The IMF’s latest report reveals a striking insight: a 70-year-old in 2022 displays the same cognitive function as a 53-year-old in 2000 – a statistic that challenges outdated perceptions of ageing and the workforce.
The topic has gained significant traction since Message House BPI’s primary research on longevity language and communications seven years ago. The widespread coverage signals that the strategic implications of longer lives are now firmly on the business agenda.
Yet, much of the media coverage boiled this revelation down to the overly-simplistic '70 is the new 50', highlighting how legacy language continues to hinder meaningful progress in age-stage discussions.
In the intervening years since my first deep-dive on this issue, I’ve explored diverse audiences for clients – from policy leaders and academics to carers, volunteers, and individuals navigating midlife transitions, career shifts, or the challenging realities of longer lives.
This ethnography delivers powerful insights, advancing our longevity expertise and enabling us to better support our clients’ strategic communications.
There are specific language difficulties that need to be tackled going forward:
The legacy language challenge– too much reliance on legacy language (the ‘burden’ of an ‘ageing population’, ‘older workers’ etc.) means consumers don’t feel a brand or organisation’s comms reflect how they see themselves today. Tools like message testing can bring clarity and nuance to your narrative and strategy, which can move the dial, inspiring connection and action from your stakeholders.
The continued age stage divergence – organisations cannot assume that age equates to stage and need to communicate accordingly. A sufficiently detailed understanding of your customers’ and audiences’ attitudes to longer lives is required to determine what sort of language and messaging they will respond to and at what point in their lives it will be most effective. It’s time to refresh your audience segmentation through the lens of longevity.
The expectations vs reality mismatch – we know from our research that people’s expectations of different life stages (e.g. ‘being in my 40’s…’) do not align with the reality of what it’s like to be in that life stage, often leaving them pessimistic and lacking confidence for what’s ahead. Ad testing and narrative development are key to highlighting multiple and diverse ways to embrace each age and stage. This means brands can reduce the disconnect people experience and help them to feel more positively about living for longer.
The echo chamber assessment – brilliant, powerful language articulating longer lives is out there (take a look at 55/Redefined in the careers space – “Success, happiness, and possibility have no age limit. We are here to inspire you to design a life you love at 50, 60, 70 and beyond.”) However, organisations need to break out of their typical comms channels and networks and promote the value of this sort of language to reach new audiences. Primary research (both quant and qual) is pivotal here in identifying the specific channels that your audiences listen to and trust and help you understand how best to be more proactive in being a part of their conversations.
Supporting our clients on the journey to longevity literacy continues at pace. With the right language and messaging, we can ensure communications not only reflect the realities of longer lives but also inspires individuals, businesses, and policymakers to embrace the opportunities they bring.
