Entrepreneurs are polarising the longevity economy and ignoring the massive middle. In the past, whenever I mention business opportunities associated with the ageing demographic, minds immediately gravitated toward to ‘old, old’ segment. For example, assisted living, medical devices and the like. Now there’s a competitor for investment attention, companies that are seeking to discover the […]
Smart Speakers Gaining Traction Among Older Consumers
While most might think that Smart Speakers appeal only to Millennials or the young, usage has grown almost 40% among older consumers (Americans 65+) in the past year. Granted that many have received the speaker as a gift from family, but the fact is that the Smart Speaker is a product that could have been designed […]
Americas Largest Electronics Retailer Gets Serious About Older Customers
Best Buy has announced it will buy the owner of Jitterbug cell phones and medical alert devices designed for older customers. Buying GreatCall (the company behind Jitterbug) allows Best Buy to expand its customer base overnight. Best Buy is gambling that if it can attract older customers, it might be able to position itself as […]
Prudential puts words into deeds – scraps retirement age
There’s so much ‘hot air’ about the ageing population it’s good to see a company taking firm action for a change. Effective October 1st, 2018 Prudential Singapore has scrapped the statutory retirement age of 62. This gives its 1,100 employees the option to have extended careers to fulfil their personal and financial aspirations. With the lifting of the […]
It’s Time For Brands To Take Age Out Of The Equation For Older Women
Make some room millennials, the new power consumer in Britain today is an older woman. These over 50’s women outspent their younger counterparts for the first time in 2015, yet according to research conducted by JWT’s Innovation Group, 67% think advertisers only care about young people. Brands are missing out on a golden opportunity. Read […]
Starbucks Staffed Only By Older Adults
Starbucks recently opened its first cafe in Mexico City, operated by 14 employees ages 50 and older. The coffee giant aims to hire 120 seniors in Mexico by the end of 2019 as reported here by Reuters. What a terrific match of job and skills! Not physically demanding, socially engaging and flexible working hours. Perfect. If […]
Ageing adults have the second highest adoption of digital health tech
Despite having the greatest demand for healthcare services, the chronically ill older people are the least likely to leverage digital health technologies. This according to research conducted by Rock Health covering 4,000 U.S. adults. Extremely low rates of live video telemedicine use, digital health goal tracking, and wearable use might indicate an issue far larger than […]
The world’s largest advertiser accepts responsibility to tackle ageism
The man responsible for managing advertising for Procter & Gamble, one of the the worlds largest consumer products companies, has said that ‘Age’ will be next on the agenda for advertisers to address as the industry moves to unpick the stereotypes it has helped perpetuate. P&G’s chief brand officer Mark Pritchard was quoted here in […]
Steroid abuse at 60? Now that’s no stereotype!
We are getting used to seeing ageing stereotype-busters in the media and they are increasingly delightfully positive portrayals. In this blog, I’ve written about some of the darker stereotypes of ageing; ageing prisoners, the rising incidence of sexually transmitted disease in retirement homes, increasing drug abuse and suicides, but this one is new to me. It […]
Flipkart says it’s time to define life by your experiences not age
Defining life by experiences not age, is a big, powerful and uplifting idea. Having spent the bulk of my career in the advertising industry, when I see an ad that brings a big advertising idea to the ageing space, I get a thrill because it doesn’t happen often. This ad from Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart, […]
