Radio Festival Puts Spotlight On Advertising To Over Fifties
A panel of broadcast industry experts has put advertising to the over fifties at the top of the agenda at this year’s Radio Festival in Birmingham.
Beginning his address on the topic, Ron Coles, director of Saga Radio, described the changing face of Britain’s population with more people aged over fifty making up the populus and enjoying far longer lifespans than ever before.
The radio boss also detailed the spending power wielded by the country’s burgeoning older residents. According to Coles, the 50 to 64 year-olds in Britain have the most disposable income, purchase 35% of all travel products and shop for 45% of all new cars, yet are ignored by most radio advertisers.
Attempting to explain the failure to capitalise on older listeners, Coles listed some of the reasoning given by advertisers and agencies. Citing the myths of pre-formed buying habits and a predisposition against advertising he lambasted those ignoring the sector. He said: “Any business dependent on a younger audience will simply be defending their portion of a dwindling market. We must value the over 50s.”
The number of adults over fifty years old in Britain looks set to grow and forecasts show a 31% increase in the sector by 2027. The number of under fifties in the UK has already shrunk by a million according to the radio chief’s figures.
Returning fire during her section of the heated debate was Tess Alps, chairman of PHD Group. She stated her opposition to marketing radio stations directly at older listeners, explaining: “The over fifties are an attractive market, but I still feel it is wrong for media to overtly target older listeners.”
Qualifying her argument, the advertising boss explained that marketing to a younger audience had the potential to build brand loyalty throughout their lifetime, into their fifties and beyond, a practice she described as building “lifetime value”. She said: “Early adopters can really make or break a brand. If targeting over fifties was guaranteed to bring home the bacon you can be sure advertisers would do it.”
Closing the debate Adam Smith, head of knowledge management at ZenithOptimedia, described the importance of considering lifestyles when planning radio campaigns. He said: “The definition of age is blurring. We are living longer and attempting to life live a lot longer. The bulk of these additional years are found in the 50-plus section.”
Touching on the psychology of increased buying power amongst older listeners, Smith explained that traditional values had become replaced by the emotional characteristics a product is equipped with. He said: “Pure function now represents the minority of buying decisions we know the car is going to work, etc now it is more important to know how a product will improve self esteem.”
Advertising to the over fifties has been in focus recently following a study carried out by OMD UK in association with the Telegraph, Peugeot and Saga, which found that people aged over fifty have as disparate and unpredictable lifestyles as younger generations (see Research Claims Over Fifties Are Young At Heart).Radio Academy: 020 7255 2010 www.radioacademy.org
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