Why Cop When You Could Collaborate?
As the gatekeepers of the culture, Gen Z has a natural talent for creating. Since the day we hopped on IG we’ve been curating our self image and aligning ourselves with brands who align with that image, and creating content for those brands naturally. The rise of social media created a different career path. The opportunity to go viral allowed us to have our moment on a “blue check” branded page or on the rare occasion, a chance to collaborate. Who better to create a product for me, than me.
“Who better to create a product for me, than me.”
In a world where collaboration is at the forefront of almost every brand as a means to tap in with Gen Z and its pillars of culture, I find myself asking why don’t brands tap more of Gen Z as a means to organically do so? Gen Z has time and time again shown our affinity to collaborate not only amongst ourselves but with brands. Hidden NY, for example, who has moved past the “Instagram moodboard” to transcend into a sought after clothing brand who’s done collaborations with brands like Needles, Salomon, Blue Bottle and even Squarespace all without ever revealing the owners ID.
Brands don’t take advantage of those reaching out to them enough. While seeing influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers pushing product is entertaining, it’s played out. It’s time for us to be included, pre-marketing phase, as more than product pushers. The taste makers are changing and by the time big brands realize this, the co-sign they’d have to offer will be near irrelevant if values and creative views don’t align, especially once said brand gets validity from their own community.
“It’s time for us to be included, pre- marketing phase, as more than product pushers.”
Our generation prefers original, authentic or weird clothing. We believe in being Instagram influencers, editing photos, making memes, and creating digital art online. Gen Z are highly creative and we believe that our style would be part of a purpose one day. A lot of the Gen Z influence imbedded within social media is more prevalently found within TikTok and Instagram, with more trends being broadcasted on an easier plane of consumption.
Fashion trends are essentially derived from brands sending scouts out to more fashion-oriented areas like Soho or the Garment District and documenting the more prevalent brands or styles in rotation –– and basically going based
“But why just capture our styles when you have the opportunity to co-create them with us?”
off of that. But why just capture our styles when you have the opportunity to co-create them with us? A dichotomy also exists that divides Gen Z into true creatives that make art out of their outfits, and those who purely put clothes on for their monetary value and nothing else. Like Wisdom [Kaye] being on Rick Owens page to promote the drop of a restock of Kiss heels is something so subtle and simple that gives back to the community and brings us into the conversation where an image can be co-created rather than just used for targeting us.
The Takeaway
Gen Z is the ideal group for both collaboration with brands and the target for the ensuing organic branded content. Both highly creative natural story-tellers and experts on our communities, brands should bring us into the creative process vs simply targeting Gen Zers. Brands should tap Gen Z creatives to generate products and campaigns that are uniquely guided to match our energy as a whole, giving back to our community and bringing us into the conversation.