The over-55s are a substantial market for brands across fashion, travel, finance, home, care and beyond. Yet age alone reveals little about what people actually want and how to reach them. In Age of Opportunity, a week-long series with Leeds agency HUB, Prolific North explores how brands can better understand this key audience.
Older customers are central to markets far beyond products designed specifically for later life. Research by the International Longevity Centre found that households headed by someone aged 50 or over accounted for 54% of UK consumer spending, excluding housing costs, in 2018.
But “over 55” describes decades of different lives. Someone may still be working or have been retired for years. Their spending decisions may reflect changing circumstances, longstanding interests or ambitions they finally have time to pursue.
Research published by the Advertising Standards Authority in 2025 found that many older people felt invisible in mainstream advertising or reduced to familiar stereotypes.
Debbie Marshall recognised the problem in her own postbox. When she turned 50, marketing began arriving that seemed to assume she was ready for a different kind of life. By 60, the offers had shifted towards retirement homes.
“Not ready to move into a little village just yet,” the Silver Marketing Association founder told the Age of Opportunity roundtable at Bill’s in Leeds.
Debbie described how database-driven marketing can treat a birthday as evidence that someone is ready for a particular purchase. But her experience exposed the gap between knowing a customer’s age and understanding their circumstances.
THREE QUESTIONS BEYOND AGE
HUB suggests that a more useful picture of a customer begins with their circumstances. Have they recently retired or are they still working? Are they looking for adventure, more comfort at home, or help with a particular task? What do they want to continue doing?
Two people of the same age may give very different answers. Equally, people decades apart may be drawn to the same product for similar reasons.
Hosted by Prolific North in partnership with full service marketing agency HUB, the roundtable brought together representatives from clothing brand Damart, Yorkshire Building Society, Great Rail Journeys, Acklams Holidays, Complete Care Shop, Senior Stairlifts and Woodlands Home & Garden Group, alongside model and age representation campaigner Annie Stirk.
The discussion opens a week of editorial exploring how brands can better understand, represent and build trust with the 55+ audience, drawing on the roundtable and practical insights from HUB’s portfolio of work in this area.
The customer beyond the database
Great Rail Journeys head of marketing Sarah Fussey described meeting an 88-year-old customer at a recent breakfast event. He had arrived from a yoga class, full of energy.
His age in a database could have encouraged assumptions about the holidays he would consider but meeting him gave Sarah a completely different picture.
She also described an audience with considerable experience of choosing products and assessing businesses.
“They know what good looks like, what quality looks like,” she said.
That experience has implications for brands. Customers may have a clear idea of what they want to spend and what they expect in return. In travel, Sarah said, the care provided by a tour manager or coach driver can make a significant difference to the holiday. Communicating that care is part of the marketing challenge.
Annie, who is in her 70s, brought her own experience of being on the receiving end of campaigns.
Earlier this year, she went to her first coffee rave after an early Pilates class. She described the pleasure of finding herself in a lively, welcoming setting, surrounded by music and people of different ages.
“We want to feel included,” she said. “We don’t want to be left at the door. We want to be at your party.”
Her account reflected a life that encompasses family responsibilities and a continuing appetite for fun. Neither disappears because someone enters a new age bracket.
When circumstances change
Changes in health or confidence can affect what someone needs without changing how they see themselves.
Venessa Hodgson, managing director of online mobility retailer Complete Care Shop, described the importance of showing the independence its products can offer. At Senior Stairlifts, head of web and online Tom Richardson spoke about helping customers remain in the homes where they raised their families.
Those purchases carry emotional significance that a demographic profile cannot capture. The product may address a practical difficulty while helping someone protect an important part of their life.
CASE STUDY: JORVIK TRICYCLES
Jorvik Tricycles’ founder James Walker set out to find a suitable trike for his father following a Parkinson’s diagnosis. James told The Silver Times that while many customers are over 55, the age label does little to explain why they buy.
He described customers looking for exercise, confidence, independence, adventure and fun. The trikes may meet a mobility need, but Jorvik presents them as desirable products for people of all ages and capabilities who want to keep riding. Its example shows how much a brand can miss if it understands a customer only through the difficulty its product helps solve.
HUB has explored these questions in The Silver Times, its publication for marketers working with older audiences. It examines the limitations of treating people decades apart as a single market and the importance of understanding what motivates a purchase.
The roundtable showed how those differences affect businesses in practice. Damart’s customers challenged its choices of models. Travel customers surprised marketers with their interests. Buyers of mobility products could be reluctant to accept help even when it would make everyday life easier.
Earning the purchase
Understanding this audience also means recognising how carefully customers may assess a brand.
Lauren Pyrah, brand strategy manager at Yorkshire Building Society, said older customers can be more digitally confident than marketers often expect. They research businesses and look for evidence that the experience will match the promise.
Ofcom’s Online Nation 2025 report found that UK internet users aged 65 and over spent an average of three hours and 20 minutes online each day, underlining the importance of digital channels in reaching this audience.
At Woodlands Home & Garden Group, which makes Tiger garden buildings, customers may combine online research with a brochure, a visit to a show site or a phone conversation about their order.
CAN THE CUSTOMER USE WHAT YOU’VE MADE?
HUB’s The Silver Times makes the case for checking the experience as well as the message. Can someone read the printed material comfortably? Is text clear against its background? Are buttons easy to tap and information easy to find online? Can they open the packaging?
Those questions matter to customers of many ages. A compelling campaign has limited value if people struggle to act on it.
Across the discussion, direct contact with customers repeatedly challenged assumptions. Focus groups, customer events and conversations revealed interests and concerns that age alone could not explain.
For brands, that makes the quality of their audience understanding a commercial issue. A campaign built around an assumed version of later life risks overlooking what customers are ready to buy and what would persuade them.
Tomorrow, Age of Opportunity examines authentic age representation, beginning with Damart’s experience of an advert whose older models divided opinion among the customers it hoped to reach.
