Category: News

At the start of 2026, inflation dominated headlines; the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a jobs slowdown,¹ and Canada’s Labour Force showed a decline.²

McDonald’s made news in March by launching a new $3-and-under value menu and a $4 meal deal.³ These trends coincide with consumer sentiment seeking affordable comforts and small treats, such as coffee drinks, manicures, or collectibles. 

While we had a sense that sentiment drives QSR consumer behavior, we wanted to dig into the facts.

Gen Z and Emotional Fast-Food Consumption

While two-thirds of Gen Z report burnout,⁴ industry reports show the same proportion ordering takeout or delivery at least once a week.⁵ The overlap is apparent. 

By the start of 2025, we noticed engagement with content about the emotional benefits of fast food was owned by 18-34 year olds by a factor of 15-to-1, compared to other generations. There’s a strong relationship between sentiment and QSR consumer behavior, and marketing teams must adapt their strategies to take advantage of this connection.

Occasional Luxuries

Conversations discussing fast food go beyond flavor, value, and brand on social media. Between 2022 and 2025, comfort-based conversations about fast food grew online by a massive 155%.

Quick-service restaurants have a relationship to comfort, nostalgia, and emotion unlike anything seen before. We wrote about the evolution of fast food from sustenance to self-care in 2025, and the trend continues to grow.

How Consumers Talk About Brands

We looked specifically at what drove consumer purchases last year. There was no clear majority, as brands always know. A mixture of hunger, convenience, price, location, and timing all come into play when running a restaurant.

In their own words, one-in-five consumers bought from a quick-service restaurant to reward themselves for a job well done. Whether they got a promotion, worked hard on a school project, or cleaned their home, nearly 20% of consumers bought fast food because they reached a goal or milestone.

Close behind, just under 16% chose fast food to pursue happiness. They chose the option “treating yourself to feel better or happier”. 

These points highlight the fulfillment quick-service restaurants play, beyond their caloric content. 

Sentiment Transcends Brand

This conversation around sentiment, emotion, and self-care isn’t owned by any single QSR brand. While many consumers have personal favorites, a third of posts in 2025 mentioned no quick-service restaurant by name when talking about comfort-based consumption.

Whether due to habit or convenience, the lack of a clear leader in sentiment-based consumption leaves room for growth. The 27% of brand-agnostic conversations represent an open opportunity.

What Can Brands Do When Sentiment Drives QSR Consumer Behavior?

Based on the data, the essential question for QSR brands is how to adapt strategies to connect emotionally with consumers.

As of Jan 2026, conversations that link QSR and mental health are up 58% from two years ago.⁶ Research shows that Millennials spend more on dining out, but Gen Z dines out more often.⁷ They want their dollars to go further, which means they’re turning to cheaper options.

Here are our four tips for how to win your brand’s share of consumer sentiment:

1. Consider Emotional Customer Journeys

Review your customer journey to seek where sentiment shows up. What are the drivers of their emotional QSR engagement? Are there ways that your brand can be the natural choice based on their behavior? What do searches on your site, search engines, and on social media show? Look for patterns in intention and direct your campaigns to capture that moment.

2. Look at Loyalty

Loyalty programs offer real-time intelligence on customer behavior. Buying patterns related to seasons, times of day, and broader cultural moments give a view as to why consumers choose a QSR brand. Make that part of your external messaging to show that you’re connected to their intent.

3. Create QSR Cultural Moments

Instead of waiting for the right time, QSR brands can create relevant moments based on QSR culture. Stand out from the crowd without paying influencer or celebrity endorsement fees by focusing on what’s special about the audience’s relationship to your brand or QSR in general. Consider Taco Bell’s “fourth meal” and Burger King’s “Whopper detour” as ways to influence behavior on your own terms.

4. Measure Sentiment Over Sales

When trying to influence sentiments, keep your eye on the conversation over the ledger. Owning more share of emotional content in the market may not result in immediate sales results. Social listening and sentiment analysis are the tools for understanding success here.

If you’re eager to build a meaningful with your audience, we’re here to help.

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1. Bureau of Labor Statistics

2. Government of Canada

3. Today.com

4. Fortune

5. Food Institute

6. via Meltwater

7. Investopedia

Global PR powerhouse Citizen Relations has officially welcomed Stephanie Hurst as its new President, Canada. Based in the Toronto office, Stephanie joins the executive leadership team to oversee the agency’s flourishing Canadian operations and drive a 360-degree integrated growth strategy.

A seasoned marketing and advertising veteran, Stephanie’s career has spanned both the client and agency sides, from leading the Dove brand at Unilever Canada to serving as CEO of creative agency john st. and marketing consultancy theturnlab. 

We sat down with Stephanie to chat about her marketing leadership philosophy, why reputation is the only currency that matters, and why she’s excited to be the “plus sign” in the Citizen equation.

Q&A with Stephanie Hurst

You’ve had a storied career across major brands like Unilever and top-tier creative agencies. What was it about Citizen Relations that made you want to call it your new home?

