The Generation Game: What promotions work for every age group?

The digital era offers more and more ways to segment your audience and target your promotional campaigns, ranging from demographics like age and location, to characteristics like marital and parental status, to specific interests like sports and movies.

Creating a targeted campaign means striking a balance between improving the relevance of personalised offerings, without adversely decreasing the reach of your brand.[1]

In a landmark report published in 2017, the Market Research Society, Institute of Practitioners in Advertising and Marketing Society joined forces to warn businesses against failing to capitalise on the potential of personalisation.

“Organisations that do not have a coherent strategy about when and how to introduce increased personalisation will face increasing competitive risks,” they said.[2]

McKinsey & Company called personalisation “marketing’s Holy Grail”, adding that personalised marketing spend is 10-30% more efficient, revenues 5-15% higher and acquisition of new customers up to 50% cheaper.[3]

The importance of age in advertising

Targeting specific age groups has been a technique in advertising for decades. Generational terms like ‘Baby Boomer’ became commonplace by the 1970s.

In 1991, William Strauss and Neil Howe published Generations, which cemented the theory that societal trends cycle approximately every two decades.[4]

As recently as December 2024, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority warned against causing offence in age-specific ads.[5] The ASA cited research that found 18% of men aged 50+ had experienced rudeness due to their age and 36% of women aged 50+ had felt patronised.

In June 2025, the ASA again cautioned advertisers against adopting stereotypes of older consumers, after surveying 4,000 people:[6] “Participants wanted to see real older people in ads for products they are not often associated with, placing a focus on the individual rather than on their age.”[7]

The survey found that 45% of people aged 55 and over think older people are negatively stereotyped in advertising,[8] highlighting the importance of adopting the right tone when embarking on segmented campaigns.

What age is each generation in 2025?

There is no universally agreed set of dates for when each generation begins and ends. This gives rise to some overlap between the generations, but also gives you some flexibility when defining the age group for targeted campaigns.

As a rule of thumb, the main economically active generations as of 2025 are:

Let’s take a look at each of these ‘generations’ and the types of marketing methods they are most likely to respond favourably to…

Generation Alpha

Starting with the youngest generation, clearly there are some important issues to keep in mind when advertising to under-16s.

These include avoiding “inappropriate, scary or offensive images” and ensuring that you do not pressurise children to buy products, or undermine the authority of their parents.[9]

But there are also areas of flexibility. For instance, a statement made in Parliament on May 22nd 2025 confirmed that it’s OK to promote brands to young people even if they produce unhealthy products, providing those specific products are not featured in the advert.[10]

It’s also worth noting that if you can demonstrate that a campaign is specifically NOT targeted at children, you are less restricted in what you can say.[11]

For example, in 2023, the ASA partially upheld complaints against a campaign by KFC UK on the grounds that one version of the advertising (shown at bus stops) might be seen by children, whereas an email sent only to KFC’s mailing list subscribers was not considered to be likely to cause offence.[12]

Generation Z

Gen Z are the Club 18-30 of 2025, gaining independence and economic security for the first time. But with many facing the cost of living head-on, earning entry-level salaries and saving to buy their first home, financial pressures are at their greatest for this demographic.

For Gen Z, “value is paramount when attempting to influence them to make purchasing decisions”.[13] Yet their spending power is growing fast, and is predicted to overtake that of Baby Boomers before the end of the decade.

Discounts and digital coupons are one way to attract spend-averse Gen Z consumers. Research suggests that the generation is twice as likely to make use of free gifts, compared with Baby Boomers.[14]

Generation Y

Generation Y – better known to many as Millennials – are the oldest ‘digital natives’. Born around 1980-95, their birth years span the first PCs and pocket calculators, right through to the advent of mobile phones and broadband.

As this generation becomes the dominant age group of parents in the economy, marketers need to ensure that they are targeting Gen Y and Gen Z who, together, account for over a third of present-day spending power.[15]

Millennials aren’t teenagers anymore. But they have retained the emotional intelligence and empathy that is the hallmark of their generation. Authenticity, community and loyalty can all have substantial impact when targeting Gen Y in 2025.[16]

Web coupons can help you to attract Millennials’ spend. They’re an excellent addition to social media campaigns, with very low setup costs, and can be used across all the platforms favoured by Gen Y and younger.

Generation X

Generation Xers tend to be more economically independent, with many making it on to the property ladder before the house price boom of the early 2000s.[17] As many as 3 in 4 own their own home, albeit with some mortgage debt outstanding.[18]

As the remainder of Gen X reaches the age of 50, they will join the Baby Boomers as part of the ‘Invisible Powerhouse’ of the economy, holding 70% of the wealth yet neglected by many advertisers.[19]

Like Millennials, Gen X want reliable, reputable brands – in fact there’s so much overlap that there’s a mini-generation of ‘Xennials’ born in the early 1980s, and displaying characteristics of both age groups.

Gen X are also loyal when they find those brands. GWI report that Gen X are 13% more likely than average to join loyalty programmes, and over half will pay more for a familiar brand than spend less on a cheaper alternative.[20]

Conventional money-off coupons can reinforce this loyalty, by retaining customers at a time when many are being forced to tighten their belts – and without losing market share to own-brand rivals.

Baby Boomers

Finally, we come to the Baby Boomers. This oft-maligned generation are reaching their retirement years after a post-war childhood, several of the deepest recessions ever seen, and a global pandemic that may have impacted their pension expectations.

Boomers are digitally capable, but not necessarily digitally driven. Relatively few use platforms like Instagram and TikTok to discover products. They may be more likely to shop online from a retailer if they have visited a bricks-and-mortar store under the same branding.[21]

This is a generation that appreciates good customer service and is not opposed to buying online when it offers better convenience. Small incentives like customer care coupons can go a long way towards making Boomers feel valued – and showing them the value of a product.

Get it on target with MRM

MRM’s expertise spans the full range of coupon services, loyalty programmes and reward schemes, allowing you to target different demographics with marketing methods that are most likely to hit home.

To speak to our team and start constructing a fully segmented campaign, based on real industry insights and your existing data about your customers, contact MRM today.