OK Boomer, What’s Next? Rethinking Generational Marketing Myths

For years, marketers have sliced the world into neat generational boxes: boomers, gen X, millennials, gen Z. Each with its tidy list of traits – cynical, loyal, authentic, avocado-obsessed.

But culture rarely plays by such clean rules. With technology, media and identities shifting faster than ever, are these buckets still helpful or just lazy clichés that flatten real people?

For Sophie Kitchen, senior strategist at 160over90, the lesson is simple: “Brands hit the jackpot when their messaging, values, campaigns, or products fall into the hands of cultural obsessives. These consumers remix and expand original material, bringing new audiences into the fold.”

If algorithms are already interest-first, why are so many audience decks still birth-year-first?

Across interviews with strategists, planners and researchers, a pattern emerges. Generational labels are a blunt starting point. Today’s effective segmentation blends life stage, identity and mindsets, fandoms and micro-communities, with generation kept as a light layer for context, not the organising principle.

“Social has democratised access to content,” says Maihri Gill, strategy director at Born Social. “The shift from social graph to interest graph in our algorithms has transformed our feeds completely, showing us content that caters to our interests and engagement patterns, instead of our demographic checklist and our circle of friends.”

The Case Against Birth Years

​Nick Myers, chief strategy officer at OLIVER, leans on a compare-and-contrast: King Charles and the late Ozzy Osbourne, who were born months apart, but couldn’t be further apart in codes, behaviours and culture. “They can help us understand something, but don’t reveal everything, and we should be wary of falling into the trap of stereotyping,” says Nick. The real picture emerges when you overlay data: WHO someone is (profile), WHAT they do (behaviour) and WHY they do it (attitudes). “It ensures we don’t mix up our Ozzys with our Charleses.”

Milan Kendall Shah, senior strategist at Wolff Olins, offers a candid self-audit on millennial stereotypes. Tech-savvy? Not compared with younger cousins. Environmentally conscious? Mum does more. “This is why we need to build brands around things that cut across generations,” says Milan. He cites Decathlon’s move from winner-takes-all performance to ‘moving people through the wonders of sport’, as an example.

For Dave Jones, head of strategy at True Digital, lived context outruns labels, even for two people who share everything. “I am a 35-year-old with an identical 35-year-old twin who shared an identical upbringing. But I have two children, and he has none.” The result is totally different priorities across groceries, finance, homeware, holidays – differences a generational cliché simply can’t catch. “The art of segmentation is understanding which of these characteristics are most relevant to your specific category - and combining them into something you can target and act upon,” he adds.

Recent in-home ethnographies by THE MAYOR among boomers support this. “From magnet-cluttered fridge doors to extreme minimalist downsizing, no two boomers’ homes were alike,” says Elizabeth Thompson, director of strategy at the US indie. “Yes, it’s true that more Boomers still use AOL more than their gen X counterparts. And, yes, gen Z loves Snapchat. But, while these stats can give us hints at where to show up, how we show up must be unique to the person, the brand and the moment.”

And as Nicky Vita, head of strategy at Atomic London, puts it, “Life stage trumps birth year, hands down… people aren’t just walking birth years. We’re complicated humans shaped by tons of overlapping factors that determine what we buy and why. Let’s embrace it!”

Four Better Lenses

1) Fandoms as segmentation fuel

Sophie at 160over90’s provocation is to “think in fandoms”. Fans stretch brand IP, generate earned reach and create durable codes you can work with. “According to Luminate (2023), 15% of US consumers are superfans and they spend 80% more than the average consumer,” says Sophie. ‘Taylor Nation’ offers the blueprint, she says. Behind-the-scenes access, limited-edition drops, personalisation all serves as tools to turn passion into advocacy.

“Fans set trends faster than traditional marketing,” she adds, pointing to K-pop social fluency and cross-category pairings like Tinder x Runna’s Solemates Run Club. “To get ahead, brands must think in fandoms – not just demographics – because today’s niche is tomorrow’s mainstream.”

2) Identity and mindsets

Jose Aniceto, SVP of behavioural sciences at MullenLowe US, argues that mindsets and implicit motivators do the heavy lifting. “Is an individual driven by power, growth, and achievement, or by community, connection, and belonging? The content we would serve them should be inspired by their most relevant mindsets.” Beyond stated values, Jose clusters people into “conversational communities” drawn from TikTok, Reddit and other platforms, where subcultural knowledge (not just a top-line interest like beauty or gaming) reveals the codes that actually move people to act. “These conversational communities tell us what’s most relevant to them and listening to them results in more impactful work,” he says.

