Ageing’s New Beginnings

Stylus has been tracking longevity trends since 2015. As far back as a decade ago, we were predicting how influential it would be for health and nutrition. And in our 2025 forecast, we see, for example, longevity beauty as “performance and pleasure”. How are Advisory clients taking this further? 

Margaux: As a team, we’re seeing more clients who need to strategically understand how their target consumers are ageing as well as rethinking their definitions of what wellness actually is. We’ve been examining the psychological toll of traditional wellness narratives. The pressure to optimise every aspect of health, from counting steps to overly complex morning routines, is wearing people down. In its place, they’re now prioritising ‘well-feeling’ – a holistic approach to wellness that emphasises moderation, pleasure and personal enjoyment over perfection and restriction. People aren’t just trying to live longer: they want to live healthier, more fulfilling lives for longer. Young adults are now thinking about lifelong health, adopting habits that were once considered midlife concerns. Brands and businesses coming to Stylus Advisory for bespoke trends intelligence in this area are looking to understand where there are opportunities to support better ageing across all age groups, and across products and services.  

What is driving this shift towards healthy ageing? 

Margaux: We’re redefining healthy ageing because we’re redefining retirement. Ageing and retirement are shrugging off the stereotype of a time of decline. Instead, individuals are embracing retirement as years to grow, travel and experience new things. And well before people even consider retiring, we’re seeing a clear prioritisation of personal fulfilment over traditional milestones like marriage and parenthood. We forecast that as micro-celebrations – such as throwing divorce parties or celebrating half-birthdays – accelerate, micro-milestones will further diversify and expand for retired consumers, including fitness achievements and side-hustle success. Joy plays a crucial role here, too: not only are 83% of consumers actively seeking experiences that bring them happiness and joy, but having meaningful relationships predicates happier and longer lives.  

Forward-thinking businesses understand how powerful this can be for engaging consumers of all ages. We’ve had productive ideation sessions with clients from businesses in the automotive, retail and robotics industries that have drawn on Spanish-American sociologist Mauro Guillén’s ideas of a ‘post-generational’ society. Guillén proposes that traditional life stages – childhood, adulthood and retirement – are becoming obsolete. Our clients have been inspired by rethinking traditional and entrenched life stages, instead considering how to engage individuals who – rather than following a rigid life path – are embracing lifelong learning, career changes and intergenerational connections.  

Recent research highlights that our subjective age – the age we feel rather than our actual biological one – plays a role in how quickly we age. This isn’t only challenging traditional marketing that’s based on a fear of ageing, but it’s also paving the way for innovation in marketing engagement that focuses on the mind-body connection as part of a proactive approach to positive ageing. We’ve worked with multiple brands in skincare, supplements and healthcare categories that are asking, strategically, how they can shift ageing representation and also connect on overall mind and body vitality. This disrupts the traditional category focus on appearance and its accompanying youth-focused language. 

Where have you been able to demonstrate these changes as opportunities for brands? 

Margaux: Ageing needs a rebrand. And we’re forecasting that this shift in narrative will create space for wider representation of older people, responding to their needs and aspirations that have been overlooked in the past, such as sexual wellness and adventurous travel experiences. We know it’s sorely needed: in the US, 56% of 18- to 24-year-olds – the highest share of any generation – fear the ageing process. If a fear of ageing is present among Gen Zers and even Gen Alphas – generations that are widely expected to be more accepting and inclusive than previous cohorts – it shows that ageism is more pervasive and enduring than we previously imagined.  

Innovative brands can change the ageing narrative, and some are already doing so. Take Procter & Gamble-owned Spanish personal care brand Ausonia’s #QuieroVerteEnvejecer campaign that powerfully illustrates this through a video of a breast cancer survivor reacting positively to her selfie overlaid with an ‘aged’ filter – viewing ageing as a gift, not a burden. Other opportunities exist in focusing on how products and services can be age-inclusive through the notions of joy, togetherness, friendship and well-feeling – rather than limiting them to strict age categories.  

This can also extend into intimacy and sexual wellness, which are key components in this redefinition of healthy ageing. British sexual wellness brand Lovehoney’s Queen Bees programme, which promotes sexual health among older adults, has recruited ‘senior sexperts’ (aged 65 and over). Their ability to provide advice on topics such as libido changes and body confidence is all about dismantling stigmas surrounding sex in later life.   

Beyond intimacy, person-to-person connection is prioritised through innovation in the supplements sector. I’m interested in the emergence of ‘empathogens’, psychoactives that encourage a better sense of connection and emotional openness. For example, US-based Ka! Empathogenics uses kanna, a South African empathogenic plant, to help its users feel deeper connections.  

We know that social and intimate wellbeing is a topic with commercial opportunities. When Stylus Advisory was recently commissioned to investigate the multiple facets of healthy ageing for a brand looking to develop future-facing products and strategies, our brief was to inform future ageing as enjoyable and fulfilling as well as healthy. 

What is the risk if brands ignore this trend? 

Margaux: Ageing populations are expanding and becoming more diverse. Portraying them through stereotypes of vulnerability, weakness and limitations can damage brand integrity and alienate this demographic. Not only that, but globally, people aged 50-70 are responsible for 27% of spending. It’s crucial for brands to represent older adults authentically to maintain credibility and effectively engage this economically significant group. Activist businesses, such as the US-based Roar Forward, are already creating spaces to celebrate positive depictions of ageing, crowning the time we’re in as the New Longevity Era. 

We’re working with a number of future-focused brands that have the courage to reframe ageing as they look to better meet the needs of older consumers. After all, these are our future selves.