Zach Rozga shared his entrepreneurial growth journey as founder and CEO of Thece, a streaming platform for the Gen Z gaming community.   Zach is a serial entrepreneur and marketing veteran who observed during COVID that media behaviors were changing and accelerating. His conclusion: Gen Z and gaming was maturing as a massive opportunity for relationship building and marketers.

Highlights from the discussion:

• Gen Z, a generation long viewed as the generation of the future has reached young adulthood.  Some are in their early 20’s, college graduates, with disposable income and with mature and sophisticated perspectives.  As digital and mobile natives, they are sensitive to interruptive advertising and an overabundance of programmatic and behaviorally targeted ads.  
• Starting with an audience-first mentality is the most effective way for brands to lead in any new media opportunity.  Put yourself in the shoes of that audience.  Ask yourself, “what would you would want to receive and find valuable in that context?”  What would you consider to be an authentic experience?  Great modern marketing today builds relationships.  It’s less about volume of impressions and more about time-spent and engagement.  
• An early growth moment for Thece was when a client didn’t ask the team to trim their RFP proposal, but actually to expand it and then apply a YouGov brand research study to the partnership.  Not only did the Thece partnership deliver on the Fortune 5 brand’s reach goals for Gen Z, but also uncovered new opportunities around diversity within that Gen Z audience universe.  The teams’ growth learning was that reaching diverse, new audiences is often the simplest and most effective way for marketers to drive growth.  Indeed, diversity is a powerful driver of growth.
• It’s often hard for brands and agencies to say yes to testing new channels, partners and ideas.  But being a strategic first mover focused on authentic experience and relationships can pay huge dividends.
• The world of marketing can often act like a pendulum swing.  A great experience takes off, then a tendency to over exploit that media opportunity alienates consumers and audiences.  Marketers need to be aware of where the media universe is in that pendulum swing.  Currently, the social media world may be in the process of swinging back from over indulgences to something that is more balanced and true to quality experience.  

Zach’s perspective on trends in the media landscape, evolving media behaviors, Gen Z, and successful business building is a powerful story of media entrepreneurship rooted in authentic commitment to quality experiences.  To learn more about Thece, check out their website, here, or connect further on their LinkedIn page, here.  

Pod and article originally published here.

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