From the product to the packaging to the experience. And we get enough queries on our Instagram always that hey, but is your economy whole circular? What is the carbon footprint that you have recovered? What is, okay, your cups are paper, but what about the straws, right? And they're observing all this and that really pushes the boundary to the brand to go more authentic, more truthful in our communication, in all our approach. So I think that's both a challenge because overall the industry has not evolved to that stage as yet unfortunately India, but there are ways in which all the brands are working towards, but it's also a great opportunity because going ahead, the products, the brands, the services will get much more truthful, much more honest in their offering. And I see that as a huge opportunity lying ahead of us. I think Gen Z is really pushing brands to do better. And I think that's a wonderful thing for our world in general, at least for the generation that's coming. We'll quickly move on to sort of understanding now what are some effective ways that you'll have seen, you know, opportunities or things that you all have done to attract Gen Z and how that's worked. So Pradneya, Sanjana, if y'all can add on a little bit on this on some effective strategies that y'all have used from your business lens because I think both of y'all come from very different backgrounds. So the first and foremost would be social media and mainly the Instagram, which we have used really well for the Gen Zs and all about social media is all about two way communication and we're trying to be true to that. Having many, many, many interactive formats so that there is a lot of interaction engagement with the Gen Z. The second thing is, you know, using the creators to generate the content because anyways, the Gen Zs are from the creator economy and who best to entertain them if not the creators themselves, you know, themselves. So we use a lot of these creators to have the smaller form of content and the third thing is tech, you know. We are still work in progress. We have not used it to the fullest. We are not yet experimenting here. We are because that's require a good amount of capex but a smaller tech like, you know, the interactive platforms, the filters, the remixing on Instagram. Right now we are talking about the sensory tech, you know. So all these platforms we are surely exploring so that we give them the better experience of the communication than just a piece of, you know, 10 second communication. Yeah. Quite an interesting one, this one for me, have built a lot of learnings on this lately, right? There's enough been emphasized about how this generation is very aware, right? Now what that leads to is that they question every communication, okay? I have so many Gen Z customers and even we want to question testimonials because they're like every brand has these on their website now, right? These are shot by you, okay? So then we said, fine. We stopped shooting them in a studio. We said, we asked our customers to, you know, send them, send us their videos self-recorded on their phone in their natural home backgrounds, tried those, they said, no, it's still, you can hire anybody to do that, right? Then we started talking more about Google reviews that, okay, this is not now our testimonials, right? But now they also question that, that it's not so tough to plan fake reviews by your own team on Google, right? So now we are having to take steps beyond that, like doing clinical studies with third party authorities that are, that listen, here is our customer base. You do a study on how much results they've seen, what not, what's the efficacy like and you publish it on your portal. So we're having to really evolve in terms of just making them believe that this works, especially in an industry like hair loss, because people have tried everything before they come to try out. They have gone to a dermat, they have tried homopathy, they have tried mommy can use hair, right? They've gone to everything and even anti hair fall shampoo, hair oil and nothing has worked. So now this is not a generation that fall into the trap of claims like, okay, within seven washes your hair fall will reduce by 80%. So it's also the fact that I feel we are refreshingly honest at Triah in terms of saying, paanch maheena lagega. You have to stick to this routine. It is going to be tough. You will need the patience, but this is the only way to kind of go about it. Talking beyond that, I think with Gen Z it's also experimenting with a lot of ad formats, like going beyond a face to camera. It's not enough to grab their attention for long, especially when you have long format explainer videos about a treatment like solution, right? So what we realized is that things like podcasts work really well for us. You'll see our founder herself going to so many podcasts, you know, beer, biceps and we, those are the kind of things that work and not, you know, doctor explainer videos who are talking in a monologue with her. So it's a lot of formats and then the finer details. I think it's with them, it's not enough anymore to just focus on the right media and engaging content. It's so much in the finer details, like the thumbnail design for your video, having click betty copies on the headline and description. Look at brands experimenting and getting so creative with just emojis in the push notifications you guys get on your phone now. Because insane results in terms of spiking your CTRs, right? So it's a lot in the finer details like the hashtags also you're using for YouTube SEO and stuff like that. So yeah, I think we try to inculcate a culture of a lot of creative experimentation at Draya and even A-B test creatives in this audience to see that what works and what doesn't. I think all the Gensis here, you all