I saw this chart last week that recaps which advertising mediums are growing and which are hurting. Radio and Digital media, the two areas I work in are doing pretty good according to this data:
Local radio, which is what I do with WOWO grew over 10% nationally. Meanwhile Print in the form of Free Standing Inserts, Newspapers and Magazines; and TV is in decline. I’m not surprised, are you?
Recently I have been talking to business that are waking up to the fact that the Baby Boomers are still a good group of folks to invite to spend money with them. My radio station has a significant chunk of them. Taking a glance at the most recent radio listener survey WOWO has over 40,000 Baby Boomer listeners every week. That’s nearly double the number of any other radio station in Fort Wayne.
Here’s a few business categories that should contact me:
The following report is from Mediapost:
Thanks to Boomers, the fastest-growing segment of the population over the next 10 years will continue to be people age 50+. Indeed, the over-50 population will grow by 15.1 million, or nearly three times faster than people age 18-49, a segment that will grow by just 6.3 million. That disproportionate growth will affect nearly every industry. It will grow the consumer base of endemic sectors that already serve older consumers (e.g., health and finance), and it will age the consumer base of mainstream sectors. At the same time, Boomers’ consumer needs will change dramatically due to meaningful life stage transitions, and these changing needs will transform key business sectors.
Just how far-reaching will the impact be? To get a sense of the transformative effects of Boomer aging, take a look at its impact on these six key business sectors:
1. Financial Services
Every day for the last five years, 10,000 Boomers reached retirement age. Many began rolling over or collecting lump sums from their 401(k) and pension plans, creating an increased demand for financial products and services from money managers. That trend will continue over the next 14 years, with increasingly savvy consumers who learned from the recession to take a more proactive role in the managing their money. As Boomers continue to reinvent retirement, companies will succeed most by monitoring their changing needs and providing customized solutions.
2. Employment/Business Services
After retiring from full-time jobs, many Boomers continue to seek new work opportunities. The good news for Boomers is that they have significant opportunity. According to a 2014 CareerBuilder survey, 57% of private sector employers planned to hire seniors in 2015. This is creating a greater need for job placement and training services for older workers. Other retiring Boomers will start their own businesses, creating an increased need for business-related products and services.
3. Wellness & Fitness
The wellness/fitness industry has a huge growth opportunity when it comes to marketing to Boomers. A couple of years ago, the JAMA Internal Medicine issued a wake-up call when it reported that Boomers aren’t as healthy as their parents’ generation, specifically in suffering from chronic conditions that may have been prevented with better lifestyle choices. Recent research suggests they are headed in the right direction. Seven in ten currently manage their diets, and they cite a desire to improve their health as a top reason for doing so. Additionally, six in ten exercise multiple times a week. Boomers are increasingly using wearable fitness devices and health apps to monitor and improve their health. As a result, they are creating a demand for wellness and prevention products and services that will only grow as they age.
4. Brain Games
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, every 67 seconds someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and one in every three seniors dies from dementia. Boomers are indeed worried, and the brain fitness market has grown dramatically due to Boomer investment in games and services that aim to improve mental dexterity and brain fitness. With the most online-savvy Boomers marching toward their 60s, expect to see an even greater investment by companies providing online games and tools that help Boomers maintain mental dexterity longer.
5. Travel
Boomers love to travel, and retirement will give them greater flexibility to hit the road, providing growth opportunities for many in the travel industry. Indeed, the market of retirement travelers will grow by 36% over the next ten years, which will mean 8 million more retired domestic travelers and nearly 4 million more retired foreign travelers. Retired travelers spend 12% more than employed travelers on domestic vacations and 23% more on foreign vacations.
A broad range of travel marketers stand to gain, in particular, those providing luxury services, as well as cruise lines. In recent years, cruise lines have focused on building their younger consumer base, but the real growth opportunity lies in retired travelers, who are 60% more likely than employed travelers to be repeat cruisers.
