Are boomers NOT a good ad target?

[TheFonz]

Re: boomers discussion

It's pretty simple: most major advertisers, those whose dollars would be the bloodline of 55+ radio formats, do not see a great return on investment nor a profitable future in targeting 55+ audiences. They have proven by their actions (much of which is based on exhaustive consumer research) that they won't be sending major advertising budgets to Oldies stations. That's not an opinion, it's fact.

The truth is, radio never could sell advertising to this group. This is the group that read newspapers, and newspapers always got the advertising money. So if you are in radio advertising sales today, the guy who sat in your chair 40 years ago wasn't doing HIS job.

 

[MightyFrenchman]

Re: boomers discussion

It's pretty simple: most major advertisers, those whose dollars would be the bloodline of 55+ radio formats, do not see a great return on investment nor a profitable future in targeting 55+ audiences. They have proven by their actions (much of which is based on exhaustive consumer research) that they won't be sending major advertising budgets to Oldies stations. That's not an opinion, it's fact.

The truth is, radio never could sell advertising to this group. This is the group that read newspapers, and newspapers always got the advertising money. So if you are in radio advertising sales today, the guy who sat in your chair 40 years ago wasn't doing HIS job.

This is slightly off track but one chair I would NOT want to be sitting in today is the chair of a newspaper advertising sales rep. Fewer & fewer people read the newspaper.....ESPECIALLY BEGINNING WITH THOSE IN THE BABY BOOM GENERATION. Print advertising is not reaching the 50+ crowd. Radio does.

 

[TheFonz]

Re: boomers discussion

This is slightly off track but one chair I would NOT want to be sitting in today is the chair of a newspaper advertising sales rep. Fewer & fewer people read the newspaper.....ESPECIALLY BEGINNING WITH THOSE IN THE BABY BOOM GENERATION. Print advertising is not reaching the 50+ crowd. Radio does.

Now that's strange. If radio advertising is reaching the '50s+ crowd, where's my '50s/'60s Oldies station? And why are we having this discussion in the first place? Next time you go to Wal-Mart, Target, or Home Depot notice the number of "seniors" walking around with newspaper advertising inserts in their hands.

 

[radiofriend1]

Re: boomers discussion

This is slightly off track but one chair I would NOT want to be sitting in today is the chair of a newspaper advertising sales rep. Fewer & fewer people read the newspaper.....ESPECIALLY BEGINNING WITH THOSE IN THE BABY BOOM GENERATION. Print advertising is not reaching the 50+ crowd. Radio does.

Now that's strange. If radio advertising is reaching the '50s+ crowd, where's my '50s/'60s Oldies station? \

it isn't. i think that's been said by about a half-dozen people ad nauseum

oldies is over. time to put yer faves on yer ipod and move on

 

[davideduardo]

Re: boomers discussion

This is slightly off track but one chair I would NOT want to be sitting in today is the chair of a newspaper advertising sales rep. Fewer & fewer people read the newspaper.....ESPECIALLY BEGINNING WITH THOSE IN THE BABY BOOM GENERATION. Print advertising is not reaching the 50+ crowd. Radio does.

Actually, the older a person is themore likely it is they read a newspaper. The 35+ and 45+ crowd is where all the newspaper readers are.

 

[MightyFrenchman]

Re: boomers discussion

This is slightly off track but one chair I would NOT want to be sitting in today is the chair of a newspaper advertising sales rep. Fewer & fewer people read the newspaper.....ESPECIALLY BEGINNING WITH THOSE IN THE BABY BOOM GENERATION. Print advertising is not reaching the 50+ crowd. Radio does.

Actually, the older a person is themore likely it is they read a newspaper. The 35+ and 45+ crowd is where all the newspaper readers are.

Thirty to forty years ago, that was true. Not anymore.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: boomers discussion

Actually, the older a person is themore likely it is they read a newspaper. The 35+ and 45+ crowd is where all the newspaper readers are.

Thirty to forty years ago, that was true. Not anymore.

Not so. Readership of newspapers in the under-40 demos is dismal, and the reason why circulation is falling and so many newspaper companies are in trouble (Tribune the latest). Most paper readers are older, with a significant portion over 55. Although all readership is falling, the big issue is that the two most recent generations have failed to develop a newspaper usage habit, making younger demos the weakest.

An extract...
"Newspaper readership has long skewed old. What is new, and worrisome for the industry, is that the readership percentage has begun to decline across all age groups, even those over 50.

