• About 84% of millennials and Gen Zs consume media at home. A  majority (88%) of them use data bundles to access content online.
  • About 44 percent spend over four hours a day on social media. This is more than triple the number of millennials and Gen Zs spending over four hours on radio (13%) and TV (12%).
  • More than half (55%) are spending 6-9 hours a day online while a further 20 percent spending over 10 hours per day.

A new survey has revealed a number of media usage behavioral traits that brands and companies keen on attracting millenials and Gen Z need to know.  Their by leveraging their media consumption patterns, brands would easily optimise their content to inform positioning their products and win this new market base.

Gen Z, millennials spend 10 hours online

About 8 out of 10 or 84 percent of millennials and Gen Zs usually consume media at home. These revelations are contained in a new survey by the Aga Khan University that also shows Gen Z and millennials do not necessarily rank content characteristics such as brevity, exhaustiveness and elaborateness, adequacy, and progressiveness as important aspects of the content that they consume.

An estimated 55 percent of Gen Z, that is, individuals born between 1997–2012, spend roughly 6-9 hours per day online while a further 20 percent spend more than 10 hours per day online.

According to a new survey, the young people appear to place more weight on characteristics that have less to do with the depth and length of content. What they want is interesting content, attractive, available and reliable, relevance and affordable.

They also want content that is brief and straight to the point, the survey by Infotrak and The Aga Khan University released on Monday indicates.

Gen Z was born in a period of enhanced social networking and digital media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, Tiktok, YouTube and many more social networks being launched in their era. At the moment, they fall within the age of 18-24 years.

Millennials on the other hand are generally marked by elevated usage of and familiarity with the internet, mobile devices, and social media, falling within the ages of 25–35 years, as captured by the study.

Urban millennials and Gen Zs earnings are relatively good and the target for advertisers, the survey dubbed “Media Consumption In An Evolving Digital World: Millennials And Digital Natives’ Consumption Habits And Implications For Legacy Media In East Africa”, indicates.

About 20 percent earn $72

Conducted in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, it revealed that only about 20 percent earn less than $72. More than half or 52 percent earn between $72 and $288, eleven percent earn up to $505 while about five percent earn above $500.

With the latest rush to monetise content by media houses in the wake of falling revenues in mainstream media, the study has found out that most of the young people would be willing to pay for content in four key instances.

These are brand closeness and brand association, unique content that provides them with what they need to learn and progress in their careers and unique content that is of personal interest and relevant to their pursuit of specialist knowledge, that they cannot get anywhere else.

 A significant percentage of respondents (72 percent) spend $ 0.72 per day, which seems to suggest the existence of a wider lucrative target audience if the media can get more consumers willing to pay this range of amount per day. A good number spends between $10 and $21.

“These rates when looked at against the backdrop of what millennials and Gen Zs spend, even though a good percentage of their spending goes to bundles, suggest that media houses can tap on their spending with competitive bouquets of content offerings that they can afford,” the survey notes.

These findings, especially affordability and availability or reliability as factors that motivate millennials and Gen Zs to pay for content, are consistent with previous findings on provocations around payments.

Young people want to pay per article

Studies have established that young people want content they can easily access with reduced friction (pay per article), are cheaper per person, and offer shared flexibility (shared accounts), affords them the opportunity to access multiple news and media content (brand bundles) and have payment methods that are easier to make.

In Kenya, most of the young people surveyed mentioned that they are motivated  to consume news to gain awareness of current issues (52 percent), to be knowledgeable (46 percent) and to attain their personal goals in life (39 percent).

It also appears that a significant number of millennials and Gen Zs look for entertainment in the news hey consume, as 25 percent indicated they are motivated to consume news to escape from the limits of societal expectations and stereotypes.

Type of content they want

The top three mentions by the respondents indicate that 61 percent would want the media to cover more content on making money, 56 percent want content on how to become financially independent, while 37 percent would desire content on saving money and the needs of their families and friends.

