Do you think the advertising industry has a problem with age now? In my experience, the majority of marketing departments are run by people under 40. Sometimes the majority, even under 30, and that's reflected in creative agencies as well. I think that's a real problem because if you look at the statistics, people over the age of 55 represent the majority of people in the UK, they have enormous buying power, lost disposable income, and often a bit more time on their hands to spend it as well.

So it's such a shame that we as an industry are neglecting a very significant part of the population. Recently that MullenLowe have released a new report called "The Invisible Powerhouse", looking at the lives of over 50s and how we can market to them better. In this episode, I speak to MullenLowe UK CEO, Jeremy Hine, about the report and what we can do to address this problem.

What we covered in this episode:

• 52 year old Jeremy introduces himself
• What inspired ‘The Invisible Powerhouse’ report on age diversity
• Why age represents the greatest disparity in Advertising representation
• How do older people feel about the way in which they are portrayed
• The business case for people ‘Feeling Seen’ in advertising
• Almost half the population are over 50 and own 70% of all assets
• Why not all over 50’s are the same
• The age people feel rather than the age they are
• What segmentation by attitude reveals
• Inspiration from the gear lever design in a Jaguar
• The dominance of youth in the ad industry
• How to brief to ensure older representation
• The importance of seeing and understanding the older generation
• Why Entertainment matters to an older audience
• Inspiration from the Magnum campaign featuring older people
• The value of spending time with older people
• What we can learn from TikTok
• The stereotypes of older people in advertising
• Taking inspiration from Top Gun
• Why women experience an even greater invisibility in advertising
• How Mullen Lowe led the Governments covid response
• How a crisis super charged creative work & collaboration
• Where to get more help on marketing to an older audience