Prévoir at Vogue Business, “How to Reach Gen Z in 2025"

Photo: Annie Noelker

Prévoir Team Member, Ryan McCaffrey, recently attended the Vogue Business “How to Reach Gen Z in 2025” event in Los Angeles. The day brought together leaders shaping the next era of digital connection, authenticity, and brand storytelling to reach Gen Z, a huge conversation happening today, especially in the luxury retail industry. 

Here are his key takeaways from some of the panel discussions.

Alix Earle – Content Creator, Entrepreneur & Investor 

Alix Earle is a social media creator, entrepreneur and investor known for her raw, diary-style content that resonates deeply with her Gen Z audience. Since her first post on TikTok in February, 2020 she has gained millions of followers on both TikTok and Instagram, and has over 1.5 billion likes on her TikTok alone. Her biggest advice, “you need to keep it real.” She only posts content that feels authentic, and she uses a, “would I send this to girls in the group chat?” standard to determine whether the content she’s sharing is relatable or not. Her next move on social media is a bigger focus on her YouTube Channel, for more longer-form, diary-style content. 

Jennifer Yue – Tapestry & Coach, SVP of Strategy & Consumer Insights

Coach used to be seen as "accessible luxury,” something that Gen Z wasn’t relating to, or aligned with. Jennifer and her team discovered that Gen Z isn’t chasing traditional milestones like marriage, home ownership or feeling the pressure of “status.” This led to a reposition of the brand to “expressive luxury,” with campaigns now centering around self-expression, individuality, and emotional milestones. They’ve also partnered with the WNBA, which aligns with these Gen Z values. Jennifer knew they were on the right track, when their Coachtopia Loop Backpack was prominently displayed on the very Gen Z targeted Netflix show, The Summer I Turned Pretty. 

Patrick O’Keefe – e.l.f., Chief Integrated Marketing Officer 

For the second consecutive year, e.l.f. has been voted the best Gen Z beauty brand. How did they do this? According to Patrick O’keefe, Chief Integrated Marketing Officer, they listen directly to their Gen Z community, by reading and creating strategy & products, directly from the comments left on their social platforms. 

Like Coach, they know that Gen Z isn’t aligned with the traditional values of generations before, but instead is purpose driven, and values individuality. If you’re quirky or weird, don’t try to be “normal,” lean into these things more. Their recent partnership with the Wonder Women of Wrestling Tournament, which encourages girls to break barriers, perfectly aligns with these values. 

They’re finding their Gen Z audience (and also Gen Alpha, which they’re already targeting) on Roblox, but not directly selling products to them. They’ve gamified creating a start-up through their s.(e.l.f.) starter community on Roblox, which teaches Gen Z & Gen Alpha the fundamentals of creating a business, and partnering with Gen Z creators, to sell products through Twitch livestreams; both of these strategies are “connected commerce,” and align with Gen Z’s purpose driven mentality. 

Photo: Annie Noelker

George Heaton – Represent, Founder & Creative Director 

Represent, is a Manchester clothing brand, and hugely popular with Gen Z. George Heaton, Represents Founder & Creative Director attributes this popularity to the word of the Vogue conference, “authenticity.” They were able to create this authentic vibe through their Represent Clo YouTube Channel, which allowed for a deeper, “sticky-er” connection, as users had to subscribe, a very intentional choice. Because of this, YouTube is the most curated social platform that drives the most meaningful connections. 

Through all their social channels, however, they’ve made the brand, including the people behind it really accessible. Like Alix Earl, their content reads more like a diary of the brand vs. a marketing tool, which George says is intentional, as by doing this, they feel like they’re actually friends with their audience. 

George was the first panelist to bring up Gen Z not being influenced by party, club or celebrity culture, but instead experiences that are health & fitness focused, especially soccer. They’ve leveraged this to create Represent Football Jersey’s, a huge success for the brand. 

Hanna Beals – Ouai, CEO

Like George, Hanna leveraged Gen Z’s value of experiences, and health & fitness, by partnering with Barry’s Bootcamp. She wanted this partnership to be more than just locker room product placement, so invested in branded studios and co-branded activation events, making Barry’s a core marketing arm for the business. 

She’s also careful about what content goes on what platform; for example, Ouai will never directly sell on their TikTok through polished ads, as it’s more of a community playground for collaboration and experimentation. It’s a place to get the attention of Gen Z, which she says is quite difficult, as there are so many competing distractions, but once you get it, Gen Z is extremely loyal. 

Overall Themes to Reach Gen Z: 

• Authenticity beats perfection.

• Communities guide creativity.

• YouTube drives trust and long-form loyalty.

• Gamified and live experiences build connection.

• Personality-led storytelling is replacing aspiration.

• Individuality over status.

Gen Z isn’t looking for brands to talk at them. They want to be part of the conversation.