Marcus Johnson (00:00):

Creative strategies are reshaping discovery, shopping, and video. At the next EMARKETER Summit, Creator Trends 2026. You can hear insights from creators and brands like Gap, Stanley 1913 and Sporting Goods on Commerce and CTV. Join us live February 13th at 11:30 AM Eastern. We get clarity for your 2026 creator strategy.

(00:28):

Hey, gang, it's Friday, December 23rd. [inaudible 00:00:32] listeners. Welcome to Behind the Numbers, an EMARKETER video podcast. I'm Marcus and join me for today's conversation. We have two New York-based folks. One of them is our demographics expert. It's Paola Flores-Marquez.

Paola Flores-Marquez (00:43):

Hello, everyone. Happy to be here.

Marcus Johnson (00:45):

Hello, hello. And we're also joined by our head of research, a marketer, Jennifer Pearson.

Jennifer Pearson (00:49):

Thanks for having me.

Marcus Johnson (00:50):

Absolutely. We start, of course, with the fact of the day.

(00:54):

All right. Today's fact is others ... This might be one of my best ones. Others like us more than we know. So this was one of the takeaways. It's not a line for me. It's a quote from one of the studies about this is a takeaway from a set of five studies from researchers at Cornell University who explored what strangers thought about each other after chatting. They found consistent evidence for what they call a liking gap. Liking gap. Other people like us more than we think.

(01:27):

Emma Young of the British Psychological Society writes that, "Though in other areas of life, many of us have a rosy, tinted view of our abilities. It seems that we tend to underestimate how we come across socially."

Paola Flores-Marquez (01:43):

That makes sense. I feel like one of the keys to decreasing a lot of my social anxiety was realizing that people are probably freaking out about themselves as much as I'm freaking out about myself. So they don't really have time to think about me.

Jennifer Pearson (01:56):

Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (01:56):

Yeah.

Jennifer Pearson (01:57):

Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (01:57):

Yeah.

Jennifer Pearson (01:57):

All right.

Marcus Johnson (01:58):

I thought this was really nice. Because you can be like, "Oh, how did that go?" You're so worried about this thing and that thing.

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:04):

They've already forgotten.

Marcus Johnson (02:06):

Yeah. There's a lot of cues that the person actually is more interested than you think. This doesn't go for everyone, okay? Because some people are the worst.

Jennifer Pearson (02:15):

Right.

Marcus Johnson (02:15):

But most people are good. All right?

Jennifer Pearson (02:15):

Generally.

Marcus Johnson (02:17):

Yeah.

Jennifer Pearson (02:17):

Data for good. I would agree. Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (02:19):

This isn't everyone, but most people. Anyway, today's real topic, the great Behind the Numbers bake off, takeoff. Gen Alpha trends to watch in 2026.

(02:33):

I promise we'll be done with these soon. People are like, enough of Bake Off rip off. We've got to stop this Johnson. And we will, but not yet. All right. In today's episode, our bakers who are giving takes will be cooking up some Gen Alpha trends to watch in 2026, Gen Alpha being 13 and younger.

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:52):

Two to 13 by our standards, by EMARKETER standards.

Marcus Johnson (02:55):

Two to 13.

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:56):

Right.

Marcus Johnson (02:56):

Beta? Oh.

Paola Flores-Marquez (02:58):

Possibly.

Jennifer Pearson (02:58):

They're already here.

Paola Flores-Marquez (03:00):

They have been born. Be prepared. Okay. It's happening.

Marcus Johnson (03:04):

Okay. Two. That's a small generation.

Paola Flores-Marquez (03:08):

It is very small.

Marcus Johnson (03:10):

Okay. What happened there?

Jennifer Pearson (03:13):

After careful consideration-

Paola Flores-Marquez (03:14):

Yeah, lots of conversations.

Jennifer Pearson (03:15):

... lots of conversations with thought leaders in our field, we landed on 2024 as a pivotal ... really, AI was a large kind of technological driver for choosing that end date. We may revise it. A lot of times it takes time away and moving forward to look back, but for now we have 2024.

