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Behind the Numbers: an EMARKETER Podcast
Behind The Numbers: How Gen Alpha Is Spending Their Digital Time and Where They Are Heading Next | Feb 10, 2025
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- [00:00]
Marcus
Did you know 70% of CMOs are now responsible for steering their company's AI initiatives? Find out what it takes to be a successful CMO in this new AI powered era of marketing. Download their playbook driving growth in the AI era, exclusively from Zeta Global. Link in the show notes. Hey, gang. It's February 10th. Power. It's also Monday. That's what I usually tell people, but you know that because it's today. Unless you listen to it another time and then it's whatever day you're listening to it on. Wow. Hideous introduction. Power. Jenny and listeners, welcome to behind the Numbers new marketer video podcast made possible by Zeta Global. I'm Marcus, and today we'll be discussing little people, Gen Alpha, the littlest of generations, and what's going on with those folks. But today I'm joined for the conversation by two people. Let's meet them. We start with our analyst based in New York, it's Paola Flores Marquez.
- [01:00]
Paola Flores Marquez
Hi, Marcus. Thank you for inviting me.
- [01:02]
Marcus
Of course. Thank you for being here. We're also joined by our vice president of all the research, also living in New York, it's Jennifer Pearson.
- [01:11]
Jennifer Pearson
Hi, thanks for having me, Jenny.
- [01:13]
Marcus
Okay, today's fact. Where did Braille come from? So, Braille, universally accepted system of writing used by and for people who are blind. It consists of a code of 63 characters, each made up of one to six raised dots arranged in a six position matrix or cell. And these braille characters are embossed in lines on paper and read by passing your fingers lightly over the manuscript. According to Britannica Lewis, Braille, who was blinded at the age of three, invent the system in 1824 whilst he was a student at the National Institute for Blind Children in Paris. Remarkable. What a contribution. Just amazing. And three, six, young age. I don't know when he exactly invented it. Hope he wasn't three.
- [02:11]
Paola Flores Marquez
Marcus. I thought this was going to be a trivia question. I was so ready. I was ready.
- [02:15]
Marcus
Oh, sorry.
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Paola Flores Marquez
I think.
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Marcus
Oh, should I wait? Should I? You were going to guess who invented.
- [02:21]
Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, I thought it was a game.
- [02:23]
Jennifer Pearson
You did ask, I think.
- [02:24]
Marcus
Sorry, I did ask, but I don't want to put you on the spot because then, who knows? Everyone wants it to be. Susie was asking me today. She was like, when did it bring the games back? I'm like, settle down, Susie. Okay? You get out of control when we make it a competition. And power as well.
- [02:39]
Paola Flores Marquez
Apparently you work with a bunch of people who analyze data for a living. Like, this is exciting for us.
- [02:45]
Marcus
Next time, a Real question with. With a game, I promise. Sorry about that. Gave you the answer. Anyway, today's real topic, Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha is who we're discussing. What does that mean? Let's start with that. Jenny, who are Gen Alpha?
- [03:05]
Paola Flores Marquez
Sure.
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Jennifer Pearson
They're born. They're children ages 1 to 12. And this is our new emarketer definition this year. So born in 2013-2024, and I'll give a sneak peek. Our forecasts are gonna break out this generation starting in a couple months. You'll see it with some YouTube forecasts, some CTV forecasts, and eventually our social forecast. So hot off the press.
- [03:30]
Marcus
Very nice. So last year, Sarah Lebo, who hosts the reimagined retail show, she pointed out that Gen Alpha was the second digitally native generation after Gen Z. But I feel like Gen Alpha, they're hyper digitally native because Gen Z kids, a lot of them, especially older ones, had older millennial siblings, but these are now like entirely digitally native kid households per se. And also, Paolo, the iPad kids is another name for them, correct?
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Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, yeah. They're the first generation to grow up with iPads is like a readily available piece of technology. And so it's kind of. They actually have higher rates of iPad usage than the general population because, you know, it's something that the parents can monitor. They can access their favorite apps on it, you can put games on it, and like, it's mobile, which is really helpful to parents when they're on the move.
- [04:24]
Marcus
Yeah. So the iPad kids, Gen Alpha, we know what ages they are, but how many of them are there? Jenny, is a kind of slice of the world of the population. How big is this group?
- [04:36]
Jennifer Pearson
Yeah, about 14% of the population right now are ages 1 to 12. So a pretty sizable group.
- [04:44]
Marcus
Sizable, I believe, is it Jen X and millennials, about 20, 21%. And then the older ones a little bit smaller than that. So it's sizable, but they're not quite yet. Kind of rivaling those other generations for size.
