, smart retailers will need to pivot to search, parents and real-world communities as the new engines of youth influence. Discovery without the feed Bernardo Figueiredo, a professor of marketing at the Australian university RMIT, told Inside Retail that TikTok and Instagram have for years been “the primary engines of brand discovery for teens”. Without them, youth marketing changes overnight. Retailers lose the algorithmic virality that once made a single video enough to launch a product into teen culture, and they also lose line of sight into emerging micro-trends that once formed on TikTok.  Without teens visibly driving those trends, brands risk becoming slower and less culturally responsive. TAG Partner and Head of Growth & Marketing, Zoe Goodhardt, calls this “the biggest risk” for retailers who have built their entire top-of-funnel on social media. But she argued that the opportunity is equally significant.  “We’re about to see search behaviour shift dramatically, with AI-enabled search, including platforms like ChatGPT, becoming a primary driver of product discovery,” Goodhardt told Inside Retail. “Google will also enjoy its comeback moment as search suddenly becomes the new ‘social feed’ for younger audiences.” Retailers that invest now in SEO and AI-optimised content will be best placed to catch this new demand. Parents as gatekeepers With under-16s blocked or limited on social media, parents become the default gatekeepers.  Professor Figueiredo expects retailers to pivot to “family trust” messaging, persuading parents first rather than targeting teens directly.  That means a major shift in tone, channels, and value propositions: safety, quality, durability and wellbeing become as important as aesthetics and hype. RMIT marketing lecturer Dr Kane Koh noted that teen influence won’t disappear; it will just become less visible in the data.  Minors have long created accounts with fake birthdays, meaning current “18–25” social data probably blends older users with 10–16-year-olds.  “It’s not uncommon that minors create accounts with fake birthdays,” Dr Koh told Inside Retail. “This will spill over to parents, whose purchasing behaviours will comprise their own, and their 14-year-olds bugging them to buy something for them,” he added. Retailers will need to design for co-shopping and co-decision-making – speaking to both the teen’s desire and the parent’s caution. Owning the relationship As social reach shrinks, retailers should double down on channels they fully control.  Goodhardt expects email and SMS to become “far more sophisticated” with stronger segmentation, personalisation and lifecycle mapping to make up for lost passive discovery.  Rather than relying on viral clips, brands will nurture direct relationships with households: onboarding journeys for new customers, parent-focused education on product benefits, and youth-friendly content that can be shared within families. Content itself becomes more important than ever. Helpful, search-optimised articles, buying guides, and FAQ pages that answer real questions – “best school shoes for flat feet”, “affordable gaming headsets for teens”, “acne-safe makeup for beginners” – will help retailers surface in AI and traditional search engines.  As Goodhardt pointed out, being discoverable in AI-powered environments will soon be as critical as being visible on social media was five years ago. Rethinking influencers and youth ecosystems The ban will also force brands to rethink influencer strategies. Professor Figueiredo warned that as retailers lose access to under-16 audiences, “some influencer partnerships will weaken and will need to be reassessed.”  Hype-driven campaigns built purely on teen reach will lose their edge; trust and values will matter more than follower counts. Expect a shift toward creators who speak credibly to parents, older siblings, or broader communities. At the same time, consumer spending is likely to move into “youth safe” ecosystems. Figueiredo points to platforms like YouTube Kids, controlled streaming environments, and gaming as natural beneficiaries.  These spaces allow brands to reach younger audiences in more regulated, curated contexts – via sponsorships, in-game events, or brand-safe content – while still aligning with teens’ entertainment habits. Community and experiential marketing As digital targeting becomes harder, the physical world regains power. Goodhardt predicts “a resurgence of community-driven, experiential marketing,” with retailers using activations to generate genuine word-of-mouth. From small-scale samplings to full retail takeovers, the focus will be on creating moments worth talking about – online and offline. Goodhardt pointed to Sebby’s Scrolls and Pana Organic activation from earlier this year, which generated queues around the block and huge buzz “without relying on digital ads,” as a blueprint.  As well as programs like Lululemon’s free in-store yoga and Pilates classes, show how experiences can build loyalty across age groups.  For under-16s, brands should lean into more family-friendly events, workshops, gaming nights, and pop-ups designed for parents and teens to attend together, backed by email and SMS journeys that keep those households engaged. From hype to trust Ultimately, the under-16s social media ban could mark the end of a pure hype era. But Professor Figueiredo hopes it triggers “a move from influencer-driven hype to more trust- and value-driven messaging.”  Retailers that win in this new environment will be those that: Treat parents as primary decision-makers while respecting teens as co-influencers Invest heavily in search – both traditional SEO and AI-driven discovery Build robust owned channels through smarter email, SMS and first-party data Shift budgets into youth-safe platforms, gaming ecosystems and streaming environments Create community-led, experiential campaigns that generate real-world buzz The brands that adapt fastest will discover that losing direct access to under-16s on social media doesn’t have to mean losing the youth market.  It simply means meeting them – and their parents – in new places, with a different kind of conversation. Further reading: World-first teen social media ban forces content creators to flee