Radio and Older Demos

[davideduardo]

David, are agencies buying any market other than New York and LA, with everyone else kind of "along for the ride," regardless of age demo? I'm guessing that this is so only based on advertising I see and hear, with only a few products such as pickup trucks and cheap beer being exceptions.

Some national agency campaigns go hundreds of markets deep. And many, such as those placed by regional agencies out of places like Phoenix or Denver or Kansas City, go into very small markets. Remember, something like 60% of the US population is in the top 50 markets, so a principal reason for not going deeper on local rado or tv or print is that the expense of buying is not compensated for by profits and that those markets will get the national network campaigns, but no local reinforcement.

It's always sounded to me like advertisers and their agencies (NYC and LA based) are essentially targetting people like themselves.

Two things... most agencies are not in LA or NY... they are in Birmingham or Miami or Portland or Atlanta and so on. And agencies, generally, do not set the age targets for ads or campaigns... the advertiser does based on who a product or service appeals to and where the greatest amount of consumption will take place, by age and other demo characteristics.

If other people buy their products, so much the better, but they're not really being advertised to. McDonald's, General Motors, and Heineken will certainly take money from Aunt Molly & Uncle Fred in Omaha, but they don't advertise to them.

Sure they do.

 

[davideduardo]

The point is, I've provided reference after reference on this thread which shows that advertisers are interested in the 50+ market or are showing an interest in it, including those who work in radio, while you have provided nothing but outmoded personal opinion which, frankly, isn't worth spit.

No, you have shown that some marketers with a desire to be noticed have statistics or data about senior consumption.

I have data on the fact that there are essentially no ad buys being made for 55+. The rubber hits the road at the buy level. If there are no buys, it means that there may beall kinds of little research projects, but advertisers... some of whom spend hundreds of millions on research... do not believe that there is an economically viable market there.

In fact, there is a tendency away from the traditional 25-54 buy towards 18-49, which is now the most common broad demo asked for.

 

[semoochie]

This reminds me of one of my previous questions: The money demos are now shifting from 25-54 to 18-49. About 35 years ago, give or take, 5 years was tacked onto what I had always heard to be the money demos, 25-49. Why did this happen?

 

[davideduardo]

This reminds me of one of my previous questions: The money demos are now shifting from 25-54 to 18-49. About 35 years ago, give or take, 5 years was tacked onto what I had always heard to be the money demos, 25-49. Why did this happen?

These are broad and slow shiftes of the most commonly requested demos and are the effect of advertiser specifications.

25-54 was never the only demo, just, in recent years, the most common one. There is plenty of 18-34, 25-44, 35-54, Men 21-49, Women 25-44, Assimilated Hispanic Females 25-44, etc. Many buys have a broad goal and a specific on... that is to make sure the media deliver the ultra-sharp target as well as the broader general target.

But, today, the most common broad demo is 18-49 but there are lots of 25-54 too.

 

[semoochie]

So far!