More than 50% of the population today is projected to reach the age of 78, a steady increase on generations past.

And that’s not all – in the next 5 decades, the UN is predicting average lifespans in America to top 88.

The upshot? The average American is living a longer life than ever before, and this steady upward curve shows no sign of slowing.

Yet, were you to survey the advertising landscape, you’d think only the young exist. We’re inundated with ads promoting glamorous lifestyles for the youthful, with older folk rarely getting a look in.

“If you took your entire view of the human race from primetime advertising alone, you’d see a society without old people. They don’t work, they don’t drink beer, they don’t drive cars. They don’t exist. [Only] about 5% of U.S. advertising is even aimed at people over 50.”

That, according to a FastCompany write-up on the topic, published in 2019.

So what’s to blame, and why is this neglect so significant? We’ll unpack it all in the article to come.

Advertising agencies are often out of touch
Advertising agencies are predominantly populated by the young. They sell to the people they know and audiences they understand. In effect? They’re selling to themselves. This is unintentionally blinkered but also very flawed, and it leaves the door open for savvy marketers willing to look beyond their social circles.

Plus, getting older doesn’t mean you stop identifying with your former youth. As a 2018 McCann study illustrates, many of us believe we’re never too old to date, or go back to school, or to start a business.

Humans are often eternal optimists, willing to shrug off societal descriptions of what they can and can’t do.

Neglecting seniors, then, is silly on a social level. But it’s also economic suicide. In the US, forecasts suggest that by 2024, 70% of disposable income will be in the hands of senior citizens.

What’s more, luxury brands like Chanel regularly cite their customer-base as one that is predominantly made up over-50s. We’re living in an age where financial power doesn’t sit with the young, but with the elderly.

When it comes to social media, Facebook is #1
If you’re marketing to seniors in the States, forget Instagram or Twitter. By far the biggest proportion of seniors use Facebook (68% aged 50-64 and 45% aged 65+) over rival platforms.

There are good reasons for this.

1. Facebook has been around the longest, meaning it’s familiar to a generation that isn’t as digitally savvy as the young.
2. Because of its enduring legacy, children and grandchildren are members of the platform as well.

For a marketer, this is good news.

For one thing, Facebook has a tremendous amount of information on each and every one of us. That’s not designed to alarm you. It’s a simple fact. In turn, Facebook’s Ads Manager is a customizable beast that lets you hone in on your chosen audience.

• Whether you’re looking to generate simple brand awareness, traffic to your site, or hard sales, Facebook caters to it all and you can enjoy real-time reporting as the ad gets viewed.
• But it’s the ability to customize your audience in precise detail that’s the real winner as you tinker with age, location and even interests.
o By honing in on seniors, you’re not only segmenting a market that’s often neglected, you’re also appealing to an audience you know uses the platform.

Our obsession with the young and beautiful is a mistake
The fitness, lifestyle and motoring industries almost overwhelmingly rely on young faces to shift product, while fashion/beauty go one step further by perpetuating impossible beauty standards.

Buck the trend and follow the example set by Covergirl (which featured 71-year-old Maye Musk) in using older models. The current trend is alienating and disrespectful to a group of people that will outnumber children in the US by the year 2035.

Old-school advertising has its place
Offline, guerrilla advertising should still form part of your strategy. Canvassing areas door to door, using flyers and burning the phones are all viable methods – providing you’re targeting seniors.

Smartphones on their own aren’t going to do it all. 2019 Pew research shows that only half of over 65s have an internet-enabled smartphone.

What’s more, seniors haven’t grown up alongside this technology, meaning they’re not necessarily using it the way you’d like. Do you think it’s probable a senior citizen is consuming as much content online as freshman in college? Not likely.

As time goes on, marketing to seniors will yield great results
That said, as the population naturally ages and we continue to live longer, retirees become more digitally savvy as well.

Don’t make the same mistake as most advertising firms. Whether you’re in the traditional advertising or doing things on a smaller scale, chances are your product has an audience amongst retirees. In the end, it’s just a matter of reaching out to them in the first place.