We’ve reached peak Gen Z obsession in marketing. Every brainstorm, every pitch deck, every strategy session seems to start with the same question:“How do we tap into Gen Z culture?”
But the creator economy is no longer a Gen Z playground. It’s a full-fledged industry and brands that keep chasing youth trends risk missing the bigger opportunity.
Yes, Gen Z is digital-first, platform-native, and culture-shaping. They follow Creators, shape how trends emerge and make products go viral but here’s what most brands miss:
While they scramble to crack the Gen Z code, the real shift is happening across generations.
The Creator Economy is not a youth movement This is not just a trend. It’s an economic transformation.
The creator economy is already worth $290 billion, projected to hit $480 billion by 2027. And it’s not just made of TikTok youngsters.
Today’s Creators are photographers, educators, athletes, stylists, comedians, financial experts many of them Millennials, Gen X, even Boomers. Over half the value now flows directly from audiences to creators.
That’s not a fad. It’s a structural change in how attention, trust, and value move in the digital age.
So if your entire strategy is still built around a generation, you’re already behind.
The best creator campaigns today don’t start with: “Who’s the most Gen Z person we can book?” but with “What outcome are we trying to drive, and who can help us get there?”.
When you define Creators by what they unlock, not when they were born, your strategy becomes sharper and you can always use paid amplification to reach the right audience. That’s not the hard part.
What matters is working with creators who bring creative authority, cultural trust and deep audience alignment on values. Then scaling that message through media.
Being part of a generation doesn’t make you its best translator. In fact, Creators outside of Gen Z often have the distance, storytelling clarity, and cultural weight to cut through precisely because they’re not trying to mimic Gen Z.
Take Loewe’s campaign with Maggie Smith.
On paper, unexpected. In practice, pure cultural resonance.
It lit up Gen Z feeds because it was elegant, confident, and creatively bold, not because it tried to be relatable. Or look at Martha Stewart x Liquid Death. That campaign didn’t speak Gen Z’s language. It flipped expectations. That’s what made it stick. The same is true of Iris Apfel’s collaboration with H&M or Bus Auntie and Jacquemus. They did not chase relevance. They embodied originality and freedom.
And that’s exactly what younger audiences respect most. Instead of matching age to age, ask sharper questions:
- Who brings creative authority in this space?
- Who will our audience actually trust?
- Who tells our story with weight and distinction?
You don’t need a 22-year-old to reach 22-year-olds, you need the right creative voice, the right influence architecture, and a smart distribution strategy.
So What Should You Do?
It’s simple:
- Focus on creator types, not creator age
- Build systems that treat creators as strategic operators
- Design for outcome-first storytelling, amplified with smart paid
- Look for cross-generational connection, not demographic alignment
- Stop chasing youth. Start partnering with value.
The Gen Z fixation isn’t wrong. But it is incomplete.
The future of Creator Marketing belongs to those who can build culture, move markets, and Design Systems that scale Influence across generations.
