Bristol creative agencies Bray Leino and Speed Communications have launched a consultancy specifically to cater for brands seeking to engage with a 50-plus audience.
Anything But Grey is made up of a team of specialists across the marketing spectrum who fit into this age group – an approach the agencies behind it describe as a direct challenge to the ageism that is rife in an industry where the average age is 36. 
They point to research showing nearly 90% of people aged over 55 say they feel unhappy with the way advertising represents them, which shows an urgent need for the marketing industry to work more effectively to reach an audience representing 4.5m people.
Anything But Grey aims to create breakthrough marketing campaigns that celebrate the unique attitudinal differences of older consumers, rather than categorising this group into one demographic.
The consultancy has been founded by executive creative director Nicola Roberts and PR strategy and creative director Sarah Firth.
Nicola is one of the UK’s few female executive creative directors with an agency career that spans London to Australia and experience on brands such as Boots, P&G, NatWest and Sainsbury’s.
Sarah was part of the first in-house agency creative function at Lexis PR, where she was responsible for numerous award-winning creative campaigns for Barclaycard, Guinness, Coca-Cola, McVitie’s and Unilever.
They will be joined by a team of more than 30 creatives, strategists, earned media specialists and client services leads who are all reflective of the target audience.
Bray Leino, whose offering spans strategy, creative, digital, media, brand development, events and brand activation, and PR and communications agency Speed Communications – both part of Devon-based MISSION group of creative agencies – collectively have 17% of their workforce in the 50-plus age bracket.
Sarah said: “Audiences over 50 are largely overlooked by the industry, yet they hold nearly three quarters of the UK’s housing wealth and account for over half of all UK household spending.
“They deserve more respect and attention and I’m delighted to be part of this exciting consultancy offer that will shake up the status quo.”
Nicola added: “Putting yourself in a person’s shoes is key to connecting with the audience and creating impactful work that hits the sweet spot.
“And who better to deliver that work than someone 50-plus? That’s why we painstakingly engineered a creative collective with a firm grip on what it is like to actually be that age.
“We believe this will go a long way to help land ideas, campaigns and platforms that grow clients’ businesses and finally change the landscape. And it’s not before time.”
Anything But Grey will also offer a community of thought leaders and opinion formers that inform and co-create to drive relevance and authenticity.
A founding member of the community is Dr Eliza Filby, an expert in ‘generational intelligence’ and passionate advocate for age diversity.
She said: “Whilst diversity and understanding nuance is now the cornerstone for marketing to almost every other demographic, the same isn’t true of the over-50s where a ‘one size fits all approach’ is still the norm.”