Paola Flores-Marquez (03:38):

Yeah. We figured it was like, what is the big dynamic occasion, technological alteration that's going to change their lives in a way that's going to make it different than ours is. And so Gen Alpha is probably, whether we casually refer to them as tablet children or iPad kids, right? And these are going to be AI kids. Beta is going to be AI kids.

Jennifer Pearson (04:01):

Yeah. We had a great conversation with someone at Razorfish, and she rightly noted that a lot of drivers in the past 20 years have been technological. And so we're anchoring those as the drivers. For example, Baby Boomers, obviously it was the war and more historical events. This is technology's driving a lot of these.

Marcus Johnson (04:22):

Fascinating.

Paola Flores-Marquez (04:23):

Shout out to Precise TV as well, because they've also been very helpful on narrowing that down.

Marcus Johnson (04:28):

Can I just listen into ... I want to be in those meetings. That sounds fascinating.

Jennifer Pearson (04:32):

Oh, they're so fun.

Marcus Johnson (04:32):

How you decided-

Paola Flores-Marquez (04:32):

Yeah, you want to help us? Yeah. We'd love to get more promo on demographics.

Marcus Johnson (04:37):

Help is generous but I'd love to just be in the background. But yeah, that's really interesting. So yeah, I guess beta kids, they won't know a world before AI. And so that makes a lot of sense. Okay. So that's who we're talking about. We're talking about the ... So you said two-

Paola Flores-Marquez (04:50):

To 13 this year.

Marcus Johnson (04:50):

... to a teen.

Paola Flores-Marquez (04:50):

Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (04:50):

Okay. Two to 13.

Paola Flores-Marquez (04:50):

Oh, is it two to 13? It is two to 13, right?

Jennifer Pearson (04:55):

It is two. Yep.

Marcus Johnson (04:56):

Okay. All right. Well, that's the group we're talking about. We've got some trends for you for 2026 around Gen Alpha. There are three rounds. First one is called Signature Take. The second is the how it would technically play out-challenge. And the third is a show stopping argument. Let's get to it. We start, of course, with round one. It's called Signature Take. [inaudible 00:05:15] will have one minute to explain the premise of their trend. So Paola, I think we're starting with you.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:19):

Okay.

Marcus Johnson (05:20):

What is your trend headline? And then tell us a bit more about it.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:24):

Okay. So Gen Alpha is turning 13 this year, and that means that the battle for their digital attention is going to heat up because that means they can officially sign up for social media accounts. And my take is that we are going to see this war play out between-

Marcus Johnson (05:37):

In the US.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:37):

... TikTok ... in the US, yes.

Marcus Johnson (05:38):

First place is ...

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:40):

Everything I'm saying is about the US.

Marcus Johnson (05:41):

I should say, yeah, Australia is pinching back.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:42):

If you want to give us more money to cover other areas, I would love that, please. But yes, we are going to see this battle play out between YouTube and TikTok based on the information that we have right now.

Marcus Johnson (05:54):

Okay.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:54):

May I continue? Do I still have time?

Marcus Johnson (05:55):

Please.

Paola Flores-Marquez (05:57):

Okay, great.

Marcus Johnson (05:58):

Tell me ... Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Paola Flores-Marquez (06:00):

Okay, great. So they officially have the go ahead to start signing up for these account. The eldest of them do, but if we're being honest, they've already been online. Whether it's via YouTube or their parents' accounts or they lied about their age as millennials have done and Gen Zers have done before them. And so what we're left with is this generation that's already very digitally immersed and we're formalizing their behavior online.

(06:25):

So if you think about it, YouTube is their top platform. We're talking about 66% around there of the generation already uses YouTube. It's their top platform. They've been using it since they were really little. And then the amount of Alphas who are using social media is much smaller. It's about 22%. But if you look at the chart that's currently on the screen, you can see that it's twice the amount that Gen Zers were at the same age, around the same age. So we're talking about a generation-

Marcus Johnson (06:58):

Wow.

