The representation of men in advertising has regressed over time; this has resulted in an overwhelmingly singular showcase of success across media with money, power and fame as the pinnacle. This version of success, however, is not a reflection of our current society or the shifts that have been made in recent years to open this up. Gen Z men have a different idea of success than what is portrayed through advertising, and this persistent mismatch is causing a barrier to their happiness and is contributing to the mental health crisis we face. We need to close the gap between what’s going on internally with them and what’s being showcased in public.

So why hasn’t this gap been addressed? Because men don’t feel heard, and therefore, don’t talk about how this impacts them. So how do we solve this? We’ll ask them to ‘tell us’ what success looks like.

Gen Z are a digitally native generation and this infiltrates most facets of their lives, and potentially most dangerously, the way they express themselves and seek emotional support. We have identified their reliance on ChatGPT and voice assistants, this is happening behind closed doors and worsening the lack of conversation in society.

We know success is not a “one size fits all” outlook, there are thousands of versions of what it looks like and the only way to get that message out there, is to get authentic feedback from the very men this mismatch impacts; Gen Z. We need to meet them where they feel most comfortable, a space where they feel secure and already communicate everyday; WhatsApp. We will approach them with “You tell us”, what success looks like, and use these responses to roll out our media campaign.

Gen Z don’t want to be preached at, they want to be listened to and our approach does exactly that. By using WhatsApp, the no. 2 favourite app amongst them (with over 620 million Gen Z users), we will prompt the audience to tell us authentically, what success means to them and motivate them to participate by informing them of the impact their contribution would have in shaping the future.

They can answer over text or voice message and their input would be used to create an entire digital and offline campaign, with the core objective of showcasing that every man has his own version of success and that is the new future. We will show up where our audience over-indexes in media; digital audio, digital OOH, social media, online video and print. These channels allow for flexibility, key targeting and longevity.

On world mental health day, our WhatsApp partnership will kick off with a pop-up chat from the chatbot to our Gen Z males only, thanks to META targeting capabilities, with the message; “Hey, let’s talk about what success means to you”. This would be followed by reassurance that success can look many different ways and they should share their feedback as this will shape the future of media.

So what happens once we have the feedback;

Texted answers will be shared on DOOH through a live plug-in

Compiled voice messages of top ranking versions of success to be used across digital audio

Consolidated key versions of success to be shared across social media, online video, digital audio, print and a tailored exhibition space open to the public

Channels used are predominantly globally available, so we are not limited on scale, nor longevity as our amplification channels will be paced.