Kylie, Sandra, Nicole and Madonna are centre stage, is it time brands saw the value of the women standing beside them

By Danielle Steele, Client Strategist, Are Media

Kylie Minogue took to the MCG for the AFL Grand Final over the weekend and reminded Australia what a star looks like. At 58, she commanded the stage and had generations of fans singing along.

A day later, Madonna, 68, opened the MTV VMAs with her first performance at the ceremony in 23 years, going on to take home seven awards, including Artist of the Year, Best Dance and Best Collaboration. Meanwhile, Sandra Bullock, 62, and Nicole Kidman, 59, have turned their recent Practical Magic 2 press tour into an event of its own, drawing headlines wherever they go.

There is something exciting about seeing women at this stage of life celebrated so openly. They are at the top of their game, and the years behind them are part of what makes them compelling. Kylie and Madonna have decades of hits and still know how to create moments that feel entirely current. Bullock and Kidman have chemistry and history you can't manufacture overnight. Best of all, audiences, both young and old, love it.

You only had to look at the AFL's social feeds on Saturday to see Kylie captivating fans across generations. Meanwhile, Sandra and Nicole have introduced midnight margaritas to a whole new audience. These women are seen as cool, compelling and entirely current.

Beyond the famous few

After decades of responding to marketing briefs that rarely considered women over 54, we have to wonder whether our picture of what it means to approach or enter your sixties is finally changing. Could brands be ready to recognise those same qualities in women who aren't famous?

Because for every Kylie, Sandra, Nicole or Madonna, there are millions of women whose lives defy an outdated picture of "older". They are working, creating, travelling, caring for others and trying new things. Some have freedoms they didn't have a decade ago; others juggle more responsibilities than ever. Their lives cannot be summed up by a single age bracket.

Yet brands have been slower to change the way they speak to them than the culture around them. I've been fortunate to work on research exploring how women feel when they no longer fit neatly into the familiar 25–54 media target. Again and again, we hear that they feel overlooked by advertisers.

To borrow and mince Kylie's words, some brands still can't get these women into their heads.

The Power Gap

Research Are Media released with WPP Media earlier this year, The Power Gap, found that more than a quarter of women aged 45 and over do not feel represented by major brands across advertising, packaging and communications. That feeling sits alongside considerable economic influence: Australia has 4.8 million women in this age group, and they accounted for $2.8 billion in health and beauty spending over a four-week period, more than Gen Z and Gen Y combined.

This disconnect has persisted for years. Another study we called DEFIANT found that 70% of women aged 50 to 64 thought advertisers were not interested in speaking to women their age. Yet the women themselves described lives full of confidence, ambition and possibility. Their sense of who they were had moved well beyond the narrow version of ageing they saw in advertising.

Rewriting the brief

That is what makes the excitement around Madonna, Kylie, Sandra and Nicole interesting for marketers. We readily understand why women approaching or entering their sixties are aspirational when they are in the spotlight. We are less practised at recognising the aspirations, influence and individuality of women their age in everyday life.

Of course, their buying decisions are rarely driven by age alone. They are shaped by interests, priorities, relationships and plans for what comes next. That gives brands every reason to be more curious. Who do we picture when we say "women over 50"? Does our creative reflect the lives they lead? Do our media plans reach them in places they trust? And when a target audience ends at 54, is that because the customer stops buying, or because the brief has always been written that way?

Outside the spotlight

Kylie didn't need the Grand Final to make her relevant. Bullock and Kidman didn't need a sequel to prove they could hold our attention. And Madonna is, well, Madonna. But seeing them celebrated so enthusiastically should make us think about the women we overlook when they're outside the spotlight.

Brands have a chance to catch up: to see those same qualities in their everyday counterparts, then put the attention and investment behind speaking to them properly.