Digital Inclusion at the sharp end

This is a great video showing how older people can get online, with a bit of help.

In this case the video shows a group of people in Hackney, East London, who are clearly enjoying themselves and getting the skills to use the Internet. Well done Age Concern Hackney.

This clip was taken from an ITV programme about digital exclusion in the UK - all 10,000,000 people who do not use the Internet. Dick Stroud

Are you a digital adult or digital novice – Wells Fargo has the answer

Wells Fargo has been doing some research about digital literacy. Apparently we all fall into one of three groups.

Digital Adults - people who use advanced online tools for daily tasks, interaction and entertainment

Digital Novices - people with a general understanding of online tools who use them to manage basic tasks, but don’t interact with others online or manage complex tasks on the web

Digital Teens - who fall in between novices and adults?

In the UK we have 10,000,000 people who are not connected to the Internet. I guess they are Digital Babies?

The “Adult Group,” digitally speaking, is not twenty-somethings but thirty-somethings. While twenty-somethings led in the use of advanced online tools for entertainment, with such activities as watching television online and social networking, thirty-somethings are more likely to use advanced online photo and video technologies, career networking services, and financial management services.

A similar pattern emerges with banking and managing finances online.

The survey apparently shows that Youth is loosely correlated with digital adulthood and that digital sophistication generally declined with age.

This is all interesting stuff but it totally ignores the main thing that determines the type of Internet use – education. This applies to all ages.

I suspect this PR research is more to do with getting people to the Wells Fargo site, to find out their digital age, than to extending our understanding about the segmentation of Web use. Dick Stroud

A good Australian TV ad

Kim Walker has a good description and YouTube examples of Telstra (Australia's leading telco) TV ads that are targeting the granddad generation. The campaign centres on the theme 'Don't let your family grow apart'. Anybody from BT reading this blog posting? Dick Stroud

Where do the 65+ go online

The secret is out. Most of them go nowhere and the rest go to just about the same place as you and me.

According to the NielsenWire Online, in the US the 65+ still make up less than 10% of the active Internet universe, although in the last five years their number has increased by more than 55%. Interestingly, the increase of women online has outpaced the growth of men by 6%.


Time spent on the Internet by increased 11% and now stands at over 58 hours per week in 2009.

The research director, at Nielsen's online notes that: "The over 65 crowd represents about 13% of the total population and... they're engaged in many of the same activities that dominate other age segments - e-mail, sharing photos, social networking, checking out the latest news and weather... (in addition) a good percentage of them are spending time with age-appropriate pursuits such as leisure travel, personal health care and financial concerns."

The next time somebody asks you the question you have the answer. Dick Stroud

Ageing and the effectiveness of touchpoints

These charts were constructed using ZenithOptimedia’s ROI Tracker - a consumer research-based tool that measures and helps plan marketing activities across the range of brand contact touchpoints.

You can read more about this product and what it seems to tell us about age and touchpoint effectiveness by downloading this article.

Here are a couple of quotes from the article with my comments:

The ROI Tracker shows how contact effectiveness changes as consumers get older. At an all-touchpoints level, it shows that contact influence and levels of brand association decline swiftly as we get older. The older you are the less likely you are to respond to advertising. I suspect this is partly because older people are more familiar with brands and their advertising, probably more fixed in their ways and also less targeted by most advertising.

The big flaw in this type of analysis is that it doesn’t take account of type of the nature of products each age group are purchasing. If I am 20 I am not that likely to be thinking about buying a washing machine, or am I falling into the trap of stereotyping? Overall, I agree with the article’s analysis other than the dreaded “more fixed in their ways”. Ahhhh

The influence of internet search rises as we get older, exceeding TV advertising in influence by the time we are 45. Other online touchpoints that display similar growth in influence as we get older include product comparison websites, brand websites, retailer sites and consumer opinion sites.
There may be a simple reason for this: as we get older we become wealthier but, paradoxically, steadily more value conscious. We are more likely to look for bargains (in-store promotions also get more influential with age), and the internet is a great place to go looking for bargains.

The rationale for the results might be true in some circumstances but I think is way to simplistic. The reason for the importance of search is much more likely to be influenced by the complexity and value of the shopping basket of products being purchased by the different age groups.

