Youth brands look to grow old gracefully

Companies that have traditionally addressed a young audience try to tap into the growing market of older consumers – so the FT (German edition) says.

In December, Playstation will host live webcasts of English National Opera’s performance of La Bohème.

One of Britain's oldest arts institutions, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, displays an innovative sculpture this month. It will change colour and emit different sounds according to the movements of viewers around it.

It is one of several unlikely partnerships Sony Computer Entertainment Europe has struck with Britain's most established arts institutions, including the English National Opera, Sadler's Wells and the British Film Institute

The artworks are intended to broaden Playstation's appeal from a youth-oriented games product to a mass-market entertainment brand that also attracts older consumers.

Sony believes it is now big enough and broad enough as a brand to encourage a wider range of people - especially older consumers - to recognise us as a broad-based entertainment brand willing to engage with culture and not a brand that's just about computer gaming.

The deputy MD of FutureBrand believes youth brands face challenges extending the brand in this way. She says: "Youth brands are often associated with subversive tactics such as viral communications, and activities not in the public domain. When they are seen in the public domain they risk losing credibility with their core audience. She might have a point. Dick Stroud