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Hottest Sales demographic of 2008: 2007's sleeper: oldies-but-goodies

H

Holland Cooke

Inactive
Inactive User
Your children aren’t listening.
If you’re a parent of 14-24 year olds, you already know that.
But I mean listening to RADIO.

Paragon Media Strategies’ recent study of Youth Radio and new media habits polled 14-24s.
From the results:
** 73% say a majority of their music TSL is to sources-other-than-radio (CDs, MP3s, iPods, streaming, satellite radio, etc).
** 71% own iPods; half of them listen less to radio. More than 75% listen to their own mix CDs; 32% of them use radio less.

Face it, Baby Boomers’ children are radio’s lost generation.
Don’t even bother.

Instead, dance with the girls who’ll dance: Boomers themselves.
They grew-up listening to radio, and thought radio was cool.
Baby Boomers comprise more people, and control more wealth, than any other generation in American history.

And now comes a new inheritance as their parents pass away, new freedom as their children (FINALLY) empty the nest, and retirement plans that AREN’T Your Father’s Oldsmobile.

“Over the next 10 years, the number of 50+ consumers will increase at a rate of 9 times faster than the growth of their children's and grandchildren's generations.”
Dick Stroud, in “The 50-Plus Market.”
[excerpt: http://members.aol.com/cookeh/reading.html]

Guess who just turned 50. The AARP itself!

In 2008, the very notion of 25-54 will begin to seem laughably quaint.
Do the math: In the USA, between 2002 and 2010:

** The number of people between 18 and 44 will decline 1%.
** The number of people 55 years of age and older will increase 21%.
** The number of people between 55 and 64 will increase 47%.[/list]

Source: HIGHLY-recommended reading: “Trends: Recognize, Analyze, Capitalize,” by Tom Peters & Martha Barletta.
[excerpt: http://members.aol.com/cookeh/reading.html]

Households headed by someone 55-64 have a median net worth 15 times that of households headed by people under 35.
No wonder Dennis Hopper is cackling in those TV commercials.

More: http://members.aol.com/cookeh/December1-1.pdf

Happy "Holidaze,"
HC
www.HollandCooke.com
 
What a brilliant strategy. Don't work to build a new audience, just let them go and sell the one that is dying off every day! Ever been to a church that hasn't had a youth program in two decades? There's not much there. For dollars in the door now, yeah market the boomers but if this is your only strategy get ready to die with them. But what a great idea....you can have promotions centered around a crematorium...have depends sponsor the weather.

Reminds me of a story I heard on the Emerald Coast of Florida a few years ago. Stopped with the family at a fast food place for a burger in December and had to back to the counter and ask for salt and pepper. When the manager gave it to me I asked why they'd taken up the salt and pepper shakers that were on the table in the summer. Her response, "We always have to take them up in the winter because the 'snowbirds' steal them when they come in and get their seniors coffee in the mornings".

This is certainly brilliant strategy for growth, thank you so much Holland. ;D
 
Hey, don't shoot the messenger...

I'm typing-as-quietly-as-I-can here in the high-tech auditorium at Arbitron HQ in Columbia MD, during the annual Consultant Fly-In conference.

Copious notes to follow.

But to quickly address the anonymous snipe above, let me distill the-first-half-of-a-day-and-a-half of EXTREMELY nerdy data:
YOUNG PEOPLE AREN'T LISTENING.

So you choose: Dance-with-the-girls-who'll-dance; or diss the empircal data cited and talk to nobody.

Apologies for sounding like a-50-something-with-a-birthday-this-week. And, like my contemporaries, I'm sure moving US currency these days with a volume-and-velocity unfathomable when I was 17.
 
;D I guess I should make my funeral plans. I was at my doctors office and the 20ish receptionist asked me where I worked and I said W___ SHe asked me what that was and I said it was the local radio station. SHe then told me that she hates radio. TOO BORING she said. ANd no, I didn't ask for a date ;D
I also worked with a 76 year old guy who thinks he can get a younger audience but he didn't know who Bobby Darin or Rick Nelson were. Those were 2 pop icons from 45 years ago. This same guy said that Jerry Orbach was too old for TV. Orbach was 6 years younger than this guy when he died.We are all getting older. GET USED TO IT.One of our 92 year old listeners called with a problem,He is looking for a dancing partner. The aforementioned host has a friend who went back to work at the age of 91. Why? Because he got tired of sitting around the house. I also know a guy who went back to work at 68 after a triple bypass because he felt too good to just sit around. I guess we should have wall to wall stations just catering to 20 and 30 somethings and then we wonder why radio is so boring. To younger people, just wait. The day will come when your favorite music will be referred to as "that old fart music" It will happen sooner than you think I gotta guy my geritol and prune juice awaits.
 
Hey Def...You're not listening. The undelying point is that it was consultants that KILLED the radio for young listeners in the first place! They consulted the industry into the same 25-54 and 18-34 crap for years. I am a 51 year old boomer. Guess what, I'm alive NOW, TODAY. I make money NOW, TODAY by selling to 35-54 Classic Rock, 45-64 oldies and 45+ News Talk. My stations are successful and I'm financially successful because our listeners HAVE THE MOST MONEY AND SPEND MORE.

Two kids. One graduates college this year and moves out. The other graduates HS and is poised for military service to his country. No more expenses, tuition. Smaller utility bills and costs. My wife and I have more discretionary spendable income than ever, with retirement fully saved for, invested and funded. Wake up and smell the money. And boomer opportunity.
 
"Damn consultants..."

From rab.com:

"A 2007 survey by The Conference Board determined that Baby Boomers have the highest spendable discretionary income of any age group, averaging $29,754 a year per household."
 
Re: Hey, don't shoot the messenger...

Holland Cooke said:
I'm typing-as-quietly-as-I-can here in the high-tech auditorium at Arbitron HQ in Columbia MD, during the annual Consultant Fly-In conference.
Click to expand...
Consultant Fly-In or Consultant Fly-By?
 
I work in a top-10 mkt TV station and the boomer market is the one that has our sales team salivating :) There are plenty of non-boomers that steal salt pots too!
 
Need to cut back on the salt at my age. Go for the sugar packets instead. Guess I've got a good situation. In my cluster my stations range from hip hop to newstalk. Go the young-uns and the rich-uns.
 
Exactly what I have been talking about the last year or so. This demographic is loyal to radio, listen to more of it than any other, and have on average the best demographics to sell advertising to. If you have a format friendly to their likes, you can sell this age group.
 
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