- [05:00]
Jennifer Pearson
Right? Yeah, go ahead.
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Paola Flores Marquez
Oh, sorry. I was gonna say, yeah, they're gonna be pretty small based on our parameters, just because. Yeah, I mean, populations are brand new. Yeah, they're brand new. And, well, based on our parameters, they're done being born. So this is all the Gen Alphas we have. They're here on the planet right now.
- [05:17]
Marcus
Oh, interesting. Okay. Oh, this was it 12. And I was gonna say, oh, what if you're six months old? I didn't realize, but I didn't know if it was zero up. But you're. You're saying that every, every kid born who, basically anyone who's younger than one is gen beta.
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Jennifer Pearson
That's what we're going with.
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Marcus
Okay, interesting.
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Jennifer Pearson
Yeah, it's an interesting time. So then, so Boomers, for example, were nearly 20 years of a generation. Same for, well x was about 15 years. And so we are seeing. Yeah, we had a couple conversations about this and pal, jump in anytime. But technology is advancing and so a lot of the generational milestones are tied to technological advancements. And so this iPad generation, for example, we're also tying to the emergence of generative AI. And so this 2024 end date and this, this could change. We're going to monitor this, but we're, we're assigning this 2024 end date is. That's the, the big uptake of gen AI and that's what we've seen as technology speeding up and that is informing a lot of this. Shorter generation size or smaller generation sizes.
- [06:34]
Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, the pandemic also plays a role in this. Right. Like it's such a major world event that completely like marked their childhoods and like is very impactful. So it's kind of a combination of like the technology and like what are the big cultural events that tie them together that will form like a, a sort of collective memory for all of them.
- [06:56]
Marcus
Yeah, yeah. Anyone born after won't know worlds where they had to go home and weren't allowed to go to school for a few years. A very different upbringing, I'm sure.
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Jennifer Pearson
Right. And also force them on devices and that became cemented in their every day.
- [07:12]
Marcus
That's a great point. Fascinating. Okay, so that's the generation, they're very online. We said how many of them are using iPads or tablets? I should say, I think it's like 59% of them using, using tablets. So a lot of them using those devices. 75% of the whole group is online though. Basically everyone but babies. And sometimes when they're screaming, the babies. But what are they doing online? What are the most popular places power that gen and Alpha are spending their digital time?
- [07:41]
Paola Flores Marquez
YouTube. Oh my God, it's YouTube. It's like. Yeah, I cannot overstate how popular YouTube is with this generation.
- [07:48]
Marcus
YouTube kids. YouTube, the main app. Both.
- [07:51]
Paola Flores Marquez
I think it might be both. Right. Like, I think when they're being monitored, it's YouTube Kids. But as they get older and they get more permission and more independence and they get smarter on like how to bypass a lot of those like safety features. Right? Yeah, just general YouTube and so. And like a lot of Their parents are also cord cutters. So, like, they're not growing up with as much of the linear cable TV as, like, previous generations as well. And then we spoke about, like, the mobile aspect. Right. That it's easy to take on the go.
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Marcus
Millennial parents, correct?
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Paola Flores Marquez
Millennial parents, by and large.
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Marcus
I mean. Yep.
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Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, yeah, we'll talk about that a little bit in the gaming report. But yeah, that's gonna be fun. Everybody look out for that. But yeah, it's predominantly millennial parents who are just kind of passing on a lot of these digital habits that they grew up with. But like, YouTube also offers a lot of content that's kind of. I guess it offers, like, a sense of independence too, for these kids who are often at the time exploring the boundaries of what they can do and can't do. And so they know how to navigate a YouTube search browser. They know how to find the things that they love. Like, they're very intuitive, they're smart, and, like, their brains are nice and fresh, so they can absorb a lot of information very quickly.
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Marcus
Yeah. How does go on, Jenny?
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Jennifer Pearson
Oh, I was gonna say. I think just what Pal was saying. I also think it cultivates a more niche preference. For example, so if a child is into Minecraft, they might be able to then go down the Minecraft Rabbit hole on YouTube and feed them more and more about YouTube and different gaming techniques and styles. So I think it's a. It's a decent shift in the entertainment landscape. As in, a child can get really niche and specialized in a certain topic, and YouTube allows for that. And I think the decline of linear TV among children is. Yeah. So interesting.
- [09:49]
Marcus
What are they? Which platform or media channel are they on more? Is it. Are they on YouTube more? Are they on TV, watching TV more?