For Marissa Stabler, VP strategy and planning at mythic, generation is “one input, never the guiding factor.” Rich personas blend brand data, audience behaviour, qualitative research and cultural insights “so communications aren’t just seen – they’re felt and drive real action.”

She adds, “Target me with an insider ad industry meme, a mom hack, a mouthwatering food pic, a hot sports take, a video of a panda rolling down a slide, the latest beauty ‘miracle product’ or Keith Morrison (oooh Keith Morrison) – and on any given day, I’m equally likely to engage. So don’t box me in, boomer.”

3) Life stage in 3D

​Peter Wilson, executive strategy director at Iris, argues that audiences only become ‘real’ when you examine them through three distinct truths.

“When it comes to their age, people identify themselves in three ways,” he says. “There’s the lifestage they’re at, such as the transition from education to employment. This reveals timeless truths that have always applied to people of that age.

“There’s the shared zeitgeist: the dominant cultural forces of the current era, such as a cost-of-living crisis. This reveals universal truths that apply to all generations in that moment.

“And there’s their cohort: the specific views, values and behaviours that are, and remain over time, different to other cohorts because of the era in which they were born and grew up, such as a global pandemic or tech breakthrough. This reveals new truths that are disproportionate or even unique to this generation.”

​Christian James, managing director and planning director at IF, adds, “Rather than generational segmentation driven by birth year, it's life stage that’s important. Brands want to be seen as relevant to people because they have just become new parents, started work, or are approaching retirement. Their motivations, beliefs and behaviours are what brands need to tap into rather than their birthday.”

4) Microcultures and Specificity

For Marissa Kelley, EVP and head of strategy at Arnold, the sharpest creative ideas often come from going narrow. “Microcultures are a filter for audience insight that can get you farther faster to surprising creative opportunities,” she says. Ideas that are built not from broad-based generalisation of generations, but from the unexpected passions and peculiarities of fluid, ever-changing communities. I think one of the most important myths to bust here is the idea that being specific will lose universal appeal of an idea, when in reality, the pointier the spear, the more potent it is.”

That detail-first approach is echoed by Jonathan Izzard, head of strategy at Wonder, who warns against sweeping assumptions in his own line of work. “Our work in business experiences often involves c-suite audiences – but creating engaging events for this group requires that we shed the baggage of age-related considerations. After all, leadership isn’t about demographics, but psychographics. Identifying and mining the shared intent, expectations, concerns, personal philosophies and drive of leaders is where the gold lies for the experiences we create. No one wants to be told what they are – they want to be understood.”

Keep Generation – But in Its Place

Generational buckets may be blunt, but for some strategists they still serve a purpose – provided they’re treated as context, not gospel.

​Michael Chadwick, managing director of solutions at Cheil UK, warns against the knee-jerk dismissal of cohorts. “The first members of the latest generation – gen beta – began emerging into the world as of January 1st this year. How long before someone rolls out a ‘How to market to gen beta’ playbook? Hopefully quite some time,” he says. “Instead, content is typically targeting the newest generation to hit the marketing ecosystem. We’re not really talking about these generations as age-demographics. We’re using them to try and answer a different question: what does marketing need to look like today, and tomorrow, in a fast-evolving landscape? The next generation become the ‘heroes of the new’ – representative of everything that is changing in the world, enabling us to market to everyone in the most progressive way.”

So, the next question is, what are you trying to do by harnessing this understanding – building a brand for a generation, or a marketing engine for the whole ecosystem? “If the answer is to build a new marketing engine capable of engaging in today’s evolving marketing ecosystem, then a deck on ‘how to market to gen alpha’ is unlikely to help.”

​Martin Severs, head of strategy at Collaborate Global, has a different take: generational categories can act as a check on marketers’ own blind spots. “I’ve increasingly started to believe that the true power of the generational classifications is to stop using these as a funnel, and instead use them as a filter to counter our own assumptions and prejudices,” he says. “The tough reality is that the childhoods and opportunities of those under 21 are significantly different and often much harder than ours, so anything acting as a safety check and reminding both agencies and brands of this is, for me, a good thing.”

From a media planning perspective, Maura Pierson, vice president of media planning at DAC, stresses the risk of staying at surface level. “Relying on generic generational insights around media consumption and priorities will only make brands look like they’re thinking surface level when it comes to serving their customers,” she says. “Brands can use this tool to help identify a broad segment that they then need to further explore with psychographic data. But generation on its own isn’t going to give consumers the level of connection they’re looking for from marketing and advertising.”

​Astral City’s chief experience officer Annie Bedard points out that distinctions in channel use have flattened, thanks to technology. “There used to be a time when we did see big differences in how people of different age groups experienced their customer journeys and navigated their preferred channels. However, as the world has increasingly become digital-first, these distinctions have been largely flattened. Coupled with the advancement in media technology, we are now afforded a level of marketing precision that moves far beyond generational targeting. People defy neat categorization, and are a complex tapestry of identities that can’t be reduced to birth years.”

