FairFX
FairFX: Getting age-positive language right before launch
We helped FairFX launch with confidence, shaping language that resonated with retirees.
The challenge
Language in communications aimed at older audiences rarely hits the mark authentically. Too clinical, and it feels like a medical form. Too many assumptions about how retirees live their lives, and it patronises. Get it wrong and the people you most want to reach, are the most likely to switch off.
FairFX, the prepaid travel card company, were preparing to launch Silvermoon, a campaign targeting retirees embarking on their first big adventure since leaving work. Before committing to the name, they wanted to sense-check it. Did “silver” carry negative connotations? Would retirees find it reductive? Would it land as celebratory or condescending?
These aren’t questions you can answer from a boardroom, unless it’s a boardroom full of retirees. You need your audience in the room.
Our approach
We brought this question to our Real Folk Panel, a group of independent communications specialists, with diverse lived experiences that match those of the audiences brands want to connect with.
For this brief, we drew on panel members with direct experience of retirement and later life. We also worked with Age Cymru, the Wales arm of Age UK and a leading charity dedicated to improving the lives of older people in Wales. Their involvement added an extra layer of credibility and cultural sensitivity to the review.
The panel examined the name carefully; its connotations, its tone, and crucially, how it would land with the people it was designed to reach. They also considered the broader challenge of age-positive language: the fact that terms like “older people” or “older adults” often sit uncomfortably with retirees, who may be anywhere from their 50s to their 70s, and resist being defined by age alone.
The word “silver” read positively. It spoke to experience, value and a certain richness of life, without tipping into stereotype or condescension. Far from reducing its audience, the panel felt Silvermoon created something rarer: a term that acknowledged this stage of life as something worth naming and celebrating.
As one panel member put it: “Names like ‘older people’ or ‘older adults’ do not sit well with retirees, who could be anyone from people in their 50s, 60s or even 70s these days. So on balance, Silvermoon is a good way to describe the holiday of a lifetime for future retirees, whatever age.”
The impact
FairFX went to market with the confidence of knowing the name had been tested by the people it was built for.
In a category where older audiences are routinely underserved and poorly addressed, getting the language right from the start is the difference between a brand that connects, and one that quietly alienates the people it was made for.
Now, FairFX have more understanding and tools to connect with their audience better.
Want to launch knowing your message lands with the people it’s for?
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