And so, come the end of half-term, I found myself in the unenviable position of having two Gen Alphas shouting at my television on a Friday night. One was my son, the other was his best friend. The reason for the noise? They were playing the newly-released season of Fortnite (AKA Chapter 6, Season 2). With half their class from school, not to mention the game’s other 250 million active users.
The extent to which the Fortnite experience is shaping entertainment for Alphas is both traditional media’s biggest threat and most potent opportunity. The primary reason is simple: this generation consumes entertainment through participation. They are not viewers or listeners or users, they are main characters – heroes on a mission. They’re growing up experiencing entertainment through the lens of them being the story, not watching the story, and that’s how they like it.
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This skews everything from perceptions of celebrity to discovery of music, tv and film. While my first awareness of Dwayne Johnson was seeing him as The Rock in WWE, my son’s was the option to play Fortnite as “him” through The Foundation, a skin based on the star. He developed a sudden but strong interest in Snoop Dogg because he also has a skin and emotes soundtracked to the 2004 banger Drop It Like It’s Hot. To meet the fandom properly, the track has a Fortnite music video in which Snoop’s skin “performs” the song rather than Snoop himself. Then there’s the Gen A Eminem fandom, also borne out of the game, which is its own emerging sub-culture on TikTok. You can buy a Slim Shady skin and emote bundle, although my Alpha sources deem it “overpriced”.
All of this feels manageable because these celebrities are universal. Things get more surreal when you consider they aren’t the most desired personas in the Fortnite world. In fact, if you want to connect with Gen Alpha right now, you’d do it through Big Dill. This new skin from Chapter 6, Season 2 is a human-sized pickle wearing gold chains. He is also a virtual artist with a currency called Dill Bits which can be spent on Fortnite’s black market.
Entertainment companies looking into the future are now correctly seeing the importance of YouTube to survive. This is evident in Netflix’ acquisition of Sidemen’s game show, Inside, and creator-led formats are a huge step forward. But, they need to travel light years by the end of this decade to meet Gen Alpha’s expectation of entertainment and culture. That doesn’t mean becoming gaming businesses or building metaverses, although brands like Marvel are going down this path for good reason.
For most media brands it means integrating with these spaces so that entertainment can be marketed as a personal immersive experience first, and a viewing experience second. One will drive the other and ultimately lead to greater consumer investment from a monetary and time perspective. Any brand that can master this journey will be ready for the next youth generation.
By Sara McCorquodale, CEO and founder of CORQ.
