Food for thought: while social media marketing may appear to be the darling of the day, “old fashioned” TV and print continue to grab prospects by the wallet. The effectiveness of television advertising is consistent across all ages – high numbers of Millennials, Baby Boomers and 65+ seniors report that it has an impact on their buying decision. And the impact of magazine ads increases with age.
According to the latest edition of Deloitte Research’s “State of the Media Democracy” survey, 71% of Americans still rate watching TV on any device among their favorite media activities. In addition, 83% of Americans stated that TV advertising still has the most impact on their buying decisions.
This isn’t a surprise to Creating Results – this blog has repeatedly noted that television is still a safe bet with great reach when you are marketing to Baby Boomers and seniors. But it’s timely news this week given Century 21′s decision to return to TV.
Chief Marketing Officer Beverly Thorne told AdAgethat “ it was time to return to TV to raise awareness about agents with young-adult home buyers.” The median age of US primetime TV watchers is 51 (Boomers) and 65+ers (seniors) watch more television than any other age. So Thorne’s ploy to get in front of young adults will put Century 21 in front of the adults who actually do buy new homes: 40+ matures.
The ability of ads on web sites to move traffic to other sites has dropped from 72% to 59% over the past three surveys. Online advertising trails magazines for effectiveness, especially when it comes to older targets. More than 2/3 of matures (defined by Deloitte as 63-75) and half of Baby Boomers (which Deloitte defines as 44-62) say magazine ads are highly motivating to them.
According to the survey, since 2007 a consistent 70% of Americans state that they enjoy reading printed magazines even though they know that they could find most of the same information online. James McDonnell, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, says “… enthusiasm for printed magazines is consistent across all age groups, a unique result in consumer attitudes across all the media categories, we surveyed…
It may be April 1st but we’re not fools. As Creating Results has noted before, the top monthly magazines rely on older readers and news magazine readers, in particular are older, wealthier and more educated than the average. We feel we can safely predict that print won’t be dead for quite some time.
MediaPost shared the following chart with statistics at a glance – the advertising vehicles that have the most impact on the buying decision, by age:
| Advertising With Most Impact On Buying Decision (% of Respondents) | ||||||
| All | Trailing Millennials | Leading Millennials | Xers | Boomers | Matures | |
| TV | 83% | 80 | 82 | 86 | 82 | 80 |
| Magazines | 50 | 44 | 45 | 45 | 53 | 67 |
| Online | 47 | 55 | 69 | 46 | 41 | 32 |
| Newspapers | 44 | 20 | 17 | 37 | 59 | 79 |
| Radio | 32 | 26 | 22 | 37 | 34 | 27 |
| Billboards/outdoor advertising | 13 | 11 | 12 | 14 | 13 | 8 |
| In-theater advertising | 11 | 27 | 19 | 10 | 6 | 3 |
| Source: Deloitte Research, March 2011 (Trailing Millennials: Age 14-20, Leading Millennials: 21-26, Generation X: 27-43, Baby Boomers: 44-62, Matures: 63-75) | ||||||
What do you think? Share your thoughts on TV, magazines and marketing to Baby Boomers and seniors below.
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