Here are the definitions of the things being measured. Brand Association = the percentage of consumers associating each brand with each touchpoint. Influence = the relative influence of each touchpoint on purchasing.

No doubt about it, this is an interesting type of analysis. I counsel about making too many conclusions based on these high level results. I am sure the devil is in the detail of the analysis. Anybody got any thoughts? Dick Stroud

Technology adoption and age

The Cable & Telecommunications Association has just published some research about the uptake of online services in the US.

It concludes that those 65+ using the Internet use it a lot and in a wide range of ways. I think we pretty much knew this but it is always nice to see a bit more evidence supporting this view.

The report contains a nice image showing the uptake of various types of technology by age group. Again, nothing new but some facts from a different source. Dick Stroud

The ageing consumer and their online habits in Asia Pac

Here's an abridged version of the presentation Kim Walker delivered to the 2nd Southeast Asian iMedia Agency Summit in Phuket, Thailand during October, 2009. Features information about the ageing consumer and their online habits. Good stuff. Dick Stroud

Everything you ever wanted to know about the UK’s digitally excluded

I have already written about the campaign that is sort of going on to get more people in the UK online.

Anyway, this week a report was published that quantified the economic benefit of getting everybody in the UK surfing and twittering. A tidy little sum of £22 Billion. My first thought was: “I wonder what the benefit would be of getting everybody in the UK able to read?” Don’t let’s start thinking about that subject….

The absolute amount of £s value doesn’t matter since that is pure speculation by the consultants (PWC). As an ex-consultant, I can tell that the writers of this report must have used copious amounts of wet seaweed/tea leaves/fingers in the air....

The point of telling you this is to point you to the report. I am not sure what you will do with it since it tells us what we already know about age and the Internet. Education/class/employment trumps age, when predicting Internet use and there are a large number of over-65 year olds who just don’t want to use the Web, as amazing as this fact is to the UK’s political class.

If you want lots of numbers about who is and who isn’t using the Internet then this is a good reference source. Dick Stroud

Get your PC problems sorted for $250/year

The FloH Club was started by 75-year-old Florence Henderson, a lady who appeared in a TV programme called the Brady Bunch (to the best of my knowledge I have never seen it).

At the end of September she launched a tech support fee-based service to help older people with their computers. Plans are $249.99 for the year or $24.99/month for 6 months.

I have read a couple of blog postings about the venture with very different views. The pros the cons.

It will be fascinating to see who is right, I am not sure. There is undoubtedly a need for such a service but there are loads of free ways of getting assistance. The Dick Stroud PC helpdesk is very popular with his friends and relations and is a charitable institution. We will see. Dick Stroud

Internet use and the 50-plus

The Oxford Internet Survey, part of the University of Oxford, has undertaken a survey of 2,013 people, 916 who were 50+. The results have been analysed by Mature Times who has concluded:

Only 51.5% of the 50+ have access to the Internet, compared to 81.7% amongst 25-49 year olds, and only 45.1% use computers (compared to 81.2%).

The older the respondent, the less likely he/she is to use the Internet and there is a significant drop of user rates at the end of 50s, and another drop at the end of 60s. In the age group 50-54 years, 73.4% are Internet users, but only 19.7% in the age group 75+ are.

Income is a significant factor as the lower the socio economic group, the less likely it is that a person will own a computer – and many of those living on a pension are in the lowest income groups. In the 50+ group, only 17.2% of lowest income group are Internet users; however, they make up 36% of the population in that age group.

The complete report can be downloaded (free) from here. Dick Stroud

A comprehensive report about the UK communications market

The 2009 Ofcom Communications Market Report is published, all 332 pages of it.

Want to know anything about the TV, Radio and telecommunications markets in the UK then look no further. And it’s is free. Well it is not free, the UK taxpayer pays Ofcom a fortune for producing the thing but it gives the impression of being free.

The report contains lots about how the use of communications services varies by gender, socio-economic group and age. It is a goldmine of factlets, like the one above.

Beware of these stark ‘averages’ since they might lead you to the wrong conclusion. Only 18% of the 75+ have home broadband, but this small number will be the most affluent and Web literate. 83% of the 35-54 year olds have broadband at home but that will include the fall spectrum of consumer wealth.

As much as begrudge the cost of Ofcom I have to say they do product extremely competent reports. Dick Stroud

Do Yoof know something we don’t?

