The Trillion Dollar Blind Spot: Why Brands Are Ignoring Their 2025 Lifeline

By Lee Brody, Co-Founder and President at Openly Gray and Lee St. James, Co-Founder and ECD at Openly Gray

Let’s be honest: Hitting your year-end 2025 goals is more of a pipe dream every day.

The first half of 2025 has been unprecedented. Unstable global markets, pervasive downsizing, and shifting consumer sentiment have conspired against the old playbook. The era of predictable growth, a comfortable assumption, is over. Replaced by an unease that hangs in the air like a fog over future profitability.

In tumultuous times, accurately projecting sales has become a task for MIT data scientists. Decades-old models, built on historical assumptions of growth, are inadequate. Strategies once enough to weather the storm are now useless. The second half of the year, and beyond, demands sharper focus and smarter strategies.

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All of this begs the crucial question: How are you going to finish the year?

In this climate, companies can’t afford the long game; there is an urgent need for immediate results from alternative sources of revenue.

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A powerful and underestimated buying group stands ready to provide a lifeline: the 50+ gray market. With $8 trillion in disposable income, greater financial security, and a stable presence in almost every category, this demographic is not only resilient but highly influential. Yet, it remains embarrassingly invisible to most marketers.

Why marketers choose to dismiss the gray market defies rational thinking.

This is not a niche audience. It’s you or that group you met at the Bon Jovi concert in ’94. Active, engaged, and alive people who spend a lot and shape the spending decisions of their families. When they lean into a brand, they are a powerful force.

It is also not a new paradigm. In 2023, before the election and ensuing war on trade, market turbulence, international conflict, and domestic discord, Boston Consulting Group’s Consumer Insights Group surfaced the facts. Vibrant mature consumers, what we call “active agers,” outspend younger cohorts in every category from vehicles to snacks. Ninety percent are regular (daily) users of social media, and their influence on the purchase behavior of younger generations for high-ticket items ranges from 24% to 36%.

Reaching this valuable group requires nothing more than an easy shift in perspective.

Rethink some of your assumptions about sources of growth. Interrogate your plans through the 50+ lens. See an opportunity, seize it. Don’t resist based on the experience and training of the past. This is about survival and building true value in an uncertain world. 

Openly Gray is completely focused on the longevity economy. Our value is engaging and converting gray market buyers, short- and long-term, and supporting your teams with audience “sensitivity” training.

With half the year still ahead, now is the moment to recalibrate.

Tapping the gray market, even as a test, may be one of the smartest moves you make to respectfully finish 2025.

FINDING THE WHITE SPACE IN THE GRAY SPACE

The 50+ population is not a tiny, specialty audience: It’s Gen X and Boomers who believe they’re younger than their years. These are active, engaged consumers who buy across categories and shape the purchasing decisions of their families. They value trust, reliability, and quality. When they find brands that align with their needs, they become loyal customers and powerful advocates.

THE OPENLY GRAY STORY

Openly Gray was born out of a frustration that so much of today’s marketing overlooks its most valuable consumers. The 50+ market—a powerhouse of influence and buying power—is being glaringly ignored. Brands are leaving money on the table, and we’re not the kind of team to let that happen.

We’ve been in this business long enough to know what works, what doesn’t, and when it’s time to change. Our team? We’re a seasoned group of advertising, marketing, and PR specialists who’ve been around the block—and made it look good while we did it.

We’ve led campaigns, built brands, won awards, and delivered results. With decades of experience and a collective understanding of what truly resonates, we’re here to help companies unlock the potential of the Gray Market with strategies that are smart, modern, and bold.

Here’s the truth: we are marketers, but we’re also the audience.

We’ve grown with this generation, watched it evolve, and lived its story. And now we’re flipping the script. Visit and follow us on LinkedIn or at openlygray.com. We’re here to give you a push.

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