SilverCERT is an independent seal programme that verifies companies take the adverse effects of ageing into account in their existing products and services. We don't ask for new product designs — we assess the friction points our parents face when using existing products and services.
Only 5–10% of global marketing and advertising budgets target audiences aged 50+.
Source: Harvard Business Review, 2020Only 15% of digital ads target audiences aged 50+.
Source: AARP Media SolutionsOnly 5% of advertising visuals depict people aged 50+ using technology.
Source: AARP Media Solutions / HBR58% of consumers aged 50+ feel ignored by brands. 46% rarely see themselves in advertising.
Source: Human8 — "Invisible After 50: The Marketing Blind Spot", 2025Advertisers tend to use models 10 years younger than their actual target audience.
Source: AARP researchThe UK fashion industry's neglect of the 55+ audience will cost the sector £11 billion over the next 20 years.
Source: UK fashion sector researchThe annual cost of ageism to the US economy is $850 billion. Cumulative loss by 2050: $4 trillion.
Source: AARP, 2018 / JEC — US Senate Joint Economic Committee Report, 2022Baby Boomers hold 51% of total US household wealth — $83.3 trillion.
Source: UBS Global Wealth Report, 2025 / Federal Reserve Distributional Financial AccountsGen X (ages 45–61 today) controls 26.1% of US wealth — $42.6 trillion. Baby Boomer + Gen X combined: 77.1%.
Source: UBS Global Wealth Report, 2025Millennials + Gen Z together own only 10.5% of total US wealth.
Source: UBS Global Wealth Report, 2025 / Federal Reserve Distributional Financial AccountsGen X's purchasing power reached $15.2 trillion in 2025; projected to grow to $23 trillion by 2035. Gen X has been the world's top spending group since 2021.
Source: AARP Global Longevity Economy Outlook, 2022In the US, individuals aged 60+ hold 70% of disposable income.
Source: Nielsen & BoomAgers — "Introducing Boomers: Marketing's Most Valuable Generation"Adults 50+ accounted for 50% of global consumer spending in 2020 ($35 trillion). By 2050 this will rise to 59% ($96 trillion).
Source: AARP Global Longevity Economy Outlook, 2022In the UK, the 50+ group holds 76% of financial wealth — yet only 23% of ads target them.
Source: ONS / Age UKAdults 65+ have twice the average wealth and nearly 17 percentage points more homeownership than those under 65.
Source: Prof. Edward Wolff, NYU, 2025Baby Boomer homeownership: 79.6% — Gen X: 72.9% — Millennial: 54.9% — Gen Z: 26.1%.
Source: Redfin / Census Bureau, 2024Baby Boomers control 54% of US equities — $25 trillion. Millennials' share: 8.2%.
Source: Federal Reserve / The Motley Fool, 2025In the US alone, the 50+ group contributed $8.3 trillion to the economy in 2018 (40% of US GDP) — projected to reach $28.2 trillion by 2050.
Source: AARP / Triple-I, 2018The EU Silver Economy was €3.7 trillion in 2015 and is growing at 5% per year, reaching €5.7 trillion in 2025.
Source: European Commission Silver Economy Study, 2018 and updatesIf the Silver Economy were an independent country, it would be the world's 3rd largest economy — after the US and China.
Source: Brookings Institution, 2024 / AARPHealthy ageing policies will add an extra 0.4 percentage points annually to global GDP growth between 2025 and 2050.
Source: OECD — "Promoting an Age-Inclusive Workforce", 2020While per capita income grew 7x over the last 100 years, the economic value of longevity increased 20x.
Source: Live Long & Prosper (Bloom et al.), Cambridge University PressIn the US alone, Baby Boomers account for 49% of packaged consumer goods sales — a $230 billion annual market.
Source: Nielsen CPG dataAdults 50+ make up 80% of premium new car buyers. In Australia: 64% of new car sales, 55% of travel spending, and 50% of alcohol sales belong to this age group.
