Brent Rivard | Why Are So Many Marketers Ignoring the $8.3 Trillion Market Hiding in Plain Sight?

Summary

CMO Confidential: “Why Are So Many Marketers Ignoring the $8.3 Trillion Market Hiding in Plain Sight?”

Guest: Brent Rivard, CEO of Geezer Creative

Host: Mike Linton

Date: July 21, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into a massive, under-leveraged business opportunity: marketing to the $8.3 trillion 50-plus consumer segment. Mike Linton hosts Brent Rivard—an industry veteran and CEO of Geezer Creative—who explains why most marketers and agencies are still neglecting this powerful group, the shortcomings of current marketing practices, and how brands can better tap into mature consumers for substantial growth.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Birth of Geezer Creative and Its Unique Model

• Agency Rationale and Mission
  Brent founded Geezer Creative to address the gap in marketing tailored for the 50+ market. Unlike traditional agencies, Geezer Creative assigns creative teams from the same cohort as the target audience to ensure authentic messaging and relevance.

“We have a line on our website that says, you know, if you want to get in the mind of a 52 year old female, you probably shouldn't ask a 25 year old man.” (Brent, 02:31)

• Reverse Consumer Segmentation
  The agency practices what Mike calls “reverse consumer segmentation”—matching creators to the audience segment for relevance and immediacy in both insight and creative output.

“This is… I’m going to call it reverse consumer segmentation if that makes any sense.” (Mike, 04:18)

The Staggering Size & Value of the 50+ Market

• Market Overview
  The 50+ demographic controls $8.3 trillion in the U.S. alone and holds 70% of disposable income, yet remains neglected in most marketing conversations and strategies.

“It’s as you said at the beginning, it’s the elephant hiding in plain sight. You got an $8.3 trillion market that controls 70% of dispos income...” (Brent, 04:47)

• Misguided Focus on Youth Marketing Despite the overwhelming data, most agencies and brands over-prioritize Gen Z and Millennials, often due to outdated thinking that acquiring customers young creates lifelong loyalty—a notion both guests argue is no longer true.

“That whole lifetime value of a customer thing just, it looks great on paper. It doesn’t exist anymore. Nobody’s loyal to anything, any age group.” (Brent, 08:08)

Why Marketers Ignore the 50+ Segment

• Ageism and Agency Demographics
  The collapse of age-diverse teams in agencies—less than 5% of ad agency staff are over 50—means creative direction is overwhelmingly youthful and frequently disconnected from older consumers.

“Less than 5% of ad agencies in America employ people over 50 years old. So that’s part of the problem.” (Brent, 05:40)

• Risk Aversion & Stale Playbooks
  Marketers (and their company cultures) have gotten more risk-averse, sticking to rigid playbooks handed down from older eras, despite major shifts in consumer behavior.

“We’re still using the same playbook and nobody’s rewarding, really diverting completely from a playbook and risk taking and sticking their neck out and trying.” (Brent, 08:55)

• Systemic Biases & KPIs
  Standard KPIs (like social engagement) often fail to reflect the purchasing patterns of the 50+ segment, as their media habits differ from younger cohorts.

“The social campaign that I’m launching is rewarding engagement and shares and blah blah blah... But the 50 plus cohort, we don't consume social media that way.” (Brent, 19:55)

Who’s Getting it Right? Who’s Not?

• Some Progress in Hollywood and Luxury
  Hollywood’s evolving casting trends and luxury brands like Saint Laurent are starting to embrace older cohorts.

“Funny enough, who would have thought that Hollywood would have started to buck the trend... if you look at casting and the award shows…the luxury category…Saint Laurent is all over it.” (Brent, 10:08)

• Yet Most Categories Lag
  Travel, beauty, autos, and alcohol are all highlighted as sectors with ripe opportunity but limited focus on mature consumers, despite overwhelming evidence of their spending power.

“We sit in front of the curtain. On airplanes. Start probably marketing to the people that don't sit at the back of the plane. It's not a horrible idea.” (Brent, 13:00)

• Beauty Industry Example
  Most beauty brands keep targeting younger women, ignoring the real purchasing power of 50+ women, as Brent illustrates with a family anecdote about regular (and expensive) Sephora trips.

“The running joke in my family every Saturday is gee, are we going to Sephora by any chance? …somehow are $180 every weekend.” (Brent, 13:56)

Changing the Mindset: Practical Steps for Marketers

• Audit Your Market Reality
  Brent urges marketers to self-reflect: Are you ignoring a major market because of habit, culture, or misaligned KPIs?