Source: Scarborough Research unpublished survey data, www.scarborough.com Date Posted: March 13, 2006"

http://www.journalism.org/node/1296

 

[TheFonz]

Re: boomers discussion

oldies is over. time to put yer faves on yer ipod and move on

Well, not really. Thanks to my "boomer" disposable income, I have satellite radio.

 

[Oldbones]

Re: boomers discussion

The truth is, radio never could sell advertising to this group. This is the group that read newspapers, and newspapers always got the advertising money.

True...remember the early 80s when elevator music stations began dropping like flies. The ratings were still good....indeed many of them were top 5 12+, but it was a 55+ audience. Few boomers cared...most of those stations switched to formats targeted to us! Now the shoe is on the other foot...we're the ones who are "old and in the way" and somehow the Beatles are more important than were 101 Strings.

As others have noted...be glad we're not in the newspaper business.

 

[LKellerIII]

"...remember the early 80s when elevator music stations began dropping like flies. The ratings were still good....indeed many of them were top 5 12+, but it was a 55+ audience. Few boomers cared...most of those stations switched to formats targeted to us! Now the shoe is on the other foot...we're the ones who are "old and in the way" and somehow the Beatles are more important than were 101 Strings."

Nobody ever said that Boomers didn't LISTEN to radio, just that advertising is no longer targeted toward us. The 800 lb ratings gorilla in the SF Bay Area is KOIT ("Lite Rock, Less Talk") which was always strong, but has gained even more ratings points lately since the demise of our Oldies station. KOIT plays a fair amount of Sixties oldies, but also Seventies, Eighties, and current hits. KFOG ("World Class Rock & Roll") also plays a lot of 60s and 70s album cuts, also around newer music. Both of these stations are attractive to advertisers because they have strong listenership from people in their 30s and 40s, as well as boomers. In terms of terrestrial radio, I think boomers will have to get used to hearing oldies less often in the rotation on these kinds of formats. Thinking back to the Sixties, there were no "Oldies" stations - if you wanted to hear Fifties Oldies, you had to listen to the Top 40 stations, which would insert an oldie ("Solid Gold" was the terminology in those days) in the rotation after 2 or 3 current hits. Same thing now, I'm afraid.

 

[Don62]

Re: boomers discussion

oldies is over. time to put yer faves on yer ipod and move on

Well, not really. Thanks to my "boomer" disposable income, I have satellite radio.

That's probably the way to go, unfortunately for the dunderheads running the joint these days.

Radio's owners are so visonary and always thinking of serving its listeners.

Here you have a loyal audience that grew up with their product. While they too go for satellite and Ipods, [size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt][size=10pt]these listeners would prefer to listen to radio[/size][/size][/size][/size], unlike the cluelesss 20-somethings, who likely won't grow up to be big radio listeners.

Which group does a-- -backward radio mangers scramble to serve?

The radio apologists on this board, who constantly drill in us that older listeners aren't important, they should wise up too, since they may soon be out of a job (that is, if they really work on-air, not just some pencil-knecked sales geeks who don't have a clue).
Radio doesn't care about its workers. Run syndicated or cheap programming. Get a jock who moves to another town to VT his old job. (Oursource on-air positions).

What a bunch of losers.

They deserve to lose their jobs.

 

[OldiesCat]

Hey Don

Cool your jets. We've never said "older listeners don't matter". We're simply reporting that advertisers, without whom any medium doesn't survive, isn't interested in targeting 55+ consumers. The sweetheart cells are 18-49 and 25-54. If you have a magical formula or remedy for that, please let us know. We're dying to hear it.

The fastest way radio can totally lose out (and quickly) to satellite, iPods and other sources is to say: "well, screw the advertisers. We want to do X format and we don't care if they don't buy time on our stations".

THAT will kill terrestrial radio, because without a revenue stream, no business survives.

Why this is so difficult to understand is amazing. I can only chalk it up to major denial of the realities of today's radio and advertising landscape.

 

[Don62]

Re: Hey Don

Cool your jets. We've never said "older listeners don't matter". We're simply reporting that advertisers, without whom any medium doesn't survive, isn't interested in targeting 55+ consumers. The sweetheart cells are 18-49 and 25-54. If you have a magical formula or remedy for that, please let us know. We're dying to hear it.

The fastest way radio can totally lose out (and quickly) to satellite, iPods and other sources is to say: "well, screw the advertisers. We want to do X format and we don't care if they don't buy time on our stations".

THAT will kill terrestrial radio, because without a revenue stream, no business survives.

Why this is so difficult to understand is amazing. I can only chalk it up to major denial of the realities of today's radio and advertising landscape.