Source: Australian market researchIn the US, adults 50+ account for 54% of entertainment and hospitality spending, directly supporting over 8.3 million jobs in the sector.
Source: AARP Global Longevity Economy Outlook, 2022EU tourist spending by the 55+ age group is projected to increase 111% between 2019-2040 to 369.5 billion euros, representing 65% of total tourism expenditure.
Source: European Commission tourism projectionsGen X and Baby Boomers together account for 63% of total US consumer spending. Gen X alone: 34.1%. The Boomer+ share has fallen ~10 points since 2020.
Source: Numerator Generations Hub, September 202589% of consumers aged 50+ are open to trying new brands; 79% are ready to leave a brand that does not meet their needs.
Source: Australian consumer research54% of this group frequently makes impulse purchases.
Source: Consumer behaviour research95-99% rank brand trust as the single most critical factor when evaluating a new brand.
Source: BCG Consumer InsightsAdults 50+ directly influence Gen Z and Millennials' purchasing decisions in major categories like travel, investment and automotive — the halo effect.
Source: BCG / AARP researchIn the CPG category, 50+ consumers are just as open to new trials as younger shoppers — loyalty is category-specific, not age-specific.
Source: CPG category researchIn 2018, for the first time in history, the number of people aged 65+ worldwide exceeded children under 5. By 2050, the 65+ population will also outnumber those aged 15-24.
Source: WHO / UN World Population ProspectsThe 50+ population will grow 69% from 1.9 billion in 2020 to 3.2 billion by 2050 (33% of the world population).
Source: AARP Global Longevity Economy Outlook, 2022Turkey's median age will rise from 34.9 in 2025 to 44.8 in 2050. The elderly dependency ratio will increase from 16.2% in 2025 to 45.5% in 2060.
Source: Hacettepe University Institute of Population StudiesIntergenerational mobility collapse: 90% of those born in 1940 earned more than their parents. By 1980 births: 50%. By 1984 births: 41%.
Source: Chetty et al., NBER — "The Fading American Dream"Turkey is experiencing in 27 years the demographic transition that took France 115 years.
Source: WHO / Republic of Turkey Healthy Ageing Action PlanBy 2035, the US will have 78 million people aged 65+ — surpassing the under-18 population of 76.4 million for the first time in history.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau — "Older People Projected to Outnumber Children for First Time in U.S. History"Smartphone ownership in the 50+ group jumped from 55% in 2016 to 89-90% today.
Source: AARP / market research85% of the 50-64 age group and 64% of those 65+ use YouTube.
Source: Pew Research Center63% of consumers aged 55+ follow influencers on social media; over 70% make purchase decisions based on those recommendations.
Source: Social media consumer researchSilver influencers have an engagement rate of 7.3% — above the 5.3% rate of younger influencers.
Source: Influencer marketing research95% of this age group uses email regularly.
Source: Digital media usage researchAI usage among adults 50+ has climbed from 18% to 30%.
Source: Digital trend researchChanging the lives of the ageing generation means changing the lives of all generations.
Contrary to common assumption, the ageing population is the most affluent and largest consumer group by purchasing power.
While Baby Boomers hold half of all wealth at $83.3 trillion, Millennials and Gen Z together own only 10.5%. The 50+ generation is not just more experienced — they are wealthier, less indebted, and more consistent spenders.
Source: UBS Global Wealth Report (2025), Empower / Federal Reserve (2024)
SilverCERT identifies the friction and difficulty that everyday products and services create for users whose cognitive and physical functions are changing, and helps brands account for the adverse effects of ageing in their business models.
The SilverCERT seal scientifically verifies that the business models behind your products, services or spaces take the adverse effects of ageing into account.
SilverCERT uses the AIQS (Ageing Impact Question Set) questions as the industrial counterpart of the UN–WHO ICOPE methodology.
Using the AIQS question set and real user experiences, it identifies the friction and difficulty that everyday products and services create for users whose physical and cognitive functions change during the ageing process.