6. Health Management
Boomers in their 50s and 60s, and, soon, their 70s, will increasingly need assistance managing a variety of health ailments related to aging — including high blood pressure, dry eyes, high cholesterol, hearing loss, arthritis, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, macular degeneration, osteoporosis, overactive bladder, prostate cancer, memory loss, and dementia.
This will create a greater demand for non-physician medical professionals (e.g., nurses, physician’s assistants) to handle the overload from doctors who run out of hours to treat patients. These services will rise in popularity as a less costly alternative Boomers will use to help control healthcare costs. Additionally, prescription drug use will continue to skyrocket. Today, Boomers fill 111 million more prescriptions a year than they did just five years ago. Expect an even bigger surge as Boomers age through their 60s, 70s and beyond.
Bottom Line
Boomers are still the largest, biggest spending generation. They are entering a phase of life where their needs will provide new and expanding opportunities across a broad range of key business sectors. Brands that keep their finger on the pulse of changing Boomer needs, and that provide products and services to meet these needs, stand to gain in a big way.
#TBT For Throw Back Thursday, I’m really stepping back in time, 10 years. In 2005, my wife and I were doing some outdoor home improvements which inspired the following which I wrote back then, from the ScLoHo archives:
Never confuse the foundation with the design of your project.
These words of wisdom can be applied to almost anything, but what brought it to mind was a pallet of paving bricks in my backyard. My wife is excellent when it comes to having a sense of style and design in most cases. Me? I have my own style that has been influenced by others in my life, but between the two of us, I usually let her have her way and I like her ideas.
The paving bricks are part of a project that she initiated in our backyard to build a brick patio. As Kathy focused on the design she wanted and I assisted with some of the grunt work, we came to realize that the foundation of this patio was not turning out right and we had differences in our approach to solve the problem. Basically in the end, I insisted that we get the foundation the way it needed to be, and then the design that she wanted could be accomplished afterwards.
How is your business operating? Do you have the basics in place? That could be a legal adviser, accountant, banker, along with the rest of your business plan? Or are you the type who is just going to “wing it”? Please get the foundation in place first, then you can play with the design of your business.
And in case you haven’t done so yet, include a marketer to your staff of advisers and experts. Someone who is honest and not just a yes man, someone who can give you valuable advise based on what you need. There is a difference between an advertising salesperson and a marketer who sells advertising.
The Brick Patio? It took longer to build but it was built on a firm foundation.
WOWO radio is the radio station I work for, doing advertising and marketing consulting, helping business people make smart advertising and marketing decisions, and selling advertising solutions on WOWO and with our digital options.
But this is not about me, or WOWO directly. It is about the talk radio advantage for advertisers.
This is a conversation I have several times each month. It is about the mental state of people who are exposed to your advertising messages.
We are going to look at the big picture and include many of the places you can spend money to advertise.
Start with television. When you and I sit down to watch a show, we are paying attention to the show. When commercials come on, most of us stop paying attention, at least not the same level of attentiveness that we have during the show.
Newspapers and magazines. Unless it’s a fashion magazine that is chocked full of 50+ pages of ads before the articles start, we are not really interested in the ads. We bought the paper to read the stories, get the scores, or see if someone died.
Social Media. Facebook for example is a place to go to find out what’s happening with friends and family. They have managed to work ads and sponsored posts into out timelines so we can’t help but seem them but we are not on Facebook to check out the ads.
Radio. Not all radio stations are created equal. For this discussion, let’s look at the difference between music based stations and talk based stations. The reason we tune in to a station that plays music, any music for that matter, is to hear music that we like. In Fort Wayne we have country music stations, rock music stations, pop music stations and plenty of variations.
Every listener to a music radio station selects that particular station because they want to hear that particular style of music. Anytime the music stops for any length of time, say 2 minutes, we pay less attention. If the station plays 5 or 7 minutes of commercials in a row, we really tune out and pay less attention. Some may even change stations. The reason we listen to music radio stations is to hear music. It’s to escape. Anything other than music on a music station is an irritant.
