Anti-Attention
Resistance
What happens when a generation grows up already fluent in the mechanics of being sold to?
Gen Alpha are aware of the transactional relationship between the people who feed them content online and those people's intention and need to make money.
Millennials shop with considered intent. Comfortable in-store and online, they seek out brand authority and a clear values story before committing.
Gen Z move faster and almost entirely digitally, led by peer validation and cultural moments over brand loyalty.
Gen Alpha are growing up in a world where the line between content and commerce has dissolved entirely. For them, shopping will simply be a natural extension of the environments they already live in.
For earlier generations, broadcast advertising became commonplace over time. Gen Z grew up surrounded by ads, sponsors and product placement and became more cynical about the traditional marketing funnel.
A similar thing can be said about Gen Alpha’s relationship with online culture, but with a different reaction. They have never known anything else. In almost every medium where they spend time consuming content, they know they are also being sold to.
Whether promotional content is labelled or not, Gen Alpha understand that they are being sold to directly or drawn into an ecosystem designed to influence them later. They know their attention has value and they lean into it.
Attention without assumed trust
Where Gen Z may have felt the trust of a parasocial relationship break, that trust is less necessary when the relationship is understood as surface-level and transactional from the start.
Gen Alpha understand their power as consumers. They may give brands their attention, but not for long. Growing up inside the attention economy is likely to deepen their resistance to it.
This is not simply the same old attention economy. Alongside a clear view of marketing mechanics, Gen Alpha have a heightened awareness of people and the world around them. They care about the planet, their prospects, the loss of community and much more.
What this means for brands
Brands creating for the next generation must combine that awareness with Gen Alpha’s care factor. Authenticity needs to move beyond founder-led content and transparent process towards the issues they genuinely care about.
The opportunity is to earn their attention in a way that resonates. Give them a reason to rent that attention to you and a reason to exercise their purchasing power.
We will be translating this insight into a deeper look at the next generation and youth culture, exploring how it can shape brand marketing playbooks and retail design.
- Creatively cool
- Culturally fluid
- So old it's new