• by Steve Sternberg , Featured Columnist, March 3, 2015

Three years ago, ago I wrote an article on my blog and for MediaPost, that received a tremendous amount of positive feedback. I think it is worth re-running every few years. Here’s a revised and updated version.

I recently turned 55.  In the real world, this was not a notable occasion.  No one threw me a surprise birthday party, and I did not feel I had just reached a major milestone in my life. 

In the world of marketing, media, and advertising, however, it was a birthday of great significance.

After aging out of the mythical 18-49 age group five years earlier, I now aged out of the 25-54 demographic and into the dreaded and nebulous 55+ demographic.  All of a sudden entire categories of products were no longer being marketed to me.  If I happened to be there, OK, but I was no longer part of the target audience.

What happened when I hit that magical age that changed how so many marketing and media executives see me? 

I’m now 58.  I have more disposable income than ever.  I still watch lots of TV, go to lots of movies, and buy lots of stuff.  I take at least one major vacation with my family every year, and several smaller ones – my wife and I still travel for business.

I still use numerous mobile devices, subscribe to Netflix and Hulu Plus, and spend a fair amount of time every day on Facebook and Instagram.  I still play games with my 15-year-old son on Playstation 4 and Xbox 360 (and buy most of the games). 

My son and I have several collections, from sneakers to Pop Vinyls, and my wife and I have several different collections that we spend a reasonable amount of money on every year. 

I continue to try new brands — at least those that acknowledge I exist.

Most media and marketing executives, however, now see me as though I’m part of my father’s generation, with the media and buying habits he displayed when he was approaching 60.  I am not.  Ignore me and those like me at your own risk.

Some things to consider:

My dad grew up during the Depression and its immediate aftermath.  I grew up during the 1960s and ’70s, during the heart of the middle-class baby-boom generation.  The way we relate to money and buying things we want (rather than just need) are dramatically different.

When I was growing up, my parents’ friends were mostly within a narrow age range.  Virtually all of them were married to their first spouses, and had kids who were around my age.  Life stage didn’t mean anything when measuring media audiences because people of a certain age were usually in the same life stage.

Today, I have friends my age, some of whom have kids the same age as my 15-year-old son, some of whom have kids that have graduated from college, some with no kids, some who are married, other who are divorced or never married. 

I also have friends 15 or 20 years younger than me with kids the same age as mine.  In other words, I have friends in many different life-stages, with age not being the major determining factor it would have been 30 or 40 years ago.

Whose media and buying habits are closer to my own?  When it comes to music, probably someone closer to my age.  When it comes to movie attendance, streaming or downloads, how much I text, my video game usage, or a whole host of other activities, there are likely more similarities to younger parents with kids the same age a mine.

My TV viewing habits are probably somewhere in the middle. I love the “NCIS,” “Criminal Minds” and shows like “The Blacklist” (which might fit my age profile), but I also love “The Walking Dead,” “The Flash,” “The Simpsons” and the recently ended “Sons of Anarchy,” which Nielsen would tell you have much younger age profiles.

The bottom line is that I’m part of a completely different generation from my father, with a different mind-set, different experiences, different media access, and different spending habits. Advertisers, marketers, and networks should take note.

About eight years ago, when I was on the Council for Research Excellence (CRE), I was co-chair of its Media Consumption and Engagement Committee with my colleague, Sharianne Brill.  We helped spearhead the CRE’s landmark Video Consumer Mapping Study, which dubbed 45-54 year-olds “Digital Boomers.” 

This group tended to be heavy TV viewers, similar to the next older age group (55-64), but used computers and mobile devices more closely to the next younger age group (35-44).  Many of these digital boomers are now 55-64, and are vastly different from their parents at a similar age.

In today’s media world, life stage should trump age/sex demographics, but if advertisers and marketers insist on continuing with current demographic metrics, 45-64 (or 35-64) should be the sweet spot.  Two of the best research minds in the business, CBS’s Dave Poltrack and NBC’s Alan Wurtzel, have been talking about this topic for years.  As usual, they are correct.

I’d love to see the CRE update the Video Consumer Mapping Study.  At the time, we said it would be good to update every five years.  Today’s media world is so dramatically different from when the CRE began analyzing this stuff, it would be fascinating to see the new study’s results.