Where the Next Generation Actually Pays Attention, with Stephanie Latham of Roblox | Ep. 448

I know you said Gen Z isn't necessarily harder to reach, but they're spending their time, like, actively doing, not passively watching.

So what does that change about how marketers should create campaigns for that audience?

You know, I think what we see on the front lines every day at Roblox, we have over a hundred and twenty million daily active users that are spending all this time with us, right? I think we had twenty-nine billion hours, um, spent with us last quarter.

They do things together.

Like, Roblox is a participation platform, right? So you're coming with friends, maybe you're coming to build, maybe you're coming to play, maybe you're coming to design, um, strategize all different types of things.

And then I think what's really interesting with this generation, and Gen Alpha too, is how seamlessly they move from digital to physical and back again.

So for marketers, it creates such a really interesting opportunity to start to think about this very elaborate and immersive storytelling canvas and how you can intersect them in really thoughtful ways but different formats than probably times of the past.

One thing I also, um, I've seen you say is that advertising's, like, more than just reaching people right now.

It's, like, building things worth their time.

So what, like, how, how is that mindset shift, like, s- like, what should marketers think about when the-- for that mindset shift?

I mean, I think, uh, I think I would say reach still matters, right? But what happens after that impression matters even more.

And so the advertisers that I see that are the most successful on our platform and are driving the best results are the ones that really take the time to slow down and listen to the community.

So something that may seem obvious to you or me is actually not authentic to this community, and so I've seen, um, a lot of advertisers.

I'll give a shout-out to e.l.f. Beauty.

I think they're one of the ones that has done it really well of following where the time is spent, understanding how it's spent, and then coming up with interesting ways to engage and add value to what's already going on.

So they have an experience on Roblox.

They also run ads on Roblox.

They do UGC.

Like, they've really embraced everything that is a part of what the Roblox community stands for, which has then rewarded them, uh, on the business side too.