posted 11th July 2025
I was delighted to attend the Silver Marketing Association Summit 2025 in London. It was a powerful reminder of the scale, diversity, and untapped potential of the over-50s market and a timely opportunity to explore how data, insight, and innovation can help organisations better understand and serve this growing audience. The event once again highlighted the wide range of companies and organisations working to address the issues and maximise opportunities within this key demographic group.
Why the Silver Market Matters
The statistics alone make a compelling case:
- Over-50s represent around one-third of the UK population, a figure that’s expected to rise
- They control 60% of household spending
- Many are owner-occupiers, with higher levels of discretionary income
- Others are on lower incomes, often renting, but still represent a diverse set of needs and values
In other words, this is not a niche audience; it’s a major force in the UK economy, and growing.
Breaking the Stereotypes
Keynote speaker Carl Honoré challenged the outdated tropes that often dominate advertising aimed at older audiences. While progress is being made, too many campaigns still lean on clichéd or patronising portrayals. As a contrast to this, he highlighted examples of campaigns that celebrate ageing or represent older people with subtlety and authenticity.
Sue Benson of The Behaviours Agency brought another crucial point to light: women over 50 make the majority of spending decisions in this demographic, yet they’re still underrepresented or misrepresented in advertising. For marketing to be effective, representation must reflect reality.
Several speakers also discussed how to address physical changes that come with age in pragmatic ways. A standout example is a bottled water company that improved sales to older consumers by introducing smaller bottles with easy-open caps, a simple yet powerful adaptation.
Technology and AI: Closing the Gap
Unsurprisingly, AI was a hot topic. A panel session explored how AI can enhance user experience, especially for older consumers, through friendly, intuitive interfaces like chatbots. The use of supervised learning (Small Language Models) ensures the accuracy and reliability of the information these systems provide.
There was also discussion, and some frustration, around the misunderstanding of how the Silver Market uses technology. Contrary to common assumptions, this group is highly engaged online, particularly with e-commerce and instructional content such as ‘how to’ videos.
Holidays & Leisure: An Overlooked Opportunity
Another striking insight: the over-50s spend three times more on travel and tourism than the UK average. With more time and disposable income, they are fuelling growth in leisure, travel, and wellness sectors.
The Role of Data: More Metrics' Perspective
While much of the summit focused on product development and communications, data was recognised as a vital enabler, and that’s where More Metrics comes in.
At More Metrics, we provide the tools to:
- Identify and locate high-potential households and postcodes within the Silver Market
- Support precise targeting via mail, door drop, and social media
- Enable detailed segmentation and modelling through data on:
- Demographics (age, marital status, family type)
- Financials (income, spend, pensioner income)
- Housing (tenure, property type, e.g., mortgage-free detached homes)
- Health & mortality indicators
- Attitudinal data, from environmentalism and traditional values to international engagement and support for minority causes
Our data is GDPR-compliant, built entirely from open-source, non-personal datasets, and covers all of Great Britain. It’s also easy to access, interpret, and use, helping marketers move beyond assumptions and build campaigns grounded in reality.
Conclusion
The Silver Marketing Association Summit 2025 underscored a simple truth: the over-50s are too important and too diverse to be treated as an afterthought. With the right data, organisations can reach, understand, and engage this audience in ways that are respectful, relevant, and effective.
We’re proud to support that mission with insight that makes a difference.