“Start with the basics. What's the size of the market of that generation currently purchasing your product that you're ignoring?” (Brent, 19:30)

• Re-think KPIs Measure what really matters by focusing on sales outcomes (commerce), not just “diagnostic” metrics like shares or engagement.

“Maybe your KPI should be start with commerce.” (Brent, 20:36)

• Don’t Project Your Own Biases Each generation’s media habits differ; marketers shouldn’t judge another cohort’s response by their own standards.

“Don’t confuse your predispositions to this segment. We’re all guilty of that. I do it the other way.” (Brent, 22:59)

Ageism, Technology, and Adaptability

• Debunking Tech Stereotypes
  Gen X is described as a uniquely adaptable generation—having navigated radical technological shifts from beepers to AI.

“Gen X arguably is the most adaptable generation in the history of the planet... We didn’t... use AI to get an answer. We use AI... to get to a better one.” (Brent, 16:25)

The Cost of Inertia: Missing Out on Fun, Competitive Advantage, and Growth

• Lost Opportunity
  The episode’s underlying warning: sticking with business as usual is “marketing malpractice.” Brands risk losing market share and missing out on exciting, innovative moves.

“It’s becoming like marketing malpractice... I’m not seeing a lot of fun out there. Not seeing, 'Oh my God, did you see that move that company X just pulled?'” (Brent, 27:11)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “If you want to get in the mind of a 52 year old female, you probably shouldn’t ask a 25 year old man.”
  (Brent, 02:31)

• “The elephant hiding in plain sight…$8.3 trillion market that controls 70% of disposable income.”
  (Brent, 04:47)

• “Nobody’s loyal to anything, any age group.”
  (Brent, 08:08)

• “How many meetings have you been in when literally a marketing team will be defending themselves going, ‘Well, I mean, hey, we hit this number, this number, this number.’”
  (Brent, 20:58)

• “Maybe your KPI should be start with commerce.”
  (Brent, 20:36)

• “Gen X arguably is the most adaptable generation in the history of the planet…”
  (Brent, 16:25)

• “It’s becoming like marketing malpractice…”
  (Brent, 27:11)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Introduction & Context — 00:32-02:02
• Geezer Creative’s Mission & Reverse Segmentation — 02:02-04:47
• Market Size & the $8.3 Trillion Opportunity — 04:47-05:59
• Why Marketers Ignore this Segment (Ageism, Playbooks, Culture) — 05:40-08:55
• Disproving Lifetime Value & Loyalty Myths — 08:08-08:55
• Who’s Bucking the Trend: Hollywood & Luxury — 10:08-10:57
• Missed Opportunities: Autos, Travel, Beauty, Alcohol — 13:00-14:34, 25:41-26:53
• How to Audit Your Brand’s 50+ Opportunity — 19:30-22:33
• KPIs: Commerce vs. Engagement — 19:55-20:46
• Ageism in Tech Adoption & Generational Adaptability — 16:25-17:28
• Advice for Marketers & Brands — 29:34-31:23
• Agency Best Practices & Relationship-Building — 32:05-33:21

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Practical Advice & Closing Guidance

• Challenge Your Playbook
  Stop assuming old tactics will yield new growth. Test new strategies targeted at the 50+ segment; in today’s digital world, doing so doesn’t require massive investment.

• Rethink How You Hire and Brief Agencies
  Brent advises scrapping drawn-out RFPs and instead focusing on real conversations and workshop-like sessions to find agency partners that feel right on both strategy and chemistry.

“Get them in a room for a day, two half days…Talk about your business problems, talk about the opportunities…If the lead person...is an egomaniac...leave.” (Brent, 32:28)

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TL;DR Takeaway

Marketing to the 50+ segment isn’t just a “nice to have”—it’s a massive, quantifiable, and currently neglected revenue opportunity. Marketers need to break free from youth-obsessed playbooks, critically assess their metrics, and actively challenge their company cultures and agency relationships to unlock this “elephant in plain sight.” As Brent concludes: “Get curious again as a marketer, question everything, and look for new growth.” (30:10)

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Listen if…

You’re a marketer, agency leader, or business executive who wants to drive measurable growth—and are ready to question old assumptions about who your next big customer might be.

