SiriusXM Builds Cultural Relevance Through Trust, Trends and Emotional Connection

The Challenge

Gen Z is one of the most diverse and culturally dynamic generations, making it increasingly difficult for brands to reach the audience with a one-size-fits-all strategy.

As Gen Z moves through different life stages, from high school and college to careers and parenthood, brands must navigate an audience with vastly different interests, identities and experiences. At the same time, declining trust in brands and institutions raises the stakes for marketers hoping to participate in fast-moving trends and cultural conversations.

For SiriusXM and its portfolio of audio brands, including Pandora and SoundCloud, the opportunity was to better understand the cultural forces shaping Gen Z and translate those insights into more relevant ways for brands to connect with this audience.

The key question: How can brands engage with Gen Z trends and subcultures without feeling forced, inauthentic or out of touch?

The Approach

Collage combined its proprietary cultural intelligence with SiriusXM’s extensive audience signals to uncover the deeper motivations behind Gen Z’s behaviors, interests and media engagement.

Collage’s research identified three important cultural traits shaping Gen Z: personal pressure, game changing and collective individualism. These traits help explain not simply what Gen Z consumers are doing, but why they behave the way they do.

The research revealed a generation that actively seeks new perspectives, values individual expression and increasingly forms connections around shared interests. Among the findings presented:

• 80% of Gen Z enjoys taking in opinions and experiences different from their own.
• Nearly three-quarters are proud of the things that make them different from other people.
• 70% like to express themselves through style, creativity and other forms of self-expression.
• 70% are looking to connect with people who share similar interests.
• 70% watch livestreams on platforms such as YouTube and TikTok.

SiriusXM paired these cultural insights with billions of signals from across its ecosystem, including artist streaming, music genres, podcast engagement, creators and emerging subcultures.

Together, the research provided a deeper view into the cultural and emotional drivers behind Gen Z engagement.

The Insight

The analysis revealed that cultural specificity, trusted creators and emotional connection are increasingly important gateways to Gen Z attention.

Gen Z’s “collective individualism” means individuality and community can coexist. Consumers are finding belonging not by minimizing their differences, but by connecting with others around highly specific interests, identities and passions.

That dynamic is fueling the rise of subcultures and creating new opportunities for marketers, but it also raises the risk of brands entering cultural spaces without credibility.

The research pointed toward co-creation as a more authentic approach. Instead of attempting to imitate the language and behaviors of a community, brands can empower creators who already understand those audiences to communicate in their own voices.

The research also demonstrated the importance of emotion. 78% percent of Gen Z turns to content that speaks to them emotionally.

SiriusXM’s analysis captured this behavior through a trend described as “Feelcore,” where emotional resonance becomes a powerful driver of attention. That emotional spectrum can include calm and optimism, melancholy and vulnerability, suspense, empowerment and intensity.

The takeaway for marketers is that emotional relevance does not require brands to manufacture positivity. It requires understanding what consumers are feeling and the role that music, podcasts, creators and other content play in helping them experience or process those emotions.

Four principles emerged for engaging Gen Z:

1. Start with the emotional need. Understand the feeling driving engagement rather than simply reacting to the trend itself.

2. Invest in creators and cultural spaces. Empower people who already have credibility within communities rather than prescribing how they should communicate.

3. Become an emotional co-pilot. Support and enhance experiences that matter to Gen Z instead of making the brand the center of every cultural moment.

4. Test, learn and iterate. Use cultural intelligence to rapidly evaluate ideas and executions, recognizing that different communities may respond differently to the same trend.

The Impact

By combining Collage’s cultural intelligence with SiriusXM’s audience and listening signals, the work created a framework for translating fast-moving Gen Z trends into actionable marketing opportunities.

Rather than chasing individual trends, marketers can use the framework to identify the deeper cultural and emotional motivations behind them—and determine where their brands have a credible role to play.

The research also demonstrates the connection between cultural understanding and brand resonance. Collage’s CultureRate measurement showed that Pandora performs above average with Gen Z for cultural fluency and has been among the brands showing strong growth in Gen Z cultural resonance.

Most importantly, the approach gives marketers a more sustainable way to engage Gen Z: build trust first, understand the cultural and emotional need, empower credible voices and participate in culture without trying to own it.

For brands navigating a generation whose interests and communities can change at extraordinary speed, cultural intelligence provides a way to move beyond simply identifying what’s trending and understand why it matters.

Learn what top brands say about Collage and how they apply cultural intelligence to fuel growth in our client testimonials and case studies.