National Advertisers and 55+ radio audiences

[davideduardo]

From InsideRadio:

"The 55-plus demographic is often overlooked by national advertisers despite its significant purchasing power. Historically, advertisers have focused on younger audiences, believing they are more impressionable and likely to develop long-term brand loyalty. However, older consumers actually control most of the disposable income and are active spenders."

Perspective: Why Aren’t National Advertisers Buying 55 Plus?

The 55-plus demographic is often overlooked by national advertisers despite its significant purchasing power. Historically, advertisers have focused on younger audiences, believing they are more impressionable and likely to develop

www.insideradio.com

The article points out that many of the "standard" perceptions are not accurate today. The article expands on supposed misconceptions.

What it does not bring up is that...

... older people may have more money, but they are mostly prudent in saving for the next 30 years or so.

... older people do have brand preferences based on experience of perhaps 30 years or so of trying "the next best thing". It does take more ad money to convince them to change.

... radio itself does not offer much 55+ targeted programming. We have a viscous circle here.

 

[TheBigA]

... radio itself does not offer much 55+ targeted programming.

Really? Here are some median ages:

AAA: 51, with 41% over the age of 55.

AC: 45 with 30% over the age of 55.

Adult hits: 47 with 30% over the age of 55

Adult Standards: 61 with 80% over the age of 55

All News: 59 with 62% over the age of 55.

Get the picture? How about a few more?

All talk: 62 with 66% over the age of 55.

Classic hits: 52 with 46% over the age of 55

Classic Rock: 51 with 38% over the age of 55

Classical: 62 with 64% over the age of 55

News/Talk: 62 with 61% over the age of 55.

Oldies: 58 with 56% over the age of 55

Public: 53 with 50% over 55.

Soft adult: 52 with 45% over the age of 55

Thats a whole lot of programming for 55+. I'm really tired of all these old people crabbing about how there's no radio for them.

 

[K.M. Richards]

It is a telling fact that the most successful advertising now is for pharmaceuticals, because that is a "product category" that seniors have a vested interest in ... and one of the few areas where brand loyalty is a non-issue.

With that said, there are "related-by-parallel" businesses to that which can be attractive to the older audience ... automotive repair, home maintenance and remodeling (especially the rise in popularity of walk-in tubs), travel agencies, local restaurants, and -- if you have them in your area -- casinos.

It's very true that someone who lived their entire life brushing their teeth with Crest, putting Heinz ketchup on their hamburgers, filling their tanks with Chevron gasoline, and drinking Folgers coffee aren't going to be easily (if at all) swayed toward trying a competing brand. That's a lot of the reason you don't see ads for those products nearly as much as in past decades. But it does not mean that all is lost regarding those demos ... you just have to look at it rationally and go after those clients who do offer something of value to them.

 

[CTListener]

Really? Here are some median ages:

AAA: 51, with 41% over the age of 55.

AC: 45 with 30% over the age of 55.

Adult hits: 47 with 30% over the age of 55

Adult Standards: 61 with 80% over the age of 55

All News: 59 with 62% over the age of 55.

Get the picture? How about a few more?

All talk: 62 with 66% over the age of 55.

Classic hits: 52 with 46% over the age of 55

Classic Rock: 51 with 38% over the age of 55

Classical: 62 with 64% over the age of 55

News/Talk: 62 with 61% over the age of 55.

Oldies: 58 with 56% over the age of 55

Public: 53 with 50% over 55.

Soft adult: 52 with 45% over the age of 55

Thats a whole lot of programming for 55+. I'm really tired of all these old people crabbing about how there's no radio for them.

It's the oldies. standards and soft adult fans who are crabbing, because their markets no longer have any stations running those formats. The larger the market, the more likely you can't hear those formats on local radio, especially FM.

 

[K.M. Richards]

It's the oldies. standards and soft adult fans who are crabbing, because their markets no longer have any stations running those formats. The larger the market, the more likely you can't hear those formats on local radio, especially FM.

💡

You just created a correlation in my thinking, CT. In smaller markets, there are likely to be more locally-owned businesses of the types I referenced, they are likely to be more dependent on the older demos for their survival, and they can likely afford the ad rates of the hometown stations.

The larger the market, the more those types of businesses are spread out across a geographic area, making it harder to target "locals" like seniors who want to stay closer to home. And the ad rates are going to be proportionally higher by market size, and therefore the CPM ratio is going to be out of reach for those businesses who only need to reach a fraction of the total market. Few, if any, stations are going to carry a format which has an audience that only responds to smaller, local businesses who cannot afford to run ads on the station.

There's your vicious circle.

 

[davideduardo]

Really? Here are some median ages:

None of those target 55 and over. They get “overflow” in the older group, but agency placed advertisers don’t even glance at 55 and over.

 

[davideduardo]

It's the oldies. standards and soft adult fans who are crabbing, because their markets no longer have any stations running those formats. The larger the market, the more likely you can't hear those formats on local radio, especially FM.

In what even medium rated market are there oldies, Standards or remaining soft AC stations? Even the “flagship” soft AC, WDUV, is now much more mainstream (I know, that is a major market but a good example)

 

[TheBigA]

None of those target 55 and over. They get “overflow” in the older group, but agency placed advertisers don’t even glance at 55 and over.

It doesn't matter who they "target." You aren't selling a target. What matters is who listens. You sell the actual numbers.

Advertisers know who listen. You can't lie to them.

 

[radiofan2023]

In what even medium rated market are there oldies, Standards or remaining soft AC stations? Even the “flagship” soft AC, WDUV, is now much more mainstream (I know, that is a major market but a good example)

KOEZ in Des Moines, IA. Minneapolis has Love 105 and WDGY.

