Case Study #3: Gen Z Engagement Through Authentic Storytelling
Organization: Resource Media (La Madre Tierra Initiative) in partnership with Presente.org
Timeline: 2023 - 2025
My Role: Strategic Communications Director
Challenge: Reach previously unreached 18-25 demographic for engagement on environmental issues.
Key Result: First TikTok influencer campaign achieved 2.24% CTR (4x industry benchmark of 0.5%)
The Challenge
Resource Media's La Madre Tierra (LMT) initiative faced a critical engagement gap:
How do you authentically connect with Gen Z audiences around environmental issues when they've grown up dismissive of traditional marketing and skeptical of institutional messaging?
The Complex Landscape:
Marketing fatigue: Gen Z can instantly identify and reject traditional advertising approaches.
Authenticity requirements: Younger audiences demand genuine connections over polished corporate and institutional messaging and visuals.
Attention competition: Environmental advocacy issues competing against entertainment, lifestyle, and viral trends.
Action gap: High environmental concern among Gen Z but low engagement with traditional advocacy organizations and low voter turnout.
Target Audience Challenges:
TikTok-native users expecting entertainment-first, education-second content approaches
Lifestyle-focused - Gen Z audiences tend to be interested in how they can integrate environmentalism with their daily life that rather than getting lost in high level, abstract policy discussions or scientific analysis.
Skeptical of institutions - younger audiences tend to be more suspicious of institutions including environmental organizations perceived as "out-of-touch."
Organizational Stakes:
Expanding reach: Resource Media needed to establish presence with younger demographics, especially as part of its La Madre Tierra initiatve that aims to reach Latinx, Gen Z audiences in order to better engage them around key environmental issues.
Proving concept: First major social media investment targeting Gen Z audiences using influencers as part of its campaign strategy.
Impact: Campaign success would determine viability of influencer strategies for environmental issue campaigns and the development of strong online to offline strategies for continued engagement.
The Strategy
Strategic Framework: Lifestyle-First Environmental Engagement
The strategy for this campaign aimed to center authentic, personable storytelling over polished environmental jargon, giving content creators significant creative control to drive genuine audience connection.
Core Strategic Insights:
1. Lifestyle Content Over Product-Driven Marketing
Show young people discussing environmental justice in an approachable, optimistic way with their loved ones, avoiding doom-and-gloom rhetoric in favor of hopeful, personal storytelling.
Let environmental action feel accessible, doable, and - most importantly- empowering.
2. Platform-Native Content Optimization
Create content that feels native to the Tik Tok platform, leveraging short form video to reel audiences.
Optimize for engagement and shares over direct conversion to the online petition to help Defend the Atlanta Forest.
3. Influencer Partnership Strategy
Partner with Gen Z, Latinx influencers, @Eco_OG and @WillyHidalgo__, creators with a strong follower base and a variety of mission - driven content created by and for Latinx audiences.
Allow influencers creative control, aiming for 1 video in Spanish and 1 video in English, while maintaining message consistency on the need to protect the Atlanta Forest.
4. Cross-Functional Team Coordination
Led six-person team across Seattle, Portland, New York, and Los Angeles to develop campaign strategy, influencer partnership, and campaign execution.
Platform Insights and Lessons Learned:
@Eco_OG’s video was NOT approved as a paid ad by Tik Tok and thus was taken down from the Tik Tok platform. The Tik Tok campaign instead leveraged only the @WillyHidalgo_ video in Spanish.
Despite approval issues, saw strong engagement with the @WillyHidalgo_ video in Spanish, indicating valuable opportunities to engage younger audiences with content that feels native & organic to the platform.
The highest volume of impressions & clicks came from the 13-17 age group & the strongest click engagement came from the 18-24 age group.
Highest volume of clicks came from California, Texas, & New York.
@Eco_OG’s video was instead boosted on the Facebook and Instagram instead given TikTok’s approval decision.
Strongest click engagement came from the “activism/social interests” audience, which generated a CTR of 4.36%.
Strongest engagement come from @Eco_OG’s video with a CTR of nearly 5%.
Younger age groups were the most engaged in this platform too with the top age groups being 18-24 and 25-34.
The Results
Campaign Performance Breakthrough:
2.24% click-through rate - 4x industry benchmark of 0.5%
First successful TikTok campaign for Resource Media's environmental content
Significant engagement rates exceeding platform averages for advocacy content
Cross-platform amplification with content performing well beyond initial TikTok placement
Organizational Growth:
Established new market vertical targeting 18-25 demographic
Proved platform viability for engaging young audiences on environmental issues
Created replicable framework for future Gen Z engagement campaigns
Built institutional knowledge for ongoing social media platform expansion