Welcome to Happy Days Agency
We help brands grow with Gen X and Boomers: 45+ consumers who control half of UK spending and never compromise on quality
The Opportunity Everyone’s Missing
Consumers in their prime earning and influence years — Generation X and Baby Boomers — contribute £602 billion annually to the UK economy and control over half of all household spending. With the majority debt-free and holding significant savings, they represent the most financially secure growth audience in Britain. Yet they remain largely invisible in marketing.
Only 12% of UK adverts feature Gen X or Boomers in a leading role, and just 29% of TV advertising includes them at all. The disconnect runs deeper. These consumers are not price-led. They research carefully, value quality, and 64% refuse to compromise on brands they trust. They are ready to invest in premium products and services — but only with brands that treat them as capable, relevant and intelligent.
So why do so many campaigns fail to connect? Most UK agencies are built around youth culture. The average agency employee is 33.9 years old, and only 6% of agency staff are over 50. As a result, youth-coded tactics and assumptions are routinely applied to midlife audiences who see straight through them — leading to missed opportunity, weak performance and wasted budget.
Why We Are Different
We understand these audiences because we are these audiences. This is lived experience with decades of expertise. We know:
- What authentic messaging looks like vs. stereotypes
- Channels they actually use and how they're used differently
- What drives purchase decisions at this life stage
- How to create emotional connections that are genuine
- Cultural references that resonate vs. ones that feel dated
What We Care About
Principles that shape how we approach midlife audiences
and why our work resonates where others miss.
- Experience over algorithms
- Lived experiences over demographic data
- Authenticity over age-appropriate stereotypes
- Relationship and trust over empty promises
- Respect over pandering
End to End or Bespoke Services
- Deep research into midlife growth audiences: Understanding Gen X and Boomers as two distinct generations.
- Value proposition, voice and strategy: Built around real priorities, behaviours and commercial opportunity.
- Creative development and adaptation: Work that resonates without stereotypes or youth-coded shortcuts.
- Campaign production, content and live activations: Designed to engage, inspire and convert across touch points.
- Influencer, creator and partnership programmes: Powered by credible voices and culturally relevant partnerships.
- Media planning, buying and optimisation: Reaching Gen X and Boomers through the right channels and formats.
What Our Campaigns Are
- Grounded in insights, meaning, real people, live groups
- Creativity and execution that moves you. Brilliant ideas
- An event you want to attend. With people like you. FOMO
- Partners you trust and media you read. Subscribers
- Content that stops the scroll and you actively seek out.
- By a brand that you trust, purchase and care about.
What Our Campaigns Are Not
- Stock photos of silver-haired people on beaches. Cliches
- Talk about retirement when they’re at career peaks. Prime
- Assuming they don’t understand technology. Patronising
- Youth-focused trends awkwardly aged up. Not cool
- Influencers they’ve never heard of. Unknowns
- Media they don't skip, read or scroll past. Wasteful
Who We Work With
Gen X and Baby Boomer feel undervalued and overlooked by the vast majority of brands in these categories:
Financial Services, Healthcare & Wellness, Travel & Hospitality, Property & Homes, Premium Retail & Luxury, Entertainment & Sports, Technology & Media.
If your current marketing isn't resonating or reaching your most valuable customers, we'd love to talk.
Meet one of the founders
Our team combines decades of experience at leading UK, European, and American agencies with lived understanding of Gen X and Boomer audiences. We don't just study this demographic — we are this demographic, with the marketing expertise to back it up. Alongside Mike Mathieson (Chairman), Anthony Ackenhoff (CCO) is founder and CEO Jez Jowett: Havas, Omnicom, and Cake. Gen X.
Ready to Stop Ignoring Your Most Valuable Customers?
Let's talk about how to reach the 50+ audience that actually drives your revenue.
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