GZV #17: Industry disruption, Juju's new E-sports team, and Dunkin's Tik Tok play
Startups. Trends. Markets. All from a Gen Z view.
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Enjoy!
Themes of the week
Clubhouse for Sports 🏈
A different type of dating app 💑
Professional Athletes Gaming 📺
Dunkin’s New Marketing ☕️
Startups 👀 👀 👀
“a social audio app where fans can talk sports and spontaneously join live conversations”
✅Why it could work:
Clubhouse has already proven that audio-based social media networks can work, now Locker Room is trying to bring this to sports fans, some of the most opinionated and passionate people in the world.
Gen Z’ers (mainly guys) are super passionate about their sports teams and love to converse about them, this is a platform for them to drive that passion.
I could easily see a partnership with a brand like Barstool that would accelerate user growth dramatically.
❌Why it could fail:
Too niche of a market, this can only grow so big before reaching a limit.
Clubhouse seems to have the lead in this market, they could just start to incorporate a sports section and Locker Room would most likely lose.
The rooms could become inefficient if too many people join and try to talk.
💡 Investment Idea 💡: Social media is starting to see it’s first wave of disruption with Clubhouse close to launching and it looks like the next few years are going to be fun. We all admit social media sucks in some sense and the big boys may start to lose power as new, innovative apps come along. Differentiating factors are huge in this space, so look out for those.
“Draw your way to love” (this app is like a tinder where you have to send people drawings they request in order to connect)
✅Why it could work:
I am bullish on the disruption of the dating app market. It has been the same two players (tinder and bumble) for a long time and they are definitely not the best, there is room for innovation.
Monet removes the awkwardness for Gen Z, instead of having to say “hey”, you automatically have a topic to discuss right from the start.
Gen Z is getting older by the day and may actually be looking for meaningful connections, this app may be able to facilitate that.
❌Why it could fail:
The market for dating apps is very saturated and users may be resistant to change.
A competitor like Hinge or Bumble could easily incorporate this feature within their apps and take away the differentiating factor.
💡 Investment Idea 💡: The dating app market is getting old and has become ripe for disruption. I think in the next 3-5 years we will see a new app bring a new feature to market that catches on fast and grows very quickly. I’m sure that if you’re an investor you may already be getting some of these pitches, so keep a keen eye.
Gen Z Trend of the Week: Professional Athlete’s gaming
We watch professional athletes do crazy, un-human-like things every week, but now they are stepping down to reality and joining the rest of us on something we can all relate on: Gaming.
Wait, so what is the big story here?
Well', JuJu Smith-Schuster has been gaming for a while now, at one time being one of the most popular streamers on Twitch. Now, he is venturing out and making is own E-sports team called Team Diverge.
Will more athlete’s follow?
It’s definitely gaining traction. Over the summer athletes like Meyers Leonard and Ben Simmons from the NBA, and Bronny James (Lebron’s son) joined the most popular gaming organization in the world, FaZe Clan. Beyond that, gaming is one of the most popular thing for athletes to do in their free time. Kevin Hayes and few Flyers players talked about playing Warzone all the time while in the NHL bubble.
Does Gen Z like this?
Gen Z has arguably the biggest gaming population of any generation. FaZe Clan was essentially built on the viewership of Gen Z. So, mixing our favorite athletes with one of our favorite activities can only yield some great results. It also helps us connects personally with the athletes if we see them playing a game that we also love to play.
What does the future hold? (Investment Idea)
I believe in the future professional athletes are going to start to do more off the field, court, or ice. They will start venturing out and creating new products, clothing lines, or businesses. Since a fair amount do love gaming, I can easily see a organization like FaZe Clan start to pick up a lot more athletes or maybe a different athlete-only E-sports organization will be created.
The Move Toward Low Cost Marketing
I feel like the marketing world has been flipped upside-down on it’s head in the past year, especially in the past few weeks.
The new wave of marketing hit when brands started doing brand deals with influencers, but as soon as that become popular, it switched. Recently, we saw brands partner with influencers to launch products together…
And has it worked or what?!?!
After launching Charli D'Amelio’s drink, Dunkin saw their app downloads grow by 57%. Let me say that again for those in the back: 57%.
Now, brands like Dunkin have already moved onto the next step. They are starting to pay employees to make tik tok’s. Yes, Dunkin has created “Crew Ambassador” positions that allow employees to create tik tok’s while on the job, and get paid for it. Although Dunkin’ is the first I’m guessing others will follow suit very soon.
You may ask why a company wants to run their marketing like this, well I see a few key reasons.
It’s cheap.
Even though they will be paying employees to make these tik tok’s the cost per impression will be lower than most other marketing verticals.
It makes the brand personable.
Having employees being the face of your brand on social media allows for a connection between the consumer and the brand. It makes the consumer comfortable because they know the employees are just like them. Having consumers trust and feel comfortable with your brand is one of the biggest achievements you can have.
It can increase awareness.
Beyond the first two reasons, in the worst case, it just puts your brand in front of consumers eyes. Let’s be honest, sometimes if we see a brand enough we will go check it out for shits and giggles.
In my mind the best way to do product marketing right now is by launching a product with an influencer. After that, we will have to see how this new initiative by Dunkin works out.
⭐️ Partnered Companies ⭐️
🗣
Vintro- Imagine getting paid to be a shark on shark tank, or better yet, being able to pitch renowned business leaders, CEO’s, political figures, and founders.Well this is how I see Vintro. They allow everyday founders to pitch to people like Gary Cohn, Barbara Corcoran, or Jim Mckelvey.
They also allow for you to be a “Gary Cohn”, just join as a leader and get paid to be pitch to.
Click here to learn more.
📈
Public.com- I’ve been investing for over 5 years and now more than ever, investing is a social creature.This is why I work with Public. They have created a social investing app where you can make groups with your friends, buy stocks, and talk about why you believe they are a good buy. The best part, you can debate with people why you think you’re right, which I love to do.
Download the app here.
Special thanks to my editor, Cristina Lombardozzi
Feel free to email or text with any questions or comments about the newsletter, Gen Z, or startups.
thomas@genzvoice.com
203-628-6006