Selling a Dead Medium to Gen Z | That's What She Sold
“Say AYE! if you read the news.”
That’s how I opened our pitch for a printed, physical newspaper delivered right to your doorstep.
In a world where most people consume their news through Twitter, Instagram, and podcasts, pitching a newspaper sounds almost ridiculous. And that was exactly the challenge.
This weekend, I attended a women-only marketing event hosted by LAN called “That’s What She Sold.” I had been on the hunt for events like this for a long time, so I registered as soon as I saw it listed on Luma. The instructions were simple: bring your laptop (and yourself).
I went in without knowing what to expect. I had also come directly from a work event hence the formals you’ll see in the photos below.
The Challenge
We were paired up with random people. I was paired with the amazing Shriyanshi, who is a founder and is a literal FORCE to work with (her product is called Force, so hehe you see what I did there).
We were given a product and an ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) and had two deliverables:
- Either a landing page or an Instagram carousel
- Either a Meta ad or a billboard
We had an hour to complete this, and we spent around 20 mins on just our introductions and honestly, I don’t regret that one bit. Understanding the person you’re working with is often the best way to start solving a problem together.
Understanding the Target Audience
We started by asking each other questions like -
- Do you read the news?
- Why do you read the news?
- Where do you read the news?
- How do you come to know about world events?
- Do people around you discuss the news?
…and many more questions to figure out how Gen Z consumes information today and what our product should revolve around.
The Insights
Despite our limited time and scope, two key insights stood out.
Insight #1: Gen Z Consumes News in Silos
Gen Z is highly individualistic and lives in silos. What that means is that most of them are reading the news from niches that they follow or are interested in.
Their understanding of the world is largely shaped by algorithms. While algorithms can be customised, human behaviour still gravitates toward content that aligns with personal interests.
As a result, many people know a lot about their specific niches but very little about other equally important events happening around the world.
Insight #2: FOMO Drives Engagement
Gen Z isn’t afraid to speak out or be vocal about things that genuinely matter to them. This leads to discussions both online and offline, stories on Instagram, tweets on X, etc. When a topic starts trending socially, it creates a sense of FOMO.
People begin reading about it not necessarily because they were initially interested, but because everyone else is talking about it.
The Product Idea
Once we were clear on the why of our product, it was time to ideate the what.
The idea was simple: a 1-pager newspaper that would get delivered to your house daily.
It would cover major news from 5 domains and these domains would change on an everyday basis.
We deliberately kept the format minimal because less is more. Most people today don’t want to spend their time flipping through 15 pages of content. A shorter format lowers the barrier to engagement.
Adding the "OOMPH"
We can’t create a product without tailoring it to Gen Z. There had to be an “OOMPH” factor and in this case, it was a QR code.
This QR code would allow users to join a community where others would be sharing interesting news from their own niches. This would get them access to news beyond their bubble.
Gen Z loves competition and there HAD to be a leaderboard in this community which would show which of their friends/contacts had read the newspaper that day. This taps directly into the FOMO dynamic we had identified earlier.
Naming the Product
While doing our research, we came across the name “The Society”, which we immediately fell in love with. We modified it to:
The New Society
What is society talking about in 5 minutes
and voila, we were almost ready.
Oh also, during our presentation, someone even asked whether the idea was inspired by Bridgerton. While it wasn’t intentional, we realised that the reference actually fit the concept quite well. (In another world, I would’ve named it Lady Whistledown)
Our Marketing Execution
Due to paucity of time, we made a minimal Instagram carousel and a billboard.
The Instagram carousel focused on curiosity and FOMO, asking a series of questions that readers would swipe through.
The billboard was intentionally simple:
“What is society talking about?”
Along with a QR code that would direct users to the product community.
What I Would Do Differently
In hindsight, I believe a stronger marketing funnel would have been:
Meta Ad → Landing Page → Community + Subscription
A targeted Meta ad could bring the right audience to a landing page. The landing page would then showcase the product, highlight the community aspect, and allow users to subscribe to the newspaper.
This would create a clearer path from awareness to engagement to conversion.
The Pitch
Being an MBA grad, my favourite part of the entire experience was, of course, the pitch. I love an engaging pitch, and that’s what we went ahead with.
So we started by asking the audience to say “AYE!” if they read the news.
Then we asked the same question for those who don’t read the news.
We wanted to engage everyone in the room and let them know that we had a product for them. Whether someone actively follows the news or only hears about it when everyone else is talking about it, The New Society would give them a quick, accessible way to stay informed.
Final Thoughts
I personally loved stimulating my brain at this event and also meeting some amazing women in the field of marketing. Thanks to the team at LAN for hosting this!
More than anything, this experience reminded me that good marketing isn’t just about selling products. It’s about understanding how people think, what they care about, and what drives them to engage.
And sometimes, all it takes to start a conversation is asking a simple question:
“Say AYE! if you read the news.”