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| Photo by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rileyroxx/151985627/ |
Do you work in marketing, advertising, digital, PR – or any marketing related company or business? Take a look around the office.
How many people over 40 or 50 are there in your teams? I am guessing almost none, if any at all!
I had been thinking about this very topic, and then was watching a BBC 1 Panorama special called “Finished at 50” that was about the problem people over 50 have in staying in work, and the huge problems they have after 50 finding work in their previous career. Most of them had to train to do something else, or set up their own business.
In the marketing, and related functions, where are all the over 40 and 50s? Where do they go to?
With the discussion and new laws in many markets asking people to work later and later to drive down the cost of pensions, I was wondering how the marketing world will need to change to be less of a young person’s career to adjust to this. And how it can happen.
Marketing and Advertising Agencies, certainly in my experience of large “blue chip” companies that I have been more part of in my career to date seem to largely consist of men and women under 40 (let alone 50). In the very ambitious world of marketing, people strive to be marketing directors in their 30s. Many companies seem to follow that approach. Even Managing Directors, where many high performing marketing people seem to move to, seem to be more in their 40s.
So one question is: where on earth do all the “aging” marketers and advertising people go to? Some possibly move on through to very senior roles in organizations, but in reality that is only a few as the pyramid gets smaller and smaller as you go up to the top of an organization. Others maybe go into smaller organizations with smaller teams and where they seek fewer people with longer experiences to bring. Some go into “consulting” or “training”, and this seems a very common route as a look on LinkedIn and by searching online will show, where the old experienced marketers are used ad-hic on issues from the outside. Other change careers I guess, and follow other passions and dreams. Maybe some have planned well and just retire!
It does though seem a little bit crazy that marketing and advertising is so young focused. And age is almost seen as a sign of lack of success. Is the reality that many organizations are simply losing history, depth of knowledge and experience in the industry? Especially when we have an aging population, and increasingly the key to success is going to be marketing and selling to over 40s, over 50s, over 60s....? I wonder how many over 50s work on anti-aging products and procedures across the industry for example?
Diversity is always important. Maybe we should all think about age diversity in marketing and related industry teams – and not just male/ female and cultural diversity?
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