Gen X and Boomers: Biggest Holiday Spenders

Just ahead of Black Friday, Prosper Insights and Analytics released their November Consumer Snapshot which included projected holiday spending by demo. 

Some $135-billion is forecast to be spent this year with Gen X and Boomers projected to account for two-thirds of these purchases. 

While Millennials are often chased, they are projected to account for just 18% of all 2014 holiday spending.

If your target audience includes 35-64s, you might want to share this "holiday pie" with your advertisers and prospects:

Prosper Insights and Analytics also has a holiday spending video here and more data here in their "Retailers to Watch" report.

Value Added Plus-Plus: Client Edification Efforts from Both Coasts

When Entercom’s The End in Seattle cut its spot load this summer, it caused quite a bit of talk.  As you may recall in addition to lowering their hourly spot load to six minutes, breaks were limited to two minutes.

Inside Radio reported Tuesday on how that’s been going, including a chart showing steady growth 18-34 and 18-49 thanks to more occasions and longer listening durations.

While the spot load/break duration may have attracted the most attention, what The End is doing for its advertisers shouldn’t fly under the radar: being an information resource for clients on the station's target audience (Millennials). 

According to IR, the station has hired a Millennial marketing expert, built an accessible library of information on marketing to Millennials, and assembled an ‘on demand’ focus group program to provide clients with creative and strategic feedback.

“Entercom Seattle has recognized that The End doesn’t just compete against other radio stations in Seattle, but is part of broader media landscape,” said Jacobs Media’s Fred Jacobs (@fnjacobs) who consults the station. “Understanding changing generational tastes is a major step and a really smart move.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, the GMs from all five major clusters in Norfolk, VA - Max Media, iHeart Media, Entercom, Saga and Sinclair - hosted an educational seminar for some 300 advertisers called "Navigating the New Media Landscape." 

Together with Gordon Borrell, the GMs' discussed the impact of combining traditional and digital media (Max Media Market Manager Dave Paulus will give us all an inside look at the process of creating this event and its end result at A&O&B's annual pre-CRS seminar on Wednesday morning, February 25th.)  

"Value added" often means some sort of spot bonus or web freebie. But helping our station clients (and, perhaps in the process, ourselves) to better understand and serve the audience is a longer-lasting, far superior value that "connects the dots" in a way where everyone benefits.