Baby Boomer Insights

Jay Leno leaves The Tonight Show: Will boomers follow him?

I watched my last Tonight Show on Friday night. I have been a huge fan of the show for 30 years and am one of Jay Leno's biggest fans. Jay (and Johnny Carson before him) have been there for me through countless nights of insomnia. So, you can bet I'll be watching at 10 when Leno returns in September.

While I never say never, I can't see myself ever purposely tuning in to watch Conan. I've given him many opportunities over the years to entertain me and he just never has. He reminds me of a 15-year-old class clown.... goofy, sophomoric and just  plain boring most of the time. My husband couldn't disagree more. He thinks Conan is hilarious. (Other than this serious flaw, Ralph's quite a good guy, just for the record.)

Two years ago when my company, Edelman, did an extensive study on boomers, one of the things we discovered was that The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was the one TV show that was in the media "bull's eye" for both boomer men and women. Typically, boomer women favor local newspapers and lifestyle kinds of programs, while boomer men turn to national news and radio sports talk. But Leno has brought them together for an hour five nights a week. His appeal is probably because he's such a likeable comic whose monologues have always incorporated the news of the day, while his interviews have included pop culture icons.

A few years ago, I got to experience firsthand what a nice guy Leno truly is. I was in California for the National Speakers Association Convention when some friends and I decided to attend a Tonight Show taping.  His guest that night was Kirstie Alley, who, at the time, was starring in "Fat Actress." When the show was over, Leno agreed to pose for pictures with us. He even chatted for a few minutes and thanked us for coming.

A year or so later, when Ralph and I were in Las Vegas for a weekend, Leno was headlining at a Casino. We bought tickets to see him and I was blown away by his ability to do two hours of nonstop standup that was so clean and funny, I'd have been willing to take my mother. (The next night, btw, we saw George Carlin, another favorite, who was just hysterical, but certainly not clean.)

Will boomers follow Leno to the 10:00 hour? I think the shift to prime time may actually affect the way boomers watch TV. Expect more of us to turn to our DVRs to catch the few shows we do make it a point to watch and time-shift our way through them all. How about you? Will Leno's shift to 10:00 make any difference in how you watch TV?

Is your brand's Bull's Eye Boomer driving up readership of People Magazine?

Don't you love it when you read in a credible source an article that validates what you believed to be true, but had trouble convincing others? That's how I felt when I read an article in the Sunday NY Times about People Magazine.

The article agreed with the results of research Edelman and its marketing research arm, Strategy One, revealed two years ago: Boomer women still read People. Every time we share our research showing what media outlets influence boomers, someone questions whether People really belongs in the same company with the CBS Evening News, Time Magazine and the NBC Nightly News. 

Yet, based on the NYT article, boomers are not only a target, they play a big role in how the publication plans cover stories. The 45 to 59 year-old boomers make up 28 percent of the magazine's readers. Moreover, while other publications that focus on celebrities are seeing a decline in circulation, People's readership is up.

So, how does the boomer demographic actually influence People's coverage? In the first five months of 2009 alone, the magazine has devoted 10 covers to boomers vs. only 11 in the entire year of 2007. Editors consider subjects that can cross generations, such as the weight gain of Kirstie Alley, the deaths of Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin and Tim Russert, and the inside scoop on the current relationship status of Bristol Palin.

I'm a long-time reader of People and consider it a favorite guilty pleasure. When the magazine arrives on Friday, I immediately put it into my stack of reading material to take to the lake house, where I peruse it over the weekend. It has come in handy, too. Thanks to what I've read between the covers, I've been able to come up with answers to the celebrity trivia category in "Catch Phrase," a favorite game my college daughter, Sydney, and her friends like to play.

So, what's all this mean to you as a marketer? Simply this: don't make assumptions about the media outlets boomers consume. It's important to know who the Bull's Eye Boomer (tm by Edelman) is for your brand and what media outlets they like. With all the changes occurring in the media today, it's critical to stay on top of what's in and what's out with boomers. Know, too, that online outlets are increasingly influential. Today, People is hot. But there's no guarantee is will be weeks, months or even a year from now.

Bodacious blogging boomers influence decision making for peers

According to Forrester Research, the number of boomers who use social networks, including blogs, forums, podcasts, etc., has grown to 60 percent from 40 percent just over the past year alone. At the current pace, boomers will just about be on par with the younger generations within a couple of years.

