Age-targeting is dead

Has ultra-targeting also become more fluid ? Young boomers exist, and old millennials too… Yet our profession is struggling to evolve and briefs are still full of “mothers between 35 and 50” – the new heroine of the shopping trolley – a restrictive vision that contributes to stereotyping and discrimination. What really defines us : age or experience ?

Now we know that our targeting on consumers’ life experiences rather than age would increase effectiveness by a factor of 4. 

“That skirt, it’s not your age anymore !” addressed to a rock’n’roll Granny, is nonsense, according to this report by Kantar Media, Beyond age. By embracing this new approach, we place ourselves in a much more altruistic and efficient process – listening and observing our societies and trends, going against our internalized biases.

An example ? Baby nappies. When targeting is based on age only (25-34) in Western Europe, we see that the defined target would be 2.5 x more likely to have purchased compared to the average consumer. However, when you segment by people of all ages who have had or are in regular contact with a baby in the past year, the index then becomes 10 times higher than the average adult. 4 times more effective, therefore.

So let’s not hesitate any longer :

• Let’s get away from the traditional and oh-so-square ageist division of generations
• We remove the stigmatizing clichés that accompany them
• We blur the lines of age

And we take advantage of this to better engage, touch and stimulate ! Doing “significant marketing” is also about challenging common preconceptions and bringing innocence back into our old-fashioned ways. We need to create “safe spaces” to allow the notions of diversity and inclusion to flourish : in our strategies and targeting, we owe it to ourselves, as creators of positive, to reflect the plurality of everyone’s life experiences. 

Keep it simple. Keep it positive. Keep it open.