With strong news and classic hits brands that attract high concentrations of the demo, CBS Radio is among the media companies trying to change outdated advertiser perceptions that this group consists primarily of silver-haired, shuffleboard-playing couples wearing Bermuda shorts. The company has been making Alpha Boomer presentations in all of its markets. “We’re walking into clients and agencies and showing them how this population of 50-64 year-olds is exploding and they’re so different compared to 30 years ago,” CBS Radio president of sales Michael Weiss says. “Their look and behavior is more contemporary, they take better care of themselves and their disposable income is much higher, particularly in the 45-64 year range.”
This is a great story for today's country, too, of course, which has been riding the boomer-driven age wave for the past three decades and the early 90's explosion for the format can partially be explained by the growth of 30-34 year olds in the population at that time...
.. and now is seeing Gen X's smaller proportion of the national population reflected in our aging average core audience as A&O's Roadmap 2011 indicates.
But, before we abandon hope for younger demos, take a look at the size of the "Taylor Swift generation" (also known as Gen Y/The Millenials). Right now, they are centered in their young 20's, but in the next decade they will dominate 18-49 and 25-54 targets.
Hopefully, the 25 year old media buyers of today understand that demo well, perhaps better than we do, and are enjoying the values of country music radio.
Not only are they the ones we're hoping to sell our upper-demo story to today, but they will be the vanguard of our younger demo strategy of the coming decade.
As they get older, maybe their memory will fade, when we start pitching them on country's great 18-49 performance in just 5-10 years!
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Notes I-scribbled-as-fast-as-I-could from the most useful session I attended at the Consumer Electronics Show, “WHAT BOOMERS BUY, AND WHY”:
There are 80 million Baby Boomers, 25% of the USA population, and they control most of the wealth in the USA.
As aging parents pass-on, they’ll control more.
Boomers are 46-65 years old, and regard themselves as “midlife.”
They identify as neither “young” nor “old.”
They’re “post-mini-van and pre-retirement.”
“We know we’re getting old, don’t remind us.”
They don’t like being called “Boomers.”
They think “me.”
Always “quick adopters,” they’re the first generation to fully embrace now-common new-tech.
They DON’T just use wireless phones to make calls.
- ¾ are on Facebook.
- “They download movies.”
- Broadband is “the #1 technology they can’t live without.”
- Many of the purchases Boomer couples make are INDIVIDUAL purchases.
Commercial and promo copy writers note:
- " Boomer men tend to be feature-focused. Women care about benefits. Tell how a product or service will make life easier.
- " TELL STORIES about products."
- “Need” products sell better than “want” products.
Women are more loyal to technology they’ve adopted.
Men less-so. Men abandon GPS units when smartphones have GPS.
If something seems complicated, Boomers can dismiss it as “I don’t need this.”
“Careful spending isn’t cheapness. It’s wanting-the-right-thing.”
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