Stephanie: I’ve spent my career moving between the agency world and the client side, which has given me a 360-degree view of the marketing landscape. Earned is here to stay, and Citizen has been leading that charge for a while now.  In this era where consumers are increasingly skilled at ignoring paid ads, it’s fair to say media can buy attention, but it doesn’t buy trust. Citizen understands that reputation isn’t just a department; it’s a strategy that drives business. I was also deeply impressed by the agency’s “Agency of the Future” investments—specifically how we blend creativity with data to stay ahead of the curve.

You’ve been part of some iconic cultural moments, including bringing Dove’s ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ to Canada. How does that foundational brand-building experience shape your approach today?

Stephanie: My years in advertising agencies gave me a foundation in brand building and craft, while Unilever taught me the “business of brands”—specifically the rigor of P&L management. My “sweet spot” is helping brands navigate change by combining empathy and business understanding. It’s about connecting the dots across a business to unlock growth

You describe yourself as an “integrator.” Can you tell us more about that leadership philosophy?

Stephanie: Every leader says they want to mobilize talented people, but I see my role specifically as being the “plus sign” in the equation 1 + 1 = 3. I’m not always the person coming up with the brand-new idea in a brainstorm; instead, my strength lies in making other people’s ideas better and spotting the disconnects. I want to ensure every team’s brilliance is fully realized by working in the same direction.

What do you see as the biggest gap in the marketing and communications industry right now?

Stephanie: Siloed thinking. Frequently, reputation and corporate comms sit in a different spot than brand building. To me, brand perception is based entirely on the experience a consumer has with it—it cannot be disconnected. Citizen is uniquely positioned to bridge this gap because we operate at both the corporate and consumer levels, remaining data-focused and business-minded. In fact, Citizen is doubling down on reputation as a tangible business asset because we recognize that PR’s true power lies not in managing the media, but in managing integrity.

For brands looking at their current strategy, what are the indicators that they are “ready” for a partnership with Citizen?

Stephanie: It’s usually when they realize that “just buying attention” isn’t working as hard as it used to. If a brand is frustrated that its marketing spend isn’t translating into long-term trust or authority, they’re ready for the work we do. As we look toward the future of brand communications, reputation is emerging as a brand’s most undervalued performance asset; one that creates a “Trust Premium” that lowers customer acquisition costs and accelerates every other marketing investment. Consumers now discover brands through search engine authority and the reputation shared by friends and social media—we help brands build that ecosystem of trust.

What does a “win” look like for you and your clients?

Stephanie: A win is moving beyond the role of a PR program purveyor to becoming a true partner in building and protecting reputation. My goal is for Citizen to be the first call—or better yet, the partner who identifies a business challenge or opportunity before the phone even rings. 

You’ve been in the office for about a month. What has surprised you most about the team so far?

Stephanie: Despite the incredible success Citizen has enjoyed in Canada—like being on the Agency of the Year podium for three consecutive years—there is zero complacency. Everyone is incredibly curious, open, and driven to evolve. There’s an openness to working together differently that’s very infectious.

Finally, for a little fun, what fuels your “plus sign” energy outside of the office?

Stephanie: As my three children are now young adults, I now have time to develop my own interests again. Pickleball, any and all outdoor time, travel with my husband and my core group of girlfriends are all major passions for me right now. I’m also an “army brat” who attended 11 different schools before university, which probably explains my love of adaptability and change!

The era of the “hidden ad” has reached its expiration date. For over a decade, brands and influencers performed a delicate dance around sponsorships, fearing that overt commercialism would shatter the illusion of authenticity and destroy consumer trust. But there’s a sharp shift in the cultural narrative: most Gen Z don’t just tolerate the hustle — they respect it. This is the Commercial Duality of Gen Z and our Gen Z marketing strategies. They’re obsessed with relatable personalities and radical transparency, yet they’re also least likely to punish a creator for “selling out”. They don’t view the creator economy as a deceptive marketing ploy; they view it as a legitimate career path.

The Data: A New Standard for Voracious Consumption

Gen Z’s engagement with influencer content is unmatched, no matter which persona they fit into. While Millennials and Gen X often hit the “unfollow” button at the first sign of excessive sponsored content, Gen Z is far more forgiving, provided two non-negotiable criteria are met:

1. The Vibe is Viral: They over-index on following creators for their spectacle and “cultural heat,” understanding that fame naturally attracts brand partnerships.
2. The Personality is Real: They demand a relatable persona and transparency in communication.

For this generation, transparency doesn’t mean “I don’t do ads,” it means “I am honest about the ads I do.” They are “Commercial Realists” who understand that if the content is free, the brand pays the bill.

Gen Z Marketing Strategy: Alix Earle x The Super Bowl

Successful brands have stopped hiding the brief. Instead, they turn the commercial relationship into “lore.”

During the 2025 Super Bowl, Alix Earle’s partnerships with Poppi and Carl’s Jr. exemplified this mastery. Rather than slipping a corporate deal quietly into her feed, she framed the moment as a “we made it” milestone for her community. The ad wasn’t an interruption; it was a plot point in her ongoing narrative.

