543. Gen Z and Gen Alpha dictionary for marketers. Open at your own risk. ⛔️
20+ words and phrases to know and, maybe, carefully, use
Hellooo 👋 So happy to have you here. I’m Kevan. I have spent 15+ years as a head of marketing for some cool tech startups. Now I’ve co-founded a brand storytelling business called Bonfire. We do coaching, advisory, and content. If you identify with creativity and marketing, we’d love for you to join us.
Gen Z and Gen Alpha dictionaries
By now you have probably seen some form or another of social media content that plays on the tropes of generational differences. There are the videos of Millennial managers being so kind and loving to their direct reports (as a Millennial manager, this seems like the right way to interpret this content, don’t ya think?), the videos of Gen Z social managers editing the videos of their bosses to just include the ums and ahs and nothing else, or the videos of befuddled olds embarrassing their Gen Alpha kids by trying to be Gen Alpha cool.
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The content is often hilarious and relatable because everyone can see themselves—or the contrast of themselves—in content like this.
No wonder marketers might be tempted to jump in. But for every brand that gets it right, there are dozens of cringe party crashers who don’t. This is how we end up with “demure” fatigue.
That being said, there can be a right place, right time to use trending words and phrases. Use them when it is authentic to your voice or relatable to your audience. Do not use them to trend-jack or to try to sound cool. It doesn’t work that way!
And at the very least, even if you never use any words from the below dictionaries, you now know what everyone is talking about. And that’s a useful skill to have as a marketer!
(For a generations refresher, here is a refresher from ThoughtCo: Gen X is people born between 1965 and 1979, Millenials were born between 1980 and the late 1990s, Gen Z is the late 1990s to the early 2010s, and Gen Alpha is the early 2010s until now.)
Gen Z and Gen Alpha dictionary
More terms here and here. These are the ones I come across most often. All definitions are from how they’re used here in Idaho, so apologies for any regional difference.
Aura / aura points - used to compliment someone’s ability, power, or impressiveness. Related: negative aura. She’s taking a three-week vacation. +10,000 aura points.
That’s lit - used to describe something really cool. The brand campaign was lit! Other ways to say something was really cool:
Ate and left no crumbs
Big W energy
Sigma
Bussin’ (but for food or drinks in particular)
This slaps
No cap - a way to reaffirm that a statement is true. This is the actual definition - no cap.
Weird flex but okay - used to describe something that someone is bragging about (a flex) but that you don’t think is worth bragging about. You’ve got a high click-to-open rate? Weird flex but okay.
Lowkey - not that big of a deal. I lowkey enjoyed that substack.
Yeet! - an exclamation of enthusiasm or a verb meaning to throw something really fast or far. Four-day workweek. Yeet!
It’s giving … - a phrase to describe someone putting off a vibe, style, or mood. I really appreciated how you took on those new responsibilities; it’s giving growth mindset.
Sus - Short for “suspicious.” Its popularity stems from “Among Us,” an online murder mystery game in which users type “sus” to call out other users they believe are secretly the “imposters.” The early results of the brand awareness survey were sus.
Dead, or 💀 - a response to something you find very funny, as in you died of laughter. This return-to-office policy. 💀
Rizz - a shortened version of the “charisma.” Also: rizz god, the rizzler, rizz king. Check out this latest podcast with the rizz god Kevan Lee.
Delulu - short for “delusional.” Leadership is delulu for scheduling an all-hands on a Friday afternoon.
Skibidi - used all sorts of different ways, even as a filler word, but most often to describe something bad or cool. It comes from the popular “Skibidi Toilet” YouTube videos, which show virtual heads singing inside of toilet bowls. No cap.
Ohio - Something bad, cringe, or stupid. It comes from a viral meme of an astronaut looking at earth and saying, “Wait, it’s all Ohio?” Other ways to say something is not cool:
Beta
Cheugy
Basic
Mid
Mewing - changing the appearance of your jawline by repositioning your tongue in your mouth to accentuate your jaw.
Fanum tax - to steal food from someone else. It is a reference to a Twitch streamer names Fanum who stole a plate of cookies from another streamer.
GOAT - an acronym for “greatest of all time.” Can be used as a noun or a verb. After that hilarious all-hands presentation, the CMO was GOATed.
W or L - Short for win or loss. The new Notion layout is a big W.
Spill the tea - gossip. In my 1:1 with my manager, we mostly just spill the tea.
Bet - an alternative to “ok” or “sure”. Publish five blog posts by EOM? Bet.
Enter your ___ era - a phrase to call out your current interests or priorities. I am entering my LinkedIn influencer era.
Big facts - emphasizes strong agreement with something. Cookie policies are mad hurting our conversion rates. Big facts.
Yapping - talking. There’s so much yapping on this TikTok Live.
Cooking - the act of doing your thing, doing something impressive. See also: “Let him cook.”
Understood the assignment - when someone goes above and beyond, doing what you hoped and then some. One of the best slide decks I’ve ever seen. They definitely understood the assignment.
S-tier - refers to the top tier of a tiered system, above A-tier, B-tier, etc. The swag at the conference was S-tier.
It hits different - something that is special, unique, or hard to describe. Using papyrus font on the ad campaign hits different.
Doing too much - trying too hard. A 20-page channel strategy? You’re doing too much, bro.
Periodt - emphasizes the finality of a statement. We are no longer posting on X, periodt.
Chat - used to refer to a group of people, like the chatroom on a video stream. Chat, what do you think of these subject lines?
Time to dip - Good-bye. This is the end of the substack post. Time to dip!
About this newsletter …
Hi, I’m Kevan, a marketing exec based in Boise, Idaho, who specializes in startup marketing and brand-building. I previously built brands at Oyster, Buffer, and Vox. Now I am cofounder at Bonfire, a brand storytelling company.
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