2009 What’s Next Boomer Business Summit

Some interesting folks speaking this year at The What’s Next Boomer Business Summit in Las Vegas on March 19th:

Discover the business segments with the largest growth opportunity in the boomer, senior and caregiver marketplace.

Read about them.

Television Still Shines

Interesting stats and a news story …

The Stats:

In a Nielsen survey … people of all ages said they spent vastly more time watching television than they did using the Internet … In a Multichannel News article, Starz Entertainment executive director of marketing, sales and corporate research Neil Massey said, “There is no evidence that people are abandoning television for other platforms.” He continued to note that “the universe of people who watch no television but watch long-form video online is about 1%.”

The News Story:

Why Television Still Shines in a World of Screens
by Randall Stross
… Television stands out as the one old-media business with surprising resilience. Though we are spending a record amount of time online, including a record amount of time watching video, we are also watching record amounts of very old-fashioned television …

As enamored as advertisers are with the interactive potential of digital advertising, they know that online is a complement to offline, not its replacement … the typical American watched 142 hours of television monthly, up about five hours from the same quarter the previous year. Internet use averaged more than 27 hours monthly, an increase of an hour and a half …

I talk about this in my presentations and consulting. The web is a boon for most traditional media, not competition. With Baby Boomers, advertising should push them to web sites:

89% typically visit a Web site after seeing a print ad, and 83% visit a site after seeing a television ad.

Boomers Picky Travellers

I’ve said this for years, and blogged it recently:

Cookie-Cutter Cavalcades
Sounds a bit like my book, first published in early 2005.  An excerpt:

 

Canadian Boomers aren’t much different:

Aging boomers picky travellers
New seniors bored by 'package holidays'
Over the next two decades, the ranks of seniors will swell with a vast generation that's healthier, more active and more discerning about travel than any before them, experts say.
"They want new experiences; they don't want the beaten track," says David Cravit, vice-president of ZoomerMedia, which handles communications for CARP, Canada' association for the 45-plus.

Boomer Bookends

The MetLife Mature Market Institute has released a follow-up study. The press release (PDF):

A SECOND LOOK AT THE FIRST WAVE OF BABY BOOMERS AND A NEW LOOK AT THE YOUNGEST BOOMERS
The MetLife study entitled Boomer Bookends: Insights Into the Oldest and Youngest Boomers, shows that in the group born in 1946, some 2.7 million Americans, about one in five have delayed collecting Social Security, and few have fully retired (19%).

Boomer Bookends: Insights Into the Oldest and Youngest Boomers
In this study, to compare and contrast the
Oldest and Youngest members of the Boomer
generation, the MMI also conducted a
comparable nationally representative survey of
the trailing edge Boomers, those turning age
45 in 2009.

Fascinating, required reading - but I slice and dice it a bit differently (certainly when fashioning advertising and marketing), giving society/culture more weight than booms in birth.  From 2006:

So What's A Baby Boomer?
… People born in the years 1939-1957 have more in common than people born in the years 1946-1964.

Just one snooty pundit's opinion.

Reg Starkey blogs…

Creative problem-solver Reg Starkey is now blogging for CreativeBrief.com:

Reg's practical experience of working with many of the world's most acknowledged advertising agencies has now been combined with an in-depth knowledge of the important and neglected mature market. His knowledge and consultancy in this sector is sought by discerning clients in a broad range of sectors.

Reg’s premiere post talks about the history of Saatchi & Saatchi – and cautions us not to be too cautious during this recession. That’s sage advice:

Learning lessons from success in past recessions
In the teeth of a fierce Recession, the chrysalis that was Cramer Saatchi, the Creative Consultancy, became the steel butterfly that is Saatchi & Saatchi to this day …