The result? Her audience didn’t roll their eyes; they celebrated her success. By taking them behind the scenes of the “hustle,” she satisfied their craving for both virality and relatable transparency.

Engaging the 5 Personas: Persona-Specific Takeaways

To turn the “Commercial Duality” into a brand advantage, marketing efforts must align with the unique motivations of the five Gen Z personas identified by The Gen Z Collective.

• The Status Architect: Frame sponsorships as a “premium” achievement. They value success and image-consciousness, so show them that partnering with your brand is a sign of making it to the top.
• The Beta Tester: Lean into the “perpetual upgrade” mindset. Use creators to offer early access or “hands-on” trials of new features, letting them feel like they are part of the brand’s evolution.
• The Value Vigilante: Lead with radical transparency. Since they hold brands to rigorous standards, ensure your influencer partnerships provide evidence of quality and align with their practical, value-driven world.
• The Anxious Avoider: Create a “digital sanctuary”. Your commercial content should feel like a “safe space”—think slow-paced, home-based content that emphasizes comfort rather than the high-energy hustle.
• The Risk Junkie: Focus on niche access and novelty. Use limited-edition digital drops or “if you know, you know” community spaces to spark their curiosity for the “weird” and the unhinged.

The CEO Takeaway: Brand as a Co-Creator

Modern brand leadership requires a shift from “influencing in the shadows” to “co-creating in the spotlight”. If a creator is relatable and the product is relevant, the audience won’t just tolerate the ad—they will champion your brand’s success for landing it.

Action Item for Brands: Review your influencer briefs. Are you asking creators to hide the commercial intent? Stop. Give them the creative freedom to celebrate the sponsorship as part of their narrative. Gen Z is rooting for the hustle—ensure your brand is part of the win with Gen Z marketing strategies curated just for them. 

While not true for all of them, most Gen Z are known to be obsessed with their personal narrative. They view identity as a fluid, living document – constantly iterating, experimenting, and refining who they are in real-time across platforms like TikTok and Instagram. Yet, this generation presents a fascinating contradiction: while their identities are fluid, they demand absolute, fixed consistency and effortless utility from the brands they allow into their lives.

This social/identity paradox highlights the tension between Fluid Identity vs. Fixed Utility.

Our Gen Z Collective found that the Beta Testers persona exemplifies this shift. They don’t view brands as static entities; they see them as ecosystems in perpetual upgrade. For this group, loyalty isn’t a passive points program, it’s a daily commitment to relevance. The moment a brand becomes clunky, irrelevant, or fails to deliver on a promise of convenience, the Beta Tester evolves past you.

Sephora’s Phygital Mastery

Sephora remains the gold standard for navigating this paradox by recognizing that the Gen Z customer journey is a non-linear, always-on, omnichannel loop. They win over the Beta Testers through three strategic pillars:

• Integrating Digital Identity: Their Virtual Artist app allows customers to “try on” identities instantly — a form of digital beta testing. This fluidity is anchored by flawless, fixed utility: the app works perfectly, and the data-driven recommendations are highly accurate.
• Unifying the Experience: Sephora ensures zero friction. Loyalty points, purchase history, and personalized carts are identical whether the customer is on a smartphone or standing in a physical aisle.
• Delivering Constant Utility: They use digital interfaces to solve physical friction, such as streamlined in-store pickups and returns. For the Beta Tester, this isn’t a “premium” feature; it is the baseline expectation for their loyalty.

Strategic Takeaways: Engaging the 5 Personas

To capture this digital-first loyalty, brands must deploy the “perpetual operating system” mindset across the five distinct Gen Z personas

1. The Status Architect: Focus on the aesthetic of optimization. Provide high-design digital tools that help them curate their public-facing “Main Character” journey and wellness era.
2. The Beta Tester: Prioritize optimization and customization. Offer early access to AI-driven features or “hands-on” trials of new tech that eliminates daily friction.
3. The Value Vigilante: Lead with Radical Transparency. Use digital platforms to provide evidence of sourcing and quality, as they seek reliability and hold brands to rigorous standards.
4. The Anxious Avoider: Build a digital sanctuary. Simplify your user interface to reduce “decision fatigue” and frame your digital utility as a way to enhance their comfort and “safe space” at home.
5. The Risk Junkie: Lean into discovery and niche access. Use limited-edition digital drops or “if you know, you know” community spaces (like subreddits) to spark their curiosity for the “weird” and novelty.

The CEO Takeaway: Brand as a Perpetual Operating System

The goal for modern leadership is to stop thinking in terms of “campaigns” and start developing a “perpetual operating system”. Loyalty today is earned by making a consumer’s life effortless. Your marketing efforts must invest as aggressively in the digital utility of your product as in the product itself.

Action Item for Brands: Evaluate your digital ecosystem: apps, websites, and service chats. Are they as high-quality as your physical product? Are you willing to A/B test your services in real-time to match the speed of your audience? If the answer is no, you are leaving your most valuable customer segment on the table.

