Written by our junior, mid‑level, and new‑to‑the‑industry team members, this series offers an unfiltered look at advertising through the eyes of the next generation. From first‑brief insights to behind‑the‑scenes stories, The Briefing Room captures the energy, curiosity, ingenuity, and hard-learned lessons that drive advertising careers forward.
Be honest, you’ve been reading about Gen Z’s negative reputation in the work place, haven’t you? With articles from Forbes, The New York Times, and Fortune Magazine painting Gen Z as unprepared, overly emotional, and difficult to work with, it’s pretty bad PR for my generation’s careers. Especially when you consider the “oldest” Gen Z (1997 - 2012) has only been in the workplace for 3-5 years (5 if you were lucky enough to get employed immediately out of college…in the middle of a pandemic).
The thing is, when I look around our agency—which is very young with nearly a third of our employees being Gen Z / Zillennials—those articles do not describe what I see. I see hard working, smart, determined, strategic people. People who care about their company, their clients, and their coworkers. People who are trying to learn, grow their expertise, and push themselves to be better every day. This incongruency is why we started “The Briefing Room,” a quarterly series written by our Gen Z team members that offers an unfiltered look at advertising through the eyes of the next generation of leaders.
Because the truth is, Gen Zers will make your business better. Look past the one-star reviews and read on to see just a few reasons to lean on us at your agencies.
We don’t just use technology, we’ve grown up with it as a natural extension of ourselves. New tools, platforms, and systems don’t slow us down; they energize us. We are bold explorers of the digital world, undeterred by the “this is how we have always done it” and always looking for the faster, simpler, better solutions offered by technology. 60% of Gen Z workers say AI helps them work faster and with less effort, improves accuracy, and frees them up for creative or strategic work. This resourcefulness translates directly into creatively solving client challenges and optimizing workflows by introducing fresh thinking, new tools, and a willingness to experiment until we find the smartest solution. For our clients, that means faster turnarounds, sharper strategies, and ideas that keep them ahead of the curve.
While the older generation’s knowledge of other people’s experiences was often limited to their family, friends and communities, ours has been a much more international experience from the beginning. You can still check up on your junior year in High School foreign exchange student and see how their life in Estonia plays out day to day. You can see instagram reels and livestreams of people celebrating Diwali in Mumbai or kids in a skatepark in South Africa. These seemingly artificial connections have allowed our generation to understand and experience truths, both profound and mundane, that exist in every corner of the world. These fundamental truths lead to insights and strategies that turn cultural understanding into real business results, earning trust, building loyalty, and driving long-term growth.
Heraclitus might have been thinking about Gen Z specifically when he said "The only constant is change.” Our world has always moved at light speed. 24-hour news cycles, social media, facetime, slack, teams, the entire internet in our pockets and every connection is instant. Studies show Gen Zers approach information with evolving mindsets. Viewing it not just as facts, but as broad narratives and content, interpreted socially and they’ve developed new strategies for navigating and interpreting fast-moving inputs. While certainly a double-edged sword, this has armed us with the ability to take on huge amounts of information at once and roll with it when all of that information changes.
Change in deadline, change in brief, change in deliverables, change in benchmarks - all just new inputs into a system designed to adapt without panic, turn change into opportunity, and deliver results under shifting conditions.
So yes, Gen Z may be the youngest generation in your workplace. But no, that doesn’t make us the underprepared divas you may have read about. Our skillsets run deep and wide, and can help make agencies better. Who knows, maybe you’ll learn a thing or two from us.
Shayna Stevermer is a Senior Account Executive. She joined Copacino Fujikado Advertising in 2021 after graduating from the University of Minnesota. In her 4 years at the agency, she's moved from Associate Account Executive to her current role and has enjoyed many industry firsts: first radio recording session, first TV shoot, first annual planning session, first heart-stopping mistake, and first new business win.