About the Seal Process →An experience group specially cast by the relevant working group of Gümüş Ağ Association — comprising male and female consumers in the ageing process representing diverse cognitive and physical profiles — tests your brand's products, services and spaces under real market conditions.
Experience tests are based on the "Industrial Twin" framework of the AIQS methodology, which combines medical science (ICOPE) with industry standards, and the field operation is converted into friction heat maps by the registered Age-Friendly Product and Service Assessment Platform.
The automatically generated Heat Map and PRE-CAPA Report charts a roadmap for how your brand can address ageing effects, and lists interventions that will convert barriers that make customers' lives harder into purchase reasons that make their lives easier.
About Silver Panel →The UN Decade of Healthy Ageing, the WHO ICOPE protocol and the SDG 12.6/12.8 framework — these calls are updated every day. SILVERAWARE is a structured information process that ensures all of your company's employees know where they stand on this global agenda. Not a training programme — it is the transfer of decisions made in the global context directly to the employees who know the company's policies and operations.
SILVERAWARE is not a badge or sticker. It is a declaration that your company follows the international calls of the UN and WHO in the area of ageing and carries those calls into its corporate operations. This declaration can be used in your corporate communications, ESG reports and export files — right at the beginning of the seal process, before any assessment starts.
A company that completes the process has announced its corporate alignment with global ageing policies. This is a positioning step that the vast majority of competitors are not even aware of yet. The first fruit of the process comes before the seal.
SILVERAWARE is also valid as a standalone · It is the mandatory first step of the SilverCERT seal process
About SILVERAWARE →Gümüş Ağ Association believes the only realistic way to spread the WHO and UN's healthy ageing call throughout society is for economic stakeholders to adopt this process. The seal mechanism is the operational expression of this belief: as companies adapt, the lives of ageing consumers become easier; as consumers' lives become easier, the process spreads through society.
Each of SilverCERT's 62 questions is a real experience moment in the field. That moment could be the second a consumer cannot read the packaging, the screen where they get lost in a menu, or the threshold where they feel unsafe at the door — or the opposite: the moment they encounter ease where they expected difficulty. All these moments are documented as video, observation notes or user statements.
Each of the 62 assessment moments is a field-produced story; every story is a marketing asset waiting to be used.
SilverCERT Marketing Contribution →The SilverCERT Age-Friendly Seal applies the "7 Touchpoint" approach — used for over 40 years — combined with the ageing dimensions covered by the UN World Health Organization ICOPE Programme to observe the impact that existing products and services have on ageing users.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines healthy ageing not merely as freedom from disease, but as the functional ability enabled by the alignment between an individual's "intrinsic capacity" and the "environmental characteristics" they inhabit.
Medical science and the WHO's ICOPE protocol focus on measuring the age-related cellular losses in an individual's physical and mental capacities — the "intrinsic capacity."
SilverCERT acts as the industrial counterpart of this medical methodology: it numerically reports the environmental demand, friction and difficulty that designed products, services and physical spaces create for ageing users with changing cognitive and physical functions. This unique positioning sits at the precise intersection of Pillar 2 (Creating age-friendly environments) and Pillar 3 (Integrated care) of the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing — which requires designs that support the independence of older individuals.
Ageing consumers in Silver Panel personally experience your brand's products, services and spaces. Every AIQS question is a field moment. Every field moment is a video testimonial, observation note or user story.
The unparalleled output of this process is data and PR material to be used directly in all marketing and sales strategies. Usable in your campaigns, training sessions and board presentations.
Each of the 62 assessment moments is a field-produced story; every story is a marketing asset waiting to be used.
Jan Carlzon (1987) → P&G FMOT/SMOT → McKinsey CDJ → Google ZMOT → Lemon & Verhoef (2016). McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Accenture and Deloitte use this framework in all CX projects. SilverCERT applies a systematic Ageing Filter to this universal framework for the first time in history.
