Media Buying Briefing: Millennial parents and their Gen Alpha kids are upending consumption habits: Horizon study

Gen Alpha offspring (for this study, kids aged 7-13) also have much more say and influence over shared content experiences with their millennial parents (aged 28-48). Top-down influence models don’t apply as much anymore, with 77% of millennial parents acknowledging that “my child/children are more influential in determining purchases than I was to my parents.” 

This shift goes beyond family dynamics as far as to suggest that marketing approaches must evolve from targeting single decision-makers to engaging multiple influence points simultaneously. 

“This isn’t a parenting guide — it’s not a guide for only kids-focused brands to do marketing,” said Matt Higgins, head of strategy at Blue Hour Studios. “We saw these families as a great place to look to see where marketing, where branding, where influence, is going for the next 5, 10, 15 years.”

Could it spell the beginning of the end of personalization? Higgins didn’t want to go that far, but clearly there’s a stronger level of connection among the families the study looked into. 

“Because these kids are growing up in an algorithmic world where they’re getting exposed to brands at such a young age, they are influencing family household decisions on a level we’ve never seen before,” said Ali Joseph, director of cultural intelligence at WHY Group, who noted that kids exert influence over 11 of 14 ad categories — the only ones they didn’t being big financial choices like vacations and subscriptions. “That’s why this interactive ecosystem of media is so important — it’s not just about enticing kids, it’s about enticing the family unit.”

Horizon client ADT is figuring out how to incorporate these insights into its approach to finding new customers. “It was enlightening for me to better understand the extent of [Gen Alpha’s] active role in shaping household decisions and how this screen fluency plays a part,” said Michael Reeder, ADT’s vp of brand strategy and ECD. “The idea that kids are now ‘co-CMOs of the home’ was more than just a metaphor — it’s a clear shift in influence. It surprised me how early and confidently kids assert preferences, not just around entertainment, but around purchases, family time, and even which brands make it into their shared media worlds.”

The study identified other changing behaviors that marketers and agencies need to consider when marketing to these growing subsets. For example, 59% of parents said, their child uses more than one screen simultaneously, meaning we’re a long way from throwing toy dollars at Nickelodeon to get kids to nag their parents into buying said toy. Media consumption happens across multiple screens simultaneously, which the study said points to the need to rethink single-channel campaign strategies.

“We call it media stacking — the trope is that that’s a bad thing, that you’re distracted if you’re on multiple screens at once,’’ said Higgins. “But especially with Alpha kids, it’s a fluid experience.” 

Related to that point, the study also found that 82% of content discovery now happens through shared interests rather than solely based on individualized algorithms. This marks a shift from hyper-personalization back toward community-driven discovery, suggesting marketers must build strategies that facilitate shared content experiences. 

“And that was kind of a big unlock for us because there was the old trope of mom is the CMO of the house,” said Higgins, who noted that 70% of parents said their kids are more brand-conscious and -aware than they were as kids. “The shift is that kids are now the co-CMOs of the house and they’re making these decisions together. An hour of Alpha’s internet time is like a week of a millennial’s time when they were growing up.” 

Finally 80% of respondents said that gaming environments are primarily for social interaction rather than gameplay, and that platforms like Roblox have evolved into critical social ecosystems. This represents a strategic opportunity for brands to engage through participation rather than interruption.

So how should agencies guide their clients to adjust spend and marketing approach? 

“This is a planning tool for us, it’s a filter for us about annual planning, campaign planning,” said Higgins who noted that the study is plugged into Blu, Horizon’s audience and data ecosystem, accessed by the entire company. 

Bob Lord, Horizon Media’s president, said the answer is to use technology as a means to navigate these changing habits. And agencies can and should guide clients through the morass of ad-tech and mar-tech providers who all say they have the solution. 

“Our job as marketers is only becoming exponentially more complicated because our brands have to show up in places that are more relevant to the consumer than ever before,” said Lord. “How do you apply appropriate technology to actually bring your brand message out in the appropriate places? I kind of love it because the solve here is to take smart technology that’s data-based and data driven, and utilize it so we can get away from the de facto, ‘I have to spend 50 to 70% of my media budget on two properties.’”

ADT’s Reeder said the study is already influencing an upcoming campaign. “It revealed how often families rely on familiarity, nostalgia, or aesthetics — not necessarily effectiveness— when it comes to what they bring into the home,” he said in an email. “That’s exactly the tension we’re trying to expose — the difference between security theater (what feels safe because it’s familiar or trending) and true protection. The research gave us the cultural and psychological insight to frame that gap in a way modern families would recognize and relate to.”

Summed up Higgins: “The old way is disruption — the new way is embedding.” 

Color by numbers

Tariffs have made up a decent percentage of story topics in Digiday over the last month. But how much do consumers know or care about tariffs? Communications firm Fabric Media, working with MX8 Labs, fielded a 1,000 person survey earlier this month to find out. Highlights: 

• Of the respondents, 75% are worried tariffs will make everything more expensive 
• 69% of consumers believe companies may use tariffs as an excuse to raise prices unnecessarily 
• 36% of consumers said they are willing to pay more for U.S.-made products depending on the product, while 44% agree they would pay more for wholly U.S.-made products
• 60% of respondents believe the media politicizes tariffs (those who answered “Yes, definitely” or “Yes, somewhat”)
• And the findings fall largely along political lines: 76% of Republicans believe the media politicizes tariffs (“Yes, definitely” or “Yes, somewhat”), while 48% of Democrats believe this.

Takeoff & landing

• Interpublic Group’s first quarter 2025 earnings were as dismal as expected, with total revenue dropping almost 7% to $2.32 billion compared to Q1 2024. Organic revenue shrank 3.6% due to client losses, and the company reported a $203 million restructuring charge as it prepares to be absorbed by Omnicom later this year. 
• Burrell Communications Group acquired Atlanta full-service shop Fitzco to form BCG Worldwide, which it’s billing as a Black-owned agency network. Fitzco will continue to operate under its own name for now. 
• Havas made a strategic investment and partnership in healthcare-themed AI platform Ostro.
• Account moves: British financial paper FT chose U.K. independent agency 7Stars as its global media agency following a review. The incumbent was GroupM’s EssenceMediacom … Jack Daniels whiskey brand tapped U.K. agency TSA to be its influencer agency after picking TSA’s parent Five by Five to handle digital and social media last year … QSR owner Fast Fresh Brands hired independent USIM to be its media agency of record. 
• Personnel moves: Independent PMG hired Chad Stoller, most recently global innovation officer at IPG’s UM, to be its global head of media. 

Direct quote

“The cookie-light world is a lot easier to navigate than a cookie-less world, meaning you still have some signal availability present, and thus you can use that to train how you operate in a cookie light world. So you can take data where you have it and use it on data where you don’t in order to be more accurate in your in your model.”

— Ryan Eusanio, svp video & programmatic at Omnicom Media Group on Google’s flip-flop on getting rid of third party cookies.

Speed reading

• Kristina Monllos secured an anonymous confession with a media buyer on how Google’s vacillation over third-party cookies actually generated innovation in the industry.
• Also on the topic of Google’s about-face on cookies, Sam Bradley offered up a look at how some media agencies are navigating the use of alternative identifiers. 
• I looked at Merkle’s changes in leadership and offerings are trying to bring about new growth for the Dentsu-owned brand.