So, what are they doing? It depends on what life stage they are in. Women are often looking for information about medical conditions, whether for themselves, their spouses, parents or children. As the chief healthcare officer of the family, boomer moms (especially those in the sandwich) are voracious consumers of online tools.

Empty nesters, meanwhile, are often just being curious. They make new friends online, recommend favorite travel spots and look for online courses to take.

Trailing boomers (those between 45 and 50) often still have kids in school and are looking for everything from financial advice to tips on running a booster club.

And guess what? The 45-54 age group is also rocking Twitter. They average higher use than any other age.

What we are seeing is that boomers are increasingly embracing technology to enhance their lives and those of others. Those sandwich moms I mentioned? They're all about sharing what they learn. Give them something of value and they'll tell everyone they know. (If you're a regular reader of this blog, you know I'm in the sandwich and use this blog specifically to share my opinions on all kinds of things.)

Marketers are starting to understand the power bloggers have to influence boomers in their decision making, whether the decision is to make a specific purchase, avoid a particular company, or rally a group of peers. I can tell you as a long-time blogger that in the past six months, I've received more "pitches" from PR firms than in the previous six years combined. Some are are very good and have, in fact, influenced me to write about a particular product or study. Others are completely irrelevant and cause me to roll my eyes and file them in the "never hire this PR person" file.

I'm going to share some insights about blogging boomers in an upcoming webinar that's open to the public, if you'd like to learn more. Go to the International Mature Marketing Network site (disclosure: Edelman is a member of this organization) and sign up to attend. It's one hour on Wednesday, May 20, at 11:00 eastern. If you attend, let me know what you think!

Meanwhile, if you have favorite boomer sites that have influenced your decisions, let me know. (But, please, don't promote your own blog here, OK?)

Listen up: Energizer survey reveals boomers risk relationships because of vanity about their hearing

I think I've stumbled upon a good restaurant concept that will ensure boomers come there in droves: DON'T PLAY THE FRIGGIN MUSIC SO LOUD!!!

Last night, Ralph and I went out to dinner with friends to a restaurant we hadn't been to before in East Cobb, just north of Atlanta. It's called The Paper Mill Grill. The food was delicious and the service was outstanding. And who doesn't love those cute little shot glasses of tiny desserts. It would have been a perfect evening except that we spent so much of it yelling across the table at one another.

I'm quite hard of hearing, as is one of our boomer dinner companions, but at least we both wear hearing aids. Still, we couldn't hear one another very well above the noise.  I noticed several boomers around us leaning across tables to talk as well. Odds are, though, they were having a worse time hearing than we were because they refuse to wear hearing aids.

A new "All Ears" Hearing Survey by Energizer reveals that while a whopping 99 percent of boomers wear some kind of corrective eyewear at least for some tasks, only 11 percent wear a hearing aid to correct a hearing problem. And yet, 72 percent said they believe their hearing impairment negatively affects their relationships with their adult children.

One in three gave appearance, discomfort and the sense that hearing aids make them feel old as their excuse not to wear them.

This totally baffles me. Boomers have always been proud of the fact they have great relationships with their children, bragging that they're friends, they vacation together, they hang out, etc. And yet, vanity is keeping some from wearing a hearing aid. The survey asked boomers' adult children if their parents needed help with hearing and 44 percent said yes. Furthermore, almost half reported that a parent's lack of hearing affects their relationship with them.

So, what gives? Boomers are fine with wearing those stupid looking Bluetooth devices on their side of their head. Many think it's cool to walk around with ear buds stuck in their ears. Their vanity has driven some companies to offer hearing aids that actually look like bluetooth devices. Others even offer aids in fashionable colors.

Meanwhile, boomers flock to have our knees replaced, get nipped and tucked, change hair color and drive sports cars all in the name of looking younger. Do you suppose these same people really don't get it that saying, "Can you speak up?" or "I'm sorry. I didn't catch that" or "Excuse me?" is a clue that maybe it's time they wear an aid not for themselves, but for others?

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. With family vacations coming up, and perhaps even with impending job interviews, perhaps now is the time for boomers to admit that a hearing impairment is no more an age giveaway than glasses are.

Like the Energizer bunny, hearing aids can help you keep going.... and going... and going. And best of all, for those times when you just get tired of listening, you can take them off for instant relief. So when the restaurant won't turn down the music, turn off the restaurant!