As a graduating college senior, I expected my last semester in college to be a sweet goodbye
But that all changed over spring break
By: Carol Paiz, AGENZ Fellow
In the spring 2020 semester, I had been selected to be a part of a new student-led start-up, AGENZ PR, a Public Relations agency at The University of North Texas Mayborn School of Journalism. Throughout the semester, AGENZ had developed and managed GenZ focused campaigns for three clients.
The clients desired to reach Gen Z’s in multiple forms of on-trend communication—social, visual and digital—with generationally-engaged content. As the AGENZ, we help supply social media, blogs, news releases, videos, podcasts and community outreach programs targeted to Gen Z’s. Our campaigns are based on research, polls, surveys and analysis to assist clients in learning the Gen Z’s perspective.
(AGENZ team before spring break)
As brand manager for AGENZ, I was responsible for our launch event in late April to reveal our name and brand and showcasing our unique GenZ perspective. We are among the first college educated GenZers entering the work force – those born after 1997 who are racially and ethnically diverse. (Pew)
Covid-19 showed up in Texas the weekend of spring break and the president of our university left us on an extended the break another week.
On March 23 the president of UNT send out a newsletter stating that we would all convert to online learning for the remaining of the semester. The in-person reveal event was cancelled. I felt that our endeavor was not important and unnecessary due to how serious the situation was.
However, we kept working on our client’s projects online, resilient to the circumstances. We quickly shifted to online meetings. We began to notice changes that where happening in GenZ culture. We decided to shift our focus to how communication and culture was changing from a GenZ perspective and we quietly started our Twitter account, @AGENZ_,to focus on how the pandemic was changing our styles of communication and our culture.
Through our Twitter account, @AGENZ_, we shared observations about our experiences, and how communication, culture and even humor reflected our experiences and opinions as a generation. Because we are Journalism majors, everything is sourced. Although we hardly had followers, our Tweets were being shared.
We hosted a virtual launch using Zoom on April 29, which had online attendees like Dr. Andrea Miller, Dean of the Mayborn School of Journalism; AGENZ team members appearing from their home bedrooms; professional public relations mentors; several clients; and even two proud mothers.
The AGENZ team was already digitally comfortable to be online in a professional situation. We felt the changes in our world, and we responded creatively. GenZ’s as a generation can adapt to change efficiently.
I am thankful that we as GenZers can listen to the world around us, and also glad that the world around us seems to be listening to us.
Let’s get the conversation started.
Carol Paiz: Carol is a public relations specialist with exceptional writing and organizational skills. She led the launch strategy and planning for AGENZ including AGENZ social media content management and the successful virtual soft launch.