A repeatable framework for creating viral stunts is to take a familiar concept—like a toy store, meditation app, or musical—and create the "world's first" version specifically for your target audience. The inherent absurdity of a "meditation app for CISOs" or a "dating app for accountants" generates curiosity and makes the campaign highly shareable.

To connect with Gen Z, Coach shifted its brand positioning from simply being an affordable luxury good to being a tool for self-expression. This move addresses a core tension for this generation: the desire to express their true selves while navigating the pressures of constant social media visibility.

Chipotle focuses its marketing on being relevant to 20-somethings, believing this demographic defines what's cool in culture. This strategy ensures the brand never goes out of style, as both younger teens and older adults often look to this age group for cultural cues, creating a halo effect across all segments.

Nutter Butter, a 55-year-old brand, successfully engaged a younger audience by embracing absurdist, meme-style humor. This risky strategy, while potentially alienating some, is effective for generating deep brand love because it requires taking a bold, creative stand.

Molson Coors revitalized its Coors Banquet brand by doubling down on its authentic, 150-year-old Western identity. This strategy resonated with a younger, legal-drinking-age Gen Z audience seeking authenticity, proving that heritage can bridge generational divides.

While Gen Z is overrepresented in ads, data shows that when they see themselves portrayed, ad effectiveness scores drop significantly. Common stereotypes of being tech-obsessed, awkward, or only in competitive situations alienate them. Intergenerational stories and portrayals of kindness perform better.

Caribou Coffee's "Make Fun Happen" value inspires engaging internal activities that serve business goals. For a ticket giveaway, they ran a "drink bracket" competition, making the event enjoyable while simultaneously deepening the marketing team's knowledge of their own products.

Gen Z consumers curate different personas across various social channels (e.g., TikTok vs. LinkedIn), making brand positioning exponentially more complex. A brand's purpose must serve as a connective tissue, agile enough to be tweaked for different channel-specific identities while maintaining a core consistency.

The end of the year creates a specific consumer mindset focused on reflection and catching up, popularized by Spotify Wrapped. Brands can capitalize on this by creating their own 'best of' content, meeting a pre-existing audience expectation and leveraging a cultural moment for higher engagement.