For decades, the “Gucci” standard defined aspirational success: bold logos, luxury handbags, and overt displays of wealth calibrated to signal status at first glance.

That standard no longer works. Gen Z has fundamentally rewritten the rules with what we call the “Groceries” standard: where Gen Z are actively choosing to splurge on premium groceries and wellness products over branded items. 

Despite navigating unprecedented financial pressures, this generation hasn’t stopped spending — they’ve just redirected it. They’ve embraced “Affordable Affluence,” a new paradigm where status isn’t just derived from designer labels, but from premium essentials and high-performing micro-luxuries.

Stanley, Owala, HydroJug: Why Hydration is the Newest Status Symbol 

The infamous rise of Stanley reveals this shift with precision. Functionally, it’s a tool for staying hydrated. Culturally, it achieved phenomenon status by evolving from camping gear to essential lifestyle accessory because it delivers on three non-negotiable Gen Z criteria:

Flawless Utility: It solves genuine daily friction points (cup holder compatibility, 48-hour ice retention)

Hyper-Personalization: Limited-edition colorways transform a water bottle into a vehicle for self-expression and identity signaling

The Justifiable Splurge: It commands a premium price for its category, yet remains accessible as a status marker. The investment feels anchored in wellness, not vanity.

This pattern extends well beyond Stanley, which paved the way for Owala and HydroJug. Research reveals Gen Z over-indexes in their consideration of brands like Liquid Death and Cirkul, showing a consistent willingness to pay more when products deliver tangible improvements to their daily routines.

Beyond the Screen: The Value of In-Person Connection

While the “Groceries” standard defines what Gen Z buys, how they buy reveals another critical insight. Despite being labeled the “digital-native” generation, their behaviour varies and proves otherwise. They queue for hours at pop-up shops, archive sales, and flagship launches and not just for product access, but for the community energy that digital interaction cannot replicate.

Winning with the 5 Personas: Strategies for Functional Status

Capturing “Affordable Affluence” requires moving beyond generational marketing to engage specific mindsets. Here’s how to deploy the “elevated essential” and “in-person experience” across the 5 personas identified in our Gen Z Collective:

1. The Status Architect: The Wellness Curator

For this persona, aesthetic excellence and bodily optimization are inseparable. They demonstrate a 43% higher interest in emerging wellness trends and understand status as a reflection of their self-optimization journey.

The Strategy: For any category, position your product as a justifiable luxury that signals self-improvement. Use high-aesthetic, in-person activations that provide the “perfect shot” while emphasizing how the product aids their “main character” journey.

2. The Beta Tester: The Optimization Specialist

Motivated by efficiency and digital fluency, Beta Testers prioritize products that eliminate friction. They show 21% higher likelihood to make convenience-driven purchase decisions.

The Strategy: Your brand’s “affluence” is measured by frictionless utility. Highlight technical superiority and use physical events to offer “hands-on” trials. If your product saves them time or mental energy, it becomes a high-status essential.

3. The Value Vigilante: The Ethical Accountant

Pragmatic and discriminating, this persona seeks value validation, not discounts. They hold brands accountable to rigorous standards of integrity.

The Strategy: Win them over with radical transparency. Use your brand platforms to pull back the curtain on sourcing and quality. For them, a product that lasts a lifetime or supports a cause is a much louder status symbol than a flash-in-the-pan trend.

4. The Anxious Avoider: The Sanctuary Builder

Often depleted by relentless productivity culture, this group gravitates toward comfort and predictability. They demonstrate a 35% higher preference for staying home, unless an environment promises safety and minimal pressure.

The Strategy: Focus on the premiumization of the home. Whether you sell snacks, software, or apparel, frame your offering as a way to enhance their “safe space.” Status is found in the ultimate, high-quality version of a cozy, reliable essential.

5. The Risk Junkie: The Niche Discoverer

Risk Junkies pursue the emerging and undiscovered. They show 156% higher likelihood to select products based on distinctiveness and innovation.

The Strategy: Lean into scarcity and discovery. Use limited-edition drops and “if you know, you know” physical pop-ups. For this persona, the “affluence” comes from the social capital of owning something rare and the adrenaline of the hunt.

The CEO Takeaway: Precision Over Prestige

The future of brand loyalty isn’t determined by price point, it’s defined by indispensability and intentionality. To win, brands must move beyond “unintentional consumption” and prove they deserve a place in Gen Z’s highly curated lives. This requires:

• Prioritizing Precision: Clearly communicate the “why” behind your price and your product.

• Facilitating Community: Leverage that Gen Z is looking for in-person connection to turn your brand into a destination.

• Validating the Choice: Position your product as the smart, empowered decision that supports a balanced, optimized lifestyle.

The Bottom Line: In the era of the “Groceries” standard, the most successful brands won’t be the ones that are the loudest, but the ones that are the most indispensable to a Gen Z’s daily ritual.

It is the first week of January. Historically, this is the moment when the “New Year, New Me” anxiety machine hits maximum velocity. But if you look past the crowded gyms and the detox ads, you will see that for Gen Z, the traditional resolution playbook has cracked down the middle.

