Nielsen: Marketers not making most of Boomer demo

Nielsen: Marketers not making most of Boomer demo
George Clooney aside, Baby Boomers may not be as sexy as Gen-X or Millenials, but marketers still need them. Why? Because the Boomer generation is now the largest in the US, they hold a vast amount of wealth and they're buying products - from the latest tech gear to new wardrobes. Nielsen has released more metrics focused on Baby Boomers - and why marketers shouldn't ignore the demographic.

by Kristina Knight, BizReport.com

First, the definition of a Baby Boomer: born between 1946 and 1964. That is an 18-year span of people who have recently retired or who are pushing toward retirement now. Most own their homes, are affluent, they are adopting new technology and they're involved. With community, with family, with churches and associations.

And don't forget, they are purchasers. Nielsen points out that:

• Boomers spend 38% of the total consumer package goods dollars
• Still, CPG brands only allocate 5% of their budgets to boomer-targeted ads
• Boomers watch about 9 ½ hours of video daily
• Boomers are responsible for one-third of television viewers, online/social media users and Twitter users

"Boomers should be as desirable for marketers as Millennials and Gen-Xers for years to come; they are the largest single group of consumers, and a valuable target audience. As the US continues to age, reaching this group will continue to be critical for advertisers," said Pat McDonough, Senior Vice President of Insights, Analysis and Policy with the Nielsen Company.

They are also visiting roughly the same websites as their younger (18 - 49) counterparts, so it makes sense to create specifically targeted campaigns for a number of top sites. Boomers' top websites include Google, Yahoo, Bing, Facebook and Microsoft. For the 18-49 year olds, websites are ranked Google, Yahoo, Facebook, Bing, YouTube.