For Yunilda Esquivel, VP director of multicultural marketing at H/L, cultural nuance is the crucial dimension that blunt age bands ignore. “Reducing diverse people to a birth-year bracket misses the individual fire and nuanced perspectives driving decisions,” she says. “Instead of relying heavily on blunt demographic segments, let’s prioritise sophisticated, culturally sound, data-driven segmentation. We can and should leverage lifestyle affinities, values, engagement patterns, content consumption, and attitudinal data. This allows us to focus on individual preferences, behaviours, and cultural sensibilities that reveal actual tribes and communities of interest and transcend simplistic age brackets.”

​Jay Davis, senior creative strategist at Seen Presents, agrees that subcultures and micro-communities are powerful, but argues that context determines the tool. “Culture moves like sand on a beach. New waves crash and reshape it constantly. Ultimately, you can’t stop the sand from moving, and nor should you attempt to. How preposterous would it be to think that all 2 billion gen z worldwide think and act the same?!” he says. “If you’re designing a gen z, fashion creator-led experience, lean more heavily into subcultures. Conversely, for a B2B event for c-suite executives in a formal setting, demographics will be more effective.”

Practitioner Playbook​

If generational clichés aren’t enough, what tools can brands actually use? Strategists point to frameworks, questions and processes that turn complexity into something actionable.

Nicholas Kaufman, senior research manager at Momentum Worldwide, says the best research starts with empathy. “Perceiving your target consumer as a friend leads to questions that simultaneously help you understand their identity further. Do they feel seen in their day-to-day lives? What do they love to do with their time? How do they most authentically express themselves?

Building an understanding of identities within the context of broader labels,” he adds. “This ultimately can help brands meet consumers where they are today and establish initial trust. When brands leverage this pathway into the authentic identity of a consumer, it allows for more impactful connection points that have the power to say, ‘we see and celebrate who you are’. And isn’t that how we want to treat our friends?”

For Jim Whelan and Jen Zwilling of M+C Saatchi Consulting, segmentation can’t be static. “Data today is far from static, and neither are the consumer profiles and preferences it reflects,” they say. “The person someone is today may not be the same person they become tomorrow. This fluidity in identity and circumstances calls for a more adaptable approach to segmentation. In this context, ‘always on’ data sources and ‘living’ segmentation tools are invaluable resources for brands aiming to stay attuned to the constantly shifting preferences and identities of their consumers.”

Martin Severs at Collaborate Global describes recent workshops with gen z for a FTSE100 finance brand. “We encouraged feedback on truths and myths of gen-z narratives, set challenges for co-working, encouraged self-criticism to stimulate debate, and co-created the output report to ensure their voices were truly reflected.” For him, the point is avoiding “othering” – letting groups define themselves rather than being defined from outside.

​Elisa Becker, director of strategy at Luquire, cautions that a generational obsession can mean overlooking lucrative groups. “On a business level, this kind of overgeneralisation often leaves our most lucrative customers – think gen x and boomers – out of the conversation, despite their significantly higher discretionary spending power compared to younger, financially strapped generations.”

Ally Azizi, junior strategist at Imagination, reminds us that much generational research is Western-centric. “What might be considered an emerging trend, such as gen Z moving back in or still living with their parents, is a cultural norm within Asian households that has lasted generations,” he says. This doesn’t mean, however, that we should completely ditch generational divisions; rather than being the central element to our audiences, they should act as a complementary layer to other factors. Audience-building is an exercise that requires time and careful crafting in the age of individualism and fluid identity where you can’t simply pigeonhole large groups of people into an overarching generalised category, no matter how tempting it is.”

Finally, Matt Lawton, chief marketing officer of Five by Five Global, argues that the adoption of technology itself can be a more powerful segmentation lens than age or attitude. “Upgrade aversion is the conscious decision to stick with your personal tech stack rather than twist to a higher order technology,” he says. “My current tech repertoire is a comfortable place where I dread only being forced to upgrade my iPhone 12 Pro Max when its battery up-time finally fades to an hour because guess what – it does everything I need it to.” For Matt, mapping “technographics” – whether consumers eagerly adopt, consciously resist, or selectively engage with new tools – can reveal buying behaviours that age brackets never will.

From Blunt Buckets to Real Communities

Generational clichés might be sticky, but they aren’t strategy. What matters now is mapping people as they actually live: across fandoms, life stages, microcultures and mindsets. If brands want to resonate, they’ll have to move past broad brushstrokes and embrace the detail.

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