LSN : News : Stat: Brands are neglecting Gen X on social media

Intuit Mailchimp enters Design Museum to question the future of emails

Email is Dead exhibition by Design Museum, London, UK

UK – London’s Design Museum has unveiled its immersive exhibition, Email is Dead, in collaboration with email and marketing automation platform Intuit Mailchimp,, which is open until 22 October 2023. The temporary space aims to provide a multi-sensory experience that re-imagines the future of email communications.

Visitors enter through a bright yellow wall designed like an envelope and engage in interactive activities, such as creating an email time capsule and taking an email personality test. The exhibition also features a customised soundtrack and even an aroma, Eau de Email, designed to evoke the sense of connection and lucidity associated with email. The exhibit celebrates email’s longevity over the past 50 years and challenges visitors to rethink their perceptions of this ubiquitous form of communication.

‘With the rapid expansion of AI that’s happening, we found the chatter about the death of email to be, quite frankly, hilarious,’ Christian Widlic, group creative director at Intuit Mailchimp, told Wallpaper.

By celebrating its core mission of sending emails, Intuit Mailchimp proves how essentialism should be embraced by brands as a tool to grow not only brand awareness – visitors will recognise Mailchimp’s yellow branding throughout the exhibit – but also a reminder of their USP and roots.

Strategic opportunity

Temporary, exclusive experiences can create a sense of urgency and attract attention. Consider limited-time promotions or events such as a free interactive exhibition like Email is Dead to engage customers

Little Spoon re-imagines a healthier Lunchables for Gen Alpha

Little Spoon, US

US – Lunchables, the nostalgic staple food from the 1990s and early noughties, has had a makeover. Children’s food brand Little Spoon has redesigned the snackable meal, supplementing it with a nutrient boost and a refreshed look.

Classic Lunchables appeal to kids – and often their parents – for their fun, snackable format and comforting flavours. Think crackers and cheese, chicken nuggets or pizza assembly kits. Little Spoon took the same crowd-pleasing concept, adjusting it to fit the brand’s philosophy to make kids’ diets healthier. Rebranded as Lunchers, the processed snacks and dodgy additives were swapped for whole foods. This makes for a balanced meal, sneaking veggies into kids’ diets while branding them as fun foods. Even the dips are cosplaying as junk food, swapping ketchup full of stabilisers for a hidden veggie marinara sauce, or a ranch dressing for a probiotic-rich yoghurt.

Legacy food products remain appealing to consumers, but they are ripe for re-invention when it comes to branding and ingredient lists. Keep an eye out for our upcoming look at snacking futures and the evolution of food and drink in the kids’ aisle.

Strategic opportunity

There is a growing consumer appetite for comfort foods and childhood classics with a refreshed branding and streamlined ingredient list. For businesses, this is a chance to re-engineer indulgence for evolved palates and health-focused diets

Shiseido to unveil its first Shiseido Beauty Wellness range

AI imagery by The Future Laboratory, UK

Japan – Beauty giant Shiseido is expanding its horizons with the launch of Shiseido Beauty Wellness (SBW), signalling its move into the wellness sector. Set for its debut in February 2024, SBW is the result of collaborative research and development between Shiseido and Japanese distributors Tsumura and Kagome, initially targeting the Japanese market. From 2025, SBW will expand into other Asian markets, including China.

According to the brand, SBW’s mission is to harmonise skin, body and mind, partnering with experts in these domains to provide innovative beauty solutions. Shiseido Beauty Wellness aims to become a personal beauty wellness company by 2030, focusing on holistic wellbeing and sustainability.

The move comes as global concerns about health and wellbeing continue to rise, with 74% of women in Japan aged from their 20s to their 60s surveyed by Shiseido identifying a connection between skin, body and mind. SBW aims to use Shiseido’s century of research and data science expertise, partnering with specialists in herbal medicines and vegetable-based products for co-created offerings.

As explored in Mood-boosting Beauty, cosmetics brands are expanding and taking cues from neuroscience to inform new products and support consumers with their beauty on the outside and the inside by supporting mental wellbeing.

Strategic opportunity

Using consumer interest in holistic wellbeing, beauty industry players should explore wellness product lines to diversify their brands’ offerings and encompass both physical and mental health

Stat: Brands are neglecting Gen X on social media

Photography by Ketut Subiyanto

Global – According to a report published in September 2023 by media agency Wavemaker, influencer marketing campaigns largely ignore Gen X, despite 92% of 45–60-year-olds using social media every day.

The report, Finding the Gen X Factor, collated data showing that despite accounting for 31% of the global population, 28% of TikTok users and 27% of global spending, only 5% of brands are targeting Gen X using influencer marketing.

Wavemaker, a subsidiary of global media firm GroupM, also found that Gen X are more brand-loyal than their younger counterparts, but have unique needs, such as using platforms to continue parenting after their offspring have left home. Owing to a lack of research into the demographic, campaigns often fail to acknowledge this.

As Youth Culture Enters its Flat Age Era, and older women are finally getting the respect they deserve across the entertainment industry, brands need to shake off the archaic notion that only young people are engaged with social media. Not doing so risks missing out on a brand-loyal and relatively untapped market ripe for the picking.

Strategic opportunity

Build relationships with Gen X influencers to create segmented campaigns tailored to Gen X interests such as family-orientated content, financial planning, health and wellness, and don’t forget the nostalgia that appeals to the authenticity and me-time that this demographic crave from social media