Transcript

[A]

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Ready to give your brand a voice

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then visit iheareverything.com welcome to CMO Confidential, the podcast that takes you inside the

[A]

drama, decisions and choices that go with

[B]

being the head of marketing.

[A]

Hosted by five time CMO Mike Linton. Welcome marketers, advertisers and those who love them. The Chief Marketing Officer, Confidential. CMO Confidential is a program that takes you inside the drama, the decisions and the politics that go with being the head of marketing at any company in what is one of the most scrutinized jobs in the executive suite. I'm Mike Linton, the former CMO of Best Buy, ebay, Farmers Insurance and Ancestry.com here today with my guest and Brent Rivard. Today's topic, why are so many marketers ignoring the $8.3 trillion market hiding in plain sight? Now? Brent is the CEO of Geezer Creative, a purpose built creative agency focused on the 50 plus market. Previously, it served as CMO of InterNova Travel, the President of Mass Minority, and the global Managing Director of Anomaly. He's here today to talk about the opportunity presented by the older consumers and why he believes much of the marketing thinking on age is not just wrong, but completely wrong. Welcome, Brent. Thanks.

[B]

It's quite the introduction, Mike. Thank you.

[A]

There you go.

[B]

Well, great to be here.

[A]

I've had a lot of practice.

[B]

Yeah, nice. Yeah, you've done this before.

[A]

All right, so let's start with Geezer. Tell our listeners about the agency and why it was critical created even in the first place.

[B]

It's great. I mean, like you said in the intro, I left the creative world and went to be the CMO and see the world from the other side. So I have a lot of empathy for what CMOs go through and what the opportunities are that they're facing and challenges that they're facing. And then I wanted to come back to the creative world. I got a little hung up on the bureaucracy of being client side and had a real inkling and craving to get back to the creative side. But I didn't want to do it. And the industry had shifted so significantly that I didn't want to do it just as I had before. And I mean, as the world's changed, CMOs challenges have become really finite and their business challenges are different than they were 20 years ago. When a Super bowl ad could cure all. Doesn't work anymore. And what I realized and my creative partners realized is that we were still operating most agencies, you know, 90 some percent of them are generalists trying to figure out very specialized problems. And I found that fascinating that, you know, we have a line on our website that says, you know, if you want to get in the mind of a 52 year old female, you probably shouldn't ask a 25 year old man. And you know, that's kind of a starting point that, you know, why don't we create an agency that is getting after the segment of the market is the largest disposable income that marketers are ignoring. So if my bet's right, it's that they're going to start not ignoring it and we're seeing some great momentum that way. And in order to do so, to alleviate some of the pain points of being a client, which I had experienced, we've decided to employ creative teams that are from that same cohort. Because I don't want to go five rounds of creative so that my junior teams can learn what business you're even in. Right. So yeah.

[A]

Or what it's like to be a little older. You could just ask me. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So if I, if I, if I want to take on a beauty client focused on 55 year old postmenopausal women, I'm going to assign a creative team that are 55 year old postmenopausal women. Like what a novel idea this is.

[A]

Segmenting of the agency. The agency delivery actually itself.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

Like, like, like this is, I'm going to call it reverse consumer segmentation if that makes any sense. Which I'm going to go to the people that do this. And one of the things inherent in your entire creation of this is the older population is a way to make your marketing numbers for a lot of companies if only you would treat them as a customer segment versus too old to do anything. Is that, is that right? Am I looking at that the right way?

[B]

Yeah, it's as you said at the beginning, it's the elephant hiding in plain sight. You got an $8.3 trillion market that controls 70% of dispos income and worse.

[A]

This is just the U.S. right?

[B]

This is just the United States.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And, and we're wanting to still market to Gen Z and, and chase the shiny young object like it's 1990 where there was, you know, if we can get them when they're young, they'll be a customer for life. Well, that one that went out the window.

[A]

And why is that? Like, because 8.3 trillion is a lot to ignore. Yeah, you know, it is kind of. We've had a bunch of guests on the show that have said, hey look, the biggest purchasing power group is this over 50 and over 60 and they're going to transfer this money sometime, but they're not in a real big hurry to actually transfer it down. And they are still buying a lot of. Why are people not paying attention to it?

