Baby Boomers gave rise to the notion “It takes a thief to catch a thief.” A recent destination marketing experiment aimed at enticing a younger demographic to visit San Diego relied on a similar but updated opinion that “It takes Gen Z to lure Gen Z.”
To that end, The Shipyard, the local advertising/marketing agency for the San Diego Tourism Authority, turned to a group of high school interns. Their task: Come up with a campaign that would appeal to the Generation Z demographic.
Note: Generation Z was born between 1997 and 2012 (aged approximately 13 to 28). This demographic comes just after the Millenials, and is defined by complete immersion into the age of digital technology.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, The Shipyard’s Gen Z Team recommended using TikTok and Instagram. Those social media platforms, according to the interns, should contain posts that promote San Diego as an “authentic” destination, and one that’s “inclusive, home to a rich mix of cultures and diversity that makes experiences real, welcoming and shareable.”
Shipyard Group Account Director, Advertising + Marketing Christine Neville says the company recently employed two sets of interns.
“We had a more traditional group of college students, and for the first time ever we had a Friends and Family team of primarily high school students who worked on a group project for four weeks,” Neville says. “Who better to tap into the Gen Z audience than Gen Z?”
The Gen Z Team was made up of about a dozen high schoolers related to employees from The Shipyard headquarters in downtown San Diego and offices in Sacramento and Columbus, Ohio.
Del Norte High School senior Makena Haughey (her aunt is Shipyard’s Managing Partner Tammy Haughey) was the lone San Diego member of the Gen Z Team. The 17-year-old would like to major in business if she gets accepted into her dream school UCLA.
Makena Haughey says this was her first experience working a 9-to-5 day, and being on Zoom with team members in another time zone. She says it wasn’t hard to get into the rhythm of meeting with others and discussing the project.
“We wanted to highlight how Gen Z is different,” Haughey says. “We wanted to show that everyone can fit into the different neighborhoods of San Diego, because Gen Z is not afraid to be themselves, whatever their personality.”
The intern team also zeroed in on mental health. “I feel like that’s really big with Gen Z, so we wanted to focus on versatility and happiness,” Haughey says. “How San Diego brings joy.”
The Shipyard’s Neville says Gen Z hasn’t been a primary target for them in the past.
“We mostly focus on Millennials and Gen X but it’s important to get an eye on what’s coming next,” Neville says. “San Diego is a little bit more of an expensive destination, that’s why we target a little bit older. But there are obviously a lot of experiences here to offer Gen Z. We don’t want to ignore them.”
San Diego Tourism Authority Director of Brand Management Kayla Yap was impressed with the Gen Z Team’s final presentation.
“It was interesting to hear what this group thinks of San Diego,” Yap says. “They’re values-driven and care about authenticity. That came through in their creative concepts. We saw social content that’s motivating to them.”
While there are no plans to use specific content created by the Gen Z Team, Yap says the group’s work will be part of future strategy discussions.
“We think of Gen Z in terms of building future loyalty,” she says. “So capturing their attention early on helps us build long-term relationships as they age up and move into higher earning stages.” SDSun
