Boomers Still Have The Money

Last month when my wife and I were on vacation, the publication Mediapost shared a story that I was living at the moment.

My wife and I are Baby Boomers.

Our kids are Millennials.

The business world, or more specifically the advertising world, is focused on convincing our kids to spend their money with them, which is great except…

Except they are ignoring the Boomers.

And guess who really has the money to spend on stuff.

Boomers.

Boomers Still Have The Money.

Our kids are having kids.  5 kids and their partners have created 9 grandkids.

When you have 2 or 3 kids to support, life as a 30 year old is expensive, no matter how much you make.

But when you are an empty nester, you have more choices on what to spend your paycheck on.  

And usually that paycheck is just as big or bigger in your 50’s than it was in your 20’s and 30’s.

The Mediapost article asks:

Why do advertisers ignore boomers to focus on the “it” demos: millennials and Gen Z?

Although millennials officially outnumber boomers, let’s not forget the spending power wielded by boomers.

Age is just a number to boomers, who aren’t sitting at home wondering how to connect to the WiFi and counting the minutes until they take their next round of pills. Instead, they are traveling, spend time outdoors — and, according to U.S. News & World Report, control 70% of the country’s disposable income and spend $3.2 trillion a year.

You see, that’s what we were doing.  I had 11 days off counting the Memorial Day holiday and a couple of weekends, so my wife and I traveled to Philadelphia and New York City.  We saw a Broadway musical, took time sight seeing and exploring some historic landmarks.  We hiked in the woods, ate what we wanted, stayed in nice hotels, treated our friends and had a great time.  We really didn’t need to save up for this trip, and we didn’t go into debt.

Meanwhile my younger coworkers, whose incomes are similar to mine enjoyed their 3 day Memorial Day weekends and had to spend a larger percent of their take home pay on regular living expenses for their families.

Are you getting the picture?

Here’s another quote from Mediapost:

Millennials and hot on their tail Gen Z may have some money to spend now — but boomers have it yesterday, today and tomorrow. Targeting boomers might not be as Instagrammable as a millennial demo, but it is instantly gratifying.

Advertisers, for years, were targeting the youth.  I was one of the Pepsi Generation of the 1960’s and 70’s. The sought after age demographic, when I started in the radio business was 18 to 34 year olds.

Then as that group of people who we now refer to as Baby Boomers got a little older, the desirable demographic for advertisers was 25 to 54 year olds.  That worked for awhile, when Baby Boomers were still in the age group, but now the boomers have aged out.  Boomers are now 55 and older.

The so called wise-ones in the advertising world have it wrong.

A mere 10% of marketing budgets is allocated to the boomer audience, while 50% goes to marketing to millennials.

and

Baby Boomers outspend every other generation by $400 billion annually, providing over 50 percent of U.S. consumption.

So, how can you, as a business owner or advertising marketing director, get some of this Boomer Money?

Simple.

Invite Boomers to spend money with you.

Set aside an appropriate amount of your advertising to reach the Boomers.

I currently work with three radio stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana.  I have a rock music station, a sports talk station and a news talk station.

The news talk station, WOWO is king.  It is the station that Baby Boomers grew up listening to back when they played music and it was a personality radio station.  WOWO still is a personality driven radio station with our news and talk format, it is the leading station for all grown-ups and the most listened to by Boomers.

The advertisers that are using WOWO to invite Boomers to spend money are doing very well these days.  

I have a couple of travel agencies that each promoted special vacations to Ireland and Alaska. (Those were two separate trips.) I saw over 50 WOWO listeners and their friends pony up the bucks to go on these exclusive trips and we in the planning stages for next year.  That’s just one example I bring up because of my vacation travels last month.

What else are WOWO radio’s Baby Boomer listeners spending money on?

Health care.

Financial Planning.

Home improvements and new homes.

Nielsen established that boomers spend almost $90 billion a year on cars — nearly 30% more than other age groups. 

and remember those grandkids and their parents?  

We spend money on them too!

Honestly, if you want to grow your business over the next few years, contact me about inviting Boomers who Still Have Money to spend it with you.  Drop me a note to Scott@WOWO.com 

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