Talk based radio stations are a different animal. Stations like WOWO which are a combination of News and Talk have listeners who tune in for information. The programming on talk radio stations is brain food, not escapism like the music on a music radio station. When the newscaster or program host is talking, listeners are paying attention to the words. It’s the information that people want to hear.
So what happens when your commercial airs on a talk radio station like WOWO? 1st off, it’s not interrupting music, taking the place of your favorite song, so it is less of an irritant. Next, if your ad is a live endorsement from the radio personality, that is the very best kind of commercial because you have the credibility of the radio personality combined with the credibility of WOWO and a receptive audience that is listening to hear the talk, whether it is about politics or your business, it doesn’t matter.
If you air regular recorded commercials on a talk radio station like WOWO, you still get a receptive audience that is not turned off by talking on the radio and you are on WOWO which adds credibility to your business.
Last year I discovered another way to use WOWO’s talk radio format to help your business and that is with our live 10 second sponsorship messages of news, weather, traffic and sports. These are done live by the newscasters and program hosts and are embedded in the program and carry almost as much weight as a full endorsement.
This relationship between the WOWO listeners and the WOWO air staff with our news and talk radio format is one of trust. For many it’s as strong a bond of trust as a trusted friend. You don’t get that with a newspaper ad. You don’t get that with a TV commercial, You don’t get that with nearly any other form of advertising you can spend your money on.
This is the Talk Radio Advantage WOWO advertisers receive. Want more info? Let’s talk.
Creating an online personal brand is a mystery to many people. That includes me. Except after 10+ years I have some insight that I can share. 
First off, each of us has a personal brand. A personal brand is simply an identity, not necessarily one that you create for yourself, but what people think of when they think of you.
Take a second and read that again: A personal brand is simply an identity, not necessarily one that you create for yourself, but what people think of when they think of you.
For those of us who are old enough to have had a life before the internet, we had very little control of this. Do something crazy, something stupid, something heroic, and someone labels you with a nickname. That nickname became your personal brand, among those that knew you at the time.
Online you have more control because you get to decide what to share. You can even create a new nickname. That’s how ScLoHo began.
Actually ScLoHo started as an alternative to my given name, Scott Howard when I was setting up an email account on Yahoo! years ago. I started using ScLoHo also when I began blogging and carried it over to all my online accounts.
Enough history, on to what I do now.
5 days a week, I publish an article on my own website which is where you are reading this right now.
I have the wordpress plugin Jetpack that will autopost these daily updates to my Twitter account and to my personal Facebook page. I also have them autoposting to my two Google+ Accounts. This is the primary method I am currently using to share content that I write.
But there is more.
I hand select certain updates from this site to share on LinkedIn.
However, (and this is important): I share more than just my stuff on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
My Facebook account also has stuff from others and personal stuff that is original.
I fill my Twitter feed with all kinds of stuff from others including articles and stories that may be controversial. I am tweeting at least 10 times daily, but I use the buffer app to autotweet most of these Tweets. That way I have a real life that is not tied to the computer or my phone. I subscribe to a few newsletters that send me links to stories that I am often interested it and those are often the links that get buffered.
I avoid political talk on social media. Too much risk of offending others for no good reason. I will not shy away from my Christian beliefs. But I would rather live them then preach them. There is a verse in James that I try and follow regarding this.
I listen, at least I try to.
Responding is critical.
If someone comments on something you have posted, shared or said online, please reply.
Also comment and share with others on their stuff too.
A few more random but important thoughts:
Even though I was honored this year again with an award for blogging, I didn’t jump online a dozen years ago to become an expert in any of this. Yet there are some who think of me as an expert. (I reply to them that an expert is a former pert). I just started doing this and never stopped. I learned from others and continue to learn. I know there are somethings I could do better but this is just a portion of my life. Have any thoughts or questions? Tell or ask.
When you hear the word, ‘Free”, does it attract you? Or does it decrease the value of the product or service?
Let me put that into context. 
A friend of mine announced that he was going to stop offering free consultations.
This man is not a lawyer, or a doctor, or an auto mechanic or plumber.
He fixes computers.
Here is what he put on his website last month:
What does that say to you?
