Marketing to Gen Alpha: How brands can win over the next generation

Marketing to Gen Alpha: How brands can win over the next generation

Winning over young generations is key for marketers in the chase for relevance and as those groups’ purchasing power rises. In the coming years, no cohort may be as valuable to reach as Gen Alpha, which is estimated to wield about $28 billion in direct spending power — not to mention a good deal more in indirect spending — despite its young age.

A new report from Horizon Media’s Why Group and Blue Hour Studios, “The New Media Multiverse,” analyzes strategies that could help brands connect with Gen Alpha consumers, along with their typically millennial parents. Among the highlights is Gen Alpha’s gravitation toward interest-based content and community-driven discovery. Household dynamics between Gen Alpha and millennial parents could also inform marketing plans as nostalgia helps parents and their children connect and millennials embrace screens in a new way.

However, the Gen Alpha landscape isn’t easy to navigate, not only due to regulatory complexities but also intense competition. Gen Alpha, defined in the report as those born between 2010 and 2024, is exposed to more content than older generations, allowing them to refine their interests from an earlier age. Millennial parents cited over 250 brands that their kids ask for by name, according to Horizon Media, underscoring the challenge in cutting through the clutter.

“These kids are almost like mini-media planners — they’re extremely brand aware, they’re extremely marketing savvy and they have more purchasing power than any generation before them, and within their family too,” said Matt Higgins, head of strategy at social and influencer agency Blue Hour Studios.

“The New Media Multiverse” is based on an analysis combining cultural audit and social listening with primary research in addition to qualitative interviews. The audit analyzed over 250 pieces of content to identify emerging narratives, while proprietary research leveraged a panel of 1,000 American millennial parents aged 28-48 with Gen Alpha children aged 7-13 in February 2025.

The new family dynamic

Gen Alpha, described by Why Group and Blue Hour Studios as the first algorithmically native generation, and millennials, the first digitally native generation, are reshaping how families function. Notably, 77% of millennial parents believe that their children are more influential than they were over their own parents in determining purchases, a shift credited to algorithms and the role they play in helping kids build their interests. Simultaneously, 82% of parents agree they share more interests with their children than their parents did with them.

More specifically, nostalgic content is the “connective tissue” between generations, per the report. Eighty-four percent of respondents reported they gravitate toward nostalgic formats when they are seeking out shared experiences. For brands, that insight provides a valuable opportunity to consider rebooting or recreating older intellectual property for today’s consumers, according to Higgins. A number of brands have recently revamped iconic taglines, mascots and characters in the hopes of reaching younger audiences.

“The way that Alphas are taking in nostalgic content with their parents, they see it as new content, and they’re bonding with their parents over it,” Higgins said. “One of the kids that we spoke to was saying how they love this show called ‘The Office’ — they talked about it like it just came out — because they watch it with their parent.”

The predicted shift from hyper-personalization back toward community-driven discovery underscores the need for shared content experiences. Gen Alpha’s exposure to content is welcomed by millennial parents, who have adopted an alternative attitude to screen time than the parents who came before them. Instead of restrictive thinking, millennials are instilling independence among their children, accepting digital life as inevitable and working with their kids on how to navigate a complex landscape. 

As a result, 71% of parents believe their children are better equipped for today’s world because of their screen exposure. However, 65% of parents curate and edit their children’s online feeds through actions like watching videos they feel will make a positive impact while signed into their child’s account, another signal brands should broaden their appeal to the wider family unit.

Source: Marketing Dive

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