How do you enhance perceptions of your brand and establish a connection with a generation that has often been overlooked?
Once dubbed “America’s neglected middle child,” Generation X has quietly aged into AARP’s 50-plus community. Our challenge: How do we capture the attention of Generation X and establish AARP as a destination for them? Our solution: Develop an engaging presence on TikTok with entertaining and relatable content that resonates with Gen Xers and makes them feel seen. Suprise, surprise!
Our objectives are straightforward:
Engage Gen X through entertaining, relatable content that resonates with their life experiences.
Enhance perceptions of AARP and increase brand affinity among this key demographic.
AARP’s TikTok account is personality-driven, starring “AARP TikTok guy” Craig and tapping into relatable experiences of aging with a heavy dose of both humor and nostalgia. Putting aside what works for AARP on other social channels and leaning into what makes TikTok unique, we established a brand voice that is witty, a little irreverent, and genuinely Gen X – steeped in ’80s and ’90s culture.
Our voice on TikTok is:
Unexpected: Our voice and presence deliver surprise and delight
Authentic: Cultivating a relatable persona, both in what we post and how we engage, allows us to build a community that genuinely enjoys connecting with AARP
Connected: By developing relationships with other Gen X TikTokers, we’ve been able to build credibility within this tight-knit community that thrives on shared memories and life experiences, and a mutual understanding of who Gen Xers are today
And more than on any other social platform, we know that a brand’s personality on TikTok plays a critical role in how they are perceived – and accepted – by the community. Active community management is key to creating authentic connections, building brand affinity, and growing an audience of fans who enthusiastically consume and share our content.
We invite the community to participate and make use of platform tools like video responses to show that we are listening and acting on what they want to see and hear. This year, one of our most-viewed videos was a response to a user comment. And several of our most successful content series, such as Gen X ASMR, Craig Explains the 80s and My 80s Childhood Fears, are fueled by requests crowdsourced from our comments section.
We are quick to engage, and speak the language of the platform and our audience. Replies are always genuine and responsive, and never canned.
We regularly comment on other creators’ content to reach new audiences and to take advantage of opportunities to be in on the inevitable jokes about aging and AARP. These interactions not only lead to new followers, but creators often reply with videos highlighting our comments – and this is how we see perceptions changing in real time.
We bring new faces and fresh perspectives to our channel by partnering with other Gen X creators.
Our TikTok channel delivers surprise and delight for our audience and measurable success for AARP, and our community management efforts on TikTok have paid off. In 2023, we:
Grew our community to nearly 350,000 followers
Posted 80+ videos, including 15 viral videos (1M+ views)
Overall, our content generated:
50M views
1.1M likes
35.7K comments
75K shares
AARP now ranks as one of the top nonprofits on TikTok when it comes to both likes and followers.
We're also achieving our goal of enhancing perceptions and building brand affinity among Gen Xers. The proof is in the comments, which show an overwhelmingly positive sentiment as users discover a new, unexpected side of AARP:
“Now the AARP TikTok is my Roman Empire 😅”
“WE ARE IN OUR AARP ERA YALL 🥰”
“This isn’t our grandparents’ AARP”
“I’ve been bamboozled!! How is @aarp this cool?!?!? 😂”
“These videos have made me feel so much better about getting older ... I’m doing it with the coolest group! Pleeeeeease keep these coming!! 🙏😂”
“It’s genius bc we’re all gonna be following this page by the time we need them “
“I applaud the vision of AARP to do this instead of like talking abt coupons or whatever🏆”
“Do you want me to follow the AARP at 44? Because this is how you make that happen”
“If this isn’t a way to get me to follow a company on social media, I don’t know what is 😂”
“I would like you to tell your bosses that I signed up for AARP at 47yo solely because of this TikTok account”
“Did not expect this to be my new fave TikTok account, but here we are”
“If AARP is the only one who really sees Gen X … I’m here for it”
“Okay, I don’t know who’s doing AARP’s social media, but they are worth their absolute weight in gold”
“The fact that @aarp commented on this TikTok makes me less worried about being old enough for the AARP”