Paola Flores-Marquez (06:58):

... that isn't necessarily debuting on social media. It's not a cold start. It's a formalization of behaviors that they've already been practicing for years. And that means that marketers are facing a really discriminating cohort that are already accustomed to tuning out digital noise that they're not interested in. And they have very specific tastes that they're continuing to refine. So we're going to see a lot more fracturing in those interests.

Marcus Johnson (07:24):

Yeah. Yeah. Fascinating. All right. We'll tuck into that a bit more in round two. I have so many questions. Jenny, we'll move over to you. What is your Gen Alpha trend for 2026 for us?

Jennifer Pearson (07:35):

Sure. The trend is that, and it really just builds on a lot of what Pao just said, which is gaming as an alternative social media for this Gen Alpha. Many Gen Alpha and more than previous generations are gamers. So that's how EMARKETER defines those really just playing games through an internet connected device, whether it's a console, handhold game, or on their mobile phone.

(08:02):

Half of this generation already is playing video games as half and three quarters of internet users are. And that, as Pao said, they haven't even reached or just this year are reaching the ability to legally sign up for social media. And so gaming has been their currency for communication.

(08:26):

And I think that will flow through as they age. It has solidified more and more gamers and as they age are communicating either about games through these games, online together, through a group chat, but about games. So it has really become their love language, if you will.

Marcus Johnson (08:49):

Yeah.

Paola Flores-Marquez (08:49):

I wanted to add that I was looking at some of the data earlier and I called them Precise TV earlier, but they rebranded to Precisify. Precisify has data that states that Gen Alpha is already using dual screens. And so the highest secondary activity when they're watching TV is gaming. We're talking about 48% of Gen Alpha is gaming while they're watching TV.

Marcus Johnson (09:17):

No way.

Paola Flores-Marquez (09:17):

Above YouTube, which I can also see them double, especially with YouTube shorts. But anyway, we'll go more into that.

Marcus Johnson (09:23):

Simultaneous media usage, very high for that generation already. And again, we're talking about from ... Some people are still learning to walk and they probably figured that out, but very young to just about to hit teens. So it's quite the span. So for those numbers to be so high already is quite shocking.

(09:43):

All right. Let's move to round two folks. Round two, of course. Is the how it will technically play out challenge. Our chefs will explain in more detail how they expect the trends to manifest. So we go back to Paola. She's talking again about Gen Alpha turning 13, and then there's being this war between YouTube versus TikTok. They're heating up in terms of time spent, trying to get more time spent on those different platforms for the young people. Paola, tell us a bit more about how this is going to unfold this year.

Paola Flores-Marquez (10:10):

Right. So we mentioned about how Gen Alpha is using social media at twice the rate that Gen Zers were at the same age. So when they're using social media, it's most likely to be TikTok based on our information, based on our forecast. We're seeing about 17.2% of Gen Alpha is using TikTok, which is small compared to the YouTube number. The YouTube number is around 66%. But a lot of that narrows when we look at the amount of time spent by users of those platforms.

(10:36):

So when we talk about Gen Alphas or children under 12, let's say, that use YouTube, it's about 43 minutes a day, whereas children who use TikTok are about 55 minutes a day. So TikTok, amongst the kids who use those platforms actively, the kids who use TikTok are using it at a much higher rate than the ones who use YouTube.

(10:57):

And so this increases even more amongst teenagers. So it decreases in YouTube to 34 minutes a day amongst 12 to 17 year olds, and TikTok increases to 74 minutes a day. So I think we can start to expect to see as Gen Alpha starts signing up, that their TikTok figures are going to continue to go up. They're going to deprioritize YouTube and they're going to start using TikTok more because they're entering this life stage where they want to be like the older kids. They want to be amongst their friends. They want to connect with them. TikTok offers much more sociability in that aspect and they want to be on trend. And TikTok is where those trends start.

