Gen Z Marketing Strategy That Actually Converts

In this episode of ExperiMENTAL, Sundar sits down with Claudia from Howbout, the fast-growing social calendar app that's cracked the Gen Z code. With a mix of irreverent humor and sharp strategy, Claudia reveals how Howbout builds product and marketing with Gen Z in mind, why authenticity trumps polish, and why TikTok is more than just a channel. It’s a feedback loop. They unpack how Gen Z thinks, what makes them convert, and why influencer marketing might not be the golden ticket people think it is.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Gen Z users are digital natives who expect authenticity, not polish
• Traditional ad tactics like logos and slogans don’t resonate
• Message testing on TikTok helped validate product features before launch
• Shares and comment tags are leading indicators of campaign success
• Gen Z can detect ads instantly and tune them out
• Brands must act like peers, not authorities
• Being transparent about the team behind a product builds trust
• Feature adoption improves when messaging reflects user language
• Gen Z leaves apps fast if the product doesn’t fit their social behavior
• Virality comes from resonance, not production value

BEST MOMENTS

00:00:02. “Friends can be themselves, but they're choosing not to. They're choosing to be something different.”
00:00:16. “From what we've seen of Gen Z, they will leave your app as quickly as they join.”
00:01:25. “You know, one of the biggest reasons of your success is your ability to build product and and build marketing to generation Z.”
00:03:11. “They kind of just want to figure out the story themselves, and they want to believe it.”
00:05:05. “We're a social calendar app that makes it easier for you to keep up with your friends.”
00:07:14. “It got like 14 million views, like hundreds of thousands of comments of people tagging their friends.”
00:08:48. “We posted kind of a few videos with different features and trying to kind of see if anything resonated.”
00:14:33. “The most interesting one is kind of on our organic socials.”
00:26:11. “If I feel that way, Gen Z feels like that times a million.”
00:30:25. “I would have a whole pre campaign set up where we're kind of teeing up something really ridiculous for our followers.”

🎧 ExperiMENTAL is hosted by Sundar Swaminathan, Head of Data Science at Bounce and former Uber leader. This show is your behind-the-scenes look at how top marketers and data scientists make smarter decisions.

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