How generations Y and Z are transforming our companies – or are they talking absolute Gronkh?

Digitization How generations Y and Z are transforming our companies – or are they talking absolute Gronkh?

Published on 09.10.2019 by Felix Beilharz, social media expert

It must have happened sometime in recent years – I’ve grown old. I didn’t notice it, at least not at first. But the signs are spreading and I can’t deny it any longer. It’s especially clear when I see the differences between how the younger generation and I use media.

Have you ever heard of Gronkh for instance? As a savvy digital marketer perhaps, but certainly not as a “regular” person over 35. Gronkh simply passes us by in our everyday reality.

But he’s extremely relevant. Maybe not for us, but for the future. To me, he’s a symbol of a parallel society developing in the younger generation, one which has not established itself enough in companies.

Gronkh is a “Let’s Player”, meaning he records himself playing and commenting on computer games and posts this online in various age-appropriate categories. His daily videos run for up to 40 minutes. Surely no-one watches these seriously?

Let’s take a look at the viewing figures of the Gronkh channel. He’s an online German celebrity without an advertising budget, brand strategy handbook or team of advisors who at the time of writing is approaching three billion views! Three billion. And we’re not talking about 10-second mini-videos watched by someone in an advertising break instead of going to the loo or getting something from the fridge, but episodes with a running time of an average TV series episode.

Hardly any of the viewers are likely to be over 35. Most are under 25, some considerably younger.

Gronkh is certainly not the only one. The German Let’s Play market is huge with hundreds of players, some of whom have enormous reach and fame (at least among young people).

Does Ninja mean anything to you? He’s another very popular gamer (or Esports player) known around the world who has featured heavily in the media over recent months. He is planning to stream his games on the Microsoft platform Mixer in future, instead of on Twitch. Industry insiders estimate he’ll get 50 million dollars for doing so… oh yes, and in June, Ninja became the sports personality with the highest number of interactions on the social web – more than Cristiano Ronaldo. And you’ve probably never heard of him…

And it doesn’t end with Let’s Play and Esports. Rezo has publicly shamed the major political parties. Bibi achieved one of the most successful product launches in the cosmetics sector in recent years. And young people now only make purchase decisions on the recommendations of their preferred influencer.

Those of us working in marketing need to take a close look at this communication and consumer behaviour. This isn’t to force ourselves into the young people’s market, but because the young will continue to use media in a similar way as they get older. And that’s a world away from the everyday reality of us suit-wearing, DVD-watching, “experienced” marketers.

Felix Beilharz speaks on this topic at Connecta Bern.

Felix Beilharz, social media expert, Cologne

Felix Beilharz is “one of the leading consultants in online and social media marketing” (RTL). A writer of seven books and lecturer at several universities and colleges, he gives talks around the world and also advises and trains companies in how to successfully utilize online marketing and social media.

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