As we kick off Q1, we aren’t seeing a singular generation striving for a singular definition of “better.” Instead, we are witnessing a “Pragmatic Pivot”. Gen Z is currently torn between two radically different approaches to the year ahead. One camp is treating their life like a high-growth startup, seeking a tangible “ROI” on their time and money. The other is actively rejecting the pressure to optimize, embracing “Resolution Fatigue” and the radical concept of being “Good Enough”.

To understand how to market to this generation right now, brands must look beyond the monolith. Using The Gen Z Collective personas, we can see exactly who is hustling, who is healing, and specifically what your brand needs to do to catch them before the January window closes.

The Split: How Gen Zs are Tackling January

Trend 1: The “ROI” Resolution

For a significant cohort, wellness is no longer defined by six-pack abs, but by a safety net. In a volatile economy, these consumers are prioritizing resolutions that pay dividends: career advancement, new skills, and savings.

Beta Testers (The Optimizers)

• The Vibe: “Confident leaders” who are “excited about AI”.
• What they are doing right now: They are using the first week of January to overhaul their personal tech stacks. They don’t want a generic planner; they want tools that gamify their professional growth. For Beta Testers, self-education is a survival strategy, and they are the most likely to adopt AI tools to maximize their efficiency in Q1.
• 👉 The Mandate: Stop selling generic health. Start selling “productivity” and “optimization.” Position your product as a tool that helps them get ahead in the “Hustle Economy”. Show them that buying your product provides a measurable return on investment for their career.

Risk Junkies (The Aggressive Investors)

• The Vibe: “Zero Hesitation Mode” and “Adventurous”.
• What they are doing right now: While others play it safe, Risk Junkies are bypassing traditional savings for crypto or high-risk assets (47% are confident with FinTech). They aren’t just saving; they are looking for the “hustle” that turns financial stability into a viral, social-first status symbol.
• 👉 The Mandate: Gamify the experience. This group craves ownership and identity. Don’t sell “banking” or “safety”; sell a “Money Main Character” energy that feels risky and exclusive enough to share with their niche communities.

Status Architects (The Ambitious Esthetes)

• The Vibe: “Career-focused” (71%) and “Image-conscious”.
• What they are doing right now: For this group, “ROI” applies to their image. They are treating wellness as a premium asset – spending their Q1 budget on luxury groceries and skincare. They will pursue the ROI resolution, but only if it looks aesthetically pleasing enough to earn an invite to a daytime “Coffee Party”.
• 👉 The Mandate: Pivot to “Investment.” Position your product as an essential asset for their personal brand. If you are selling wellness, it must be premium and shareable. You aren’t selling a gym membership; you are selling access to a lifestyle that signals they have “made it”.

Trend 2: The “Resolution Fatigue” Rebellion

Conversely, a massive split in the data shows many Gen Z-ers are entering the year “exhausted”. This group is rejecting the narrative that demands they fix everything “wrong” with them, opting for maintenance over transformation.

Anxious Avoiders (The Burned Out)

• The Vibe: “Overwhelmed,” “Skeptical,” and “Homebodies”.
• What they are doing right now: With 66% identifying as “anxiety-prone,” the pressure to optimize leads to paralysis. They are retreating to “sleepcations” or road trips to quiet inns. They are rejecting the “New You” in favor of “slow living”—baking homemade butter or hosting low-stakes dinner parties.
• 👉 The Mandate: Stop selling transformation. Start selling “Comfort” and “Maintenance.” Validate their burnout by pivoting your messaging from “Fix Yourself” to “Treat Yourself”. Be the brand that gives them permission to opt out of the rat race and celebrate “Good Enough”.

Value Vigilantes (The Skeptics)

• The Vibe: “Practical,” “Cautious Spenders” (77%), and “Reliable”.
• What they are doing right now: They are viewing the sudden January marketing frenzy as a cash grab. Instead of buying into the hype, they are aligning with “Resolution Fatigue” out of a desire for authenticity. They are spending their time in offline communities or exploring “sober curious” movements rather than high-pressure self-improvement drops.
• 👉 The Mandate: Drop the hype. Validate their skepticism by focusing on transparency, reliability, and community connection. Don’t push a limited-time “New Year” offer; push the long-term value and ethical standing of your brand.

The Tale of Two Strategies

Two brands have perfectly captured this bifurcation, proving that you can win Q1 by picking a lane.

Case Study 1: Cleo (Winning the “ROI” Crowd) No brand understands the “ROI Resolution” better than Cleo, the AI-powered financial assistant. Cleo doesn’t market “budgeting” as a boring chore; it gamifies the “hustle”. Their famous “Roast Mode” bullies users (lovingly) into saving money, using the harsh, meme-filled language of Gen Z internet culture. By hiring a “Chief Spending Officer” to demonstrate fiscal responsibility via TikTok, Cleo turned “saving money” from a dry resolution into a viral status symbol. They recognized that for Beta Testers and Risk Junkies, financial fitness is mental health.

