Who Influences Generation Z – Top 10
Born between 1996 and 2010, generation Z is now coming of age with the oldest now at 22. They are drawing the attention that was mainly fixed on millennials and with good reason too. Considered turbocharged millennials, generation Z has many similarities with their older forerunners, but they still have their points of uniqueness primary among them being influencers. Here are 10 people with a big influence on millennials.
Smosh
Generation Z’s website of choice is YouTube, and for this reason, many of their primary influencers are popular personalities on the platform. Smosh are among the most popular with a subscriber base of almost 22 million and growing. They are comedy duo whose humor is based on common life occurrences. Their videos manage to garner millions of views and thousands of comments.
Justin Bieber
Both a real life and online celebrity, Justin Bieber is no stranger to many millennials as well as centennials. Both generations are heavily influenced by his music and way of life and having recently gotten a torso tattoo, the widespread conversations his actions catalyzed are testament to Bieber’s extensive reach. Probably, many of his fans have been emboldened to also get imposing tattoos, but that, only time can tell. Justin has sold over 100 million records and everything he touches seems to turn into Gold.
Mark Zuckerberg
Another household name, Mark Zuckerberg’s achievements are etched in history as the founding father of Facebook, and by extension, social media. He embodies the entrepreneurship success trajectory many centennials dream of and his recent pledge to give a huge chunk of his fortune to charity exponentially increased his reach. Facebook enjoys the biggest social media market share since it also owns Instagram and the popular chat app WhatsApp.
Pewdiepie
Pewdiepie is an online based comedian. He enjoys a loyal generation Z followership and his YouTube Vlog christened Let’s Play sometimes manages to fetch over 10 million views. A Swedish national who lives in the U.K, Pewdiepie’s real name is Felix Urvid and his YouTube channel has an astonishing 56 million subscribers. Using his followership as a judgement metric, Felix is outright the most powerful influencer.
The Fine Brothers
Rafi and Benny Fine run a YouTube channel popular for ‘react’ videos. The duo are creative writers, directors and producers. Their content centers around different groups of people who are taped undertaking various activities such as teens playing retro games, old people playing new games, and so on. They have cultivated their brand from 2004 managing to increase its reach to over 15 million subscribers.
Taylor swift
With 10 Grammy awards to her name plus an Emmy, Taylor swift is as talented as they come. With tens of hits to her name and a recent album launch, her fame and influence continues to soar. She is also a songwriter and her reputation in the business is up there with the best. Her songs are based on her life, usually her ex boyfriends, which has given her some level of infamy.
KSI
KSI is a man of many talents best known for being a comedian and gamer. His real name is a Olajide William Olatunji, and he has African roots. Based in the U.K, he is also a rapper and an actor and he recently released an EP project which is performing considerably well. His YouTube channel has over 17 million subscribers and is considered the 35th most popular channel.
Ryan Higa
Another renowned YouTube star, he goes by the pseudonym ‘Nigahiga’ in his YouTube channel. Ryan is a beloved comedian with a total viewership of over 3.4 billion. His channel has 21million subscribers and is the 21st most popular channel.
He is based in Las Vegas and he also dabbles in acting. He started with posting lip-sync videos which though popular, were pulled down due to copyright infringement. After run-ins with YouTube management, he started producing his own songs, went on to found his production company, and he has never looked back.
Kim Kardashian
Kim’s show, keeping up with the Kardashians, is a popular reality production that covers the drama surrounding her nuclear and extended families. She is married to Kanye West and is an influential personality to both generation Z and Millennials. She represents the posh life many millennials and centennials desire of fame, affluence and influence.
Dude perfect
Dude perfect is a channel built around sports tricks with a twist of comedy. However, it is more comedy than sports and considering humor is a potent bait for generation Z, the channel has amassed over 16.2 million subscribers. The channel is run by twins Coby and Cory Cotton who have a background in sports having played basketball in high school. They are often joined by three other close friends to add variety to their content.
The common denominator for all the above influencers is that they have a strong online presence and they live the typical ‘good life.’ They are people centennials greatly admire, and to this effect, they easily influence generation Z’s sense of style, aspirations, and purchases.