Predicted Trend 2/6: Traditional life stages are blurring, age is no longer a targeting strategy fit for purpose
After exploring our first blog that challenged the belief that creative participation in marketing will surge this year, we’re back with the second instalment of our six-part 2026 Anti-Trend Series.
We’re turning our attention to a topic that continues to trip brands up time and time again: audience targeting.
On the surface, this might sound like marketing basics but scratch a little deeper and it becomes clear that many organisations are still relying on outdated assumptions, rigid demographic groupings and well-worn shortcuts. In a world where people’s lives, identities and behaviours are more fluid than ever, that approach can quietly (but significantly) hinder brand growth.
The prediction for 2026: “THE NEW YOUNG: Traditional life stages are blurring due to increased longevity and fluid milestones creating an ‘extended middle’ that is a missed opportunity for brands focused on younger audiences.”
Here we are challenging the concept of ‘New’. The past few years have been anything but ordinary. Pandemic disruptions, a cost-of-living crisis, and global tensions have shattered traditional milestones. To suggest that these shifts will only start shaping 2026 feels misguided. If brands are just waking up to this reality now, they’re not ahead of the curve, they’re already behind.
Longer lifespans, changing economic pressures and evolving social norms mean that milestones we once took for granted (settling down, having children, buying property, retiring) are happening later, differently, or sometimes not at all.
The result? A growing “extended middle” where people don’t neatly fit into the boxes of young, middle-aged or old. Someone in their 50s might be launching a new career, training for a marathon or booking their first festival since the 90s. Meanwhile, someone in their late 20s could be far more risk-averse, financially cautious and home-focused than generations before them. However, many brands are still planning as if age equals mindset.
Why is “THE NEW YOUNG” not a revolutionary trend for 2026?
The blurring of life stages has been happening for a long time and isn’t going to significantly jolt into a more dominant existence in 2026.
Greater access to media, content and communities has given people visibility of different lifestyles, identities and choices well beyond their immediate social circles for years now. Multiple generations have now spent most, or all, of their lives online, shaping their tastes, expectations and behaviours in ways that cut across age groups.
That’s why brands that rely heavily on traditional demographics, particularly age alone, have been on shaky ground for years. Age can tell you how long someone has been alive. It tells you very little about how they think, what motivates them, what triggers action or how they behave in real-world contexts.
When brands fixate on “younger audiences” as the default growth strategy, they often overlook people who are just as culturally engaged, digitally fluent and open to new experiences, and other signals or triggers making them a potential consumer.
So, what is the best way to approach audience targeting for brands in 2026?
At Mediaplus UK, we rarely plan using demographic characteristics alone. That’s not because demographics are useless (they’re not) but because they’re only a starting point, not a strategy.
For example, two people of the same age can have wildly different relationships with money, technology, health or risk. Take King Charles and the late Ozzy Osbourne, for example - at one point in time, they were both aged 75, male, married with two or more children and an estimated wealth of over £100m. However, in reality their personality, behaviours and interests couldn’t be more different.
Our in-house experts within our Behave consultancy build bespoke audiences for our clients, which are defined, and led by, behavioural signals and triggers (rather than demographics). We use a variety of layered research methods and insights to identify:
- What people actually do, not just who they are
- The moments that influence decisions
- The contexts in which brands are the most relevant and timely
By understanding behaviours, motivations and psychological drivers, we can build and target audience definitions that reflect real life, rather than outdated assumptions based on the number candles on a birthday cake. This allows brands to move beyond broad generational targeting and towards more precise, meaningful engagement that is more likely to resonate with consumers.
What does this mean for brands and advertisers listening to trends?
Don’t treat trends like this as signals to simply update demographic definitions (e.g., by redefining “young” or expanding age brackets), but rather as prompts to rethink how targeting is done altogether, by:
- Treat demographics as a starting point, not a targeting strategy.
- Interrogate what’s really changing: behaviours, motivations, triggers and decision-making contexts and target audiences demonstrating the relevant behaviours.
The Final Word
A word from our Digital Strategy Director, William Reddihough:
“Data-driven marketing has been table stakes for years; with all the data we can utilise demographics are marginal gains at best. Relying heavily on age, outside of legal requirements like categories such as alcohol or automotive, should have been obsolete long ago. This trend makes out that only now we are seeing a blending of life stages across generations minimising the effectiveness of demographic targeting due to missing out on potential consumers.
Consumers have been defined by their motivations, behaviours, and actions for longer than just the advent of the internet. Being online just amplifies the access and visibility for more diverse choices to be made. While life stages may offer some context, impactful marketing requires focusing on the drivers that dictate consumer choice than simply removing an audience’s age filter in 2026.”