An analysis of both the quantitative data and qualitative responses seem to suggest that legacy media houses need to make their news more useful to the younger demographic by not only informing them, but also empowering them.

They should address issues of employment, business related topics, lifestyle and entertainment in a fashion that has both progress and enjoyment.

Read also: How Kenya is growing tourist numbers from the Middle East

Whereas a majority (52 percent) of the millennials and Gen Zs have never paid for content, those who have (48 percent), acknowledge that they paid for or are paying for trending news, sports news content, general current affairs, political news content and entertainment.

Most of the respondents indicated that their top career aspiration is to get a good job/dream job within the country (46 percent) and to make money (45 percent).

Others top aspirations include venturing into entrepreneurship/starting own business (39 percent), pursuing further studies (33 percent) and getting a good job/dream job abroad (26 percent).

The findings seem to suggest an encouraging trend of recent subscribers to different paypackage models. About 50 percent of the respondents started paying for content in the last one year, with 21 percent having started paying in the last three months.

Factors influencing choice of media consumed

The top two mentioned factors, appear to be clickbait-leaning factors, but earlier studies have since established that the youths get disappointed with clickbait headlines and tend to shun brands that thrive on clickbait content and the attendant numbers.

However, the consideration of the journalists, who have written the stories and reputation of the media houses/company airing the story speak to news media organisations’ brand reputations and credibility as a key factor in the choice of content millennials and Gen Zs consume, according to the survey.

Studies have shown that when media consumers get sufficient rewards from the media brands, they form positive attitudes, develop favourable subjective norms and contribute to favourable use intentions.

Studies have found that lead herds provide cues that influence behaviour adoption and shortcuts to decision making. This is especially so for consumers, who are facing an avalanche of information.

TV is main source of general information for Gen Z at 76 percent. Further, social media (74 percent) and radio stations at 55 percent rank second and third. At 19 percent, newspapers rank fourth as websites of news media organisations get 18 percent preference. Digital native media houses are, however, not popularly relied on by the millennials and Gen Zs.

Elements that attract them

On TV, the young generation likes credible and reliable news content. Additionally, they like educative and entertaining content. Updates on current affairs and competent and professional journalists also attract them.

They also want content that is simple and easy to understand, attractive and catchy headlines. Access to local and international content, job ads plus high quality video output is a key magnet.

Free viewership of the content and availability of game shows that give viewers/listeners a chance to win prizes also attracts the youth. In radio, educative and entertaining content remains key.

They also want credible and reliable news content, updates on current affairs, competent and professional journalists, news content that is simple and easy to understand, advertisements of job opportunities and access to local and international content.

The high quality of the audio output, availability of game shows that give viewers/listeners a chance to win prizes and few advertisements content that interrupts normal programming are a catch for the millennials and Gen Z.

Even though TV is the platform they go to for specific information, especially politics, governance and current affairs, social media has emerged as a dominant platform that millennials and Gen Zs go to for personal development and job opportunities by fairly big margins relative to the legacy media.

“Social media platforms preferred because they allow millennials and Gen Zs to consume content while at the same time contributing. The findings also suggest that media houses may want to reimagine, pursuant to suggestions in previous studies, how to produce content that is native to social media and other digital platforms including mobile phones that are preferred by millennials and Gen Zs,” survey reads in part.

Dedicate over four hours on social media

Most millennials and Gen Zs consume media at home (84 percent). To achieve this,  the majority (88 percent) use data bundles to access content online.

About 44 percent spend more than four hours a day on social media platforms. This is more than triple the number of millennials and Gen Zs that spend over four hours on radio (13 percent) and TV (12 percent).

The tracking shows that the two groups spend relatively many hours online. For instance, more than half (55 percent) spending 6-9 hours a day online. A further 20 percent spend more than 10 hours a day.

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Martin Mwita is a business reporter based in Kenya. He covers equities, capital markets, trade and the East African Cooperation markets.

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