{"id":6841,"date":"2026-10-19T14:45:52","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T14:45:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizenrelations.com\/?p=6841"},"modified":"2026-10-21T13:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T13:09:22","slug":"marketing-to-gen-z-offline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.citizenrelations.com\/en\/marketing-to-gen-z-offline\/","title":{"rendered":"Marketing to Gen Z Offline Starts With Friction"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you were born before 1997, you remember a portion of life lived completely offline: having to write down and keep track of phone numbers, tacking photographs to the fridge, making face-to-face contact for every transaction essential to life.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For Gen Z, those memories form a shrinking minority of life. Education, socializing, romance, and every kind of transaction got increasingly convenient as worlds got smaller.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gen Z\u2019s tastes are starting to shift. Life became too sterile, too simplified, too online, and too convenient. Now they want friction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

We ran a survey of 5,604 consumers in the US and Canada and found that Gen Z (18-29) isn\u2019t anti-social, but they suffer from micro-social friction. Our research found that over 70% of Gen Z want more opportunities to meet in person via fitness or hobby-based groups. But 40% of Gen Z in Canada and 32% in the US feel self-conscious making small talk with strangers, and 33% worry about bothering people in public settings. It’s a pattern we first saw in the <\/span>2024 Citizen Connections Report:<\/span><\/a> more than half of the 4,000+ people we surveyed globally said they felt less connected than the year before, even as they had access to more ways to connect than ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

These are all a result of the desire expressed by Gen Z\u2019s embrace of retro tech, collective experiences, shopping malls, and more. They long for the friction erased by smartphones, apps, and life online.<\/span><\/p>\n

For brands who want to co-author culture and for effective marketing to Gen Z offline, that friction is the opening.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Reading is a collective experience\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n

Younger millennials may have started the \u201canalog rebellion,\u201d but Gen Z made it a bonafide movement. News media may report on the embrace of analog tech as a quirk, but our research says otherwise: 60% of Gen Z in the US and 52% in Canada adopted a retro device in the last year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hardware is following demand. Earlier in the year, <\/span>Noble Mobile partnered with Light Phone<\/span><\/a> on a plan that pays subscribers for staying off their phones, betting that people will pick financial incentive over willpower. At the same time that 25% of Gen Z in the US made the switch to a \u201cdumbphone,\u201d the publishing industry reported an <\/span>increase in sales<\/span><\/a> in the first half of 2026. Even <\/span>Wine Enthusiast<\/span><\/a> magazine noticed a trend that more bookstores have added liquor licenses.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In an effort to connect offline and find new third spaces, Eventbrite reports <\/span>a 33% increase in book club events<\/span><\/a> in the first half of 2026. Reese Witherspoon’s <\/span>Hello Sunshine<\/span><\/a> launched a Gen Z-specific offshoot this year, and <\/span>Audible\u2019s Story House<\/span><\/a>, a free bookless bookstore, saw over 7,000 visitors within a month. We see this as a <\/span>tactical, mainstream strategy by the first generation raised on algorithms to take back control of their mental health and attention spans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Malls are back because Gen Z wants somewhere to go<\/b><\/h3>\n

Dozens of movies in the 1980s and 1990s glamourized the excitement of being at the mall for suburban kids across North America. The last 20 years saw a decline in popularity and the proliferation of empty storefronts in malls. But now, younger generations have brought it back.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to our research, 1-in-3 Gen Z adults visit a shopping mall weekly with no intention of buying anything. As the media narrative talks about a \u201cretail apocalypse,\u201d brands ahead of the curve are already seeing an opportunity. <\/span>Kendra Scott\u2019s debut Nashville location<\/span><\/a> features a Hat Customization Atelier and Color Bar. <\/span>PacSun<\/span><\/a> has switched from closing its store footprint to growing it for the first time in 18 years. <\/span>SHEIN<\/span><\/a> – an algorithmic digital-first retailer – has invested in physical pop-ups to increase discoverability.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Gen Z repurposed malls as free, climate-controlled, non-judgmental digital detox spaces. They might not buy big-ticket items, but they report visiting just to walk around (55-60%), meet friends (41-47%), or get a $6 “little treat” (47-52%). As they strive for third spaces, they\u2019ve turned commercial real estate back into a public meeting place.<\/span>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Introduce the friction of meeting new people<\/b><\/h3>\n

The loneliness epidemic has been cited in the media for the last couple of years. But our latest research shows that nearly 60% of Gen Z feel socially connected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the reason is they\u2019ve found new ways to connect offline. Half of Gen Z (52%) use low-tech devices like dumbphones and film cameras. And it isn\u2019t just for aesthetics. Gen Z\u2019s inclination toward an analog rebellion comes from a desire to get out of algorithms and take back control of their mental health and attention spans.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The most exclusive events in urban centers ban photos or lock up phones altogether. Our research shows that 37% of Gen Z are more likely to attend an event with a phone ban. <\/span>Yondr<\/span><\/a>, the company behind lockable pouches, has secured more than 20 million phones since 2014, partnering with artists such as Dave Chappelle, Madonna and Bruno Mars.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In London, <\/span>The Offline Club<\/span><\/a> runs two-hour phone-free socials several times a month, where guests lock their phones away and spend the evening reading, making things, or talking to strangers, and tickets often sell out days in advance. Most recently, <\/span>Public School New York<\/span><\/a> hosted a phone-free afterparty during New York Fashion Week, for a night designed for presence and the ultimate experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Run-club sponsorship<\/span><\/a> now sits inside a $97.5 billion global sponsorship market, and the category has stopped being just a running-shoe story. Even brands with nothing to do with fitness have caught on: <\/span>Netflix<\/span><\/a> built a run-club matchmaking game to promote a recent series, treating the club format itself as marketing infrastructure rather than sponsoring someone else’s.<\/span><\/p>\n

We take this to mean that <\/span>young people <\/span>want<\/span><\/i> to socialize and feel connected, but unscripted casual interactions provoke high anxiety. The explosion of book clubs above and the 78% of Gen Z interested in clubs and other affinity groups bring us to one conclusion: shared activities help break the ice and bring back the welcome friction of participating at a time and place.<\/span><\/p>\n

Where you fit in<\/b><\/h4>\n

The friction Gen Z is chasing is the invitation for brands. A campaign built for the feed doesn’t land in a room where phones are banned at the door. A discount code doesn’t replace the reason someone shows up every Thursday to run with strangers. Brands need to earn a reason to be in the room with Gen Z.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just <\/span>if<\/span><\/i> your brand shows up in these spaces. It\u2019s whether it knows <\/span>how<\/span><\/i> to show up, with enough restraint, and not ruin the experience. We\u2019ve been figuring this out through the <\/span>Citizen GenLens: Gen Z Collective<\/span><\/a>, decoding Gen Z beyond the stereotypes. <\/span>Get in touch<\/span><\/a> if you want to find your way marketing to Gen Z offline.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you were born before 1997, you remember a portion of life lived completely offline: having to write down and keep track of phone numbers, tacking photographs to the fridge, making face-to-face contact for every transaction essential to life.\u00a0 For Gen Z, those memories form a shrinking minority of life. Education, socializing, romance, and every […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6848,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMarketing to Gen Z Offline Starts With Friction | Citizen Relations<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Marketing to Gen Z offline starts with friction. 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