Case Study 2: Mejuri (Winning the “Fatigue” Crowd) On the other side of the spectrum, jewelry brand Mejuri tapped perfectly into “Resolution Fatigue” with their “New Year, No Plans” campaign. Instead of pushing a “New You” narrative, they sent emails with subject lines like “New Year, Still You” and “New Year, Still Good”. They encouraged customers to reject the frenzy of self-improvement. By positioning their products as “permanent” rather than “limited edition drops,” they validated the Anxious Avoider’s feeling that maintenance is a victory and that they are “already good”.

The Takeaway

The “New Year” has just begun, but the window to resonate is closing. Your consumers are either building an empire or building a fortress—make sure your brand knows the difference.

Citizen Relations is underscoring its commitment to talent investment and strategic growth by announcing a wave of key promotions in 2H 2025 across its global offices. Building on the momentum from its first-half advancements and a stellar year of growth, the agency is wrapping up 2025 by recognizing Citizens across all specialties. 

Citizen is a global PR agency built to give ambitious brands the curiosity, confidence, and courage to stay ahead of trends and maximize measurable success. A series of global promotions across the second half of 2025 ensure that the talent driving this mission continues to be recognized and empowered:

• Kell Cholko, who leads the P&G Ventures account in the U.S., has been promoted to Senior Director, PR
• Jordan Hernandez, a U.S. based leader on the global Marketing and Growth team, has been promoted to Director, Content Marketing 
• Sue Jackman, who led the agency’s global rebrand in 2022, joins the agency’s executive leadership team with her promotion to Executive Vice President, Marketing and Growth
• Rebecca Myers, who has worked on such award-winning campaigns as Elimin8Hate’s ReclaimYourName.dic and Molson’s Keep It Real Can, has been promoted within the global strategy team to Vice President, Strategy
• Catherine Pover, who leads strategy for P&G in the UK, has been promoted to Client Strategy Director, PR 
• Suran Ravi, who leads Citizen’s expanding insights and intelligence group globally, has been promoted to SVP, Intelligence 
• Jonathan Siemens, who has worked on such award winning campaigns as Chill Train and Fix Tixflation for Molson Coors Beverage Company in Canada, has been promoted to Vice President, PR
• Kelsey Wheeler, who leads the Spruce, Valvoline Global and Duracell accounts in the U.S., has been promoted to Senior Director, PR

These advancements reflect Citizen’s focus on integrated capabilities and its continued investment – amidst great industry turbulence – in developing internal leadership.

“As we head into 2026 it’s clear that reputation is a brand’s most critical strategic asset,” says Nick Cowling, CEO of Citizen. “These promotions across our offices reflect our commitment to investing in the talent and integrated capabilities to help our clients protect and grow that asset.”

The full list of promotions includes: 

Accelerating Momentum, Accolades, and Actionable Intelligence

Citizen’s sustained investment in its people and its modern, tomorrow-first approach is generating significant external recognition. The agency has been named to PRNews’ Agency Elite Top 120 list and earned Strategy PR AOY – Bronze, marking its third consecutive year on the podium.

This commitment to growth is driven by the necessity of navigating today’s complex consumer landscape. Citizen’s recently launched Gen Z Collective, using an audience intelligence-led approach to directly address this complexity. The report identifies five distinct Gen Z personas that enable ambitious brands to move beyond guesswork and build a stronger consumer strategy. 

Citizen’s year was also marked with the launch of key new business partnerships across offices, including Jack Link’s and Nature’s Path. By leading with curiosity, Citizen is continually leveraging data-driven insights and technology to uncover hidden opportunities to deliver maximum impact to clients. 

Back in October, I had the privilege of traveling from the UK to the US to speak at the Digital Marketing World Forum in New York City, sharing the stage with industry thought leaders to discuss the future of marketing.

At the conference, my talk focused on how brands can ready themselves for what is next in today’s highly fragmented search world.

The discussion that followed my session was one of the highlights of the event for me, underscoring just how important this topic is for marketers today, given the strong interest and thoughtful questions from attendees.

I wanted to recap some of the core themes and insights from my presentation for those who couldn’t join in person.

The Search Crisis: Why Traditional SEO and SEM Are Breaking

Brands today are facing a major challenge as the traditional rules of search are being upended by two powerful forces: evolving consumer search behaviour and the rise of generative AI. Making traditional SEO and SEM more expensive and less effective. 

The modern consumer doesn’t search – they discover. For years, the path to purchase was a predictable journey: 

1. A user had a need
2. Typed a query into Google
3. Clicked a link
4. Landed on a website.

That era is definitely over!

We are in a new era of discovery, one fragmented by social media, driven by conversational AI, and defined by a new generation of users (Gen Z). 

The Fractured Landscape: Search is Everywhere

The old destination, the search bar, is now one of many starting points. 

Gen Z has shifted search behaviour, transforming platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram into visual, socially-validated search engines for everything from “nice restaurants in London” to “skincare for oily skin.”

Zero-click search with Google AI overviews is now becoming an essential part of how we find frictionless answers – making traditional SEO brand visibility and ROI difficult to quantify. 

