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- Your ATTN Please || Friday, 27 June
Your ATTN Please || Friday, 27 June
Your grandma swears by Clorox. Your dad still calls it “the TokTok.”
Meanwhile, your 11-year-old cousin trusts Google to diagnose her over the family GP. This, my friends, is the generational brand loyalty gap. Boomers and Gen X trust brands that have stood by them for decades; Millennials and Gen Z trust the ones that fit seamlessly into their lives. So as a marketer, you’ve got to know who you’re talking to and what they want from your brand.
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
WHAT’S HAPPENING IN MARKETING TODAY?
Elon’s spending $1B/month on AI, Gen Z wants BlackBerrys & Kids process world events on Roblox
Elon Musk's xAI is costing him $1B a month.
Love that for us. According to “people briefed on the company financials” (as per Bloomberg), the rate that the company is bleeding cash is an example of the “unprecedented financial demands of the artificial intelligence industry.” Musk is now trying to raise $9.3B in debt and equity to cover the gap – which will be spent in the next THREE MONTHS. Brother. Please. There are more pressing needs in the world right now. And it would appear that your fundraising effort are hardly keeping pace with expenses anyway. Yikes.
Will the BlackBerry be back?
Gen Z hopes so. In the latest case of nostalgia tech revival, TikTok user Victoria Zannino made a post begging the company to make a comeback. The video has now been viewed more than six million times, and garnered over 500,000 likes in solidarity with her yearning for older, more nostalgic phones. Mine was black and bedazzled with pink gems and I feel like I could totally rock that again. Thoughts?
Kids are protesting ICE in Roblox.
Others have been dressing up and ICE agents on the platform and conducting virtual ICE raids (where I’m from we would call those a**hole kids). They even went as far as to “arrest” a user hiding in his kitchen and chasing down another while conducting “border control” – wtf. As tensions have reached boiling point IRL, the same appears to have happened in the game. Roblox players protested by “battling cops, breaking down barricades, waving Mexican flags, and facing off across a line of players dressed in police SWAT gear.”
The game, which features highly intricate role play, has become a place where kids process major world events, experiencing them virtually, parallel to the real world. I suspect we will see more of this kind of in-game activism as news consumption shifts towards more participatory forms of media. It’s a wild world we live in.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
DEEP DIVE
Why Boomers trust Band-Aid & Gen Z trusts YouTube
The generational divide in brand loyalty is real.
If you ever needed proof that we are living in entirely different worlds stacked on top of each other, Morning Consult’s Most Trusted Brands 2025 report (via AdWeek) just delivered it, with receipts.
Boomers and Gen X place their trust in sturdy, tactile brands like Dawn, Band-Aid, and UPS. But younger generations are out here pledging allegiance to platforms like YouTube, Google, and PayPal.
To put in bluntly, Boomers trust things that fix problems. Gen Z trusts the places they are. And that quiet little split speaks volumes about how different generations perceive value, reliability, and what trust even means in a brand-consumer relationship.
The set-it-and-forget-it brands still reign, but only for some.
Across all U.S. adults, the top three most trusted brands in 2025 are:
Dawn detergent
Band-Aid bandages
United Parcel Service (UPS)
Functional. Familiar. Consistently there when you need them. These brands represent a kind of domestic reliability. A get-it-done pragmatism that’s deeply aligned with how Gen X and Boomers were raised to evaluate trust: Does it do what it says on the box? Can I count on it, year after year?
There’s nothing wrong with that. But now let’s look at what younger generations said.
For millennials and Gen Z, trust is digital and deeply integrated.
When asked which brands they trust most, Millennials gave the following answers:
Google
PayPal
YouTube
Gen Z's top brand? YouTube (with Google close behind at #5).
Yeah yeah yeah. I know what you’re going to say: “young people like the internet.” But that’s not what’s at play here. This is about digital utility as emotional infrastructure. These brands aren’t just services. They’re daily lifelines, used for everything from education and entertainment to connection and payment.
For younger audiences, trust isn’t built on decades of heritage. It’s built on:
Accessibility
Seamlessness
Personalisation
Presence in their lives, all day, every day baby.
Why does this matter for marketers?
