Corporate anxiety is fueling a multimillion-dollar industry of Gen Z translators

Brands that fear for their survival unless they can connect with young people are fueling a boom in the business of Gen Z translation.

- Katie Deighton [e-mail]

Specialized agencies and market research firms like NinetyEight, named for its founders’ year of birth, are popping up, raising money and expanding. Legacy marketing and public-

Teen Age Services. Youth marketing agencies and researchers until recently were busy promising insight into tech-savvy but cash-poor millennials.

But the need is becoming more urgent as the digitally native Gen Z, now roughly 13 to 28 years old, comes of spending age. Gen Z spending power will grow to $12.6 trillion globally in 2030 from $9.8 trillion in 2024, according to market research firms Nielsen IQ, GfK and World Data Lab.

ity firms are buying or building equivalents such as Edelman's Gen Z Lab. And talent agency UTA, which acquired Gen Z marketing agency JUV Consulting in 2024, later this month will host the third iteration of ZCON, a conference designed to educate brand executives on Gen Z trends. Marketers have sought help with young consumers since at least 1945, when the 19-year-old Eugene Gilbert decided the shoe store where he worked was clueless about his peers and established Gilbert

“They really are thinking differently, reacting differently, getting their knowledge and information from different sources, and so we have absolutely had to pivot,” said Katie Williams, U.S. chief marketing officer of Haleon, a consumer healthcare company that sells brands including Sensodyne, Advil and Emergen-C.

Even Gen Z preferences for how they literally consume products are different, driving colder coffees, lighter beers and, Williams said, Emer-gen-C vitamins in popping crystal formats.