I have probably already covered this story – if so – I am sorry. Put it down to cognitive decline.

Nielsen, like Morgan Stanley, reckons that teenagers don't like Twitter.

According to Nielsen, only 16% of Twitter users were under the age of 25, yet they represent a quarter of all internet users.

Twitter has grown massively in the past six months - it is now used by about 10% of all active internet users, even though it is shunned by children, teens and young adults.

I think this must be one of the first instances of a radically new Web service being driven by the older age groups. Is this a preview of the future? Can’t kids think about anything to write in 140 characters?

Maybe, they are right and Twitter is a complete waste of time. Dick Stroud

More factlets about the rate of adoption of new services by the 50-plus

There is a plethora of research being published that compares the digital habits of Gen Y and Baby Boomers. It all shows the same thing, plateauing of uptake by the young, rapid rate of uptake by the oldies.

Of course the explanation for the high growth rates is due to the low starting base in 2008. However, it does tell a message about the way that older people are entering the domain of Yoof and using their digital toys. Dick Stroud

Online, ‘a Reason to Keep on Going’

This excellent article from the New York Times explains one of the great motivations for older people to use the Internet and in particular social networking.

Online contact is a way of overcoming social isolation and clearly a lot of older people are using digital technology to replace ways of interacting that their bodies no longer permit. Definitely worth a read. Dick Stroud

Including the digitally excluded

There is a lot of chat about enabling the digitally excluded to jump the chasm and reap the benefits of the digital world.

Mostly it is just talk.

Many older people, mainly in their late sixties, seventies and eighties, don’t have the desire, patience or perceived need to get to grips with PCs, Windows and all of the paraphernalia of needed to use the Internet.

I have written about a UK company called Finerday that is trying to make this jump a little easier. Now I have discovered a US company (Famililink) with the same intention and not dissimilar technical approach.

The question niggling me is that if an older person learns enough to be able to use either of these services why will you not go the extra 10% and start using generic software. No doubt somebody will answer that question.

There are very few organisations that are doing the hard work and providing services to help older people take the first steps and get to grips with the wonders of IT.

In the UK, Digital Unite is leader. I wonder if there are equivalents in other parts of the world? Dick Stroud

Importance of middle-aged women

Here are a couple of factlets for you about the Web use of UK women.

According to a study that will be published in the summer by the Internet Advertising Bureau and that is being conducted by Nielsen Online, women between the ages of 35 and 49 are now the largest demographic group on the web, representing 15% of the UK online population.

The next largest demographic group is 18-34-year old women and 35-49 year-old men, each representing 14% of the internet audience. How interesting. Dick Stroud

It’s obvious – why bother with the research

Reckon you know something about fonts, older people and browsers. See how you get on with these questions:

"In this day and age, most people who need to increase their font sizes in their web browser already know how to do it." Right or Wrong?

"People who do need to resize type will do so via the browser; it's not hard to do so." Rights or Wrong?

"It's not 1995; not all 50+ people are such newbies that they don't know, or wouldn't want to know, how to resize text in a browser." Right or Wrong?

"The people who most need to increase font size are people 65+, which is the group least-likely to be skilled enough to have adjusted settings." Right or Wrong?

Now go an have a look at the latest edition of Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox for the answers and find out how some hot shots from the Web design world got on with the questions. Dick Stroud

Go Computer Part 2

A few days ago I wrote about the launch of computer aimed at older people. At that stage there was not that much detail available. This blog posting from the excellent Aging in Place Technology Watch blog gives a much more detailed account and review of the product. Dick Stroud

It might make Microsoft try a bit harder

Back in February I was berated by a lady from Microsoft for suggesting the company wasn’t doing very much to help people suffering from the physiological effects of ageing.

I was wrong and I listed some of the things the company was doing to make using computers a little easier. I think the real problem is that few people know about the existence of these features.

The launch of the Go Computer might make MS think a little harder about this issue. The product provides:

• large-letter keyboard
• easy-rolling trackball mouse
• zoom feature that magnifies up to 200%

These are the easy bits that anybody could add to a computer. The thing that might make it really different - beware the devil’s in the detail - is a:

New operating system based on a "GO" screen concept, backed up by immediate phone access to around-the-clock U. S.-based remote service and assistance.
A computer you can’t break, crash or confuse; a computer that won’t lose what’s put into it, and that’s protected from viruses and spam! Welcome to the world of a failure-free and fear-free computer.

