Uses email everyday, reads a couple of blogs relating to his industry and his Blackberry very rarely leaves his side. He's been using email and the web for 10 years, he's had a mobile phone for just as long.
A quick profile of one of millions of over 40's and 50's working across Australia and the world.
So why do we assume that their not online? Why do we assume that the Internet is the domain of the under 30's? It is totally flawed.
In the UK in 2008 I conducted research with over 400 baby boomers, 85% of which were active online, and the level of frustration about their perceived digital understanding was incredible.
We've been running display and search campaigns for Travel brands targeting over 50's for the last 6 months, with incredible results - both in ROI and brand engagement terms. And as recently as this month drove 35,000 unique 50somethings to a travel website. Plenty of proof close to home...
Further afield, recent statistics from the US (Emarketer) show that 78% of over 50s are active online in some form, up from 68% in 2005.
If we wanted any more evidence, Nigel's 84 year old Dad just bought an iphone, to back up the Ipod and Macbook he bought last year. Oh and my 63 year old Mum texted me yesterday "our wireless modem is broken so no Internet for 3 days. NIGHTMARE".
Tell us your views.
Nic
Spot on.
ReplyDeleteI didn't even know they had a 3G network in rural Jamaica...he did.
In three years I've watched my father go from someone who didn't know what a PC was to proclaiming "Macs are better, OSX is more stable" and becoming an evangelist amongst his pensioner mates for mobile email "You can just keep the damn thing in your pocket and it buzzes when you get an email."
The simplicity with which he views the tech world has become fascinating to me and need closer attention from the marketing world. He bought an iPhone because "I can't be bothered with the diddy little screens on the others, they give me a headache."
The thing the marketing world is missing is that my father had no plans to buy an iPhone, no endless web research, he just saw the nice fat screen and got his visa card out. These are people with money to spend on all sorts of stuff...
He can't be the only old man capable of becoming Apple's bitch in under 12 months.
As he says when I asked him why Apple "It all sort of fits together you know, you just plugs your bits into the thing and it does everything itself."
All does now is sit on the net and he's enormously knowledgeable because he has something young people don't - time.
This a man who will spend an entire day researching flights and hotels....
They are a criminally ignored market.
How do you know 35,000 unique _over 50s_ clicked-thru?
ReplyDeleteWhat, specifically, does 'active online' mean?
Thanks for the post Hamish. Media was demo-targeted at over 50's. 'Active online' is the research groups term - they classify that as 'used the internet including email, search (they didn't specify beyond that, these guys did the research - http://www.pewinternet.org/). To support this, studies from Nielsen show that the over 50's account for nearly 1/3 of internet usage in the US. Cheers
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting. So there isn't really anything to substantiate (as in "plenty of proof") your original claim that all 35,000 clicks were by 50somethings? Unless of course your media some how blocks access to all other internet users outside that demographic...
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link. Some useful stuff there.
I think we can be pretty confident not many under 50's browse aboutseniors.com.au... but point taken. Pleased you enjoyed the link.
ReplyDeleteI would have thought it would have obvious that the over 50’s would have embraced the interweb. Unlike programming your Betamax video recorder 30 years ago, accessing the internet for them is easy and intuitive and all without having to leave the comfort of a Parker Knoll Armchair.
ReplyDeleteI think the difference is how we converse with them. Whereas Generation Y enjoy co-creating content, the skeptical nature of Gen Wise means they prefer to engage with ideas that are to a degree, already formed.
With the success of companies such as www.senioragency.com - a full service agency set up purely to talk to over 50s maybe the time is right to set up a digital division dedicated to this audience - we could make Silver Surfer, Davey Wilson Digital CD and call it 505.
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