are really making the brand's work hard. This is like really tough. A-B testing creatives and copies is like the most excruciating task for an agency, trust me. Great, moving on to Tushar. Can you highlight some emerging trends, tech, that you see that brands are connecting with, especially with data, personalization, everything that you're seeing, expecting, they're expecting even more of that to happen. Any of that you could highlight for us? I mean, when you think about water, the first thing which comes to your mind is distribution. Oh my God, it's gonna be so bulky. How are we gonna, you know, transport it around? And one of the things that if you look at Gensis today, everything is online. Everything is required at the click of a button. Everything is required yesterday, right? How do we address that as a brand? And as a water brand, right? So we started our journey with our own D2C app during COVID, in fact, where water became an essential requirement for everybody. It's called Bisleri at the doorstep. But when we delve deeper into the lives of Gen Z and what it's all about, and we came across with a campaign called a Bisleri apne app aega, where a Gen Z spent a cat, actually, it's so easy to order water online, right? And that business for us has grown manifold year after year after year. It's really taken off, and that's where most of our gallon or 20 liter jar, a lot of our sales have shifted off to, where a lot of Gen Z are ordering that. The second growth lever for us when it comes to these online spaces, quick comms. So when you look at the Blinkwits, the Instamarts, and Zepto's of the world, right? That's where a lot of our smaller packs are going, foreign home consumption, the parties, and the digitalization trend for a category like water, almost three to 4% of our overall volumes have now transferred digital for a category like water. So when you look at the other trends, when it comes to tech and Gen Z, of course, digital is where Gen Z are today, connected TVs on the mobile phones. So you will see a lot of shift of media expenditure also happening over to digital bit, and but what will also happen is that for, especially for an FMCG mass brand, it has to be an integrated campaign. Campaign cannot just run on one channel. The same message has to go now on TV. For your consumption audience, you're 30 years old, 40 years old, especially if you look at mass Bharat, right? That's where your TV is there. But Gen Z Connect, it is digital. There is a lot of experiential play which is also going on today with events coming on to four, everybody's out on the street. So one campaign has to have multiple legs which run across different media vehicles, right? It's just not a question of being present in one media vehicle today. That's great. Would any of you would like to add on to this question in terms of trend, tech? I think it's a relevant question for all brands nowadays. Yeah, just building on to what's been discussed, I think it's about integrated media and integrated communication. So even the pieces of communication that we design, and I have seen this in my last 15 years, how things have changed from a 42nd one ad that we would make, a 40, a 35, a 30 at best, we'd ended there. Now, 30 seconds are something that we don't even think of, even on TV, because it's just that nobody has that kind of mind space. So it's getting shorter and shorter in terms of the average commercial duration as we speak. And the messaging also is much, much more mass personalized. So there is a recent campaign that we have done on hair color, on L'Oreal Paris hair color called My Hair Color, My Expression, with four digital stars, Kirti Kulhari, Bani Jai. Yeah, with the four more shots, please. Yes, yes, yes. And the content that we have created with them is not just the basic TVC, IMC, but even their individual stories on hair coloration, their authentic stories on what is their relationship. And for somebody like Kirti, she's always been very, very experimentative with her hair. But for somebody like Shaiyani, she never colored her hair before the shoot. So we then used that communication we created to tap into those cohorts of people, people who buy hair color online, people who have never bought hair color online, extremely experimental people. So currently there is a huge trend happening in the hair color space in terms of bright, vibrant colors. So you have the entire gamut of audiences and that's how we are really tapping into the different cohorts. Like I said earlier, it's a huge opportunity. They keep us on our toes really there. So like going from one ad to now making for different cohorts, I think that's been the change. Anyone else would like to add on? I'll be moved to the next question. I think this one's open to all of you. How do you see yourself, future-proofing yourself to stay relevant? Because it's not just about making one big moment, catching their attention because the span of attention is like, so how do you stay relevant throughout? And if you are future-ready in terms of your strategies to stay in touch with Gen Zs, I think we can start with you. So I think the number one is we all have spoken about it, but I think one is the relevancy to be relevant all the time, and therefore you have to continuously know it or continuously offer something which is relevant at that point in time. There are many occasions which are happening, there are stay occasions which are happening, therefore we coming up with a smaller day bags or the smaller holiday bags, you know, that's how you stay relevant in terms of the product offering also and the communication also. Second thing is about authenticity and credibility that you have to have. Whatever you're talking about, a brand promise and the values needs to be showcased and needs to be put up there so