As a copywriter, it often seems like all I ever bloody write about is brands wanting to adjust their strategies to get their products in front of Gen Z. Sometimes I think, why? I know we are young and trendy but we don’t have as much economical capability as my friends parents do, for instance.
For example, as a 24 year old, I get my nails done once a month because that’s what I can afford. I also do my own brows, facials and wax jobs. My friend’s mum, however, is in her early 50s, earns a six figure salary, has a Soho House membership, gets her nails done every 2 weeks, infrared saunas once a week, brows and wax jobs once a month etc. She goes to the cinema more, on holidays more… Yes, she is as iconic as she sounds. Essentially she has more spending capital!
Luckily, some brands are taking note of this. Earlier this month, for example, Mountain Dew threw a party in Florida to promote its new alcoholic beverage, Hard Mountain Dew, but instead of tapping Gen Z and millennial influencers, the brand threw a party for retirees. Clean beauty brand Ilia and Alaska Airlines, to name a few, have also generated press around their work with older influencers. Influencer marketing experts and agency execs expect that, in the coming years, more brands will recognize the viability of working with older influencers.
Marketing shops have been seeing this request over the years for older influencers but there has been an increase in brands that want to leverage older influencers over the last year. Working with older influencers can help brands test whether their messaging and strategy will resonate with an older demographic, without having to create a separate creative campaign for this demographic, explained Rachelle Avila, group communications planning director at creative shop Mischief at NoFixedAddress. “Influencers are a more turnkey way to see if a message, a platform will resonate with an audience,” said Avila. “Does this work or do we need to speak to them differently?”
Appreciation for older generations has been growing not only among consumers of that generation but even Gen Z. One trend that springs to mind is where Gen Zers made up their mums in their outfits around Christmas time. Older influencers that have become popular on TikTok, like Lynn Davis (@cookingwithlynja, who has 15 million followers), Lillian Droniak (@grandma_droniak, with 8.9 million followers) and Barbara Costello (@brunchwithbabs, with 3.1 million followers), among others, have built communities of followers not only among people of their age demographic but also among the younger consumers brands are seeking to reach. “When you consider how much a person’s life stage and age inform their interests, it should be no surprise that the content they consume digitally is no exception,” said Sally Okine, SVP of digital at Publicis Groupe PR shop MS. “In the next few years as the creator economy grows and evolves, we’ll continue to see more and more creators with varying demographics including age have a seat at the table, actively contributing to brand storytelling in unique ways.”