ESG metrics (GRI 405) measure the age of the workforce but place insufficient emphasis on the growing 60+ consumer segment. SilverCERT prepares companies for the approaching Demographic Tsunami, producing auditable evidence. Starting the process by accepting existing ISO and CE certificates, SilverCERT adds an "ageing economy" layer to business models.
Learn More →By completing the SILVERAWARE phase, you can announce to all your stakeholders that your corporate vision is officially aligned with the UN Decade of Healthy Ageing and the WHO ICOPE protocol — even before the technical assessment begins. This positions your brand among the few visionary companies turning demographic transformation into a profitable opportunity, while creating an instantly usable global reference value for your ESG reports.
SILVERAWARE →Every product, service and space lives within these 7 touchpoints.
Academic Origin →Not a one-off audit — every assessment cycle produces comparable data. Runs on the proprietary SaaS platform developed by Gümüş Ağ for this process; output ready for ESG reports, board presentations and export files.
Platform →SilverCERT is not a pass-or-fail exam. When gaps are identified, the company signs a Letter of Intent and continues the process — this declaration itself is a significant step: the formal expression of the company's commitment to building an age-friendly business model and contributing to society.
Our goal is to prepare brands and business models for the approaching Silver Tsunami. Every phase — from SILVERAWARE to the Seal — is an independent part of this transformation and generates value on its own.
Services →The SilverCERT methodology is not a theoretical checklist produced at a desk, nor a new research finding invented from scratch. It is grounded in the globally recognised proven Customer Experience (CX) literature shaped by the global business world and academia over the past 40 years.
The foundation was laid in 1987 with Jan Carlzon's (SAS Airlines) Moments of Truth approach — which took the airline from losses to millions in profit. It then became the world standard through Procter & Gamble's FMOT/SMOT models guiding billions in investment, McKinsey's Consumer Decision Journey, Google's ZMOT theory, and Lemon & Verhoef's 2016 Customer Experience Framework.
Today McKinsey, BCG, Bain, Accenture and Deloitte use this universal Touchpoint methodology in all CX transformation projects. With over 4,500 academic citations, this literature scientifically establishes that customer journeys, purchase decisions and brand loyalty are shaped entirely around these touchpoints.
SilverCERT's innovation is not inventing a new business science; it is applying a systematic Ageing Filter for the first time in history to this universally proven 7 Touchpoint framework. From physical packaging (T1) to digital platforms (T2), from human interaction (T4) to after-sales support (T7), every product, service and space traded anywhere in the world exists within these seven touchpoints. That is why SilverCERT's lens is entirely sector-agnostic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) evaluates the ageing process through changes in individuals' physical and mental strength — namely Intrinsic Capacity. However, medicine telling an individual that their “vision has declined” or “muscle strength has weakened” is not sufficient on its own for a brand to correct its product. This is where the SilverCERT Industrial Twin approach comes in: we translate the capacity changes identified by medicine into measurable design standards that the private sector can understand. Independent clinical studies in France and China have confirmed that ICOPE’s 5 dimensions are precisely on target in the field; SilverCERT is the field-applicable industrial version of this clinical framework.
These barriers are not mere assumptions — they are massive market realities experienced in the field every day. The comprehensive MAPT/INSPIRE clinical study conducted in France demonstrated that individuals in the ageing process:
Your brand's designs face audiences living with these real challenges every day.
In independent validation studies conducted in China, the scientific accuracy and detection power of these 5 capacity measurement models on which our system is based:
SilverCERT is grounded not in estimates, but in the most valid and irrefutable evidence of medical science.
One key question from each touchpoint. YES or NO — see where you stand in seconds. Questions are taken directly from the SilverCERT assessment bank.
No. SilverCERT aims to help companies prepare for the approaching Demographic Tsunami as quickly as possible without disrupting their corporate operations. It does not intend to intervene in the R&D department, the existing production line, or the critical structures of product and service development processes. SilverCERT's focus is the friction at the points where existing products and services touch ageing consumers — not decisions made at the design table.
