Winning over young generations is vital for marketers in the chase for relevance and as those groups’ purchasing power rises. In the coming years, no cohort could also be as priceless to reach as Gen Alpha, which is estimated to wield about $28 billion in direct spending power — not to mention a great deal more in indirect spending — despite its young age.
A brand new report from Horizon Media’s Why Group and Blue Hour Studios, “The New Media Multiverse,” analyzes strategies that might help brands connect with Gen Alpha consumers, together with their typically millennial parents. Among the highlights is Gen Alpha’s gravitation toward interest-based content and community-driven discovery. Household dynamics between Gen Alpha and millennial parents could also inform marketing plans as nostalgia helps parents and their children connect and millennials embrace screens in a brand new way.
However, the Gen Alpha landscape isn’t easy to navigate, not only due to regulatory complexities but in addition intense competition. Gen Alpha, defined in the report as those born between 2010 and 2024, is exposed to more content than older generations, allowing them to refine their interests from an earlier age. Millennial parents cited over 250 brands that their kids ask for by name, according to Horizon Media, underscoring the challenge in cutting through the clutter.
“These kids are almost like mini-media planners — they’re extremely brand aware, they’re extremely marketing savvy they usually have more purchasing power than any generation before them, and inside their family too,” said Matt Higgins, head of strategy at social and influencer agency Blue Hour Studios.
“The New Media Multiverse” relies on an evaluation combining cultural audit and social listening with primary research as well as to qualitative interviews. The audit analyzed over 250 pieces of content to discover emerging narratives, while proprietary research leveraged a panel of 1,000 American millennial parents aged 28-48 with Gen Alpha children aged 7-13 in February 2025.
The recent family dynamic
Gen Alpha, described by Why Group and Blue Hour Studios as the first algorithmically native generation, and millennials, the first digitally native generation, are reshaping how families function. Notably, 77% of millennial parents consider that their children are more influential than they were over their very own parents in determining purchases, a shift credited to algorithms and the role they play in helping kids construct their interests. Simultaneously, 82% of fogeys agree they share more interests with their children than their parents did with them.
More specifically, nostalgic content is the “connective tissue” between generations, per the report. Eighty-four percent of respondents reported they gravitate toward nostalgic formats after they are searching for out shared experiences. For brands, that insight provides a priceless opportunity to consider rebooting or recreating older mental property for today’s consumers, according to Higgins. Various brands have recently revamped iconic taglines, mascots and characters in the hopes of reaching younger audiences.
“The way that Alphas are taking in nostalgic content with their parents, they see it as recent content, they usually’re bonding with their parents over it,” Higgins said. “One of the kids that we spoke to was saying how they love this show called ‘The Office’ — they talked about it prefer it just got here out — because they watch it with their parent.”
The predicted shift from hyper-personalization back toward community-driven discovery underscores the need for shared content experiences. Gen Alpha’s exposure to content is welcomed by millennial parents, who’ve adopted another attitude to screen time than the parents who got here before them. Instead of restrictive pondering, millennials are instilling independence amongst their children, accepting digital life as inevitable and dealing with their kids on how to navigate a fancy landscape.
As a result, 71% of fogeys consider their children are higher equipped for today’s world due to their screen exposure. However, 65% of fogeys curate and edit their children’s online feeds through actions like watching videos they feel will make a positive impact while signed into their child’s account, one other signal brands should broaden their appeal to the wider family unit.
Redefining social
YouTube is the top-used platform inside the Alpha-millennial household and may very well be the important platform for the family unit broadly in the future, experts said. YouTube ranks as the only destination across the 13 social media and gaming platforms analyzed in the report with each high usage amongst Gen Alpha (94%) and high feelings of control amongst parents, who’ve a longstanding familiarity with the 20-year-old video site. A deeper deal with YouTube and its various content formats can help marketers tap into co-viewing moments, Higgins said.
“Obviously specializing in YouTube, and seeing it as type of this social platform meets traditional streamer — almost like an all the things app for the family — is absolutely essential,” Higgins said. “That doesn’t just mean long-form, it means Shorts, it means different kinds of integrations.”
Some behaviors from Gen Alpha could further speed up existing social trends, including the rise of microinfluencers, or those with follower counts between 10,000 to 100,000. The majority of millennial parents (76%) report that, for his or her children, content relevance outweighs creator popularity when being influenced. Additionally, 70% of fogeys agree that their children don’t have strong attachments to individual creators, and as an alternative just watch whatever interests them. For brands, that doesn’t mean macro influencers must be forgotten, but the day-to-day interactions Gen Alpha has with microinfluencers will likely be what moves the needle.
“When we began occupied with what meaning going forward, there’s still going to be the Alix Earle’s, but they’re probably going to be more connected to the form of content that they make, or an interest they’re attached to versus our traditional understanding of influence and even fame,” Higgins said.
Leveling up gaming strategy
Gaming is a key a part of Gen Alpha’s routine, but not only for play. The cohort views titles like Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite as social media platforms in their very own right, using the experiences to connect with others, each virtually and in real life, per the report. Gen Alpha’s passion for gaming also goes beyond the console to include related movies, TV shows and physical items like books and toys.
Gen Alpha’s relationship with gaming would require brands to advertise in ways in which feel native to the ecosystem somewhat than disruptive, Higgins said.
“That doesn’t just mean a branded space, it means as a brand you’re participating on Roblox, you understand, you get it, you’re working with influencers and creators which might be in those spaces too, you’re bringing lore and pieces of Roblox into your brand and the way it shows up on a TV spot or an [out-of-home] ad,” Higgins said.
Higgins also emphasized the importance of following regulatory guidelines when crafting such experiences. Child safety concerns around promoting inside gaming experiences has been particularly difficult to navigate, though platforms like Roblox have attempted to curb concerns with stricter guidelines.
Though Gen Alpha is young, the cohort’s habits on channels like gaming and social media could signal what’s to come for a way consumers on a broader scale will interact with brands down the line. Marketers that begin to understand the generation now will supply themselves with a competitive advantage for the years to come, according to Maxine Gurevich, senior vice chairman of cultural intelligence at Why Group, Horizon Media’s in-house research unit.
“It’s really essential to understand that even when you’re not marketing to Gen Alpha today, or your goal will not be the family, that is something that you actually need to tackle and take into consideration as a brand marketer — what the future goes to seem like in your brand — because these are kind of early markers and early indicators of real digital shifts which might be happening,” Gurevich said.
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