[B]

You know what? I think it's, it's, it's a hundred factors. One, we've, we've, I mean, ageism is part of the problem, right? A lot of, you know, the 50 plus executives have left the building, especially at ad agencies. Less than 5% of ad agencies in America employ people over 50 years old. So that's part of the problem. So if I'm a creative team and I'm 28 years old, I want to create 28 year old solutions, right? That's my cohort and there's nothing wrong with that. You're going to be using your vernacular, your language, your aspirations and putting your, your life length lens on that. And, and that's part of the problem. So the, you know, as I call it, the juniorification of the ad business is part of the problem. The, the marketers, I mean if you're a 35 year old marketer and you're taking on a brand and you're an alcohol brand, you want to market to your people, it just is what it is. And you, and the third thing I'd say, and there's a long list but just focusing on the three, is that people aren't taking risks anymore. It's funny, I'm Canadian and I used to admire Americans for just that. Like, nothing's impossible, let's break the rules. Sticking your head above the clouds was how you got famous. That's how you got promoted. And here we were in Canada and I, I really never loved the conservative kind of nature of Canadians. And you know, it was like, well,

[A]

am I supposed to say I'm sorry all the time too?

[B]

Exactly. Right.

[A]

Sorry.

[B]

So, so I always love that. But I'll be honest. In the past, you know, decade and a half, I've watched America become more Canadian, you know, every day. And people don't want to stick their head above the clouds.

[A]

So wait, I, you know, one of the things is you look at a lot of CMOs today and a lot of them have come up through the, you know, performance marketing ranks where data is the dominant thing. If I look at the older market the senior market, whatever you want to call it, gray market, As a standalone TAM 8.3 trillion is a really big number. How is it that this doesn't show up on my spreadsheet, especially when I'm selling something that is not youthful driven? And how much does, when I look at this tam, how much does lifetime value come into play? Because the TAM number alone is just so big.

[B]

But that whole lifetime value of a customer thing just, it looks great on paper. It doesn't exist anymore. Nobody's loyal to anything, any age group. People are still talking about Gen Z's loyalty versus Millennials versus Boomers versus Gen X. None of us are loyal anymore. We move and shake everywhere, right? Like where did on running come from? Like they've been around for like 27 years and I'd never heard of them. But all of a sudden everything's on running and it's. Everything's aloe. Like how did Lululemon get beat up overnight? Like they were the darling of the stock market for two decades? Right? Because people aren't loyal anymore. Right. That you need to market to people and you need to grab that cohort and get them involved and look at the brands that have lost their way. Like Victoria's Secret lost their way. Right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So, but I think a lot of it, you know, to that final reason is that it's just habitual. We still using the same playbook and nobody's rewarding, really diverting completely from a playbook and risk taking and sticking their neck out and trying. And that's all that. I think that that's my main message to marketers is by no means am I saying bail on Gen Z and millennial marketing in favor of Gen X. What I am saying is it's a monster market that if you are in a category that is attractive to them, why not run a test with some reasonable money to figure out that you may be onto the next greatest way of blowing your numbers out the water.

[A]

And is this an easier market to take? Because when I look at also how media is pricing everybody and the, the what everybody values in media. And it's not just the marketers. It's the media companies are, are working to deliver, you know, shows that drive youth and everything else and, and so shows that drive social. How much of this is you just have to actually buck the trend. And how do you buck the trend? And give me some examples of companies that are bucking the trend.

[B]

Well, there aren't any great ones right now, save for, funny enough, who would have thought that Hollywood would have started to buck the trend. I would have assumed they'd be last to the party. But if you look at casting and the, and the award shows over the past few years, Hollywood's actually getting ahead of it. Right. And we're celebrating that older cohort and really, really leaning into it. Then you have luxury, right? So the luxury category, you're hard pressed to find somebody under 60 that, you know, Saint Laurent is all over it. And a lot of the luxury brands are starting to really pay attention to this cohort. But that aside, I don't see anybody that's really confidently carving out a segment and saying I'm consciously going after Gen X as a cohort with our product and getting after it.

[A]

And how about like why to me it feels like autos and an awful lot of people that, you know, if I have money and I, I, I like the convenience of what money buys for me, that this market is just sitting there for me to take. If I design a product and I've designed a bunch of products for all kinds of different like segments. Are you saying that I can go after this from a, both a product standpoint and also a channel perspective?

