How to hit the Gen Z jackpot: What Gen Z want from promotions

In the face of great change in Brits’ lifestyles, new research from YouGov and partnerships and rewards agency Mando-Connect shows Britons’ affinity for promotions. The What The British Think Of Promotions report reveals that two thirds (66%) of the population take part in promotions, with eight in ten (80%) Brits believing they are a great way to reward customers and seven in ten (70%) thinking that all brands should offer them.

For this special edition, we look at What Gen Z think about Promotions, sharing exclusive research, data and insights, and our five top tips to hit the Gen Z jackpot: 

1.      Make it fun

Gamified promotions have really stepped up a gear this past year, with digital promotions often being the chosen route to engage customers in a safe and exciting way. It is proving to be a particularly big hit with Gen Z with 1 in 3 saying gamified promotions are fun (vs. 1 in 4 nat rep). Domino’s, everyone’s favourite stand at Freshers Week, had to switch strategy last year from giving away free pizza on campus as physical Freshers events were cancelled across the UK due to the pandemic. Instead they kept students engaged through an interactive scratchcard promotion where they gave away prizes such as free garlic breads and free pizza for the year. Kathy Connolly, Customer Acquisition Manager at Domino’s speaking at a Student Beans webinar earlier this year shared, “we have already increased our student market share by 10%”. Proving that adding gamification into your promotional strategy can return results.

2.      Increase the odds

The research shows that only 3% of Gen Z say they feel lucky and therefore can deter them from entering promotions. A simple way to make Gen Z feel lucky is through increasing the odds of winning. This can be done by providing prizes at different tiers ensuring that there is a high volume of prizes available to give participants that winning feeling. Smaller businesses have an advantage here with the new age of promotions that have taken over Instagram in that they can offer regular prize draws to smaller followings meaning the probability of winning is a lot higher. Mike’s Peckham is a great example of this with their latest give away of free pizza for a year to five lucky winners; with a 4k following on Instagram, the prize feels within reaching distance. For all brands, it’s a wake-up call to make your audience feel lucky by increasing the odds of winning.

3.      Share the winners’ stories

As well as not feeling lucky, the majority don’t take part in promotions because they don’t think they have a good chance of winning (12%). So brands also need to reassure Gen Z that there are winners and a great way to do that is by sharing winner testimonials via social channels. This can often be an afterthought by brands, and by that point contracts have been signed and those crucial permissions are absent from winners Ts & Cs meaning it’s too late. But brands should factor this into their planning because it is a great way to prove to your audience that people do win prizes. Also, unlike millennials who were previously a bit more precious, shall we say, about their personal brand, Gen Z are more willing to post and share content on their channels (thank you Tik Tok), making them the perfect advocates for your brand. Another clever way to do this is by encouraging users to share content as part of the competition mechanic, that way customers are already willingly giving their permission to use their images. Take this example by Boohoo who are offering their customers a chance to win £2000 by taking part in a walking challenge in which entry submission is by sharing and tagging Boohoo in their photo whilst they complete their 200k steps. This promotion therefore gives constant visibility to participants, and may even encourage others to take part. The promotion is still running but they have teed it up perfectly to share the Winner’s photo on their Instagram Stories, thus reassuring their audience that people do win.  

4.      Make it WOW

The most popular reason for taking part in a promotion is reward desirability (23%) aka. how mega is the prize and how badly do I want it? VOXI totally nailed this with their Christmas Spin to Win promotion where they gave away multiple PS5s which had completely sold out across the UK. The hype went on for months and VOXI users still talk about it being the greatest Drop now on their social channels. When Gen Z were asked what prize type would motivate them to enter a promotion, the most popular answers were money (57%), free products/services/experiences (41%), discounts (39%) and free content (22%). This is pretty much in line with Nat Rep however, Gen Z over index when it comes to free content. This is super interesting but not necessarily surprising for this digitally native generation that hails YouTube as their favourite social platform (source: Student Beans Report 2020). However, their expectations around free content as a prize will go beyond what is available on YouTube, and will need to feel like genuine value to them that they can’t get for free elsewhere e.g. free 12 month Spotify and Netflix subscriptions.

5.      Help them save money

In the last 6 months, the two most popular promotions Gen Z have taken part in are free shipping (29%) and money saving discounts (25%). As well as over-indexing in money back guaranteed promotions (8% vs 4% nat rep), showing just how important saving money is to this generation. ASOS was definitely ahead of the curve with the launch of their Premier delivery subscription service back in 2018, guaranteeing free shipping all year round at an affordable £9.95 and arguably, continues to be a Gen Z favourite for this very feature. Gen Z have aspirations of wealth and upward social mobility so brands that make them look good at lower costs will have the best engagement (source: Nerds, Street Culture Inspired Gen Z Report). Seun Winde has a whole Tik Tok channel dedicated to helping Gen Z save money, from recommendations of the best investment apps to just simply explaining what inflation means. When it comes to money-back guaranteed promotions, mattress brands like Eve often run 100-day money-back guaranteed trials allowing for more flexibility around high-ticket purchases. I’ve even heard stories that some are even savvy enough to line up trials back-to-back, so they delay payment for as long as possible. This is obviously not great for brands but does give insight into the money struggles this generation face. Brands are onto a winner if you can reward them with free shipping, discounts on the things they love and guarantee money back.

Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this special edition on Gen Z and what they want from promotions. So many great examples out there of brands doing it well already and thanks to new technologies being developed all the time, it is giving brands the opportunity to run promotions in fun and creative ways which is important when 1 in 3 of Gen Z are all about the fun. Increasing the odds to make them feel lucky and providing evidence of winners is essential to the success and participation of promotions. Equally, make sure the prize is so desirable that WhatsApp group chats are flooded with links to take part. Finally, help them climb up the social mobility ladder and reward them with money-saving promotions. Follow these five tips and you might just hit the Gen Z jackpot.

Visit the Mando-Connect website to download the full report if you would like to learn more about what all generations of Brits want from promotions.