Bravely going where no man (person) has gone before

Brother and sister plus father with dementia. Doesn’t sound a laugh a minute. This is a subject that is very close to the hearts of many of the 50-plus. At one level having to deal with the practicalities of ageing and difficult parents at another, staring at one’s own future? The Savages (the surname not their predisposition) is a new film on release (or just about to be released) in the US. Anybody seen the film –comments?

In a minor way the UK's longest running radio soap opera, The Archers, has been covering a similar subject. All a bit "too close to the bone". Dick Stroud

RIAS partners with Odeon Cinemas’ Senior Screen

RIAS is a very successful UK insurer that focuses on the 50-plus. Odeon is one of the UK’s largest chains of cinemas that has launched a: Senior Screen season.

So it is not surprising that RIAS has decided to sponsor the season and to use it as a platform for its newly created ads.

At long last the cinema industry is waking up to the potential spending power of older audiences. See my blog post of last week. Dick Stroud

Media buyers take note – the 50-plus are watching more films

Cinema audiences are still predominantly young with nearly half of filmgoers under the age of 25 but older viewers are a significant number and becoming more significant. The number of people aged 45 and over attending the cinema has doubled from 19 million a decade ago to 38 million last year.

The rise in older audiences at the cinema is mirrored by a “much older profile” for films shown on television with 16% of the audience being under 25, and 56% being 45+.

These are the films with an above-average audience in the 55+ age group, 2006 in the list of the UK's Top 20 films.


The article in The Telegraph has a lot more on this subject. If you want to access the data the latest version of the UK Film Council Statistical Handbook is published online.

This analysis is great but I just wish The Film Council would stop lumping all people over the age of 55 years old together. Dick Stroud

BrandChannel.com are featuring Boomers

BrandChannel decided it was about time it did a feature on Boomers. If you know anything about the Boomer / 50-plus market you aren’t likely to learn very much. Lots of broad sweeping statements and the usual splattering of Boomer facts and examples.
Home: They're getting older, but the Baby Boomers remain a booming market.
Features Profile: Can Ameriprise grab the older Boomer market from older financial services brands?
Papers: Can your brand attract the wired Baby Boomer?
Brandcameo: Brands rise in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

Mary Furlong’s paper about the ‘wired’ Baby Boomer is worth a read although I was surprised how little mention it made about Web video. I have seen estimates suggesting that video will take 98% of all Internet bandwidth in the next 24 months so it is something you cannot ignore. I think it will be the biggest revolution to hit the web in a decade and will especially change the way companies communicate with older audiences.

But I am not complaining. Anything that is likely to dent the prejudices of the marketing world to take more account of the older consumers has to be a good thing. Dick Stroud

What does ‘old’ mean in real life?

Bryan Appleyard is a good writer and his article in the Sunday Times is worth reading: “Older women. Naked. It’s an adland revolution”.

Those of you involved in 50-plus marketing willn’t learn anything new but it is a thought provoking article. Dick Stroud

Films and the older women

The British Film Institute is staging a session (in London) on Thursday (8th March) about older women in films. How fitting that this event is occurring at the time when Helen Mirren (born 1945) gets the Oscar for best actress.

More details about the event can be downloaded from my Web site. This is an excellent document that the BFI has produced on the subject of older women on the big screen. Dick Stroud