that they, and on a continuous basis, the third thing is about, you know, being there in a shorter format, you know, because and therefore all those teasers, which even I never would like to, you know, watch teasers, but doubt is I believe in teasers, therefore if at all they want to watch more, they can always go on a longer format. And the lastly is today, even from the first standard, kids are, you know, kids are taught about the social responsibility, inclusivity, diversity. They have a global warming subject in physics also in geography also, you know, so therefore how in the future, we can have a lesser carbon footprints, you know, and move to the sustainable product development, I think this way we can be relevant to the audience always. Yeah, I'll just add to what you said, right? I have a bit of a cheat code here. The way to stay connected with Gen Z is to have a team which is Gen Z. So that's what I do, my brand managers and, you know, my team is all Gen Z and they explain what it's like. You know, I would never get it, right? So I think, you know, it's, I mean, we all speak about it's important for us to walk in our customer shoes and, you know, be completely aware on their day life and, you know, day in their life and be completely aware on their touch points. And I think all that is important, but unless, you know, the team is really thinking, feeling and doing what your cohort, which is Gen Z, are doing, you know, you won't go far as a brand. So that's my mantra. And the team, this is on? Yeah. Sure. And that's the thing. I think I learn a lot from my team in terms of how to go about it. And that, you know, like the Gen Z, the team is also pretty vocal. It's more like a creative and I've proved it. They'll say to my face, no, it's not going out. And that's what I appreciate about them, right? So it's about, you know, you have to have a team who really, really walks the shoes and not just, you know, gather insights from a research or just from a secondary thing. You have to really be at it. I think just one last thing to that. I think within Gen Z also, of course, they have different preferences. They don't want to feel that you're spamming them, right? We're also evolving in terms of, you know, checking with each user, would you like us to do a follow up consultation on call? Within that, would you want it through call or through chat or you want us to not bother you at all? What's your way of going about it? And then truly personalizing the experience for them. And even in terms of data privacy, if you're asking for any data, we are now starting to tell them why we are asking for it and exactly where it will be used and going through more and more opting models, making more and more things optional in terms of what they are comfortable sharing or not. So... I mean, if you see the Insta Bio of any 20-year-old today, there'll be three things written over there, right? There'll be advertising executive in the day, poet by night, tracker in my holidays, right? So if your consumer today has multiple personalities, does not want to be identified by one personality, as a brand, you cannot just have one conversation with the consumer. You need to have multiple conversations with the consumer. There has to be a many-me aspect to the brand as well, right? And they're very important. For example, if you look at water, we've got the sports marketing program going on called Carrier Game. We've got Drink It Up going on, Hydration Fund. We've got Greener Promise, which is going on for sustainability as well, right? We've got a Bisseri App Aiga for our digital footprint, right? So we're having four different conversations with the consumers on four topics relevant to them, right? And you've got to keep them engaging. And what is also important today is that in the moment marketing, right? It's extremely important to take because this is a work audience. This is an audience which is on digital, Twitter, Insta, every day. You need to be hyper-local with your approach, right? I mean, we do about 12 to 15 limited editions a year. Whichever movie, you know, sort of kind of resonates with us. We've done from Javan to Ekta Tiger. Now we've done Dunke, we've done Fighter, we've done RRR, we've done Vikram, Jailer. All of these limited edition short birds have got us a lot of traction, especially with the Gen Z audience who's spoken about it, right? So as a brand, you need to have multiple and exciting communication with your consumers and that's going to bear rich fruits to everyone. I think that gets us to work news. What I understand from and what my takeaways from today's discussion are that Gen Z is not taking any bullshit. They're making you work for their worth. And it's also the most purpose driven generation, right? More than millennials and boomers have ever been because that's their point of focus. It was different for millennials, different for boomers for Gen Z. It's more about getting their worth, more being more purpose driven. And they sort of expect brands to do the same, right? They, I don't think you're like being sold to, so I'm not going to sell this panel also. But I think that's what is one of the key takeaways that they want to be co-creators, involve them in it, make them feel that they are part of the process of creating, bringing about that change, even in terms of sustainability, even in terms of the measures that you're taking to reduce the carbon footprint, et cetera. I think that's very key. And I think if we all in the room think that marketing changed when millennials became the target audience, I think Gen Z's in, it's giving us a tough time. So I think that's going to be worth it when we get out towards the end of it. Closing that for today, thank you so much for being a lovely audience. Thank you so much for being a lovely panel.