Because trust is being redefined. Younger consumers aren’t cynical about brands. They’re actually highly trusting, but only of brands that feel native to their digital existence. That trust is fluid, but it’s also earned. It comes from consistency, relevance, and real-time value, not legacy, logos, or clever slogans.
So what does that mean for you, darling?
Heritage brands can no longer lean on reputation alone. They must show up in modern, interactive ways: social content, creator partnerships, smart utility, responsive UX.
Digital-native brands must protect that trust fiercely. The second they feel exploitative, laggy, or out of sync with culture? That trust evaporates.
Marketers everywhere need to understand that trust looks different at 25 than it does at 55. And your comms strategy has to flex accordingly.
Think of it as an opportunity to build cross generational trust.
If you’re a brand trying to appeal across generations, this data is both a warning and an opportunity. You’ll need to think in layers:
For older audiences, reinforce reliability, consistency, and practical usefulness.
For younger ones, show up seamlessly in their digital lives and reflect their values: transparency, speed, identity, and access.
The brands that win will be those that don’t just act trustworthy but feel native to the rhythms of modern life.
Think of trust like a mirror.
And it’s not universal, but generational. It’s shaped by what we grew up with, what we depend on, and where we live both physically and digitally. For some, that’s a bottle of Dawn. For others, it’s a search bar and a video feed.
Both are valid. But if you're marketing the former to the latter- or vice versa - you best know what kind of trust you're asking for.
-Sophie Randell, Writer
THE INCREMENT CLUB PRESENTS
Flourish Yoga with Emma
Come along to this session and start your week off with a calm mind & nervous system.
What? Modified sun salutations, standing & seated poses, breathing and mindfulness techniques & relaxation (all the good stuff!)
When? Monday, 30 June 6pm - 7pm
Where? The Attention Seeker studio @ 37C Crummer Road, Grey Lynn
TREND PLUG
Imma be
Today's trending sound has been living rent-free in my head all week, courtesy of the always-iconic Black Eyed Peas.
The song "Imma Be," circa 2009, is back in full force and making the rounds on Instagram Reels. Creators are pairing this catchy bop with clips that cut with each line of the song. The most common way we've seen this is in a day in the life-type Reel with timestamps (like this). But it also works for showing off outfits or products (like this) or behind-the-scenes footage (like this). We've even seen pets use this trend to show their daily routine from their POV (like this).
How you can jump on this trend:
Decide whether you want to do the day in the life version of this trend, or just use the sound to showcase some products (or something else—almost anything goes)!
Then, film several short clips and edit these to change with each line of the sound. Add the trending sound and OST to describe what's happening in each one. You can lipsync with the song if you like.
A few ideas to get you started:
Show off your new line of products
Introduce your team & what they do
Show what your day looks like from rolling out of bed to clocking off work
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
FOR THE GROUP CHAT
😲WTF: The LUCKIEST man on the planet rn
✨Daily inspo: if your life was a movie…
😊Soooo satisfying: Bubble slicing ASMR
🍝What you should make for dinner tonight: Honey Teriyaki Turkey Meatballs
TODAY ON THE YAP PODCAST
Want even more “YAP”ing? Check out the full podcast here.
ASK THE EDITOR
As a cosmetic injector, I've been wearing my branded merchandise in my content. Ultimately I want to get more clients for my actual business, so is wearing my merch a good idea or not? -Kev
Hey Kev!
I wouldn't worry too much about whether you're wearing branded clothing in your content. Instead, I'd focus on creating content that people actually want to watch. So if you make videos that are genuinely interesting, viewers will naturally want to learn more about you. They'll take it upon themselves to go to your bio to learn more about who you are and what you do.
But at this stage, branded merch isn't going to make or break your content. Instead, focus on developing a consistent content series that speaks to your target audience. This will come down to the human truth behind your work and how you can share that in an engaging way. The goal is to create something that makes people stop scrolling and get that viewership. And that will lead to people checking out what you do.
- Charlotte Ellis, Editor ♡
Not going viral yet?
We get it. Creating content that does numbers is harder than it looks. But doing those big numbers is the fastest way to grow your brand. So if you’re tired of throwing sh*t at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re in luck. Because making our clients go viral is kinda what we do every single day.
WHAT DO YA THINK?
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