The demographics of the people who make decisions and spend money in the world are about to undergo a tectonic transition. If you want your organization to get connected with these new groups, you have to adapt your communications and marketing content to suit the places where they spend their time and money.

The baby boomers are retiring in Canada. And as the baby boomers exit the workforce, their absence changes the balance of spending and decision-making power in the marketplace. 

As boomers leave the C-Suite and start to transfer $1 trillion to their kids by 2026, Gen X have moved to the top of the food chain. The New York Times reported last July that the average age of incoming CEOs is 54, and Forbes reported last year that “the sandwich generation” leads more than half of Fortune 500 companies.

Millennials are moving up, too. 62% of millennials had employees who reported to them directly in 2020. According to Statistics Canada, Gen X and Millennials make up about 16 million people–or about 68% of Canada’s working-age population in 2023.

With new generations come new habits. For example: Pollara Strategic Insights reported in July that about 70% of baby boomers get their news from TV. That number falls under 50% for Gen X, and it barely cracks the top five sources of news for millennials.

Or consider this report from the U.S. Bureau of Labour Statistics comparing how Millennials in 2019 spend their time compared to Gen Xers at the same age in 2003. Less of them are socializing every day, but they play games and use the computer for non-work purposes at nearly double the rate of Gen X. They’re spending more time on recreation and exercise and less time reading.

Then of course there’s social media. 44% of Milennials use social media every day, compared to 34% of Gen X and 28% of Baby Boomers. Facebook (over 3 billion) and YouTube (about 2.4 billion) have the highest monthly active users around the world, with Instagram (2 billion) and TikTok (1.7 billion) close behind. But when it comes to capturing and holding our attention, TikTok and YouTube take the top spots, with users spending more than 48 minutes a day there on average.

What kinds of content do well on what platforms?

The short answer is videos of all different shapes and sizes. You can find a cornucopia of different kinds of content on YouTube, from highly produced reality-game show creators like MrBeast, to cross-posted content from late night stalwarts like Stephen Colbert and John Oliver, to animated kids song channels like Cocomelon.

TikTok and Instagram Reels, on the other hand, favour short form, bite-sized videos. Khabane Lame amassed over 160 million followers on TikTok by poking fun at complicated “life hack” videos. Charli d’Amelio is close behind, posting about 10 short videos a week featuring dancing and lip-syncing, fashion and style, and the occasional product endorsement. On Instagram Reels Khabane is responsible for six out of ten of the platform’s most-viewed videos.

If you think that all of these channels and creators are wildly different, you’re right. But what they have in common is that every single video they produce is planned, created, and written with intention and strategy.

What does this mean for your communications and marketing? 

Gen X and millennials are now making most of the decisions in our world, and they’re already doing the vast majority of consumer spending. If these audiences aren’t already the focus of your marketing and communications, they should be.

To reach these audiences and persuade them to make a decision or buy a product, you’ve got to adapt your communications and marketing content to the places where they’re spending their time.

News releases and press conferences aren’t enough anymore. With fewer reporters than ever before, as my colleague Jeff has noted, you’ve got to create more of your own content to be in the news. 

And you can’t stop there. Depending on the audience you’re after, short-form videos, podcasts, long-form explainers, memes, and even dancing and lip-syncing to popular songs need to be tools in your communications and marketing tool belt.

That’s a lot more content than we’re used to creating–which adds pressure to communications and marketing teams to use generative AI for content creation. Without it, you just won’t have time to write and create everything you need.

So if the communications and marketing firm you’re using hasn’t told you any of this, fire them. 

And yeah, hire us. We’ll make sure you’re ready to tell your story to the right audience — to the decision-makers and consumers you need to achieve your business objectives — in today’s marketplace.

Does your organization need help creating content that breaks through the noise and connects with your audiences? We can help. Contact us today.