Nerd Alert: Why Ads Reach Older Consumers Less

Episode notes

Welcome to Nerd Alert, a series of special episodes bridging the gap between marketing academia and practitioners. We're breaking down highly involved, complex research into plain language and takeaways any marketer can use. In this episode, Elena and Rob examine why advertising consistently underperforms with consumers over 60 and find the answer has less to do with older brains and more to do with where marketers are pointing their media budgets. Topics covered: [00:02:00] "Differences in Advertising Effectiveness Across Age Groups [00:03:00] How researchers measured mental availability across 1,500 [00:04:00] The associative penetration gap between age groups [00:07:00] How the purchase funnel narrows sharply at 60-plus [00:08:00] Why newer product categories widen the confidence gap [00:10:00] Three practical takeaways for reaching older audiences To learn more, visit marketingarchitects.com/podcast Resources: Mecredy, P., Stocchi, L., & Feetham, P. (2025). Differences in advertising's effectiveness across age groups. International Journal of Advertising, 44(2), 235 - 262.

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