[B]

100%. Right. If you think of the health club business, if, God, the longevity business is like just exploded, right? You know, so they're starting to pay attention. They get it, you know, oh, Gen X and boomers want to live forever and they're spending copious amounts of money on their, on their health and well being. So health clubs need to start paying attention. Yeah, we aren't the 50 year olds of our parents generation. I mean it's funny, somebody posted, I can't even remember where it was on Instagram that it was like, this is a picture of so and so at 35 and then here's a picture of a 35 year old today that's basically like dancing on TikTok. This person's, you know, you know, mature for the, like, we're just not the 50 year olds. Like we're filling up when I'm in my gym in my building, right? We're, we're filling up gyms, we're working out. We're still training like we were in our 20s. We still, we still buy.

[A]

We're not going to let go, right?

[B]

No, we're, we're still and like I said, like Lululemon, right? Great idea. There are a whole bunch of 50 year olds doing yoga, right?

[A]

Oh, so give me an example of brands that should do this but don't like you already Put Lulu on the table. I guess when you look at on, you can say maybe Nike should have been paying more attention to the older consumer. Give us some other brands that should think older. But don't. You know, I was on Ancestry and that was definitely. We were targeting older, you know, 45 and up all the time.

[B]

I mean my previous life travel. Right. We don't do five thousand dollar vacations. Right. Multiply that number by four. We sit in front of the curtain. Yeah. On airplanes. Start probably marketing to the people that don't sit at the back of the plane. Right. It's not a horrible idea. I'm not saying that everybody that's 50 plus is wealthy. That's a, that's, that's too. But you know, there's opportunity where we're traveling a lot and we're enjoying like the beauty category. I mean I was speaking to a particular beauty company and doing just some, you know, just desktop research and me going, it's not even Gen Z. You're marketing to women with allowances. Like, how about you pay attention to my wife? Right. Yeah. The amount of money spent, like the running joke in my family every Saturday is gee, are we going to Sephora by any chance? Like I pick up a couple of things that somehow are $180 every weekend.

[A]

Right. So is this because I'm sitting there in the marketing job and I might be a little on the younger side and I have a playbook. Like is this all about the playbook or is it all about the culture in the company that says you can't break the playbook or is it all about the. I don't even want to hear that just because we will get them anyways. That's one thing people will say is we will get them anyways. And how, how do I assess whether I should push on this and whether my. It's my playbook, my culture or my company that's in the way?

[B]

Yeah. I think it's a little bit of all the above. Right. I mean if you think of the playbook that's existed the same and you're, you know, like I was saying, the world's becoming a little more risk averse and sticking your head above the clouds hasn't become as popular as it used to be. So do I balk at the playbook and really try to shake it up as a young marketer or do I just, I'm kind of happy to have my job in the world of AI and the, the headlines of taking everything over and maybe I should Just stick to the playbook. But it is absolutely company culture. I mean, you know, once upon a time, I've worked for some great companies that had incredible cultures around. You know, nothing's impossible like, push, push, push. And those are great cultures that if you have that culture with a tried and true playbook. Yeah, probably if you wanted to break the rules, you could. But if you have that culture, you probably don't have a stringent rule book. And it's the way we're bringing up marketers, like, you know, the people of Procter and Gamble and the unilevers of the world, and, hey, they've come up with great systems for developing marketers, and this is how we do it. And we test our ads and we do animatics, and, hey, it's worked for them. I can't. I can't criticize them. But at what point does that become detrimental to your business's health in discovering new growth in a world that you should be discovering new growth in all the time?

[A]

And how much of this is ageism where I say, look, I mean, if you look at all the technology that's roared into the marketplace, whether it was mobile, digital, social, whatever, where everyone immediately thought this is a young person's game, it turns out that it's everybody's game. But there's that inherent bias that old people just don't get it.

[B]

Right?

[A]

Which is, how do you fight that and how do you prove that it's not the issue?

[B]

Well, I mean, I. I had a great debate with a couple young people at one point that I said, Gen X arguably is the most adaptable generation in the history of the planet. I mean, think of what we went through. I mean, we went from beepers to cell phones, to Palm trios to BlackBerries to iPhones, to iPhone being a real smartphone, to cameras. Like, that's just that piece of tech. We went through the inception, there was no Internet, right? We went through Internet 1.0, 2.0, 2 point, whatever the hell it became, 3.0. So that when people are like, oh, I don't know about your generation and AI, I'm like, what are you talking about? About, we're the best generation for AI. 1. We grew up prompting people, right? So AI is only good as the person prompting it, right? We grew up prompting people. We grew up saying, so what? In strategy sessions. And how do you get to meaning out of that? We didn't. Our generation doesn't use AI to get an answer. We use AI. Or I use AI to get to a Better one.

