The Rise of the Longevity Lifestyle
Blue Zones become the latest real estate trend, the focus on youth culture makes no sense (and fewer dollars), and the power of nostalgic pop culture.
Welcome to Longevity Gains, the newsletter for marketers and entrepreneurs who want to succeed in the longevity economy, the largest and fastest-growing market in the world. It’s the $22 trillion opportunity you can’t afford to ignore.
Longer, healthier lives are a global phenomenon.
But in the United States, that phenomenon is severely segregated. While the longevity economy is already here, it’s definitely not evenly distributed.
While income plays a factor, it’s education that most determines healthspan and life expectancy in the U.S. That makes for an odd geographic disparity between different areas and states, and it looks like this will intensify even beyond current Red State / Blue State delineations.
Back in the first issue of Longevity Gains for 2024, we talked about new “Blue Zone” designations in various areas of the country based on healthy aging criteria. Blue Zones are areas of the world (locations in Italy, Greece, Japan, Costa Rica, and Loma Linda, California) where people live much longer and healthier lives.
This is becoming the hot new real estate trend:
Now the real estate industry has jumped into the game. Blue Zones runs initiatives that certify towns and cities that meet healthy lifestyle criteria, and they help others remake themselves to promote longevity….
Eighty places in the United States — from Bakersfield, Calif., to Corry, Pa. — have adopted these initiatives, called Blue Zone Projects. Some developers take inspiration from Blue Zones even if they are not seeking official certification.
What’s interesting about this is not the viability of the Blue Zone concept itself, but the market demand. These are the exact people who not only have positive attitudes about aging, but are adopting a lifestyle specifically geared toward extending healthspan.
Ironically, these new communities are merely mimicking a way of life that is common in European countries. So while a major portion of the U.S. population looks to be sadly left out, the point is to focus on specific attitudes and behavior that make up the global longevity economy.
The Hottest Buzzword in Wellness Seeps Into Real Estate (New York Times)
The Youth Market Mystery
As a Longevity Gains subscriber, you’ve heard it all before. We’re a youth-centric culture, and that’s become a legacy mindset that doesn’t reflect the current economic reality when it comes to consumer spending.
But the important thing is that you’re hearing it more often… and with even more disbelief that this amount of money is being left on the table by brands and other advertisers.
Despite baby boomers representing a demographic powerhouse that makes up more than 20% of the U.S. population, and wielding more than 30% of consumer spending as of 2021, marketers tend to focus on the much younger Generation Z cohort.
That younger generation accounts for less than 3% of all consumer spending, according to Jeff Weiss, the chief executive of Age of Majority, a marketing consultancy focused on aging consumers. Still, companies allocate an estimated 22% of their marketing resources to targeting Gen Z, he said.
Meanwhile, notoriously cranky advertising critic Bob Hoffman laments the continued influence of youth culture on advertising now that it makes very little sense (and fewer dollars). He walks us through the beginnings of youth culture with the Baby Boomers, which you’re familiar with from the Longevity Economy Fundamentals ebook.
As wealth and economic power have been hugely concentrated in the hands of mature people, youth culture rarely interests or engages the people who have and spend most of the money. In fact, it is often off-putting. But it has become the default language of advertising despite the fact that it is not the language of the people who drive our economy or dominate our commerce.
Bob speaks in terms of an obsession with celebrity and popular culture as crutches for advertising that tries to be “cool” rather than sell products to the people with the money.
There are two reasons advertising agencies default to youth imagery. First, the people in agencies are overwhelmingly young and don't have the cultural vocabulary to speak comfortably to mature people.
Second, binding to youth culture is such an easy and attractive way to seem relevant.
A closer examination reveals that it’s not pop culture that’s the problem, it’s pop culture from when. For example, Generation X and younger Boomers (Generation Jones) had a significant pop culture moment two weeks ago with the Grammys. Gen Z doesn’t even acknowledge the Grammys as an event, much less tune in.
And I see other signs of brands using pop culture to reach older audiences. For example, the latest “Mayhem” commercial for Allstate (featuring the hilarious Dean Winters) ends with Winters banging on the hood of a car in traffic and yelling, “Hey, I’m walking here!” This is a line from the film Midnight Cowboy, released in 1969.
Sure, it’s an exceptionally well-known movie quote, and maybe the kids know it from a TikTok meme or something. But on the other hand, I was two when Midnight Cowboy came out. This is at the very least intergenerational pop culture humor employed in a highly effective way.
Using pop culture to reach older generations is smart, whether you think in terms of nostalgia or not. It’s a unifying element for people who may not have much else in common other than the music, book, and film that’s important to them. Then you can segment from there by values, not demographics.
Boomers make up 30% of consumer spending — so why do advertisers ignore them? (MarketWatch)
Prisoners Of Pop Culture (Bob Hoffman)
Thanks for reading, have a great week!
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The Blue Zones concept is great, and recreating more walkable places where you can hang out with your friends and have access to fresh food is amazing. I feel like we should be trying to create more communities like these, for people of all ages, too.
There are benefits to intergenerational communities as well. I know the goal is to market to an older generation that can afford these types of homes, but I also think of college towns... these are happening places and everyone who lives there benefits from the culture of education as well.
Lots of good thought provoking stuff here!