OK Boomer, What’s Next? Rethinking Generational Marketing Myths
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Marketers are moving past lazy generational clichés and towards segmentation that reflects how people actually live, across fandoms, identities, life stages and microcultures, writes LBB’s Addison Capper
For years, marketers have sliced the world into neat generational boxes: boomers, gen X, millennials, gen Z. Each with its tidy list of traits – cynical, loyal, authentic, avocado-obsessed.
But culture rarely plays by such clean rules. With technology, media and identities shifting faster than ever, are these buckets still helpful or just lazy clichés that flatten real people?
For Sophie Kitchen, senior strategist at 160over90, the lesson is simple: “Brands hit the jackpot when their messaging, values, campaigns, or products fall into the hands of cultural obsessives. These consumers remix and expand original material, bringing new audiences into the fold.”
If algorithms are already interest-first, why are so many audience decks still birth-year-first?
Across interviews with strategists, planners and researchers, a pattern emerges. Generational labels are a blunt starting point. Today’s effective segmentation blends life stage, identity and mindsets, fandoms and micro-communities, with generation kept as a light layer for context, not the organising principle.