(11:40):

So we are going to see a measurable spike in TikTok usage amongst those elder Gen Alphas. But I also wouldn't discount the amount of YouTube shorts usage because YouTube Shorts has already had its hook into Gen Alpha. YouTube is like the digital on-ramp for a lot of these children. So it's going to be-

Marcus Johnson (12:02):

YouTube Kids.

Paola Flores-Marquez (12:03):

... YouTube Kids. Yes.

Marcus Johnson (12:03):

I imagine they're already there.

Paola Flores-Marquez (12:03):

And they're already comfortable with the format. They're already comfortable navigating the platform. They're already comfortable, something that they've kind of latched onto and they have permission to do so because YouTube's been so good about ... Well, maybe I don't know about good, but they've been proactive about trying to implement security measures for children, which adds a level of confidence for parents that isn't at the same scale for TikTok.

Marcus Johnson (12:26):

It's one of the platforms that's not been banned in Australia. So Australia's got the social media ban, that's the world's first. And they're basically saying that if you're under 16 years old, you can't set up a new social media account or an existing profiles are being deactivated as well following the ban that started in December of last year. Social companies who aren't trying to prevent kids under 16 year olds from being on these platforms face fines, that's basically the ban. YouTube Kids is one of the platforms that's not on that list. And so that is still an on-ramp.

Paola Flores-Marquez (12:56):

I mean, yeah. And you look at YouTube and it is like a major parenting tool, a major modern parenting tool nowadays. And I'll talk about this more in my closing argument, but YouTube is continuing to solidify itself as a mainstream entertainment platform.

Jennifer Pearson (13:12):

Absolutely.

Paola Flores-Marquez (13:12):

And so yeah, I'll leave it there for now. Everybody think about that for a second.

Jennifer Pearson (13:18):

We've talked about this in previous podcasts even where traditional TV programming is moving to YouTube. So it really is becoming this centralized, "This is where I watch my video on my video times."

Paola Flores-Marquez (13:30):

Yeah. YouTube Kids, it is like a smaller version of YouTube. So it's like you're still getting exposed in the same way and in a way that's prepping you to use big kid YouTube.

Marcus Johnson (13:42):

Yeah. And there's no TikTok Kids, at least not for now.

Paola Flores-Marquez (13:45):

Not right now.

Marcus Johnson (13:46):

So yeah, there isn't that kind of stepping stone really.

Paola Flores-Marquez (13:49):

But there is Roblox.

Jennifer Pearson (13:51):

Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (13:51):

Yes, yes. So you mentioned Roblox. And Jenny, your trend is talking about gaming as an alternative social media space for Gen Alpha. I imagine this is one of the places that they're going to be flocking to.

Jennifer Pearson (14:03):

It is, certainly. So formerly Precise TV, a survey from May of 2025 surveyed children two to 12 and Roblox is their top game space on their phones or with mostly mobile phones. So it is one of the more popular places for, this is for gaming, but also socializing. You're able to communicate with friends via Roblox and it has become more than game. It's a social space and interactive space.

(14:35):

If you'd like to pull up the chart, which is also for Precisify, just listing some of where children are consuming content. And coming back to what we were talking about, YouTube, no doubt at the top, we have some Video on Demand, but then we're getting into a lot of what we just talked about. Games on a phone or a tablet is one of the leading locations where children are consuming content. Console games, another. So we're seeing games above these social platforms.

(15:07):

This completely makes sense. Many are not allowed on these platforms yet. Their parents have made those off limits. They have not made the games off limits. And so children are forced to communicate and share and socialize in these spaces. And it is becoming and I think will continue to be where they're socializing.

Paola Flores-Marquez (15:28):

I also think that Discord has ... It's their game to win if they're able to tap into that. Discord is already so huge in gaming spaces, but also in fandom spaces. And even though one of Discord's biggest hurdles is learning how to navigate the platform, but once you do, and kids will, if that's what they want to do, it can take that space and that attention away, especially if we're talking about kids who will eventually grow fatigued with the amount of social media consumption, as we've seen already with Gen Z, that they look for an alternative space that isn't so much around video and content, and it's more about community and connecting with each other.

