When you think of influencer marketing, you typically picture brands working with a younger creator to target Gen Z (ages 13-28) or Gen Alpha (up to 12 years old). That’s not always the case. As the influencer marketing space and creator economy continues to grow, so-called silver influencers, or creators from Gen X (45-60 years old) and boomer generations (ages 61-79) are increasingly catching marketers’ attention.
Progresso Soup and Harmless Harvest, a coconut product company, are eyeing the older cohort of creators to earn some cultural cache and boost brand awareness. They’re not alone. Brands’ interest in Gen X and Boomer influencers has been on the uptick in recent years, according to previous Digiday reporting. Alaska Airlines, Mountain Dew and clean beauty brand Ilia have made similar campaigns over the past few years.
“They’re still [linear] TV watchers. But also, it’s a pretty social group,” said Maria Carolina Comings, vice president of the sweet and savory business unit at General Mills, referring to the soup brand’s 55-plus consumers. “So one of the places we went to was TikTok.”
Progresso has spent the last several months working with the Retirement House, an account with senior influencers, on TikTok and Instagram via paid partnership posts as parts of its beefed up digital marketing strategy. The Retirement House TikTok account featuring creators aged 55 and up has racked up more than 6 million followers. The account has featured partnerships with Kentucky Fried Chicken, Walmart and, of course, Progresso Soup. In addition the Retirement House, Progresso had a paid partnership in January with Patti Roberts, a 59-year-old lifestyle and beauty creator (@taskyourself on TikTok and Instagram) to promote its limited-edition, hard candy version of Progresso’s chicken noodle soup. (Progresso declined to outline media spend figures.)
Meanwhile, Harmless Harvest is in the process of inking deals with senior influencers to target Gen X and baby boomers with a new yogurt product, according to Allie O’Brien, vp of marketing at Harmless Harvest. (Harmless Harvest declined to name which influencers the brand was partnering with as contracts are still in the works.)
“[We’re] evolving the creators that we’re partnering with to make sure that our consumer sees themselves reflected in the creators that we choose to work with,” O’Brien said.
As these brands look to expand their footprint with shoppers from older generations, they’re partnering with influencers and content creators from those same generations. Notably, these generations are shifting their consumption habits, spending time watching their favorite influencers on TikTok and Instagram. At the same time, the so-called grandfluencers’ reach isn’t limited to their age demos, seemingly pulling in fans from across generations.
Meanwhile, TikTok accounts like @grandma_droniak, with 14.7 million followers, @The Old Gays, with 10.8 million followers, or @brunchwithbabs, which has 4.2 million followers, are all popular social media accounts.
It’s not just brands that recognize the trend. Agencies see it, too. Edelman last year built out the Longevity Lab, a group of 55 and up influencers across entertainment and fashion verticals to act as ambassadors to brands, according to Jackie Cooper, senior advisor and chief brand officer at Edelman. Edelman helped launch Dove’s Beauty Never Gets Old campaign last year, focused on the 55 and up demographic via insights from the Longevity Lab. “The power of the silver influencer is rising to ensure this lucrative audience sees themselves represented more often,” Cooper said in an email to Digiday.
Influencer marketing as a whole has been growing, stamped as a regular budget line item at this point. This year, influencer marketing spending in the U.S. is expected to reach $9.29 billion, per eMarketer.
With that, marketers have more options as to what type of creators they can hire to get in front of shoppers, whether that be senior influencers or creators with entire accounts dedicated to cleaning (otherwise known as #CleanTok, a TikTok hashtag for videos about cleaning, decluttering and organization).
“It’s just like traditional media,” said Ed East, founder and group CEO of influencer agency Billion Dollar Boy. “You can find a creator, who covers pretty much any topic. Any topic that anyone’s interested in, there are creators out there creating content for it.”
The trend of partnering with older creators even extends to current culture, where this year’s Michelob Ultra’s Super Bowl commercial featured actors Willem Dafoe and Catherine O’Hara. Or Little Ceasar’s spot with Eugene Levy.
None of that points to the idea that marketer’s emphasis on Gen Z, and now Gen Alpha, shoppers has subsided, per East. However, “those older creators don’t only just talk to that older demographic,” he added. “Those same stories that they’re creating talk to a younger demographic too.”
https://digiday.com/?p=571071