Without listeners, radio will die even quicker.
I thought that was important, instead of being held hostage to 20-something ad-men pencil neck geeks.

Gee, a product's most loyal and long-time users are eschewed.

I just thought forward thinking radio men would take that into consideration and try to find a way to serve them. No, not even HD radio plans to make much offerings for those listeners.
Instead, another "dance" format that the lousy KLUV-Dallas provides its HD listeners.

After all, X corp. ownd 12 stations in a market but finds no room to serve its most loyal listeners. That says a lot about this crappy business that I am sincerely glad I left years ago.

 

[Don62]

These last two posts were very interesting points of view. I'd say radiologist is correct and radiofriend1 is incorrect.

so all these advertisers who do millions in research are also incorrect?

wake up

They must wear blinders, like the horse and buggy. If they can't see the importance and market power of the Baby Boomers, they're blind and will likely lead to the demise of radio.

 

[TheFonz]

Re: Hey Don

The fastest way radio can totally lose out (and quickly) to satellite, iPods and other sources is to say: "well, screw the advertisers. We want to do X format and we don't care if they don't buy time on our stations".

THAT will kill terrestrial radio, because without a revenue stream, no business survives.

Why this is so difficult to understand is amazing. I can only chalk it up to major denial of the realities of today's radio and advertising landscape.

Wouldn't it be smart for terrestrial radio to do what it takes to keep satellite radio receivers out of homes and cars? Remember, when a "boomer" buys a satellite radio, listeners of ALL ages are exposed to that radio. When kids (and in some cases, grandkids) hear the virtues of satellite, terrestrial radio could lose them also. In marketing, there's something called a "loss leader". K-Mart offers an item for sale at little or no proifit in hopes of getting the shopper to buy items with a greater profit margin. It seems that a company like Clear Channel should be programming to "boomers" at little or no profit just to keep satellite radio away from the ears of their more desireable demos. Of course, CC owns part of satellite, so they probably don't care.

 

[davideduardo]

Re: Hey Don

Wouldn't it be smart for terrestrial radio to do what it takes to keep satellite radio receivers out of homes and cars? Remember, when a "boomer" buys a satellite radio, listeners of ALL ages are exposed to that radio. When kids (and in some cases, grandkids) hear the virtues of satellite, terrestrial radio could lose them also. In marketing, there's something called a "loss leader". K-Mart offers an item for sale at little or no proifit in hopes of getting the shopper to buy items with a greater profit margin. It seems that a company like Clear Channel should be programming to "boomers" at little or no profit just to keep satellite radio away from the ears of their more desireable demos. Of course, CC owns part of satellite, so they probably don't care.

Terrestrial radio is paid for by advertisers. There is no way to support radio formats that are predoiminantly 55 or 65 and over. And I doubt most under-55's would be impressed when in the car with an old fart who is listening to Benny Goodman or Ted Heath.

Clear owns now, less than 1% of XM, and no part of Sirius. XM has so diluted the shares as they issued more and more and more to pay their annual half-billion or more of losses than an origina investiment of 6% is now about 0.5%.

 

[davideduardo]

They must wear blinders, like the horse and buggy. If they can't see the importance and market power of the Baby Boomers, they're blind and will likely lead to the demise of radio.

Again, for about the 100th time.

Advertisers know that some boomers have money, some do not.

What they do know is that advertising to people over 55 on the radio is a bad return on investment proposition, since older consumers are much more loyal to exiting brands, therefore requiring losts more advertising to pry them loose. In most cases, the ad investment is greater than the profit on the sale of goods and services, so there is no ROI.

If an advertiser will lose money on every sale, why would they want to go after a particular market segment?

 

[vibe]

Boomers are the most product loyal of all demos but stations lose us due to playing the same old crappe. Going to XM soon as the stations in the Boston-Providence RI area seem to be stuck on a 300-500 playlist.

 

[davideduardo]

Boomers are the most product loyal of all demos but stations lose us due to playing the same old crappe. Going to XM soon as the stations in the Boston-Providence RI area seem to be stuck on a 300-500 playlist.

The reason "stations lose" you is that they do not want to appeal to over-55 as the advertisers do not want that demo... no profit.

 

[TheFonz]

Re: Hey Don

And I doubt most under-55's would be impressed when in the car with an old ------ who is listening to Benny Goodman or Ted Heath.

I guess that you don't have kids or grandkids. When they're in the car, the radio plays what THEY want to hear. And satellite has over 100 channels, in case you haven't heard. It's music heaven for ANY age group.