Generation Marketing

Welcome to our third special report of 2010, which investigates brands that focus their marketing on either a senior or a youth audience. A recent report by Nielsen suggests Internet users are becoming quite literally, more mature. In the year to May 2010, of almost 2 million first-time Internet users, 53% were aged over 50. And simultaneously the media has been predicting a decline in the number of teenagers as a proportion of the population. There will be 9% fewer teenagers in Britain by 2017. Nevertheless many brands chose to focus on this demographic due to their relative affluence in times of financial trouble during 2009.

And so with target audience numbers fluctuating at these opposite ends of the spectrum, we've decided to speak to brands that focus their attentions on them and across different industries. We've discussed the techniques they use for engagement of each and how these continue to change.

Marketers have spoken to us about how there is a new breed of grey consumer, digitally aware and not limited to Skype and chatting with families on Facebook. At the opposite end we've heard youth-focused brands speaking about the sensitivity of their targets to feel they're being over-marketed to. Tactics are adapting to take this into account, with more holistic marketing and communications strategies being implemented, incorporating all elements of digital, experiential and advertising.

If you're a Pearlfinders subscriber, click here to read the full report.