AARP: “The Younger You Are The More You Need AARP.”

The invitation to pitch AARP landed shortly after we all started working from home. Pitching remotely was going to be a huge challenge for us, but it ended up being probably the best pitch I have ever worked on. We had a small, tight team of people who trusted and respected each other, we came up with a really simple strategic approach to answering the brief and the creative teams did a wonderful job conceiving three brilliant creative platforms, which they brought to life beautifully.

The brief from AARP was a one of the best briefs I have ever read. The core brief was only about a page in length and it clearly defined the problem and articulated their role in the world. If only all briefs were like that.

AARP’s problem that we needed to solve for was one of relevancy. They were no longer relevant to the 50+ age group who largely saw them as a “coupon club” for the elderly.

The most inspired part of the brief was how they saw their role in their members lives. They saw themselves as a “wise friend and force defender” who helped people choose how they lived as they aged. Brilliantly clear and loaded with energy and emotion.

We saw no need to re-articulate the problem, nor redefine AARP’s role. Instead we set about thinking about how we could build relevance. Our strategic pivot was to look for inspiration from the categories that our audience liked to spend time with - entertainment, technology and fashion. We looked at the semiotic codes of these categories and reimagined what AARP would look like if they adopted these codes.

This thinking led to three incredibly strong creative platforms, the strongest of which was “the younger you are, the more you need AARP”. This platform played with the codes of aging, like fashion brands often do by bringing a youthful voice to an organization and demographic, who many many viewed as “getting on a bit”.

I am proud not only of the work, but how our team came together so well in a largely virtual world. I think I even surprised myself by how well I coped with technology, although I still wince when I remember the frequent cry of “Cadman, you are on mute again!”