Targeting younger audiences: Marketoon of the Week

Who gets left behind when marketers glorify youth?

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It’s no secret that as Gen Zers reach adulthood, marketers are already eyeing their successors, Generation Alpha. Where does it end? This week’s Marketoon throws a ridiculous light on the tendency to target younger and younger audiences.

Fishburne’s take: Epoch Strategy Director Alex Murrell wrote a fascinating piece a couple years ago on “The Ageism in Advertising” and the knee-jerk way that marketers obsess over younger generations. Alex cited that only 5% of advertising spend is targeted to adults aged 35-64, despite the fact that over 50s hold 80% of the wealth (in the UK), make up 60% of car sales, 58% of travel spending, 50% of health and beauty sales, and 49% of all FMCG sales.



Why we care. Marketers should never leave behind their core audience in an attempt to beat their competition to the punch. What we know about Gen Z, however, is that they influence the buying decisions and behaviors of older consumers they live with. Long before Generation Alpha gets their first job and buys their first home, they will have left their mark in the marketing world.


About the author

Chris Wood
Staff
Chris Wood draws on over 15 years of reporting experience as a B2B editor and journalist. At DMN, he served as associate editor, offering original analysis on the evolving marketing tech landscape. He has interviewed leaders in tech and policy, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins, to former Cisco CEO John Chambers, and Vivek Kundra, appointed by Barack Obama as the country's first federal CIO. He is especially interested in how new technologies, including voice and blockchain, are disrupting the marketing world as we know it. In 2019, he moderated a panel on "innovation theater" at Fintech Inn, in Vilnius. In addition to his marketing-focused reporting in industry trades like Robotics Trends, Modern Brewery Age and AdNation News, Wood has also written for KIRKUS, and contributes fiction, criticism and poetry to several leading book blogs. He studied English at Fairfield University, and was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. He lives in New York.

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