Jennifer Pearson (16:11):

Yeah. I looked up some old data from one of our best sources, Common Sense Media from March 2020. They did a survey. So this survey was conducted just before pandemic lockdowns and a share of time spent for children zero to eight, 16% was spent gaming and the vast majority is consuming video. So this is screen time, screen time spent. 16% in 2020. And in their most recent 2024, it was 26%. And these are zero to eight in 2020, zero to eight in 2024. So I do see this as a growing trend, not just this generation aging up.

Marcus Johnson (17:00):

Yeah. Roblox, not on Australia's social media band list for kids.

Jennifer Pearson (17:07):

Interesting.

Marcus Johnson (17:08):

Discord, not on that list. You mentioned, what was the other one? YouTube Kids obviously were mentioned as well, not on that list. And so it does seem like that could be a place for kids to seek refuge, especially if these bands under 16 year olds and social media start to take effect. They're a console generation, right? So falling back on gaming is a very natural fit. They're the most likely generation to use a console and also be on headset. This is 2025 YouGov data folks can see on the screen, even more so than Gen Zers.

Paola Flores-Marquez (17:41):

Yeah. And when we talk about kids under 12 in the US, their parents are most likely to be millennials. And millennials were really big gamers. They still are gamers.

Marcus Johnson (17:48):

Good point.

Paola Flores-Marquez (17:49):

And millennials have the money to spend on gaming now. So they're buying the new Switch and they're buying all these Xbox ... What are we at? Xbox 5? I don't know. I don't play Xbox.

Marcus Johnson (17:58):

360.

Paola Flores-Marquez (18:00):

No.

Marcus Johnson (18:00):

I think.

Jennifer Pearson (18:00):

Exists.

Paola Flores-Marquez (18:01):

That's definitely wrong. But yeah, that means these parents are passing down these habits. And I think millennials are one of the first generations to carry this habit fully into adulthood and invest in it. And so we're seeing the ripple effects of that in Gen Alpha.

Marcus Johnson (18:18):

Yeah. Fastest growing gamer, a digital gamer generation growing about five to 6% each of the next few years. Every other generation's flat or the boomers ticking down a touch. Jenny, I mean, gaming is being used as you're suggesting as an alternative social media space for Gen Alpha. What's really driving this? What are some of the main things that are touching this one?

Jennifer Pearson (18:38):

I think a few things. So more are playing games in general. So that's just a prevalence issue or fact. I think that there's also a lot of awareness about social media. Parents are restricting it. Not every parent, it runs the gamut, but there are quite a number of parents who are restricting it. And so kids find a way in a different way and games are permitted in some households.

(19:04):

It's true in my household. It's true in a lot of just anecdotally, but we do see data behind this. So I think kids are forced to, "Okay, this is what I can't be on TikTok. My mom and dad won't let me. So I'm going to go and talk to my friends on this game instead. I'd like to connect and have that community."

(19:26):

We have some data from collage group asking children, "What are they doing?" "I like games where I can," and they're playing and talking with friends was the top, top list. So it is a means to communication.

Paola Flores-Marquez (19:38):

This is a tangent, but I also think that's why Snapchat tends to be a lot more popular with teenagers than adults, at least in modern day, unless you're grandfathered into it. But I think it's because it offers a space that isn't being constantly monitored by your parents because the messages disappear. So it offers a lot more freedom and communication. And then we see in our forecast that that Snapchat usage drops in adulthood. And I think that's because no one's really monitoring your stuff anymore. So there's no need.

