Let’s talk about mature advertising. And by ‘mature’ I mean advertising targeted to, umm, older consumers. I’m not a boomer, but I’m close. I’ve read a couple of very interesting articles lately about advertising’s failure to reach the over 50 crowd.

According to McKinsey Consulting, by 2010, 50% of all consumer spending will be made by people over the age of 50. Unfortunately, a lot of agency types – and advertisers in general – decided back in the 1970s that 18-34 was the ’sweet spot’ of marketing, the demographic that everyone wanted to reach. Thirty years later, Baby Boomers are the largest group of consumers. But advertisers are still chasing that younger crowd – in fact, about 90% of today’s marketing dollars are spent talking to that group, even though Boomers have the most money to spend. Check out these numbers:

• People 50+ earn $4.2 trillion annually, compared to $1 trillion for the 18-34 year olds
• People 50+ generate 41% of all disposable income
• People 50+ buy 60% of all packaged goods, more than half of all new cars and spend 75% more per vacation than consumers under 50

Impressive numbers, eh? Yet an AARP survey shows that the majority of these consumers feel that advertising and marketing either portrays them negatively or completely ignores them.

A survey released earlier this year gives a little insight into what types of ads might appeal to a mature consumer. From the just-turned-40-Gen Xers to the people from the Greatest Generation, everyone agreed that single images are more effective than collage-style layouts. In fact, 66% of those surveyed chose single-image ads over collage ads and that preference grew stronger with age, education and income level.

According to David Wolfe’s Ageless Marketing, verbal memory declines faster than visual and consumers become more right-brain oriented. The right brain is where emotions and memories live and prefers pictures to words. So when you’re trying to reach older consumers, pictures will tell your story better than a bunch of copy.

Do you have advertisers that need to – or should want to – reach this demographic? Make sure they’re portrayed appropriately and consider strong, single image visual ads. Most of all, don’t ignore them!

[Source: mediapost.com Engage:Boomers blog.]