The Generation X audience – people aged 45-60, people who spend freely on travel, entertainment and luxury goods – is largely ignored by the advertising industry.

The reason? They are victims of their own loyalty to brands. Advertisers would rather spend their money and resources attracting new segments, such as Generation Y, rather than influence those they already ‘own’.

And this despite the evidence that Gen Xs make up 27% of global spending and account for over a third of the population.

This bias towards younger generations has been identified in Wavemaker’s recent study into the global Gen X consumer titled, ‘Finding the Gen X Factor’.

Ignoring Gen X is bad for business

The study highlighted that Gen X makes up 28% of TikTok’s user base with a majority, 92%, of Gen X using social media every day. They are also more confident users of new technology than Gen Z (aged under 26).

Perversely, Gen X accounts for just 4% of industry research into different generations and 24% of TV ads feature characters over 50 years old, compared with 76% which feature 19-49s.

Wavemaker says it’s not even the industry's obsession with youth, and what's next, that is leaving Generation X on the fringes. “It's that we default to thinking Gen X have no unique needs or ways of engaging with newer social platforms; we assume they engage in the same way as the early-adopting Gen Z audience that we associate with TikTok or Snap.

“Our research reveals that nothing could be farther from the truth. It exposes this view as not simply misguided, but bad for business,” Wavemaker noted.

Gen X is more brand loyal

In overlooking this group, Wavemaker said brands were dismissing a multi-trillion-dollar market with rapidly rising earnings and savings, “entering the most financially rewarding stage of their lives”.

“Gen X is also more brand loyal, making them more valuable than younger consumers,” Wavemaker suggested.

Even when targeted at Gen X, the influencer campaigns Wavemaker tested performed far worse with this group than with Gen Z and Millennials – 30% lower retention rates, 20% fewer interactions with the content, and 47% lower impact on brand opinion.

All is not lost, however. Wavemaker says, “Where there’s a bias, there’s an opportunity in correcting it. In this case an opportunity for brands to ‘see’ and connect with the large, diverse and lucrative Gen X audience in social channels.”