Guess we will have to wait and see just how easy the product really is to use. It is not cheap $800 and I would expect a lot of "ease of use" at this price. Dick Stroud

What a waste of talent

Martha Lane Fox is an incredible lady. When I taught at LBS I sat through a session of her talking to a group of senior partners from PWC when she explained how she went about setting up and running Lastminute.com. She was amazing.

After her company was floated she left and was at the point of entering upon what would have been an amazingly successful role as a major UK businessperson. Tragedy struck and she suffered a horrible car accident that has taken her out of the public eye for a few years.

I was so sad to hear that she appears to become the latest secondee to our failing Government in the role of “Digital Champion”. This is another one of those fruitless exercises to give the impression of Government action that is all spin and no substance.

I was recently sitting having a coffee, in one of the places that provides the people to come up with these daft ideas, when I overheard conversation where they were talking about “Rebooting Britain”. God save us!

The idea is to ‘empower’ the digital “have nots” – a large number of them being in the older age group. This is such a waste of her talent.

Not that the cause of getting more people (of any age) online is not a good one but because it is being done for all of the wrong reasons and is destined to failure. It will disappear into obscurity like all of the Government ‘initiatives’. There is also the fact that this Government is in disarray and will not be around for much longer.

Miss Lane-Fox, you are an ultra smart lady, why get involved? A senior female minister has recently resigned from the UK Government saying she was only chosen to be “window dressing”. She was dead right. Surely you can see what is happening?

If the stories are true then the first person that she should contact is Emma Solomon who runs the Silver Surfers events and who knows more about the reality of getting older people online than anybody else I know. Martha, there is still time to change your mind. Dick Stroud

Internet use - all about age and socio economic class

This report contains a lot of words (187 pages) to tell use something that I think we all understood.

The reasons why people don’t have Internet connection at home is because they cannot afford it or don’t see the point.

People in their 70s and 80s, who were brought up in an era before PCs, have the hurdle of both understanding computing and the Internet and are less likely to be connected.

Social Class and age (over 75) are good predictors of Internet use.

What more is there to say? If we are looking for budget cuts then Ofcom might be a good place to start if they think it is worse spending so much money telling us the obvious. Dick Stroud

Vendors who should target boomers and seniors

If you are interested in the role of technology for the older person then visiting Laurie Orlov’s Ageing in Place Technology blog is a must.

This posting is typical of the style and content that you find on this blog. Orlov makes the case why tech vendors should get their act together and realise that they are already selling a pile of product to an older consumer and if they diverted a fraction of their Yoof marketing budget they might sell a lot more.

Companies discussed are Adobe, Cisco, iRobot, Sony, AMD, Apple, Dell and Verizon. Dick Stroud

How the Australians use digital channels

Many thanks to Gill Walker for sending me details of two reports about the use of the Internet in Australia.

If there are any questions you ever had about how Australians use digital channels then you will find the answers here. Loads of stuff about the age demographics of digital uptake. Dick Stroud

Strategic Planning for the real world

Strategic Planning has gone out of fashion, mores the pity. Tactics is everything has been the motto of most organisations – and politicians. Perhaps we should label this the era of:"Don't confuse me with the facts."

This paper from Nicholine Hayward is a real breath of fresh air that illustrates how strategy and tactics can come together.

Just download it and have a quick scan – you will see what I mean. Even if you miss out on the strategy bit, the details about the tools available to understand the online world are invaluable.

This is how the author describes herself:

Half consultant, half leader of thought and half agent of change, I am a different kind of planner. This difference manifests itself in, for example, a unique research methodology I have developed, which harnesses online data sources, to deliver authentic consumer insights which can be applied to devise resonant integrated strategies. Some of Grey London’s most exciting and effective recent work, including several successful pitches, is based directly on these insights.

What Nicholine is talking about is as applicable to the 50-plus as any other group of consumers. Dick Stroud

Factlet about US Internet Use

This table shows Nielsen’s research about the active Internet audience profile for November 2008 in the US for both home and work. Just look at the period spent online by the 55+ and 65+.