Marcus Johnson (20:07):

And it sounds like a big part of this, you've mentioned communication a lot. That's not something that's really used for older generations in social media. It's consumption, right? And so I guess at that age, you're most likely to have a ton of friends and a lot of time to socialize with friends. And so it does seem as though, like Discord you mentioned, good for communication, Roblox, place people communicate, WhatsApp. That's also not on the band list in Australia in terms of social media usage for kids. And so it does seem that communication piece is a big deal for the little people moreso.

Paola Flores-Marquez (20:40):

Yeah. I think one of Discord's biggest boons to the video gaming community is that it allows for big voice chats, right? So you can communicate and collaborate with each other in real time without having to type out. And you don't just use it that. I've used it for that. I've seen people use it to reenact or do a read along or reenact plays via audio and stuff. So people get really creative with it.

Jennifer Pearson (21:06):

I also see this as a life stage channel that this is mostly what kids are doing anyway, so it's might as well communicate in here. This is where they're spending their time. This is what they're ... Yeah. They're not out there roaming the streets just yet. Socializing with their friends-

Marcus Johnson (21:25):

On the streets.

Jennifer Pearson (21:26):

... by meeting up-

Marcus Johnson (21:27):

Like wild animals.

Paola Flores-Marquez (21:28):

Yeah. Like we used to. But no, I also think that in this communication piece, we should also note that it's one of the things that TikTok hasn't super-duper figured out, the direct messaging aspect, whereas Instagram has. And so when we ask Gen Zers what their preferred direct messaging apps are, that Instagram tends to be at the top, if not near the top.

(21:50):

And that is because they've made it so easy to, one, build your network in that app and two, to speak to each other through Reels or through jokes or posts. And so I do think the communication aspect is still a part of that in older generations, but you're right, the older you get, the less you want to be active on it and you just want to sit back.

Marcus Johnson (22:15):

[inaudible 00:22:16].

Paola Flores-Marquez (22:15):

Yeah. You're getting more responsibilities. I don't have time. Yeah.

Marcus Johnson (22:18):

I see. All right, folks, let's move to round three. We have our show stopping argument. Our chefs will pull out their best closing arguments as to why their trend is most likely to happen. I asked Paola to do it in 20 seconds. She nearly had a heart attack. Paola?

Paola Flores-Marquez (22:34):

Okay. I'm going to try. I'm going to try real hard.

Marcus Johnson (22:35):

Best of luck.

Paola Flores-Marquez (22:36):

Okay. So my show stopping argument is that TikTok wins the battle, but YouTube wins the war. So TikTok is going to see an increase in usage amongst this generation based on all the data that we have, but I think that they will eventually outgrow this phase. And we've already seen it. Facebook has fallen out of fashion. Instagram has taken Facebook's place as just a standard area, like your address book where you communicate.

(23:04):

I think eventually something is going to boost TikTok out of that space because they haven't done a good job of integrating themselves into the mainstream, unlike YouTube. I think YouTube is going to be a lifelong habit for these children. Granted, it stays around for that long. But if it does manage to survive whatever technological barriers we're going to encounter, it is pretty much taking the place of television eventually.

(23:30):

And so especially considering how ingrained these habits already are and how that algorithm has pretty much known them since they were teeny tiny. So we're talking about a tailor-made source of entertainment for you that probably knows you better than you know yourself, which is a little scary, but that is why I think it'll win ultimately in the long run.

Marcus Johnson (23:50):

Okay. I wasn't even close to 20 seconds, but a very convincing argument. I did-

Paola Flores-Marquez (24:00):

Is it over or under?

Jennifer Pearson (24:00):

You over or under.

Marcus Johnson (24:00):

Way over. That's okay-

Paola Flores-Marquez (24:00):

No.

Marcus Johnson (24:01):

... because those were good points. I did look up the time spent. So you're talking about people, right? When you're talking about more, there's going to be more of this generation going to TikTok and also going to YouTube as well. But I looked up time spent numbers and this reinforces your point about TikTok winning the battle, YouTube winning the war. All generations, time spent with TikTok is going down and that's been going down since 2023.

Paola Flores-Marquez (24:21):

Yes.

