138 - The Generational Mistake in Marketing
Why are we still publishing articles about how to market to generations? The age of Authenticity after abundance. IT becomes marketing and more.
Hello,
It’s already 2026 - that’s crazy. In case you missed the annual media review newsletter last time. Here is a link to my “Year in Review” of hotel media and my personal conclusions (plus an AI conclusion that I included on the bottom).
I’m not doing the predictions thing as I’ve commented a number of places. I think predictions are more of a fun thing to do around drinks with friends at the pub. I believe that if one understands the trends, it is a lot better to make one’s own predictions. So here’s the newsletter.
Note: New Global OTA chart is coming soon.
Best, Martin
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When IT Becomes Marketing
A messy cable at a spa reception might sound trivial. This post is great a reminder that service design includes everything, not just the smiles and greetings. We’ve got some of the most advanced computer hardware in our pockets, in our headphones, on our wrists and yet systems in hotels are often regarded as an afterthought. Here’s what the guests think.
SERVICE DESIGN
About me: I'm a fractional CMO for large travel technology companies helping turn them into industry leaders. I'm also the co-founder of 10minutes.news a hotel news media that is unsensational, factual and keeps hoteliers updated on the industry. New Rules for Hotel Brands in 2026
Making big statements that everything has changed is a popular way to get attention. I find it is more pragmatic to look at what are the fundamentals that are unchanging and then look at how to adapt those to current trends. However Scott has some interesting points between the lines that deserve a read.
HOTEL BRANDS + FIRST PRINCIPLES
Tesla, Small Towns, and Destinations
A rural Tesla supercharger doubling as a destination bakery stop and coffee shop is an opportunity not spoken about enough. In France most of the Tesla chargers are in Accor hotel parking lots. Some make the most of it, many dont. Because a charge stop is about 20 - 30 minutes. Hotels with charging (even slow charging) are reassuring to EV owners.
DESTINATION ECONOMY
Decoding Booking.com’s AI Strategy
It seems Booking.com is taking a pragmatic stance on AI: don’t fight it, integrate with it. By partnering with platforms like Google and ChatGPT, it reinforces its role as the trusted intermediary that handles hotel rooms and possibly more (cars and flights etc). However by just plugging in with the other AIs do they become the plumbing? Or do they continue to exist to the consumer?
AI STRATEGY
Web Design Trends for 2026
Websites are evolving into intelligent, adaptive systems rather than static brochures. Hotel websites still have a lot of website+booking-engine paradigms which needs to evolve. With AI this is becoming more obvious than ever. We expect digital systems to remember, to know things, to suggest things - in short to not be dumb machines. These tips aren’t hotel specific but hotels need to learn from them.
WEB DESIGN
Luxury Retail as Destination Thinking
Louis Vuitton’s Beijing and Shanghai flagships are no longer just stores, they’re cultural destinations. Art, dining, and storytelling extend guest time far beyond shopping. Luxury retail is showing what happens when space is treated as a place to be. Hotels pioneered this concept with shopping in the lobby, but clothes and jewelry behind a glass display case isn’t enough anymore.
DESTINATION THINKING
Building Meta ads at scale
Meta’s new ability to view top ads by brand in the UK is a major shift hiding in plain sight. Suddenly, creative performance is easier to analyze, compare, and reverse-engineer. Tools like AdScan formalize what marketers already do manually. Expect faster creative cycles and fewer excuses.
AD TRANSPARENCY
Where Is Design Heading?
Design is being pulled in two directions: more human and more automation. The risk is over-codification, where originality gets diluted by design systems. The opportunity lies in integrating thinking, doing, and culture. And the gritty new standard of social media. A long piece for those interested in design.
DESIGN FUTURE
Why Brands Target Travelers
Rory Sutherland’s post is worth a read, an outside view on travel, in he he says, travelers are unusually open to new ideas and purchases. This makes them a powerful audience beyond travel itself. Expedia’s offsite advertising tools formalize what marketers have long suspected. Context matters as much as intent.
TRAVEL AUDIENCE
Authenticity After Abundance
When everything can be generated, authenticity becomes scarce. Instagram Head, Adam Mosseri’s reflections point to a shift from institutional trust toward individual creators. Rawness and credibility may outperform polish as AI content floods feeds. Hospitality marketing should take note, real beats perfect.
CONTENT AUTHENTICITY
Opinion
Why Generational Buckets Don’t Work
Every few weeks (or maybe days), another article or comment makes it to my inbox explaining how Gen Z “thinks differently,” Millennials “crave experiences,” or Boomers “want security.” These broad people categories often come with brightly colored charts and impressive-sounding acronyms. And every time, I find myself wondering: Has anyone really done a successful marketing campaign to those generational buckets?
The idea that people born within the same 15-year window all share the same behaviors and preferences is absurd, it is as useful as trying to market to people based on their horoscope. Imagine a hotel designed for Tauruses or a pricing strategy designed for Geminis. Sure, it sounds structured and marketable. But it falls apart the moment you meet a person who doesn’t fit the mold, which is just about everyone.
Here’s the reality: people aren’t defined by the time they were born. It is much more practical to try and market by their stage of life, their context, their goals. A 28-year-old with a kid, a mortgage and a stable job will behave completely differently than a 28-year-old living with roommates, building a startup, and deciding where to travel next. Same generation, wildly different person.
Marketers who rely too heavily on generational hype miss the real insights. Mostly, we don’t market to people based on their horoscope (at least I hope we don’t). Why then are we still segmenting by generational groupings that are just as arbitrary? Literally one is what month they were born and the other is what year. In fact month might be more accurate because at least we know the average weather on their birthday.
But yes, simplification has its place in marketing. We need mental models to work with. But let’s not confuse convenience with clarity. If you really want to reach your audience, find out how they identify themselves, not how a trend report identifies them. Are they new parents? First-time travelers? Remote workers? Side hustlers? Semi-retired adventurers? I made up all these categories so don’t consider them real. Go and ask you customers how they identify themselves - then you might have a good group you can target.
Generational marketing makes us sound smart in meetings. But it rarely helps us create better campaigns or connect more deeply with real people. If you’re building a strategy, stage-of-life segmentation is not necessarily right, but far more useful.
And next time someone asks how to market to Gen Z, try responding with: “Tell me what they’re actually doing with their life.”
• The Power of Travel Posters - Link
• The Ben Evans Presentation - Link
• The Global Hotel Supply in 2025 - Link⁺
Did you know?: “Artificial” comes from the Latin word “artificialis,” meaning “made by art,” from “artificium” (craft, skill). It entered English in the late Middle Ages and originally described something constructed or made with skill, not occurring naturally. Defined using Lomar Dictionary⁺
This made so many good points. I especially love the comments on authenticity. Do you think customers turning away from institutional trust to influencer trust means that there is no way without influencers fo reestablish institutional trust? I think that the current and future trend in brand strategy is to emphasize authenticity (my most recent article talks about this: https://valueengine.substack.com/p/the-brand-of-the-future) and therefore increase trust. Do you see individual trust/influencer trust as the best way to rebuild brand trust?