The relationship between age and broadband useage

Pew Internet has a new report (free) about Internet use in the US. Always worth downloading and adding it to your library. This graphic is interesting (you will need to click on it to read the detail).

As you would expect it shows broadband use at home is related to age, although not as much as you might think – up until 70+. Look at the chart that shows the percentage of Internet users by age that have broadband. That shows far less of an age relationship. (i.e. if you are an Internet user then the same proportion of people is likely to have broadband irrespective of age). It is exactly the same relationship with the use of online banking. Dick Stroud

Recession winners and losers

The UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing has just published it survey that gives a measure of how UK marketers are thinking about the future. Bottom line – not with much enthusiasm.

The most interesting thing was their opinion on the types of marketing activity they expect to be using more/less in the coming 12 months.

The winners - in order
Online (whatever that means)
E-mail
CRM
PR

The losers - in order
Advertising
Sponsorship
Internal marketing (whatever that is)

From talking to guys in media agencies I reckon that CIM has got it right about the main winner. Online is doing well - for now. Dick Stroud

Targeting the 50-plus online

I missed this article when it appeared in ClickZ in April this year.

It doesn’t say anything particularly new but it is a useful insight into the older web user – well at least one type of older web user.

My usual caveat about generalisations but these observations from the article make a lot of sense.

Boomers are voracious readers. They definitely like content, be it news and information, do-it-yourself tips, lifestyle planning and travel, or recipes.

Boomers are curious but pragmatic.

Boomers respond to special offers but not gimmicks. They’ve got money, but they’ll wait for a deal rather than be as impulsive as their younger counterparts.

Boomers, who are living longer, have multiple levels of health concerns for themselves, their aging parents, and their children. Just about all things health and wellness attract boomers.

While both sexes of boomers use the Internet, women seem more likely to drive a broad variety of actions and purchasing decisions, while men more narrow ones.

Dick Stroud

How can Digital Natives develop channels for Digital Immigrants?

Dr. Gary Small is a professor at UCLA. His most recent bit of research found that when Web-savvy older adults surf the Internet, it can trigger key parts in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. In short, the findings indicate that searching the Web may help stimulate and possibly improve brain function.

What fantastic news, I can now justify my addiction to the Web is good for my brain.

If you look at this TV interview you will hear him discuss his research and in particular the pros and cons of being a "Digital Native" compared to a "Digital Immigrant". The difference between these creatures is the first were raised in the digital world compared to those who moved, in some cases dragged, into it.

I have always thought this distinction to be over-done, since my generation invented the digital world, but his words made me reconsider this view. I might have been one of the first Web and e-mail users but that is very different to the total digital immersion of today's young people.

The important issue for marketers is that the digital channels are created by Natives and increasingly consumed by Immigrants. Is this the smartest thing to do? Is it possible for Native to think like an Immigrant and vice-versa? Dick Stroud

IT and oldies

Victor Keegan, who writes for the Guardian has had the same problems with the registration process of the Finerday web site. If anybody from Finerday is reading this blog please, please drop this over-complicated procedure. It looks clever but it is not suitable for the target market. Dick Stroud

Factlets about online behaviour

I noticed a couple snippets of news about research into the online behaviour of older people

More women over 45 are using the internet once a day than those aged between 16 and 24, claims new "We Know Women Online" research from Hearst Digital. Don’t bother looking for reference to the report, they waiting to launch it on the 2nd October.

The survey, carried out to gain a better understanding of women's interactive habits, unearthed various findings, including that the large majority of women (85%) use the internet daily, with the 25 to 34-year-old age group being the most frequent users.

According to a research outfit in the US (The NPD Group) more than half of all Web users (57%) visited a social networking site in past three months. Web users aged 13- to 34-year-olds are significantly more likely to visit social networking sites -- and to visit them more often -- baby boomers who visited social networking Web sites did so an average of 8 times over the previous three months.

Neither of these factlets comes as any surprise but they might be useful in a PowerPoint presentation. Dick Stroud

Education not age determines Internet use

Today the Office of National Statistics has released some data that comes to the most astonishing conclusion (cynical comment): Education plays a key role as to whether people have Internet.

This is something we have known for at least 5 years, probably 10 years, so it is nice to see that the conclusion still holds true.

The ONS found that a 93% of adults aged under-70 who had a degree or equivalent qualification were thought to have access to the Internet in their home.

