Let’s just state the obvious. If you want to capture the interest of Gen Z, an ad on a local TV channel or a neighborhood billboard won’t cut it.
“You can’t market to everyone at the same time,” said Geoff Alexander, president and CEO of Wow Bao, during a panel discussion at the Food On Demand Conference, moderated by Managing Editor Bernadette Heier. “You have to use the media based on who is using that media. You have to go where that audience will listen to you.”
For young consumers, that often means gaming platforms.
“We partner with the online-game platform Roblox,” Alexander said. “It helps us talk to this generation. We created a scavenger-hunt game and connected it to our loyalty program.”
“The key is storytelling,” said Shawn Walchef, founder of Cali BBQ, a San Diego-based restaurant with three locations. He also launched Cali BBQ Media, which helps hospitality brands grow through strategic content. Walchef hosts a popular podcast and regularly shares content on TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms.
“You have to be the show, not the commercial,” he said. “People don’t like to be advertised to. You need to entertain or educate. You need to be authentic.”
Stacey Kane, CMO of Emerging Brands, endorses this philosophy.
“Gen Z sees when you are trying to sell them on something,” she said. “You can’t pull one over on them. If you’re not authentic you’re going to get canceled, and once you’re canceled it’s hard to creep back into the zeitgeist.”
She offers an example of a campaign she used to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Mamoun’s, the oldest falafel shop in New York City.
Stacey Kane, CMO of Emerging Brands
“You don’t celebrate something like that by offering a $1.99 sandwich,” she said. “So we asked consumers to tell us about their favorite Mamoun’s memory. We got so many entries that we didn’t have to shoot content for a year and a half.”
Maintaining a steady online presence is valuable, even if your audience is small.
“I built a media company on top of a restaurant,” said Walchef. His point: in today’s world, every business is also a content business.
But that doesn’t mean it has to be a heavy lift. Walchef emphasizes simplicity: you don’t need fancy equipment or big budgets. Just grab your smartphone.
“Sometimes I’ll go live and show our pitmaster Bernice fabricating 150 racks of ribs,” he said. “It’s raw, real, and it personalizes our story.”
“Your videos don’t need to be perfect; they just need to be authentic,” said Walchef. “You don’t need to wait until you have 100,000 followers to get started.”
Don’t let perfectionism hold you back. When evaluating your mobile offerings and strategies, keep this in mind: “We can’t all be Starbucks or Chipotle. But there’s technology available to enhance the consumer experience. You should at least give these tools a try,” said Alexander.
