Precisify, the cross-platform media intelligence specialist, has unveiled the first insights from its new 13-44 audience panel through the release of Precisify Insights: Gen Z & Millennials, USA. The report shows that YouTube leads cross-generational attention in the US, emerging as the most consistently scaled environment across both Gen Z and Millennial audiences.

The report also features an exclusive analyst perspective from media cartographer Evan Shapiro, whose commentary situates the findings within the broader evolution of consumer behaviour and media economics.

“How these generations consume media dictates our culture and drives the flow of billions in subscription and ad dollars every year,” commented Shapiro. “Understanding their daily consumption habits helps us know where our culture is headed and how the business of media will continue to evolve.”

The data makes that shift unmistakable. While Disney+ usage among Gen Z respondents (57 per cent) is more than double that of Millennials (28 per cent), and TikTok adoption among Gen Z (68 per cent) significantly outpaces Millennials (46 per cent), YouTube remains the one scaled environment where both audiences consistently converge, reaching 83 per cent of Gen Z and 78 per cent of Millennials. Nearly 45 per cent of both groups spend 30 to 60 minutes on the platform daily, underscoring its role as the shared layer of attention across generations.

For advertisers, the implication is clear: in an increasingly fragmented media ecosystem, YouTube has become the backbone of modern audience planning across both TV screens and mobile devices.

Fragmented behaviours. One scaled ecosystem.

The report highlights significant differences in how Gen Z and Millennial audiences consume media across streaming, social, gaming, and creator-led environments.

Compared to Millennials, Gen Z continues to over-index on TikTok (68 per cent vs 46 per cent), Disney+ (57 per cent vs 28 per cent), and YouTube Shorts (53 per cent vs 39 per cent), reinforcing a stronger preference for short-form and socially driven viewing experiences.

Millennials, by contrast, remain more anchored in Netflix (65 per cent), Prime Video (50 per cent), and Facebook (67 per cent), signaling stronger engagement with premium streaming environments and more established social platforms.

Yet despite these differences, Precisify’s findings show that YouTube remains the one platform where both cohorts consistently converge at scale, with the highest reach of any platform in the study at 83 per cent for Gen Z and 78 per cent for Millennials.

Unlike platforms that skew sharply by generation, YouTube functions as a full-funnel media ecosystem — spanning short-form and long-form video, creator-led content, entertainment, music, search, and discovery behaviours.

This ecosystem effect is especially pronounced as YouTube Shorts and long-form viewing increasingly complement one another within the same environment, giving brands a unique opportunity to build continuity across discovery, engagement, and conversion.

“Fragmentation across platforms is now the norm,” commented Denis Crushell, Chief Commercial Officer at Precisify. “What this report makes clear is that while Gen Z and Millennials may diverge in where they spend incremental time, YouTube remains the shared ecosystem where efficient, scaled cross-generational reach still exists. For advertisers, that’s incredibly important because it provides a consistent foundation for modern media planning.”

Why this matters for media buyers

The launch comes as agencies and brand marketers intensify their need for real-time audience intelligence and cross-generational planning signals.

The report’s exclusive analysis from Evan Shapiro underscores a broader market reality: Gen Z and Millennials are increasingly radical multitaskers, extending media hours across multiple devices and platforms throughout the day.

This is borne out in the data, where 43 per cent of Gen Z and 50 per cent of Millennials report second-screening on YouTube while watching television, creating new complexity for media buyers who must plan not only for platform fragmentation, but for simultaneous cross-screen attention behaviours.

“Gen Z and Millennial audiences are now radical multitaskers, effectively creating more media hours in their day by using two or more screens at a time,” added Shapiro.

Precisify’s multi-generational panels are built to meet that need — collecting and coding behavioural, attitudinal, and purchase-intent signals across age cohorts, then translating those signals into intuitive dashboards and actionable media-planning intelligence.

For agencies and brands, the implication is clear: while media habits continue to diverge, YouTube remains one of the most critical environments for consolidating spend at scale across generations.

“Holding companies, independent agencies and brands have been asking for a clearer view into how audiences behave across generations,” said Maryann Zuarino, Executive Vice President, North America Sales at Precisify. “These new panels provide the signals agencies need to make smarter investment decisions. Combined with Precisify’s AI technology and activation capabilities across this massive environment of highly engaged consumers, Precisify is able to deliver relevance, brand safety and measurable outcomes at scale.”

Creator influence and downstream action

The report also reinforces a broader shift in audience behaviour: creators now function as primary cultural touchpoints for Gen Z and Millennial audiences.

The data show that 65 per cent of Millennials turn to YouTube for creator content, compared with 37 per cent on TikTok and 32 per cent on Facebook, while Gen Z maintains a more diversified creator mix across YouTube (66 per cent), TikTok (57 per cent) and Instagram (48 per cent).

“What this data makes clear is that creator influence is no longer as fragmented as many marketers assume,” said Mark Bassett, Head of Influencer at Precisify. “Creators are now central to how Gen Z and Millennials discover brands, form opinions and ultimately take action. For brands, that fundamentally changes the role of influencer marketing — it is no longer just about reach or relevance in isolation, but about understanding where creator attention is actually driving consumer behaviour.”

“While Gen Z engages with creators across several platforms, this data shows YouTube remains the most scaled environment for creator attention across both generations, particularly among Millennials,” said Christian Dankl, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Precisify. “The opportunity for brands is connecting creator influence to the media environments that can convert attention into measurable business outcomes — particularly as that viewing increasingly expands onto larger screens and connected TV.”

For brands and agencies, this creator-led attention model is increasingly important — not just for awareness, but for influence, product discovery, and downstream consumer action.

This extends into advertising performance as well. On YouTube Shorts, 66 per cent of Gen Z and 57 per cent of Millennials report watching ads rather than skipping them, significantly higher than TikTok where that drops to 48 per cent and 43 per cent, respectively.

As creator-led viewing continues to expand across larger screens and connected TV environments, brands now have a clearer path to reaching audiences where influence is increasingly translating into measurable outcomes.

“Precisify empowers agencies and brands to achieve superior digital advertising outcomes by leveraging proprietary panels, AI models, intent signals and contextual data,” Crushell added. “We’re building the intelligence layer for how brands reach and influence consumers across age cohorts, and this report marks an important step in that evolution.”

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Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, OTT, Research

Tags: Gen Z, Millennials, Prime Video, usa, youtube