What is "Brat" and How is it Drawing Gen Z Voters to the Harris Campaign

Since President Joe Biden announced his decision to step aside from seeking the democratic nomination for President of the United States, the internet has been on fire with content about the current Vice President and probable democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. The Vice President has embraced the online content and even made some changes to the new Harris Campaign to capitalize on the Gen Z excitement. The online sensations and memes have drawn a lot of attention and continued to help boost VP Kamala Harris' rating numbers especially with Gen Z.

What is "Brat"?

Artist Charli XCX recently released a hit album titled "Brat" whose album's cover art is simply a lime green background with a blurry font of the album title across it. Soon after the announcement was made, the Harris Campaign switched their X header to reflect a bright lime green background and "kamala hq" in a blurry font. This is no mistake. This seemingly simple profile change has resonated with Gen Z in a massive way as they embrace the current Vice President. The Harris campaign acted quickly to capture the attention of young voters in a way that resonates with them and it seems to have worked. Since the transition, the campaign account's follower numbers have skyrocketed! This demonstrates the power of "going viral" and how it can change the game of your public perception and the future of your brand. Let's go through a few simple tips to build a campaign that will effectively resonate with Gen Z.

#1 - Act Quickly

Soon after President Joe Biden stepped aside, the Harris campaign jumped into action to capitalize on the moment. We as marketers and business owners must remember, it is just a moment. If we don't act quickly, we will miss our opportunity or worse, seem inorganic.

#2 - Be Organic

One thing that Gen Z craves more than anything is authenticity. Growing up in the world of social media, deep fakes, and AI, a person or brand who seems authentic is highly relatable to Gen Z. This authenticity Gen Z craves is hard to conjure out of thin air, but instead requires the work of brands to always stay true to themselves. If the digital natives of Gen Z smell inauthenticity, they will grow to distrust your brand quickly!

#3 - Keep It Simple

The Harris campaign did not try to reinvent the wheel when appealing to Gen Z; however, they rebranded content that was already popular in the public eye. As small businesses, we love to create, but it is wise for us to look around us and try to capitalize on something that is already popular rather than trying to make the next popular thing. In addition, the Harris campaign chose a graphic asset that took little to no time to replicate. As Gen Z tends to have a very short attention span, what tends to be popular are simple and minimalistic designs.

#4 - Have Fun

Part of the reason as to why the internet is abuzz with memes of the current Vice President is because she appears outwardly to be a fun & relatable person to be around, especially in comparison to others in her profession. Gen Z loves to have fun, so you should be sure to have fun when creating campaigns towards Gen Z!

As business owners and marketing professionals, we can all take away some knowledge and inspiration from the Harris Campaign's success at appealing to Gen Z voters.

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This has led many to wonder what are some of the best ways to apply current online trends to their businesses to earn the attention of consumers, especially Gen Z.

Who is Gen Z?

Gen Z is known as the generation that falls between the Millennials and Generation Alpha. This generation was born between the late 1990s and the late 2000s. Gen Z is the first generation to have grown up with consistent access to the internet from youth. This shift in how generations were raised has produced massive side effects that are still being studied to this day. However, these "digital natives" have and are continuing to change the way advertisers (and now political campaigns) reach out to consumers. As business owners in a time where trends come and go as quick as the sun rises and sets, it is important for us to be on the lookout for the next trend that can allow us to capture the attention of Gen Z.

How are Political Campaigns, specifically the Harris Campaign, effectively reaching Gen Z Voters?

Gen Z, the oldest of whom are currently 28 and youngest of whom are graduating high school, are new voters which means our elected officials and candidates are desperately trying to communicate their message to Gen Z to try and earn their vote. In recent months, many saw business owner & former Republican Party Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy making his appeal to Gen Z voters via TikTok, a platform that most other candidates were shying away from. While many stayed on the sidelines and view his moves as controversial, Ramaswamy reached out to these new voters on a platform they were already in love with. This is an important take away... don't make your audience find you, find your audience where they already are! In doing this, he was able to communicate and gain the support of some Gen Z voters before eventually dropping out of the race.

"Don't make your audience find you, find your audience where they already are!"

Since President Biden has stepped away, the internet has been ablaze with memes of now hopeful Democratic Nominee for President, Kamala Harris. Most of the content put out initially was created by Gen Z users and not the Harris Campaign, however, in recent days, the Harris team has began to have some fun and started to incorporate this support into their campaign.