Longevity is no longer merely a demographic issue; it has become one of the greatest transformative forces shaping global markets. By 2030, it is estimated that around half of all private spending in Europe will be controlled by consumers over the age of 50. For an economy accustomed to speaking primarily to millennials and Gen Z, this represents a paradigm shift and, above all, an opportunity that very few companies are truly preparing for.
Recently, Longevity Nation, the new book by Michael Clinton, former president of Hearst Magazines, arrived in American bookstores. The book will be presented in Portugal by the author himself at CATÓLICA-LISBON on June 22. Clinton’s thesis is both simple and powerful: living longer is not a problem to manage; it is a market to design. The “second half of life,” he argues, is being reinvented by a generation of consumers who are active, financially secure, digitally fluent, and whose expectations have very little to do with the stereotype of the “retiree.”
The most attentive brands understood this before everyone else. Consider the Danish company Lego, which in recent years has deliberately expanded its audience to include adults and intergenerational offerings. On May 8, marking Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday, the brand replaced the iconic “4-99” age range displayed on its packaging across social media with “4-100+,” accompanied by an almost manifesto-like message: there is no age limit for those who never stop playing. Some may say it was just a simple social media post. I would argue that it was one of the smartest pieces of marketing of the year: with humor and warmth, it communicates that aging does not mean leaving the target market; it means entering it with more time and greater purchasing power.
In Portugal, this debate is beginning to gain institutional momentum. At the end of 2025, CATÓLICA-LISBON launched the Center on Longevity Leadership with the mission of preparing leaders and organizations for this structural transition. The center is built around three pillars: talent, market, and society. The market pillar, in particular, is dedicated to studying the longevity economy, mapping the habits and expectations of the 50+ consumer, and helping brands design products, services, and narratives that respond to this new reality. This is where the issue stops being an abstract demographic concern and becomes a concrete agenda for marketing, innovation, and strategy. This is not about corporate philanthropy; it is about anticipating competitiveness. Companies that first understand how to segment, communicate with, and innovate for this consumer group will gain an advantage that will be extremely difficult to recover later.
CUF is a strong example of how this agenda can be taken seriously within an organization. A founding member of the Center on Longevity Leadership, the company has transformed longevity into a strategic pillar, going far beyond the traditional segmentation of older adults as patients and instead understanding them as citizens, consumers, and protagonists of their own health journeys. It was also one of the companies that opened its doors to a team of five master’s students from CATÓLICA-LISBON, who developed a consulting project focused on segmentation in this new era.
It may appear to be a small gesture, but it sends a powerful signal: decisions about how to serve the consumers of the future are already being shaped collaboratively by companies, academia, and the next generation of business leaders.
The question that every board of directors and every marketing and innovation department should ask itself over the coming months is simple. If half of Europe’s private spending will soon be in the hands of people who are currently over 50, how much of my strategy, my product, my communication, and my talent model has actually been designed with them in mind? For most companies, the answer is still: very little. The good news is that there is still time to change, and the path forward is already open. The only thing left to decide is who wants to take it first.
Amélia Rita Monteiro, Professor at CATÓLICA-LISBON