- [10:00]
Paola Flores Marquez
I think it's. YouTube is about to overtake linear TV. They are streaming a lot as well, so we can't discount streaming. But when we're looking at like traditional television, like, compared to kids who grew up with like Disney Channel and Cartoon Network. Right. Like, we expect YouTube to overtake linear TV by like 2020, like pretty much in the next year or so.
- [10:22]
Marcus
Wow. Okay. Quite the most.
- [10:23]
Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah. And so, yeah, we're seeing a rise. Like, we've already seen this with Gen Z, where they have a preference for user generated content, but it's becoming even more concentrated with YouTube. As Jenny was saying, like, they're not just watching content that's like, traditional, like, just professionally produced or like, meant for immediate consumption. They're watching content about the content. Right. Like they're watching like really like sort of niche parodies and like they're watching like, yeah, skits or sketches about like their favorite sort of aspects. But so, yeah, that's one. There's like also a lot of unboxing videos that they really love. Like, there's a lot of educational videos. Like, Ms. Rachel is huge, right? And she just got like a major sort of mainstream contract and she kind of like exploded in popularity during the pandemic. Because of the pandemic. So that's also why we see YouTube sort of gaining a bigger foothold in households. But it also kind of depends on like the age of Gen Alpha. Right. So younger Gen Alpha is going to be more based on what their parents are looking for and it's going to be more nursery rhymes and like educational videos and really soft sort of sweet things. And then the older you get with Gen Alpha you start seeing like, like we said, like the Minecraft stuff, but also and Fortnite stuff, which is huge with them, which we mentioned in the report. And Mr. Beast is massive. Like huge, huge, huge. When it's not. Mr. Beast is not like a channel that's specifically tailored to children. Like, it doesn't market itself that way, but the way in which he's like sort of understood the algorithm and how to market as videos has really struck a chord with children. And it's like the most popular personality on like YouTube at the moment. Not just with kids, but particularly with kids, even though it's not meant for them.
- [12:07]
Marcus
That's quite a different type of content, isn't it? Because, I mean, Jenny, it used to be that people moved from watching sports and news and films or whatever on cable to watching sports and news and films on streaming. With kids, it seems like they're not just watching the kind of the Nickelodeon or the Cartoon Network that they're watching on traditional tv. The type of content they're watching is much more creator heavy.
- [12:32]
Jennifer Pearson
Yeah, definitely. And that is a big shift. And just as Pow noted, maybe the age dictates some of this. So in the younger years we'll see even on YouTube watching established programming like trying to get free clips of Bluey or Peppa Pig. And so some of the viewing habits are rooted in the traditional narrative, but then kind of moving to where they're spending all their time, which is YouTube. So and then as they age up, then. Yes, what you just said, Mark, is just getting into these more niche, creator driven produced content.
- [13:08]
Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, yeah. I think it's really important to know that they're it's not like they're out of the loop on like what the mainstream cartoons are like. They do know them, they're just access. Their entry point to them is different. And so there's a really great article by Kayla Cobb that talked about. There's a really great quote there that was like it isn't linear versus streaming versus YouTube versus social. It's linear plus streaming plus social plus gaming plus YouTube. So a lot of these like mainstream traditional TV organizations are starting to lean on platforms that they used to see as rivals for attention and instead sort of folding them into their strategy on how do we like promote these, these, these episodes? Because they're not. I mean you can't access the full episode on YouTube but you can get little clips and compilations and those are incredibly popular because kids love repetition, right? And they love like they're, they're moving really, their attention span is moving really quickly. So it's perfect for them.
- [14:01]
Marcus
Yeah. So as you mentioned, YouTube likely to according to our estimates overtake TV viewership next year for, for Gen Alpha. That's total people time spent as well. I was looking at that, that also kind of starting to see that, that tipping point. You see time spent watching TV versus and even just in the past five years, kids TV time gone for about two hours to closer to one. And then you see the reversal, the reversal of that trends happening in terms of YouTube time going up. What's interesting as well though is YouTube. It is a trend that's happening that's influencing Gen Alpha. But it's Also, I mean YouTube is been consuming more and more of everyone's every generation's time. YouTube responsible now for 10% of everyone's all ages people's TV time according to Nielsen. Netflix for context is 8%. So it is something that's hitting all generations. No more so than Gen Alpha it seems. You also mentioned in your research on this latest research pal that you just published gaming also a big deal. Tell us a bit more about that.
