Gen Z Is Outpacing Millenials in Consuming Stories on Social Media, Says VidMob Study

If you have been wondering how to get Millennials and Gen Z to your website, the new VidMob study might just help you. According to the ‘State of Social Video’ study, it’s the videos posted on social media that serve as the primary portal to the web for younger audiences. The study reveals how Millennials and Gen Z consume video content, their engagement with video ads, how they form perceptions about brands.

According to the VidMob study, marketers can use video ads on social media to reach out to the younger audiences. In fact, the study uncovered that compared to reading articles or looking at photos, Millennials are spending 33% of their social media time on watching videos, while Gen Z spends a whopping 41% of their time on videos instead of articles and photos.

Millenials spend 20 minutes, while Gen Z spends 25 minutes per hour
watching videos online.

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Some of the key findings of the VidMob study include: 

Go Social

The study found that Millennials are spending 48% of their time per day watching videos on social channels. In fact, Millennials are watching these videos 2x more than linear TV and 3x more than streaming services.

Gen Z, on the other hand, has been spending 54% of video time per day on social apps, of which 25% is spent watching YouTube and the remaining 29% other social platforms. That’s 5x time spent watching linear TV and 2x watching streaming services.

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In fact, 42% of the participants admitted having spent more time on social media this year vs. last year.
The growth in the use of social apps is 40% higher than that of mobile browsers.

Compared to last year, Gen Z has embraced YouTube, Snapchat, and Instagram
while Millennials show the most love for Instagram and YouTube.

Less than 5% of Gen Z and Millennials open a browser first. The top 3 first apps opened by GenZ are Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, while the top 3 first apps opened by Millennials include Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

Let’s tell a story

Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook offer users to put their own stories which are available for viewing for 24 hours. Over 70% of Instagram and Snapchat users watch Stories on both platforms daily. 54% watch Snapchat Stories for the laughs. Instagram (46%) and Facebook Stories (42%) users like a good giggle too.

Millennials prefer watching stories on Instagram (60%), followed by Snapchat (53%), and then on Facebook (48%), whereas for Gen Z watches both Snapchat (72%), Instagram (70%) stories are almost equally liked, with a comparatively smaller number (34%) watch Facebook Stories.

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Younger social users consume much more than they create.

How-to’s/Tutorials and Hacks are the most popular types of videos watched (46% of Gen Z and Millennials).
While Vlogs draw 42% of Gen Z, followed by Pranks (37%) and, a distant third, Unboxing (27%). 1 in 4 Gen Z and Millennials actively seek videos of products and services they are considering buying.

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Fresh, fun content for ads

Across the board, similar style and taste are most important for whether either generation likes an ad.

• 55% prefer and ad because of the Style/Taste, 45% prefer ads with a Celebrity/Influencer.
• Visually beautiful ads leave a lasting impact on 41% of Gen Z vs. 32% of Millennials.
• Gen Z dislikes overly repetitive ads (44% say it annoys them; 28% say they tune out). Millennials either tune out or dislike brands who run the same ads over and over.

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VidMob, a creative technology platform that connects brands with a global network of expert creative talent to produce, analyze and optimize mobile video, surveyed 1,000 116-24-year-olds in the US between 14 May through 23 May 2018 about their media consumption and digital advertising preference. Similar surveys were conducted in the UK, Netherlands and Germany.

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