Saga, the UK travel and insurance business dedicated to consumers over the age of 50, is taking a more brand-led approach with its latest campaign which is focused on the holiday market.

This features locals in in Mongolia, Norway and Spain relating stories about the Saga holiday makers they’ve met and also sees several products pulled together for the first time – holidays, cruises (the brand is launching its first-ever purpose built cruise ship this summer, with a second one to follow next year) and travel insurance.

“This is the perfect time for us to do this because it’s not just advertising, the product is changing,” according to Saga group chief customer officer Stuart Beamish.

“We’re pushing for growth. We want to bring new members to the brand to fill our new ships,” he told Marketing Week.

Carrying the tagline ‘The World is Waiting to Meet You’, the campaign is being delivered across television, digital media and scrapbook-style brochures.

“It’s about trying to have a deeper experience rather than just selling,” Beamish explained. “A more engaging interactive experience with customers across our products, services, information and advice. That is what consumers expect.”

As a specialist in serving older consumers, Saga is of course perfectly aware of what they expect – “we speak to them every few weeks”, said Beamish – and other brands (and agencies) might do well to take notice of what it is doing and to focus on attitudes rather than age.

Research by Gransnet and Mumsnet among 1,028 of their users last year found 78% of those aged 50 or over felt under-represented or misrepresented by advertising, with 49% claiming to actively avoid brands who ignore them.

And those brands that are targeting them are frequently unwelcome. At the Festival of Marketing, where the research was unveiled, RBS CMO David Wheldon complained that “my targeting is funeral plans, walk-in baths and pensions”.

Saga has an advantage over many brands in this regard, being a customer-centric organisation from its outset and having accumulated a wealth of data on them which it is now in a position to convert into personalised experiences.

“The opportunity is to bring all those [Saga] products and services together around the customer,” said Beamish.

Sourced from Marketing Week; additional content by WARC staff