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Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, we use Roblox as the main example in that section because it is incredibly popular with Gen Alpha. But it's not just Roblox. There are so many other games like Subway Surfers and Minecraft is still popular. But yeah, Roblox is really interesting because it's not just one single like one world game the way that you would think of like games in the 90s, right where it's like Zelda is like one journey that you finish. It is like a platform where people can create their own mini games inside of this universe and like there are all these different doors where kids can go in and like based on their preferences and so it is really versatile in that way and it's created these sort of like hangout spaces for Gen Alpha that kind of supplement playgrounds in a way. Not completely. Obviously people still go outside, but it is increasingly a space for digital socialization in a way that I think is pretty novel. And we saw it with Gen Z. Right. Especially because of the Pandemic and they're super into collaborative shooting games that you can mod and stuff like that. But I think it is going to be a hallmark for Gen Alpha as they get older.
- [16:16]
Marcus
Yeah, you made an excellent point, which was their comfortability with this platform, indicating potentially future interest in more immersive technologies.
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Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah, I think that the earlier they start using it and the more they can visualize it, the better they're going to feel like exploring in new avenues. Yeah, we didn't have a lot of room to include that in the report because there is a word count limit. But we are already seeing like a greater degree of AR and VR usage by Gen Z and it's just growing with each generation. So I think we can expect that from Gen Alpha as well.
- [16:54]
Jennifer Pearson
Yeah, I think it's become a social. It's a conversation starter and a social currency that has kind of made its way into their real life, into their everyday life, into conversations. I mean, that's true for all children across the years. Is that what they're watching, what they're listening to becomes part of their social conversation, but for this generation, it is that, that gaming space, the, the YouTube realm.
- [17:21]
Marcus
Yeah. And a lot of them, about half of kids under 12, digital gamers, but particularly, as you said, Roblox, which has exploded in popularity, it may seem like every kid's always been playing Roblox, but right the start of the Pandemic, about a third now about two thirds. So it has gone up quite, quite significantly. Okay, so we've got YouTube, we've got digital gaming. But pal, you write that Gen Alpha's world, even though it centers around YouTube, you say that's the case for now, what's coming?
- [17:55]
Paola Flores Marquez
We do see TikTok sort of waiting in the wings, like a lot of Gen Alpha, or I guess I shouldn't say a lot of Gen Alpha because I don't think that. Not that I don't think our forecast doesn't indicate that the entire generation is on social media, at least not at the rate that others are. They're still children and they're being monitored and they're likely using these platforms through their parents. And additionally there are age restrictions that not everyone abides by, but for the most part are still pretty. They do present like a bit of a roadblock, but supposed to be.
- [18:24]
Marcus
You're supposed to be 13 years old, so.
- [18:26]
Paola Flores Marquez
Correct.
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Marcus
Legally, in theory, no one in Gen Alpha should be on these platforms. But they are.
- [18:33]
Paola Flores Marquez
Yeah.
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Marcus
Yeah.
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Paola Flores Marquez
I mean, their parents hand in their phone or like, you know, they find ways people lie. Like, you know, everyone, everyone who's a millennial definitely was like, are you over 18? And we're like, yeah, of course we are.
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Marcus
Yeah.
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Paola Flores Marquez
We see TikTok waiting in the wings because as like sort of the next sort of realm that they're going to start exploring once they do get their phones. And as we were talking about earlier, like, they start getting their phones between the ages of 10 and 14, so they start getting their own accounts, they start exploring more and. But if TikTok doesn't. Isn't the one. Right. Like, if something happens to TikTok in the next couple of years. YouTube shorts is actually sort of like pretty popular amongst Gen Alpha, which I think makes sense because much like Gen Z was looking for their own social space to sort of carve out for themselves away from millennials, Instagram and like Facebook, Gen Alpha is also seeking that sort of space. So shorts could be a potential. A candidate for that. And they're also just spending so much time on YouTube already that they feel incredibly comfortable with the platform. So why leave if everything that you are seeking is already there?
- [19:39]
Jennifer Pearson
Yeah. Looking ahead, I'll be curious to see where the next platform. For example, Mr. B signed something with Amazon Prime. Prime Video. Will that. Will the audience go there? They watch him on YouTube. Will they move over to Prime Video to see this creator that they're really.
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Marcus
Into and that'll be an exclusive. Or are you saying if he starts.
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Paola Flores Marquez
Putting content out on there, he has, he. He has like the Mr. Beast games.
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Marcus
Okay.
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Paola Flores Marquez
I don't know if that's the exact title for it, but okay, yeah, they're like a competition game, which are very much in the vein of a lot of his videos.
- [20:16]
Marcus
Yeah, yeah. That's fascinating question though. Yeah. If the creator moves, how tied are the generation to the platform?
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Paola Flores Marquez
It's hard because, I mean, this might be like a tangent, but it's been really hard for Twitch streamers to move out of Twitch. It's been much easier for YouTubers to switch to a platform where their people follow them. So, yeah, it definitely is like A does it have stickiness to it?
