Europe is transforming. The population across the continent is shrinking but advertising opportunities are evolving.
By 2050, the continent’s median age will have increased 4.5 years from 2019. The average age of marriage is also creeping closer to 35 for both men and women.
Many young Europeans are foregoing traditional dating labels in favor of more casual arrangements like “situation-ships rather than relationships,” and same-sex marriage is now legal in 17 European countries.
Those differences, more marked in certain cities and regions, make Europe an ever more complex terrain for marketers.
These demographic changes are likely to significantly alter how brands advertise to the continent’s youngest generations: millennials, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha.
Their values and aspirations often differ from their predecessors, especially when it comes to the realms of dating, family, and love.
Brands tapping in to these new dating and demographics paradigms might be surprised at young Europeans’ openness toward social changes in their millennia-old cultures. But Ficatier says they can be just as open to new definitions of dating and love as their American counterparts — and expect brands to be more open as well.