[A]

Yeah, like, hey, so we've done a bunch of shows and the implication in some of your comments is that many leaders, marketing leaders in particular, know they should do this, but they just won't do it. We did a show called the Truth behind the curtain and B2B marketing in particular, where, you know, the guest basically said, I like 60% of marketers know they should do something different, but they're not going to. Right? What's your take on that?

[B]

And they're afraid.

[A]

They're afraid. But like, are they, they're afraid that they will get shot for trying a new thing or they are afraid. They're just afraid that they don't really believe the answer.

[B]

I think they're afraid.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I think that if you're a studied or they're just a piss poor marketer, I'll just call it what it is. Like if, if you're a good marketer, the qualities of a great marketer, maybe that's being ignored in the hiring process. Right? You should be genuinely researching your segment, your growth opportunities. You should be dialed in. You should be questioning everything. You should be searching for growth, you should be questioning everything that you've, that your company has ever done and looking for new opportunities. But if we're hiring people that are just, you know, hey, they stick to the systems and they don't stick their neck out that much and they don't rattle the cage, then you're getting what you deserve.

[A]

Right? So, so give me our listeners, like when they go home and look in the mirror after listening this show, how they might actually take a look on whether the boomer millennial market might be right for them. Like, like I, I always want our listeners to say, all right, am I the blocker or am I the problem? And how do I know? Because there's probably not a bunch of people going out there. I'm ignoring this market on purpose. I should look at myself in the mirror and ask myself what?

[B]

Start with the basics. What's the size of the market of that generation currently purchasing your product that you're ignoring?

[A]

Right.

[B]

Or what's the percentage of a competitors that you could actually steal share from that are in that? And then I think you have to question what your KPIs are because I think that's what leads us down the wrong path a lot. Right.

[A]

Give me an example of good KPIs and bad KPIs.

[B]

Well, if, sorry, if you're saying, well, let me dream something up. Okay, so the social campaign that I'm Launching is rewarding engagement and shares and blah blah blah and blah blah, blah. But the 50 plus cohort, we don't consume social media that way, right? We look at it, we check it out. We're not the ones that are sitting, commenting and massive back and forth engagement with the brand. Like we don't do that. So you might, your KPI might be like, no, but we, we did something in social against 50 year olds, but engagement wasn't the numbers that we're supposed to do for our KPIs. Maybe your KPIs wrong because that cohort doesn't do that.

[A]

Right?

[B]

And maybe your KPI should be start with commerce.

[A]

And when you say commerce, you're talking sales.

[B]

Exactly

[A]

like all the other marketing diagnostics, like shares or likes or anything. They're diagnostics, they're not actually an outcome. The outcome has to be sales.

[B]

How many meetings have you been in when literally a marketing team will be defending themselves going, well, I mean, hey, we hit this number, this number, this number. But well, I did it.

[A]

But this says marketers. Here's what I hear you saying, correct me if I'm wrong, if you really want to pay attention to this market, you should look at what it could buy, not what it can do.

[B]

Correct.

[A]

With the media you give it right. And then you should figure out how to get it to buy more. And that may be if you're not measuring it the right way, you may be ignoring the fact that you haven't figured out how it buys stuff, but it wants to. Right?

[B]

And question that you might not know and get curious. Because if I'm a 30 year old marketer and I'm like, well, why the. I don't understand, why wouldn't a 52 year old male be engaging with this incredible social campaign just like a 30 year old. Great. Ask the question. Then you might find the answer as oh, that's either the wrong KPI or that's not how I'm going to win them as a client.

[A]

Right?

[B]

That might be how you're going to build awareness with them, but they're not going to click through and buy like you know, like think of the difference between, you know, I think Gen X is, is, is healthy when it comes to purchasing things via Instagram or social channels. But, but maybe a 68 year old isn't. So if you were going to the boomer segment, you might not be driving. Like it's just basics like follow the behavior of the cohort and learn, go to school.

[A]

But inherent in this is what you are saying is you should take a look at this market as a purchasing segment versus

[B]

a

[A]

media segment.

[B]

Yes. 100 and.

[A]

And that means you should, you should go find the data that allow you to understand how it buys stuff.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Not. Not how it engages with media. And, and I hear you saying, correct me if I'm wrong, don't confuse the media with the sales.

