Engaging Gen A-Z: Key Insights from the 2025 MRS Generation A-Z Conference

How can brands meaningfully connect with the next generation? That’s the question the 2025 MRS Generation A-Z Conference set out to answer, a day packed with actionable insights, bold ideas, and future-focused conversations. With contributions from the likes of LEGO, PepsiCo, Vodafone UK, Coty, Sony Music, Channel 4, and more, the event explored how to unlock authentic engagement and drive impactful research with younger audiences.

Here are some of my favourite takeaways:

Online Communities & Authentic Engagement

Younger audiences don’t just want to be researched, they want to be heard.

Speakers talked about how kids and teens are both a critical and elusive audience. Brands must show up in the digital spaces they inhabit – think TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram – while also recognising that simply knowing what young people consume isn’t enough. To really connect, we must understand their developmental milestones, passions, and fandoms. These drive real resonance and loyalty.

As they put it, passions are about participation, fandoms are about consumption – and both influence how young audiences engage with content and brands.

Child-Centric, Inclusive Research Design

LEGO Group delivered a standout session on what it really means to understand kids. Their take? Traditional research frameworks designed for adults just don’t work for children.

They shared four hard truths:

1. Kids require a different cultural strategy

2. Inclusion must be at the heart of research

3. Beware the “say-do gap” (kids often say what adults want to hear!)

4. Match their pace – or risk falling behind

To build better insights, LEGO advocated for playful, inclusive, and participant-led research approaches – like empowering kids to ask questions themselves and engaging ‘frontline experts’ from youth culture. 

Gaming, AI & Immersive Environments

Engaging younger audiences means meeting them in their world – and often, that’s digital.

Several sessions spotlighted how conversational AI and immersive gaming environments can elevate engagement in youth research. Woolworths South Africa even suggested using metaverse-style spaces to keep Gen Z immersed, excited, and focused during qual sessions. These environments can feel more natural to them than traditional interviews – and that’s key to unlocking honest, useful insights.

Gen Z: Fluid, Familiar, and Fiercely Individual

Channel 4 delved into the behavioural patterns of Gen Z, noting their preference for digital video – not because it serves different needs than TV, but because it meets those needs differently.

Their research highlighted four key Gen Z traits:

1. Individuality

2. Authenticity

3. Familiarity

4. Fluidity

This generation wants trustworthy, personal content – and increasingly, they turn to social platforms to find it.

Tackling Tough Topics: Gambling & Youth

A powerful session from GambleAware and Sherbert Research revealed the extent to which gambling is normalised in young people’s lives – with 96% of kids exposed to gambling ads monthly, and 1 in 7 starting gambling before age 11.

Their research showed current messaging just isn’t cutting through. Future communications need to address the language gap – both visual and verbal – and appear in the digital spaces where children already are. Education, stronger ad warnings, and tighter regulations are urgently needed.

The Social Shift & Gen Z’s Impact on Culture

From Vodafone UK to Woolworths, brands are paying close attention to Gen Z’s growing influence. Whether it’s pushing sustainability, driving household purchases, or redefining hospitality, this generation expects brands to help solve problems without losing the human touch.

We heard how Gen Z values:

1. Bite-sized, engaging content

2. Blended human + AI interactions

3. Purposeful tech that enhances life (not takes over)

4. Social connection without digital overload

Interestingly, while digital natives, many are actively seeking digital detoxes - choosing screenless wearables like Oura rings and Whoop bands to reconnect with themselves without screen fatigue.

Final Thoughts

At Behaviorally, we help brands navigate shifting behaviours to drive business outcomes for brands. To engage Gen Z, research must be inclusive, immersive, and insight-driven – this generation isn’t just watching, they’re shaping the future.

Gen Z wants short, eye-catching content, not long, factual messaging. Brands must evolve their storytelling and meet them where they are.

Want to connect with Gen Z? Contact us to see how Behaviorally’s precision-driven insights can help you create packaging, marketing, and experiences that drive impact and growth.

THE AUTHOR

Michaela Kerr is a Marketing Coordinator at Behaviorally, based in our London office. Since graduating from her MSc in Marketing from UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School and relocating from Dublin to London, Michaela has played a key role in Behaviorally’s global marketing team, leading initiatives across Europe and APAC. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, staying active, and spending time with friends and family.

Connect with her on LinkedIn!