Ask not what Zoomers can do for you, ask what you can do for Zoomers

Boomers were brought up in black and white. Generation X had a lot more colour in their lives, whether in print or on TV. Millennials had colour that was the light of their lives, shining out from first computer screens and then portable devices, making print seem dull and flat. Each generation took what had gone before and collectively made their own version of the social contract.

Now Zoomers are coming of age and into the almost certainly minimum wage workplace. They have largely discarded all the previous conventions. They have their own language and their own values and are making their rules from scratch, from their very different perspective. The good news is their world is full of colour. The bad news is precious little of it can be reproduced in CMYK. 

Their life view is full of pastels and neons and light from LEDs. They will spend forever picking out the perfect colour and then wear that one hoodie till it falls apart. What is not in their bigger picture is spending long hours in a grey factory learning about something that they have no affinity with. A printer’s desire for a younger workforce can be fulfilled by understanding these people and painting a picture of promise, of a future full of light that is all about them.