[B]

Exactly. And also don't confuse your. Your. Don't confuse your predispositions to this segment. And that's that. We're all guilty of that. Right. I do it the other way.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Oh, young people. They should. That's. I'm.

[A]

Those young people.

[B]

God damn them. The. The.

[A]

How about, you know, there's a whole bunch of people, there's an inbred buy or internal bias almost always that you have to cast younger spokespeople. You have to show up in younger media because even if your brand appeals to older people, you don't want to give it the halo of old.

[B]

Right. It's the old adage. Right. You can, you can sell an old guy, young guy's car, but you can't do the opposite.

[A]

Exactly.

[B]

Like, we're in a world where now you can do the opposite.

[A]

It. Right.

[B]

Like Demi Moore, you know, she's like, she's lighting it up. And you have a lot of young women aspiring now to that notion. And you have.

[A]

Wait, tell us about. Not everybody has followed Demi Moore like you, so tell us what Demi Moore is doing.

[B]

Well, just, I mean, her, her whole like, like unapologetic way of aging. And stop telling me about anti aging and Pam Anderson taking her makeup off and saying, I don't wear it anymore. Like, I went from Baywatch to a confident woman in her own skin that's taking ownership of her aging process and enjoying it. Right. And you have women online that are getting, you know, the trolls would come out and start, oh, my God, she looks so old. And they're, they're punching back and going, we're super proud of it. Like, this trend is amazing for young women because we all know what's happened with young women being mistreated and, you know, unfairly marketed to with. Just ask people that were just aspirations that are unachievable. Yeah, unachievable.

[A]

So the other thing, inheritedness maybe is in the age of AI, where I can produce and send content to everybody. Are you also saying that there is a lot less holding you back than there might have been 20 years ago where, you know, I have to shoot all these commercials or I have to do this and now I can create a bunch of content I can market to different segments. Is it?

[B]

Yeah. And it's so specialized. I mean it's, it's, I mean just a meta platform. I mean we love to hate meta but at the end of the day if you want to target a 56 year old man that's balding, it's pretty easy. So. But it's just about wanting to.

[A]

We're not selling your hair care products, right? Yeah.

[B]

Like it blows me away that Gen X. I don't know if it's combined with Boomers. I think it might be Gen X and boomers outspend Gen Z 8 to 1 in alcohol sales. Yeah. But every brief from an alcohol company I know this for a fact because I still hang out with a lot of them. It says 25.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But sorry, you're going to. It's one thing back to have been marketing me when I was 25.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now you're trying to take a generation that is Right. Not drinking at all and doesn't want to and is, you know, is smoking instead of, you know, vaping and, and consuming cannabis and mushrooms instead of drinking, you're saying that you're going to convert them to drinking.

[A]

Yeah. You're going to convert.

[B]

I have an idea. Market to me. Market to me.

[A]

Yeah. Sell me your bourbon. I'm ready.

[B]

When I end my day, I have a choice of a cocktail and you're not marketing to me. So you know what? I'm ignoring you.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And you have. And then you have what? What is what, what on. I won't even pick on a particular company. But alcohol companies in the last four years their stock prices are down approximately 40 to 45.

[A]

Oh yeah.

[B]

I have a great idea. Try something new.

[A]

So this, how about this hall of fame best and worst marketing practices you're seeing across this segment today, doing the

[B]

same thing you did yesterday. Right. I mean it's just, it's becoming like, it's becoming like marketing malpractice. Like it's, it's and it's, it's starting to become, it's not fun.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Like I'm not seeing a lot of fun out there. I'm not seeing a lot of like oh my God, did you see that move that company X just pulled?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Like back in the day marketing was like War games, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

If you have ever read the book, it's Canadian but it's called Loggerheads and it was about the epic battles between Molson and labat back in the heyday. Of marketing and advertising. And the greatest story in the book was that I think it was. I can't remember which it was but Labat had come out with a twist top. It was Labat because it was for Bud Light, I think. And they kept it so under top secret. And at the time Miller Genuine Draft, which was owned by Molson, was the clear bottle like the Corona. So they, Labat actually shot a Super bowl ad about a clear bottle and purposely leaked it like to somebody that found it. And they're like, oh my God, they're coming after us. So we're going to do an MGD ad that is going to be this, this, this, this and this. And they caught Molson exactly where they wanted them and they released their super bowl ad and it's the twist off cap. And they had a two year head start and drove something like 40% market share flip. Like just astronomical numbers. These are great marketing stories.

