Marketers spend a lot of time trying to court millennials, but the baby boomers are a lucrative, if occasionally overlooked, demographic with lots of disposable income. Strategy tapped David Cravit, VP of ZoomerMedia and Jennifer Clark, VP consumer insights at Dentsu Aegis Network, to drill down into the numbers of how this demo is spending their time and money. Here are the results mixing data from Stats Can, PMB and the Dentsu Aegis Network’s Consumer Connection Study.
9.6 million Canadians were born between 1946 and 1965.
Let’s talk money
Boomers account for about 46% of all income earned in Canada; millennials bring in about 21% of all income earned, according to Stats Can data. 9.79% of boomers have personal incomes of $100,000 or over versus 1.92% of millennials.
58% of all boomers are employed full time, compared with 47.9% of all Canadians ages 12+. 5.3% of boomers are employed part time versus 9.8% of all Canadians ages 12+. 36.5% of boomers are unemployed, versus 42% of all Canadians ages 12+.
About 32% expect to sell their home once they retire, while 19% will rent out part of their home for additional income.
22.5% of boomers live in a household with at least one child under the age of 18, per PBM.
Tech time
21% of boomers own a smartphone, 6% own both a smartphone and a tablet, while 20% own a touchscreen or e-reader. About 60% access the internet daily.
Over a 30-day period, 366,000 boomers engaged in blogging, 5.8 million sent an email, 2.3 million sent a text, 1.3 million sent an instant message, 2 million were busy social networking, while 3.9 million went searching.
Meanwhile, 982,000 watched a TV show, 1.4 million watched a video and 890,000 watched a movie.
3.4 million banked online and 3.2 million downloaded a coupon.
11% of people aged 50 to 65 play games on a website at least once a week, according to the Consumer Connection Study by the Dentsu Aegis network, 20% watched online videos and 10% chatted via webcam. Only 2.5% post a rating or review once a week.
30% of people aged 50 to 65 source info on products and services once a week, the CCS study says, but just 4% report making an online purchase.
However, 3.3 million boomers made an online purchase in the past year, according to PMB numbers.
Health matters
2.1 million boomers visited a health information website in the past month, per PMB’s Fall 2013 data. That’s about 21% of all boomers and about a third of total traffic to health websites.
Consumers 45+ account for 80% of all health care spending.
66% of people over the age of 45 believe an active sex life will help them live longer, according to a survey with Zoomer’s readers. 72% say they enjoy sex and 73% have confidence they can satisfy a sexual partner.
Want tips for how to market to boomers? Read Advertising grows up with the boomer generation.
Curious how millennials stack up? Check out their numbers.
