This is a story about control.

Brands want it, but they don’t really have it. Their marketing teams are starting conversations instead of driving them. It’s a break from the past and it’s mostly a combination of age and circumstance: Gen Z habits and the maturity of social-media platforms.

The disruption of the marketing funnel is where we begin. Brand awareness, consideration and conversion remain relevant tactics. What’s changed is that the funnel is more like a blender. Effective marketing requires all three tactics, always on, co-mingling.

It’s less about one part of the funnel pushing to the next, and more about letting different messaging fly, knowing you can’t control where or how it lands. Or how it’s manipulated. It can be shared, sliced and diced.

We now have a large consumer base of true digital natives – raised on handheld technology devices linked by social media. All their lines are blurred. It’s where they communicate, discover and share information and opinion, get their entertainment, find dates, buy products and services, plot directions, take photos and record video.

Gen Z are comfortable with noise and they are experts at navigating it. They know how to find what they’re looking for. They have voices they trust. They have values that guide their decision making. This is the world in which brands need to get comfortable operating, while also factoring in that anyone can say or publish almost anything online, factual or otherwise.

With most marketers focused on the 18-to-35 demo, and a consistent need for brands to effectively court new generations and ‘age’ alongside them, it’s a young consumers’ world, everyone else just lives in it.

So, what to do?

Check your approach

Be careful not to attribute personal characteristics to a generation. Gen Zs are not all lazy or difficult, nor are they all Clean Girls or Mob Wives. Labels are fleeting. Focus on issues around economic, social or environmental forces, as examples. What shapes people’s world views? What are your true values as a brand – ones you can confidently stand behind publicly?

How to engage

Tell good, inspiring stories grounded in human experience, which is particularly relevant in an age of generative AI. This is where content marketing shines brightest. Be relatable to boost trust. Having a consistent, appealing, influencer-style personality or voice that speaks or acts for your brand is table stakes in today’s marketing landscape. Monitor comments and reactions. Listen and learn. Follow the data. Adapt accordingly.

Make room for diversity

Always try to hire creators who reflect the audiences they’re targeting. They can speak to them authentically. Those audiences will easily sniff out attempts by creators to look or sound like something they’re not. Be relatable.

Where to live

The success in recent years of short-form video highlights the need to be mobile first with brief, engaging content. Key platforms include TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. It’s important to be informative, but for your owned and operated, be prepared to go deeper to hook potential customers who visit you when they want to know more.

Play the long game

With a ‘blender’ approach it takes time to build awareness, trust and authenticity to get your brand to the relationship stage that eventually leads to the holy grail of loyalty. Don’t rush. Be nimble. Be bold.

Sean Stanleigh is head of Globe Content Studio, the content-marketing division of The Globe and Mail, a Canadian media organization. He can be reached at sstanleigh@globeandmail.com