[A]

And MGD is Molson gold. Is that what it is?

[B]

What's that? No. Miller Genuine Draft.

[A]

Miller Genuine Draft. Okay.

[B]

And it said the rights to that was, was from Molson. So. But there's these great stories of just marketing moves and I haven't, I haven't heard anything.

[A]

And also there's something in there that you just said. It wasn't just marketing. It was also product Design and development. 100 and. And also when you think a twist off cap changes the game, but it actually did, stuff like that did change the game. Any last tips you would give people before we get to our traditional last question? When they look in the mirror and say, am I getting all I can from this market other than the math and the, you know, give it a shot.

[B]

They start by asking the question you just asked. Am I getting enough from this market? Am I missing out on growth? That's your.

[A]

If I'm a regular brand, like I'm not, I'm not like targeted to kids or I'm not diapers or something. Should I say I should always have my at least fair share of this market?

[B]

100%. I mean start with are you paying any attention to it? Is it your market? It's not for everybody. I don't know that I'd. Would I? No, I don't think I'd be saying to monster energy drink. I really think you should launch something to baby boomers. Like I don't think that's.

[A]

I don't think. Yeah, the baby boomer Red Bull shot.

[B]

It's not for everybody. I'm not saying that every category but for the Vast majority of. There's monster opportunity in this segment. They have a ton of disposable income and get curious again as a marketer, like do like it's, it's like, it's like marketers don't. They're afraid to be marketers. Again, like just question everything and just look at it. And in this day and age, back in our day, you would have had to have spent millions and millions and millions of dollars to get the answer to this question. You would have, you could probably spend thousands if that and get the answer to the question. Right. Just figure that out on, on various platforms that are highly efficient and high. But you know, we're probably not the only agency that's specializing in the 50 plus market. So yeah, absolutely. I'd love you to call me at Geezer Creative. But if there's somebody else out there, just hire somebody specialized. It's not rockets. I didn't invent this. Like remember like 20 years ago somebody was like I'm going to have a female only agency. Incredible idea. Or I'm going to have an Hispanic agency in the United States. Wow, what a novel idea to hire somebody that's Hispanic to go after an Hispanic market. They might know the insights better than I.

[A]

All right, well so giddy up. $8.3 trillion market waiting for you. Which to our traditional last question, funniest story you can share on the air or practical advice we haven't talked about yet. You can pick one or both of those, but you must pick at least one.

[B]

Pick at least one what?

[A]

At least one of those two questions. Practical advice we haven't discussed yet or funniest story you can share on the air.

[B]

Oh God, I don't know. I mean, I wish I had a funny story. I wish I could have prepped for this. Funny stories. I got nothing off the top of my head. I'm sorry.

[A]

Okay, then you got to go to the practical advice column.

[B]

I mean I'll, I'll just repeat the practical advice.

[A]

Practical advice for those interfacing with agencies that are working on this segment. Like what is the best advice you can give your, your potential client base for engaging an agency of your type?

[B]

Of, of, of Any. So I'll even go to any.

[A]

Okay, any type.

[B]

We're still doing talking about the age old. Like we're still like sending out RFPs that are 73 pages from clients and like pitching like what?

[A]

Right.

[B]

At the end of the day there's no shortage of talent in any country in the creative space. Hire people you want to work with, right? Don't, don't, don't run a pitch. Get them in a room for a day, two half days, right? Do jam sessions, do some working sessions. Talk about your business problems, talk about the opportunities that you think are there, and listen and interact with these people. If the lead person that you're going to be dealing with in a room is an egomaniac and they kind of rub you the wrong way, I have a great idea. Leave. And if you're really loving that company, but you haven't really even heard of them before, give them a shot, right? Give them a shot. They might just be able to deliver something fantastic for you.

[A]

All right? I think that's a great way to end the show. Thank you, Brent.

[B]

Awesome.

[A]

Thanks to everyone for listening to CMO Confidential. If you are enjoying the show, please like share and subscribe. You can find all of our more than 170 episodes on Apple, YouTube and Spotify, which include the AI Marketing Battle, a View from the Front Lines, the unit economics of AI. Can LLMs actually make money? Colonel Mustard in the study with the job Spec, how poor design Shortens CMO Lifespans, and managing the geopolitical landscape. Hey, all you marketers stay safe out there. This is Mike Linton signing off for CMO Confidential.