No. SilverCERT is not concerned with repositioning or redesigning existing products and services. If a product's current structure is inherently unsuitable for use by an ageing consumer — for example, if it is too heavy, too small or too complex — SilverCERT does not ask for that product to be changed. In such a case, it accepts as an age-friendly approach even the act of a brand representative, at the moment of contact with the consumer, saying "This product may be difficult for you; let me show you an alternative model you could use more easily." The understanding is this: a corporate attitude that honestly acknowledges the limits of the existing product and offers the consumer a suitable option comes before any design change.
They remain valid and become a core input to the SilverCERT process. The SilverCERT process begins with a rapid pre-assessment that records all existing Quality Mark Certificates and Certifications in the company's business model and accepts them all without question. Your ISO, WCAG, CE or similar documents sit alongside the SilverCERT Age-Friendly Seal, not beneath it. SilverCERT adds the ageing dimension on top of those documents — it does not start from scratch; it integrates the ageing layer into the existing structure.
No. Taking the adverse effects of ageing into account in products and services affects three generations at once. The person who can no longer open products for an ageing parent, who can no longer provide the support they need, is most often the working generation aged 40–60 — referred to in the international literature as the "Sandwich Generation." Every design and attitude decision that makes the life of an ageing consumer easier also enables the working generation to return to professional life and the younger generation to build their own lives. This intergenerational domino relationship can be observed in each of SilverCERT's 62 questions.
Yes. The SilverCERT assessment draws on three independent data sources: the Lead Assessor in the field, the Silver Panel comprising consumers aged 55+, and the trained Mystery Shopper. Answers from multiple sources are averaged, preventing any single person's perspective from determining the result. Identified risks are prioritised through the CAPA Critical flag — adapted from the FMEA industry standard widely used in the automotive, medical and aviation sectors.
7 of the 62 questions — the AGE questions — assess the corporate attitude of the company's ageing awareness: "Does staff proactively approach consumers who struggle in the space?", "Does installation staff observe the home environment and provide information?", "Is there an ageing awareness module in staff training?" A company that scores green on technical questions but red on these 7 is presenting a superficial picture. The vast majority of these 7 questions can be improved quickly at low cost — cultural transformation does not require an R&D budget.
SilverCERT's 62 questions are universal and sector-agnostic — especially touchpoints T4 (Human Interaction), T6 (Delivery and Installation) and T7 (Support and Maintenance) are applied with the same weight in every sector. There is no sectoral difference when it comes to how people are treated: a bank, a supermarket and a hotel are all subject to the same standard. Flexibility exists at the touchpoint level: physical space questions (T3) are excluded from the assessment for a company that serves exclusively through digital channels. This "N/A flex" mechanism is determined by the Lead Assessor following a company interview — the system does not apply rules automatically. An important distinction: products inside a hotel room are assessed under T3 (Physical Space), not T1 (Physical Product); the font size on a bank card falls under T5 (Documentation), not T1.
Three concrete outputs: first, a 35-cell Heat Map showing friction intensity across the 7 Touchpoints × 5 Ageing Dimensions of the company. Second, the PRE-CAPA Report listing the risk findings corresponding to the red and yellow areas in the Heat Map — this report is findings only, it does not include an improvement plan. Third, the Awareness Index measuring how the company's staff approaches the adverse effects of ageing. The Heat Map and PRE-CAPA Report are produced in a format directly transferable to your ESG reporting, board presentations and export files. The improvement plan and implementation consultancy are provided under a separate CAPA module.
SilverCERT performs risk identification and findings reporting only. Improvement plan implementation and operational consultancy are provided under a separate CAPA module.
Experience the working logic of the SilverCERT assessment platform with ready-made scenarios.
View Assessment Demo →For information about the SilverCERT assessment process, corporate partnerships and the seal programme.
For information about joining Silver Panel, becoming a volunteer assessor, and Silver Voices.