- [20:45]
Marcus
So let's talk a bit about the advertising side of this to close out the episode. So last summer Peter Adams of Marketing Dive wrote that Gen Alpha Jalfa's technology sophistication would challenge brand strategies as the rising generation puts less stock in celebrity endorsements and quality advertising and preferring content creators as we've been talking about and enablers of creativity numerator saying parents with kids 11 to 14 say influencers are one of the two top ways they learn about new products. The first is from their friends. He was explaining that Jen Alpha does not put much stock in athletes or celebrities and as particular particularly low opinion of what they call people on TV air quotes a group that stood among the top three least trustworthy assessed by the age set according to a survey from Razorfish and gwr. Instead, Gen Alpha values content creators and is engaged in edutainment contents. However he says just because they are furiously digitally native folks shouldn't forget that the number two most popular way Gen Z discovers new brands is through in person interactions in places like stores and malls whilst they're there with their parents. Which I think is an important takeaway. So that's one takeaway for marketers is that this generation is attracted to more to creators, less so to traditional kind of like celebrities and the types of content that has resonated well with previous generations. Paola, what's one takeaway for advertisers from you?
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Paola Flores Marquez
I think one of the biggest ones is that don't assume that Gen Alpha is a carbon copy of Gen Z. Like don't assume that. Yeah, they have different tastes, they have different senses of humor, you know and like you said they are moving away from a lot of those traditional media forms even more so than Gen Z. And so I think that we should rethink their relationship with media completely and sort of like sort of try to come at it, come at it from like a user generated perspective instead.
- [22:43]
Marcus
Yeah, that's a great point and there's some a bit of evidence to to support your point because you could think easily think young people are young people, they're all digital, they all consume content at the same rate. Some of the types of content, not at all. There's really large differences in terms of the types of content they're consuming. Gen Alpha devoting nearly 80% of their screen time to watching video on social media that's a much higher share than Gen z. It's about 56% according to Maverick's insights and strategy and Hub Entertainment research. So I think that's a great one. Jenny, how about for you, what do you think of when you think about advertisers and Gen Alpha?
- [23:16]
Jennifer Pearson
Yeah, I'll keep an eye on. As this, this generation ages into their teen years, I think that's where the autonomy is solidified and individual tastes rather than influencing parents to purchase, they're going to have their own purchase habits and I'll be curious to see where those go. Is it going to be so fragmented like YouTube is and they're. The way they've been consuming media. Where will they. Yeah, where would they look to get inspired and think about what they want to purchase?
- [23:50]
Marcus
I, I want to end with this. I thought this was fascinating because I've always wondered how influential are kids on their parents purchasing decisions? Yes, they can nag them in the store. We've all seen that. Sometimes a parent caves is like fine, whatever, but sometimes they don't. I wondered kind of how often does that happen? How often does the kids, whether they're being nice about it or a nightmare, influence the parents purchasing decisions. And it seems like kids have a pretty significant influence over the things their parents buy. Grocery requests was the most heeded with about half of parents buying the exact grocery products their child requests. According to Kantar, the grocery category is also the most asked for by kids. But Jenny, any thoughts on, on that?
- [24:31]
Jennifer Pearson
Yeah, I think some of it is a parent is soliciting advice. What we. Oh, what, what is gonna, what, what will you eat? Right. As a kind of baseline. And then, and then I think yeah, there's, there's, there's so much to choose from. So having their, their probably and in some cases shop grocery shopping with them. So I think that, that it's just natural to have that feedback loop and.
- [24:59]
Marcus
It seems like they share the purchase decision. There's different elements that they influence. For example, grocery items, flavors, colors, shapes, they kind of both have a say in. Parents are the main influencer in terms of the brands and the package size as well. So. And about half of Gen Alpha parents have a shared shopping list for their households that their kids can contribute to, which I thought was quite interesting. All right folks, that's where we'll leave a conversation about the young people today. Thank you so much to my guests for chatting with me. Thank you so much to Paola.
- [25:29]
Paola Flores Marquez
Thank you so much, Marcus.
- [25:30]
Marcus
Absolutely. And to Jenny.
- [25:32]
Jennifer Pearson
Thank you.
- [25:33]
Marcus
Yes indeed. And thank you to the whole editing crew, Victoria, John, Lance and Danny Stuart who runs the team and Sophie who does our social media. Thanks to everyone for listening to behind the Numbers, an E marketer video podcast made possible by Zeta Global. You can tune in Wednesday to hang out with Sarah Lebo and the Retail Gang as they'll be discussing Sam's Club.