Senior Selfies
Trends /
Wellness
PamelaJoeMcFarlane
489662162
Seniors (adults 50+) are an important audience for Healthcare brands, but the video formats used to target them haven't caught up with the times. There's an opportunity to select more vertical, user‑generated, online‑looking video clips which reflect how seniors — yes, even seniors! — communicate today.
There's a generation gap in the way that brands represent the visual landscape of health and wellness now. Between 2019 and 2023, Healthcare brands downloaded +6495% more video clips with a vertical format and a user‑generated aesthetic, no doubt in response to the rise of organic social video ads. However, just 10% of those clips feature adults over 50 — by contrast, 50% of popular vertical video clips feature much younger adults.
Front‑facing videos and selfies are emblematic of Gen Z culture simply because their generation came of age along with the pioneering format, the same way we might associate silkscreen posters with Baby Boomers, or lo‑fi VHS with Gen X. But the reality is, in 2023 older generations use smartphones and social media to communicate too. Our consumer survey found that 78% of Gen X and 61% of Baby Boomers watch short‑form videos or reels on various social media — that’s not so much less than the 84% of Gen Z and Millennials who watch them. Yet, unlike their younger counterparts, seniors are about as excited by still images as they are by video on social media — so a sequential photo dump of the multiple selfies they took on vacation, for example, is likely to be inspiring too.
Front‑facing videos and selfies are emblematic of Gen Z culture simply because their generation came of age along with the pioneering format, the same way we might associate silkscreen posters with Baby Boomers, or lo‑fi VHS with Gen X. But the reality is, in 2023 older generations use smartphones and social media to communicate too. Our consumer survey found that 78% of Gen X and 61% of Baby Boomers watch short‑form videos or reels on various social media — that’s not so much less than the 84% of Gen Z and Millennials who watch them. Yet, unlike their younger counterparts, seniors are about as excited by still images as they are by video on social media — so a sequential photo dump of the multiple selfies they took on vacation, for example, is likely to be inspiring too.
As of 2019, American adults in the Silent, Baby Boomer, and now, Gen X generations contributed 70% of all spending on medical and pharmaceutical products and services, so they’re important age groups for Health and Wellness brands to target accurately with video storytelling.1 Our consumer survey found that 79% of Gen X and Baby Boomers want to establish daily wellness practices. So, it would bode well for brands to consider video storytelling strategies which reflect how seniors are documenting, sharing, and educating others about their daily wellness practices in real time. Consider editing together video clips or still images (or a mix of both!) which empower seniors to place themselves at the center of their own visual stories.
Sources
[1] Foresight 50+
[1] Foresight 50+
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