AI is also becoming a beacon for multi-dimensional search, enabling users to merge text, imagery, and voice into a single search term, driving further personalized recommendations. 

For brands, this means your visibility strategy must extend far beyond Google.

In short: If you’re NOT in the answer, you’re NOT in the funnel.

The Solution: One Integrated ‘Whole Search’ Strategy

Brands need a unified approach that anchors their content strategy in human intent that can be activated across all channels. We call this Whole Search.

“Chasing algorithms is a losing game. Algorithms are constantly changing, but human behaviour signals are your constant.”

Whole Search is a modern, comprehensive approach designed to address the fractured search landscape and rebalance marketing efforts across Paid, Earned, Owned, and Shared tactics.

Whole Search has three essential principles that brands can adopt, to ensure they are creating the content strategy of the future: 

Principle 1: Lead with User Intent

The core of Whole Search is understanding the ‘why’ behind the search. Stop optimizing solely for keywords; start optimizing for intent. 

Whole Search goes beyond the standard intent categorization (Informational Intent, Transactional Intent, Navigational Intent, etc.). 

We add additional intelligence layers, for example, by classifying audience questions across all platforms, from forums and social media listening to traditional search queries we can uncover high-intent questions and build content that genuinely solves problems across the entire funnel and channel ecosystem. 

Principle 2: Break the Silos

A cohesive search strategy requires operational alignment. 

Teams must Plan, Activate, and Measure together, using one accessible set of holistic insights.

Principle 3: Develop an AI-Ready Content Engine

The future of search is a conversation, not a list of links. 

To succeed, your content needs to be effortlessly digestible by large language models (LLMs).

To become the answer, brands must commit to an always-on content engine (not just a campaign mindset) that is specifically optimized for AI, your content strategy needs to answer these essential questions:

1. Assess: Can your team move fast enough to respond to trends and news in real-time?
2. Optimize: Is your language and are your assets conversational and easily understood by AI?
3. Structure: Is your content formatted with clear signals, like headings, clean lists, and structured data that an AI model can reliably parse, cite, and summarize?

The New Search Mandate

The shift in consumer behaviour is rapid, and the technology is accelerating. 

This is no longer a conversation about SEO best practices; it’s about competitive survival.

By the end of this article, you should have four key takeaways to ensure your content strategy is ready for what’s next:

1. Search is a Powerful Signal of Consumer Behaviour: Be present where your audience begins their journey
2. Break the Silos: Plan, activate, and measure as one unified team.
3. Lead with User Intent: Shift from chasing algorithm updates to understanding human needs.
4. Become the Answer: Build an authoritative, always-on content strategy for the age of AI.

The brands that will win the next decade will be the ones that stop viewing search as a destination and start embedding themselves into the fabric of the customer’s decision-making behaviour.

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This fall, the marketing community gathered across Canada for the ICA’s Social East and Social Pacific Summits. From Halifax to Vancouver, these conferences brought together hundreds of marketing professionals to explore the future of brand storytelling, behavioural science, and the evolving media landscape. Among the industry leaders taking the stage were Citizen Relations’ own Lindsay Page and Cher Lee, who delivered a compelling presentation on “The Untapped Power of Earned to Drive Effectiveness in 2025”.

While the conferences covered a breadth of topics—from AI to influencer marketing—Lindsay and Cher centered their discussion on a critical shift in the industry: the resurgence of earned media in an era of distraction.

The Attention Economy: A New Reality

The core of the Citizen Relations point of view is that the battle for consumer attention has fundamentally changed. While time spent on social media has risen to over 2.5 hours daily, actual engagement has plummeted to a mere 47 seconds. Lindsay noted that the “human brain has become adept at ignoring clutter, efficiently discarding what is irrelevant.” Consequently, the traditional “pay-to-play” model is losing its efficacy. As noted in each presentation, “Attention is not for sale.” The brands currently winning are not necessarily those with the deepest pockets, but those telling stories worth listening to.

The Power of Earned

Despite headlines suggesting the decline of traditional media—marked by layoffs and shrinking newsrooms—Lindsay and Cher argue that earned media (PR) holds the greatest potential in modern marketing. Their rationale is grounded in consumer skepticism. Audiences today are savvy regarding paid and sponsored content. This skepticism gives the storytelling-centered discipline of PR a distinct advantage in generating authenticity and relevance. They referenced data (WARC) that supports this pivot: PR was a key metric in 71% of the most-awarded ideas for creativity and effectiveness, compared to being a metric in only 29% of all awarded campaigns. Rather than just viewing Earned Media as an amplification tactic, marketers should consider it a strategic foundation, leveraging its strengths in driving cultural relevance and brand engagement from the start. 