Marcus Johnson (24:22):

Whereas time spent with YouTube is edging down. Whereas time spent with YouTube across all generations is continuing to inch up.

Paola Flores-Marquez (24:29):

Correct. So when you look at one of our charts, if you're a pro user, when you look at one of our charts about timestamp data across age groups, you'll notice that for all non-teen, anybody above 18, YouTube, they're more likely to spend more time on YouTube than TikTok. But the second you get to teenagers and younger kids, TikTok is so much higher.

(24:51):

And so I think that's what drew my attention in exploring more of this because there's such a clear tension about where they're investing in that space. And I'm super interested to see whether it's a life stage or whether it's a lifelong habit.

Marcus Johnson (25:10):

Yeah. Jenny, floor is yours.

Jennifer Pearson (25:13):

My closing argument is going to be 20 seconds or less because what she said.

Marcus Johnson (25:19):

Yeah, Paola.

Jennifer Pearson (25:19):

Yeah. My closing argument is what she said. Oh, no.

Paola Flores-Marquez (25:25):

So we both win.

Jennifer Pearson (25:27):

I support you. You support me.

Paola Flores-Marquez (25:29):

Thank you. Thank you.

Jennifer Pearson (25:30):

No, seriously there, we have seen this shift from children gravitating towards gaming and spending more of their time, it is a more popular pastime. And so it's only natural that that becomes part of this communication channel, this socialization channel. And with awareness of social media and possibly some of the downsides that parents have been enforcing, I do think of this as an outlet that they're kind of setting these media habits right now and they will continue as they age up.

Marcus Johnson (26:06):

Yeah. Oh, that was 19 and a half seconds, Paola. She nailed it.

Paola Flores-Marquez (26:10):

Win.

Marcus Johnson (26:11):

But that is a good stop. That is all we have time for is time to pick a winner and I think the best dish for today, it's impossible to decide, I want to pick both of them because they're both great, but I'll pick Jenny because Paola went long. That's all the argument. Jenny wins, even though they were both excellent, excellent trends.

Paola Flores-Marquez (26:31):

I'm sorry for being a fountain of information, Marcus.

Jennifer Pearson (26:32):

I was going to say.

Paola Flores-Marquez (26:33):

Sorry for doing what you asked me to do, except in that specific way you asked me to do it.

Jennifer Pearson (26:38):

I see this as a win for Pao anyway, because this is a trend from her upcoming report.

Marcus Johnson (26:43):

Yes, indeed.

Jennifer Pearson (26:44):

And it is her wonderful analysis of our gamers.

Paola Flores-Marquez (26:48):

And it'll be much more concise because I have really great editors. Thank you, Heather.

Marcus Johnson (26:52):

And that report, Gen Alpha Trends, the full report comes out January 30th, which is in a week. So check that out. ProPlus subscribers can of course head to emmarket.com and search for Gen Alpha Trends 2026, but they were both excellent. Paola's one more time is as Gen Alpha turns 13, the war between time spent on YouTube versus TikTok will heat up. And Jenny's was gaming as an alternative social media space for Gen Alpha is something to pay close attention to. That's all we've got time for for today's episode. Thank you so, so much to my guests for today. Thank you first to Paola.

Paola Flores-Marquez (27:24):

Thank you so much. This is really fun. I know we only do this format for Trends Reports, but I'm a fan. I've been converted.

Marcus Johnson (27:30):

I know. Listeners are probably sick of it because we've been doing them all with the time, but a huge thank you to today's winner, Jenny.

Jennifer Pearson (27:36):

Thank you.

Marcus Johnson (27:37):

Yes, indeed. And a huge thank you to Danny and Lance who are helping run today's episode in the background, the production crew and to everyone for listening in to Behind the Numbers, the EMARKETER video podcast. Please do subscribe and follow for more episodes and leave a rating and review if you liked this one. If you didn't, then don't leave one. We'll be back on Monday, of course. Happiest of weekends.