28% of TikTok users are Gen Xers. Only 5% of brands target that cohort with influencer marketing.

Generation X is often described using modifiers like “lost,” “forgotten,” and “invisible,” and those labels also apply to the cohort’s activities on TikTok. According to research published by the media agency Wavemaker, influencer marketing campaigns are underserving Gen X, which accounts for 28% of TikTok users and possesses significant spending power.

In its report, Wavemaker (which is a subsidiary of global media firm GroupM) defines Gen Xers as individuals between the ages of 45 and 60. 92% of that group is active on social media every day, but Gen X is chronically underrepresented in media campaigns. According to Wavemaker, only 5% of brands target the former “latchkey kids” through influencer marketing, even though those consumers are now responsible for 27% of global spending.

The Wavemaker report argues that Millennials, Gen Z, and Generation Alpha receive more attention from marketers because they were early adopters of internet-age technology. “In an industry that prides itself on audience insight, this blind spot is bizarre,” reads the report. “The adoption pattern of social channels provides some clues, with youth audiences always first in and moulding the functionality and user experience, followed more sedately by older consumers.”