Gen Z is good business: Alex Cooper's new media company shows the allure of targeting young consumers

• Alex Cooper, the host of Spotify podcast "Call Her Daddy," is launching a media company.
• Cooper and her fiancé, Matt Kaplan, are targeting Gen Z with the new venture called Trending.

Call her savvy.

The decision by Alex Cooper, host of the popular "Call Her Daddy" podcast, to start a media company focused on Gen Z with fiancé Matt Kaplan shows the appeal of investing in a generation that has some $360 billion in spending power globally.

The company that Cooper and Kaplan, founder and CEO of production house ACE Entertainment, are starting is called Trending. The self-funded company will produce scripted and unscripted content, podcasts, digital media, and other Gen Z-focused endeavors, according to Axios.

While neither Cooper nor Kaplan are members of Gen Z — Cooper is 28 and Kaplan is 39, and the eldest members of Gen Z are 26 this year, according to Pew Research — they've both had success generating traction with the young cohort.

That matters because a good amount of successful media today comes not from big, centralized production companies but from individual content creators. That's a Gen Z strong suit.

"Anybody, in theory, can create a TikTok account, put out content, and cultivate a following," said Jared Watson, an assistant professor of marketing at New York University's Stern School of Business. "The Gen Z market is interested and happy to engage with influencers. They understand that they're making money from the products that they're promoting, but at the same time, they trust these people."

In a statement about focusing the new business on Gen Zers, Cooper said "their voices and opinions should be supported with content designed for them in ways that are unique to their values, interests, and passions."

Cooper's primary audience on her Spotify podcast is between 18 and 29 years old, according to Fortune. That's a large chunk of Gen Zers and Zillennials, the subgeneration between millennials and Gen Z. "Call Her Daddy" is the most listened to podcast by women on Spotify. In 2021, Cooper signed a three-year deal with Spotify worth more than $60 million, according to Variety.

Meanwhile, Netflix's "XO, Kitty" and "To All the Boys I've Loved Before" has offered Kaplan his own in with the young demographic.

Media companies have a unique opportunity to connect with Gen Z

While many industries are trying to tap into the buying power of young consumers, media companies have an especially strong opportunity, Watson said.

The digital nature of podcasting, television, and social media makes a company focused on this content a good match for Gen Z audiences, who spend much of their time, energy, and money online.

There are still challenges involved in marketing to Gen Z consumers, of course.

The massive amount of available content makes capturing attention all the more difficult. Companies and influencers are always looking to create content that can go viral. Trending will likely do the same, Watson said.

"Given the name of the company, they seem to understand that," he said.

That democratization and virality is what allowed Cooper, who was a college athlete from Pennsylvania without much of a social following prior to "Call Her Daddy," to find her niche.

Cooper's following grew from what audiences seem to regard as her authentic and oftentimes fearless outlook on life, relationships, and topics like sex and feminism that some creators and public figures hadn't always embraced.

In the "attention economy" we're living in, raw, relatable, high-quality content is key, Watson said.

Gen Z is becoming a business model across industries

Investing in and building content, products, and brands around young generations can be an alluring prospect for companies. There are some 7.3 million Gen Zers working full time — and earning a paycheck — in the US and that's continuing to grow.

"One of the biggest things when you think about trying to capture the Gen Z market today is they have the largest customer lifetime," Watson said. "If you can capture them as a customer today, there's the potential to have them for the next 60 or 70 years."

What's more, calling yourself a "Gen Z brand" is as much for other businesses run by older generations, Watson said.

"Signaling to the Gen X crowd, 'Hey, we're a Gen Z media company. You're a company that doesn't know Gen Z and you want to sell to Gen Z. Come to us,'" will remain a successful tactic as Gen Z continues to build its buying power, Watson said. "It's really to attract the corporate partners, the advertisers, and to say 'We're the gateway to the Gen Z audience.'"