While there were category wins for Stannah, CareUK and the RSPCA at this year’s Silver Marketing Awards, there was a clear story to tell about which industry is hitting the brief best when it comes to marketing to the over 50s demographic.
At the Silver Marketing Awards ceremony held on 3 July, host Aled Jones MBE presented more than half the top awards to marketing teams from across the travel industry and around 40% of nominees receiving a Highly Commended accreditation were from the same industry. Big travel brands topping the tables included Jules Verne, Sandals and Fred Olsen Cruise Lines.
Ceremony organiser, the Silver Marketing Association, says the results highlight how travel companies and their in-house and agency teams are getting better at tuning into the needs of the over 50s demographic, creating campaigns which maximise appeal to this lucrative section of the population.
The silver sector now accounts for 35% of the UK population and controls three-quarters of the UK’s wealth.
Jacynth Bassett, meanwhile, won the inaugural Exceptional Achievement Award. The Silver Marketing Awards judges said that Jacynth’s important and tireless work has had great impact. Collectively they congratulated her for reshaping narratives – actively inspiring businesses and individuals worldwide to put age-inclusivity and longevity firmly on the global map.
Speaking after the event, Silver Marketing Association MD Debbie Marshall said: “While these results show there’s a lot of great activity in travel that other industries can learn from, this third year of our annual awards has seen a record number of entries from across many different industries selling products and services to the over 50s.
“With winning entrants such as Stannah, CareUK and the RSPCA, the quality and variety of all submissions have really buoyed us as an organisation dedicated to promoting best practice and ethical marketing to the silver sector. The over 50s demographic is a powerful, influential group that is too often ignored or misrepresented by mainstream marketing, so it’s great to see work which addresses this to ensure marketers don’t make mistakes that brands can’t afford.”
Held in partnership with Global, this year’s Silver Marketing Awards had a judging panel consisting of more than 20 professionals. They work in a diverse range of industry sectors and all are carefully vetted for wisdom and impartiality. After carefully assessing the record number of entries they determined a shortlist and ultimately winners for each of the 11 categories ranging from Best TV and Best Outdoor to Best PR and Best Social Media campaigns.
A list of all Winners and those who were Highly Commended can be seen at: https://silvermarketingassociation.org/awards-shortlist-2025
Speaking about the judging experience, Tony Watts OBE, MD of Hartley Watts Communications and Director of Retire Easy UK said: “Judging entries has been a real privilege, and there were some real stand-out campaigns that showed imagination and ingenuity as well as a genuine understanding of the market. I was also impressed how some campaigns with very modest budgets have achieved some exceptional KPIs.”
The Silver Marketing Association is a trade membership organisation created by marketing industry professionals to promote best practice and ethical marketing to the silver (over 50s) sector.
Members benefit from a wealth of resources and networking opportunities to help them communicate successfully with this diverse, complex and lucrative demographic – from continually updated research and white papers to valuable industry connections and campaigning that reaches beyond marketing and values the growing and influential over-50s population.