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Friction, Feeling, and Truth

To harness this power, Lindsay and Cher outlined a strategic framework designed to break through the apathy of the scrolling consumer:

• Add Friction and Tension: Contrary to the seamless user experience often preached in tech, they argued that “friction is good.” It represents effort and possibility, forcing the consumer to pause and engage rather than passively scroll.
• Feeling Over Doing: The focus must shift from the product to the audience. As Lindsay explained, understanding the audience means “getting the mundane right”—understanding the annoying bits of their lives and what riles them up, not just their dreams.
• Find the Truth: Cher  emphasized that “effective work centers on the consumer’s desires and fears.” Meaningful marketing must bridge the connection between the brand and the audience, rather than simply listing product features.
• Be Attention-Worthy: In a world where engagement is measured in seconds, brands must earn their place. The goal is to show up in the consumer’s world rather than inviting them into the brand’s world.

The Future of the Industry

Looking toward 2026, both leaders expressed optimism about the industry’s evolution, provided marketers are willing to adapt. For Cher, the future is defined by a reversal of the traditional dynamic.

“For the first time, human behavior is driving marketing, not the other way around,” she noted.

Where advertisers once created needs, they must now root their work in deep human insight. She also highlighted the necessity of adapting to AI, which is reshaping search and discovery, requiring brands to optimize for new algorithms to break through.

Lindsay emphasized resilience and the “creative playground” that small markets can offer when they are properly understood. She championed the idea that “change is good,” advocating for constant reinvention and the resilience required to stand out as a brand.

Ultimately, their message to the attendees at Social East and Social Pacific was clear: In an age of infinite content but finite attention, the future belongs to those who can earn it.

The term “Sober Curious” has dominated conversations about Gen Z drinking habits, but it’s widely misunderstood. The narrative often centers on abstinence when the reality is far more nuanced. While Gen Z consumes approximately 20% less alcohol than Millennials, Citizen’s latest research in the Gen Z Collective reveals something more sophisticated at play: the 5 personas uncovered aren’t outright rejecting alcohol—they’re rejecting thoughtless consumption. They’re saying no to the “default drink.”

Here’s what makes this shift so compelling: Gen Z’s health consciousness doesn’t translate to universal sobriety. Instead, their desire for control and convenience is driving them toward specific, premium alcoholic options. They’re making choices that allow them to feel intelligent and empowered—fully in command of their bodies and social experiences.

The Data: Rejecting the Ordinary

Gen Z demonstrates a decisive shift away from traditional, high-volume alcohol categories. They’re not just avoiding beer and wine—they’re rejecting the entire culture of generic, mindless consumption. Their preference? Beverages engineered for precision and convenience: Ready-to-Drink (RTD) cocktails and Hard Seltzers.

When we examine their RTD purchase drivers, three criteria dominate:

• Alcohol content level
• Uniqueness
• Calorie count

Every sip is a calculated decision. The RTD category—whether alcoholic options or functional non-alcoholic alternatives—serves as the ultimate moderation tool. It enables defined choices without sacrificing flavour or social connection. Brands win by selling intentionality itself: superior, consistent products that define the experience upfront (ABV, ingredients, precise flavour profile) and give Gen Z consumers complete control over their consumption.

Winning with Gen Z: A Persona-Driven Marketing Strategy

To connect with this highly discerning audience, marketers must shift focus from selling liquid volume to selling the intentional, controlled experience. By leveraging the insights from Citizen’s Gen Z Collective, brands can tailor their messaging to meet the distinct needs of each of the five personas.

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1. The Status Architect: The Wellness Collaborator

Status Architects are ambitious, image-conscious, and prioritize wellness and self-improvement, placing them firmly in their “wellness era”. They redefine “going out” to favour daytime Coffee Parties and wellness clubs. They desire luxury, even redefining their groceries to include high-quality brands like Liquid Death and Olipop.

2. The Beta Tester: The Utility Champion

Beta Testers are confident, opinionated leaders who thrive on being the first to adopt new things and demand utility and convenience. They are looking for frictionless, superior experiences.

3. The Value Vigilante: The Transparency Seeker

Value Vigilantes are practical, cautious, and hold brands to a high standard, seeking reliable brands and expecting transparency. Sobriety is specifically noted to be on the rise within this group, demonstrated by the popularity of drinks like Poppi and Olipop.

4. The Anxious Avoider: The Comfort Creator

Anxious Avoiders crave comfort, familiarity, and a slower, simpler pace. They are the “Homebody Generation” and seek acceptance and community where they feel safe (at home).

5. The Risk Junkie: The Niche Enthusiast

Risk Junkies are adventurous and embrace the niche, the novelty, and the weird. They value strong communities and are the most likely cohort to drink more than once a month (43%).

The CEO Takeaway: The Experience is the Product

The future of the beverage category hinges on the intentional experience, not liquid volume. Brands that position themselves as “unintentional consumption” will lose Gen Z entirely.

To win, brands must:

• Prioritize Precision – Clearly communicate attributes like ABV, calorie count, and ingredients
• Elevate Flavour – Justify quality through unique, sophisticated taste profiles
• Validate the Choice – Position your product as the intelligent decision that supports a balanced, wellness-focused lifestyle

Gen Z isn’t drinking less—they’re drinking smarter. The brands that understand this distinction will define the next era of beverage innovation.

For a custom look at how your brand can win with each persona, download the report and connect with us.