Are older creators changing the face of influencer marketing?

In today’s edition:

• Move Over D’Amelios – Older Creators Are Here
• The Social Scoop: Verified accounts will be taking full priority on Twitter, LinkedIn’s new handy features & more 
• Graph of the Week: Visualizing who we spend time with as we age 

Move Over D’Amelios – Older Creators Are Here

When you think of the word “creator” what comes to mind? You may think of an impossibly stylish teen or twenty-something, probably wearing a Y2K-inspired outfit with a belt bag and sunglasses that decidedly weren’t cool but apparently are now cool again. But it’s time we expand our definition because creators aged 50 and up are gaining major mainstream popularity. 

While older creators aren’t new, there’s been an uptick in major brands from Versace to Svedka choosing to work with them. Hashtags relevant to older social users are also on the rise— for instance, #MatureSkin has racked up 250K Instagram posts and over 350M views on TikTok. 

Zooming out, it might be due to this demographic’s increasing use of social media, with the steepest rises happening on youth-driven platforms like TikTok. This year, the number of Gen X (+12%) and Baby Boomer users (+27%) saw significant growth on the platform, and at the end of 2022, 25% of TikTok users in their 50s said they used the app “regularly.” 

So, let’s unpack the rise of creators over 50, and what it means for brands. **sits up slightly straighter like we were told to as kids**

What we’re seeing #1: Creators aged 50+ are resonating with audiences of all ages. 

Creators over 50 aren’t just reaching their growing number of peers on social; they have massive influence on global youth as well. 60% of Gen Z and Millennials say they love watching videos from them, while many have followers that are 29 and younger. According to data from Tagger, that includes 92% of Cooking With Lynja’s 15.2M food-obsessed fans, and more than 50% of @theoldgays’ audience, a joint TikTok account run by four gay men in their 70s.

So why is this content resonating so well? Millennials and Gen Z love following these creators because they embrace their age (just look at self-proclaimed #SilverFox @therealirvinrandle), heroically defy ageist stereotypes (hello, @baddiewinkle in a bejeweled bodysuit), post refreshingly unpolished content (@charlesmallet’s live photo compilation is delightfully unhinged), aren’t afraid to post outside of their niche (think unprompted travel recaps on a cooking account) and share sponsored content infrequently.

And for older people, more time spent on social can be a good thing. Many report an increase in happiness and feeling more connected with their loved ones. Talk about a win-win.

What we’re seeing #2: Younger audiences inherently trust older creators. 

For creators over 50, their age isn’t a bug, it’s a feature (and a powerful one at that). There’s evidence that younger generations trust this crowd for parenting, finance, and general life advice over generic tips they find online. Over three-quarters of Gen Z and Millennials say they’ve “learned a lot” from content created by people older than them. 

As Sprout Social put it in their recent analysis, “Consumers intrinsically trust older people’s recommendations over younger ones. Maybe it’s because their lived experience means they know a good product when they see it.” No matter how you slice it, when older generations give advice, young folks listen ??.

What we’re seeing #3: For many brands, content from creators aged 50 and up has led to booming results. 

Sweetening this trend further, content featuring this audience has been driving remarkable results for brands across the fashion, beauty, and home sectors. In their recent campaign for an anti-aging serum that featured ten creators aged 45-84, L'Oréal exceeded their KPI by 450% (simply smashing). 

Elsewhere, when digital picture frame brand Aura Frames used ad creative made by a creator in their 60s, Charlotte Simpson, the company’s head of PR & content raved that it led to their best-performing ad of 2020 and yielded 6x more engagement than any other ad creative (absolutely killer). 

Content featuring creators over the age of 50 isn’t just beloved by audiences, it's spreading the love to brands. 

What It Means For You & Your Brand

It’s time to think beyond peer-to-peer influencing. People don't just follow other people their age. If your brand is approaching creator identification purely from a ‘demographic’ lens (ie. sourcing influencers from one demographic to reach that same demographic), it’s time to expand your thinking. Creators aged 50 and up successfully bring in fans from all stages of life because they are so real and authentic— and that kind of real, authentic content wins in the end. 

But, there are some watch-outs. If you do decide to work with creators over 50 for your next campaign, be sure to approach the collaboration with respect top of mind. Be careful not to forcibly monetize or infantilize them—  these are the two ugly trapdoors in an otherwise extremely joyful corner of the internet.

The Social Scoop

Get up to speed with the biggest stories on social.

Non-verified Twitter accounts are about to lose their voice even more on the platform. Musk announced that, as of April 15th, the only tweets that will be displayed in the ‘For You’ tab – i.e. the main tab of the app – will be from verified accounts. According to him, voting in Twitter polls will also become a verified-exclusive option, which will severely restrict the reach of non-paying accounts, while also limiting general user functionality.

Following this tweet, Musk clarified that users would still see the people they follow in their For You page. That said, Twitter users have already complained about not seeing their own followers properly in the For You page so we’ll have to wait and see how this update pans out.

Here’s our take: While Musk hasn’t clarified what “verified” means, our assumption is that you now have to be a paid user, a brand, or a government official to be recommended by Twitter’s algorithm. If you’re not verified, you also no longer get to vote in Twitter polls. The implications of this move will be huge as 1) people’s timelines will significantly change which will result in further usage declines and 2) poll results will dramatically decrease and be skewed. This is especially concerning from an inclusivity perspective as the platform increasingly favors those who can afford to pay for a monthly subscription.

Instagram continues to go all in on Reels. The platform’s experimenting with a new way to integrate Stories and Reels that sees some Reels playing for their full duration within Stories. This means some accounts are no longer just getting the first 15 seconds of a Reel when it’s shared in Stories - users can watch it in its entirety.

Here’s our take: These changes continue to reinforce the idea that Instagram’s increasingly trying to create a closed in-app ecosystem for its users. On a tactical level, this makes Stories an even bigger consideration for brands and creators. Why post the same creative in two different places (e.g. Stories and Reels) when you can maximize its visibility through tighter in-app sharing (e.g. post a Reel that you’ll share on a Story)?

LinkedIn just rolled out a bunch of handy updates for Company Pages. Let’s have a look ??

• You can now schedule posts natively on LinkedIn (up to 3 months in advance)
• Company Pages will now be able to follow other pages in the app
• LinkedIn’s adding audio events for Company Pages

Here’s our take: We’re glad to see LinkedIn has added a native scheduling functionality as it can be helpful when access to 3rd party tools isn’t possible. We also love the ability to follow other Company Pages as it may help you keep track of trending conversations and more easily engage in industry discussions. 

However, we’re not so sure about the launch of an audio event in 2023 given the continuous decline of the format. Perhaps LinkedIn is seeing something in their data that we can’t, but we’ll keep an eye out for the pickup of this one.

Graph of the Week

We're a bunch of data nerds over at M+M, which means we love a good graph. Here's one that was doing the rounds on our Slack this week.

TL;DR:  We were all struck by this visualization from Our World in Data, which breaks down who Americans spend their time with as they get older. Our biggest takeaway is how little we see family and how much time we spend alone as we age ??. A lil reminder to hug your loved ones extra tight today. 

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