 

[K.M. Richards]

It doesn't matter who they "target." You aren't selling a target. What matters is who listens. You sell the actual numbers.

Advertisers know who listen. You can't lie to them.

Which goes back to what I said about market size being a factor in running formats targeted 55+.

 

[Delete My Account]

This conundrum seems very challenging to win at for radio.

If you're younger, you may be more impressionable - but you're also less likely to use radio.

If you're older, you're more likely to use radio, and have more to spend, but are less likely to be swayed by advertising.

Meanwhile, your advertisers think digital is somehow superior because of "targeting" but it's also easily adblocked or tuned out visually, and the algorithms aren't trustworthy, and the trustworthy and more locally present forms of media, historically, like print and local radio, are losing money to Silicon Valley. Who by and large, I regard as hucksters.

I know this much...I'd rather be programming a small local station targeted at upper demos than anything targeting a younger audience that has the attention span of a gnat.

 

[semoochie]

Really? Here are some median ages:

AAA: 51, with 41% over the age of 55.

AC: 45 with 30% over the age of 55.

Adult hits: 47 with 30% over the age of 55

Adult Standards: 61 with 80% over the age of 55

All News: 59 with 62% over the age of 55.

Get the picture? How about a few more?

All talk: 62 with 66% over the age of 55.

Classic hits: 52 with 46% over the age of 55

Classic Rock: 51 with 38% over the age of 55

Classical: 62 with 64% over the age of 55

News/Talk: 62 with 61% over the age of 55.

Oldies: 58 with 56% over the age of 55

Public: 53 with 50% over 55.

Soft adult: 52 with 45% over the age of 55

Thats a whole lot of programming for 55+. I'm really tired of all these old people crabbing about how there's no radio for them.

I don't understand some of these figures at all! The median age seems way too low. In the case of Oldies, most of these songs were before 58 years ago, meaning that you'd have to subtract eight to ten years from the playlist. For Adult Standards, it's virtually the entire playlist! It's hard to believe that a nostalgic format can bring in that many people who have no way of feeling nostalgic about it!

 

[TheBigA]

I don't understand some of these figures at all! The median age seems way too low.

The copyright on those numbers is 2022, so add a few years.

 

[davideduardo]

It doesn't matter who they "target." You aren't selling a target. What matters is who listens. You sell the actual numbers.

Yes, but you sell against the specific age, gender, ethnicity and other requirements of the ad buy. You do not sell the things you have tat the advertiser does not want. So you actuallly only sell those numbers the buyer wants. An agency buyer probably will never even look at your numbers outside the buy specs.

Advertisers know who listen. You can't lie to them.

That is not how agency buys work. The account managers at the agency work with the client to determine the target specs. Then a media plan and the creative are worked on. When approved by the client, then the media department assigns buys to planners and buyers for each medium. In radio, the buyers look at the target demos and costs… CPP or whatever… and make the actual buys.

In an increasing number of cases, the media buyer does not even do the buy, with computers doing the cost and audience analysis within only and just the target demos.

 

[TheBigA]

When approved by the client, then the media department assigns buys to planners and buyers for each medium. In radio, the buyers look at the target demos and costs… CPP or whatever… and make the actual buys.

What happens when all the planning and all that preliminary work leads to different demographics than were intended? Because I think we're seeing that happen a lot. Perhaps that's the real reason why agencies are staying away. We have a whole thread about this with WOGL.

 

[davideduardo]

This conundrum seems very challenging to win at for radio.

If you're younger, you may be more impressionable - but you're also less likely to use radio.

If you're older, you're more likely to use radio, and have more to spend, but are less likely to be swayed by advertising.

Meanwhile, your advertisers think digital is somehow superior because of "targeting" but it's also easily adblocked or tuned out visually, and the algorithms aren't trustworthy, and the trustworthy and more locally present forms of media, historically, like print and local radio, are losing money to Silicon Valley. Who by and large, I regard as hucksters.

I know this much...I'd rather be programming a small local station targeted at upper demos than anything targeting a younger audience that has the attention span of a gnat.

You are forgetting that radio is sold on delivery. Advertisers look at the cost to reach each listener, so even a low-rated station may be a good value.

Advertisers that buy any medium pay for delivery. It does not matter what the reach of the medium is; it matters what each station delivers and at what price.

Advertisers already know about consumer habits and buying patterns.

 

[davideduardo]

What happens when all the planning and all that preliminary work leads to different demographics than were intended? Because I think we're seeing that happen a lot. Perhaps that's the real reason why agencies are staying away. We have a whole thread about this with WOGL.

Agencies buy, always, a portion of the audience of each station, not the 2hole 12+ or 6+ audience. And buys are made with the latest audience data and measurements, so the. Client delivers the message to that portion of the audience the want.

With PPM data being as fresh as just 4 weeks old, there is no targeting error.

 

[TheBigA]

Agencies buy, always, a portion of the audience of each station,

I think what I'm saying here is: They're buying less.

 

[davideduardo]

I think what I'm saying here is: They're buying less.

They are giving a smaller percentage of total budgets to traditional media of all kinds. But that does not mean that they don't look at only the specific demos of the client and their buy specs.

 

[Theater of My Mind]

Really? Here are some median ages:

None of those target 55 and over.

Well they should start, because that's who's listening to the radio -- the people who grew up with it and developed their fondness of the radio medium before the internet changed everything.

And they should learn how to sell it because in a few years there will be no one left *at all* under the age of 55 who grew up with radio as an essential part of their lives. Radio is becoming a medium for an increasingly aging audience, that's just how it is.