Is this a wise move or is there another issue that needs attention?
I believe it’s a time management and expectation management issue.
See it really doesn’t matter what your profession is, you have a limited amount of time each day, week, month, year.
I know professionals who offer free consultation for one purpose:
To determine if a paid relationship is needed.
That determination comes from both parties, the professional and the potential paying customer.
Lawyers need to know if the person has a valid case or need. I used one last year and our initial conversations, in his office were free. When I asked him to prepare a document, I was charged a reasonable fee.
Doctors usually don’t offer a free office visit because they prioritize their time in the office for paying patients. Many docs do offer free services at a time and place of their choosing.
Auto Mechanics may or may not charge for a consultation. Depends on if you are asking a question or if they need to open the hood and run some tests.
My experience with plumbers has been mixed. I had one company send out one of their crew after I explained in detail what the problem was, and the plumber they sent was not qualified to do the work and didn’t have the tools on his truck to do the job. Yet they wanted to charge me for his visit which was worthless.
On the other hand, I have had exceptional service from another plumber that went above and beyond to fix our issue and showed us ways to save money including ways to avoid having to call him back!
My computer fix it guy friend I have known for 10 years and have seen his business grow. What he really needs to do is decide what he will continue to do for free and what he will charge for. He needs to manage his time so he is putting his highest priority on paying customers and still has time to help others unless he doesn’t want new customers.
That’s a dangerous decision to make. The one where you decide not to take any new customers. Instead you usually need to decide which new customers to take on.
I’ll share a couple examples from my life.
In the radio advertising world, there is a lot of work that is done without direct compensation. For the most part, advertisers only pay for the actual air time and not the creative process or the time devoted to creating the ads or campaign. For example, I have an advertising partner that pays for the 30 ads they air on WOWO each week, but not the meetings and planning that takes place to create everything. It’s simple. We contract for the number of ads and they get a bill for the airing of those commercials.
About 10 years ago, I had a client that wanted to see me every Wednesday at 2pm to discuss the next ad and also hand me a check. When I had the time, this was fine, I thought. But the reality was this client was nearly an hour from my office and the 45 minutes we met each week was really about 4 to 5 hours of my week when you factor in the work I did back at the station to get their ads updated after the weekly meeting.
Taking care of this client was simply taking too much time each week and I needed to fire them unless I could increase their value. I took the time to see if we could help them in other areas that they would spend more money by running more ads with me. Nothing. I attempted to get some additional business from referrals that they knew. Another nothing.
I didn’t really fire them and pull them off the air. Instead I gave them to a newer sales person on our team who wasn’t as busy so I could focus on higher paying clients.
Fast forward to today and what I do at WOWO and Federated Media. Part of the process I and my other WOWO sales team members go through is a consistent evaluation of our on-air advertising partners.
The top 25% in terms of annual spending are labeled Keys. It has been shown that this 25% are responsible for at least 75% of the revenue. We go through a process of qualifying potential advertisers to see if they will fit the profile of those in the top 25%.
The businesses that spend the most or have that potential are going to get the most attention because they have earned it.
Now before you go wacky on me and say what about the little people… It really doesn’t take much to rise to that top 25%. If a business is not willing to invest in themselves to qualify then there are 3 possible scenarios:
That last one, number 3 is where I spend a lot of my time. I actually help businesses develop a marketing strategy. This is different from an advertising strategy but they overlap.
I will devote hours working with business owners helping them develop a plan for marketing that is strategic and customized just for them. The very last step is to decide which advertising mediums to use.
This is what I offer for free. I decide who to offer this service to. Some folks are amazed that I do this. A friend of mine asked 3 times if I would be willing to do this and each time I said yes. She was used to paying an advertising agency for these kinds of services and being charged by the hour for everything, or paying a retainer.
That is not the way I work. I actually have time in my schedule devoted to this free service. It is how we discover if I can help you when you want to spend money advertising. It is the way we build a trusting relationship. Not by charging you first, but by this method.
I’ve gone on long enough for this article, want help? Contact me.
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