So the next time some dimwit asks you about age and Internet use – tell them this fact. Age, is not the main determinant of Internet use. It changes once somebody reaches their late 60s but that is for a very different reason – not being exposed to PCs during their prime working life.

So let me spell it out in words of one syllable. A person aged 70 with a degree is more likely to be using the Internet than a 35 year old who left school when they were 16 years old. Dick Stroud

Reality therapy is painful but useful

Every so often you read some observations, normally based on a research study, that are so obvious that you wonder if you are missing some hidden depth of reasoning. I am sure it must be the same for all marketers that what is blindingly obvious to you is a revelation to those that never think or work in your area of expertise.

I had this experience when reading some research about older Web users (Reclassifying the silver surfer)

This quote illustrates what I mean.

The research suggest that people in their 50s lead very active lives even outside work, with a keen interest in the world around them, compared with older segments where the numbers drop away.

My first reaction is what a pile of ****** - but I guess this was a revelation to the researchers. If you are looking for some factlets about the 50-plus and the Internet then this might be useful. Dick Stroud

Forrester Research report about US Technographics

Technographics, what a nice word. No idea what it means but it does sound important and something you and I should know about.

It is a survey about the adoption and use of technology by different generations. Since lifestyle (mainly education and income) is a huge determinant of technology use I am always sceptical about these types of studies.

Anyway, this report costs lots of dosh but from the sales blurb it seems to be peddling the same old messages.

Gen Y sets the pace for technology adoption. Nine in 10 Gen Yers own a PC, and 82 percent own a mobile phone. But it is technology use that sets this generation apart: Gen Y spends more time online ' for leisure or work ' than watching TV; 72 percent of Gen Y mobile phone owners send or receive text messages; 42 percent of online Gen Yers watch Internet video at least monthly. Gen Xers use technology when it supports a lifestyle need, while technology is so deeply embedded into everything

Gen Yers do that they are truly the first native online population.'

The fact that Gen Y is, and will increasingly be, under the most intense economic pressure with multiple demands on their disposable income is neither here nor there.

If you want a different take on the generational use technology then have a read of this article from the Sunday Times. It concludes Gen Y is a group of superficial technology users with the attention span of goldfish. Maybe the message for marketers who are targeting this generation is keep the copy short – 6 words max.

Note: You will see a reference to an article by Nicholas Carr (The guy who wrote IT does Matter). I winced as I read (scanned) it since I know exactly what he means about the way the Web changes how we consume content. Dick Stroud

Seniors online

Earlier this month I wrote about research undertaken by The Center for the Digital Future in conjunction with AARP.

Unfortunately I have discovered that the report I referenced costs hard dollars. Over time I am sure that loads of factlets about the findings will emerge.


Here is one that looks at how the behaviour of US older consumer has changed related to their habit of researching a product off-line and then purchasing online. Not much difference now between the ages until you reach 70+. Dick Stroud

Demographics of US broadband users

The headline of the latest Pew Internet report is “Home Broadband 2008: Adoption Stalls for low-income Americans even as many broadband users opt for premium services that give them more speed”. That basically says it all. It is money and education that determines the use of the Internet/Broadband/Web or any other manifestation of online behaviour.

85% of Americans with $100,000 plus income have broadband at home compared with less than a third of those with sub $30,000 income.

If you want to look at the trends in Broadband use by age then here they are. Be careful – if you are targeting affluent 50-plus then you are looking at a broadband usage of well about that indicated by these numbers. I reckon in the 50-64 age group it would be in 75%+. Dick Stroud

New AARP study about the 50-plus and the Internet

AARP has issued a press release about a study undertaken with The Center For The Digital Futures about the Internet habits of the 50-plus. If you are looking for factlets to prove oldies are not total Web Luddites then you are in luck.

When (if) I receive a copy of the research study I will comment more. Dick Stroud

Use of Internet by age and gender

The above analysis appeared in this week’s issue of Marketing Week. The research was conducted by Equimedia/YouGov.

Nothing very surprising. Women spend more time on Friends and Families – Men are into hobbies, interests and current affairs (what an odd grouping of interesting).

None of the age groups admits to online dating and adult entertainment. Mmmmmm.

Whilst this sort of simplistic study paints a very, very broad picture of Internet use it results in profiles of Mr and Mrs ‘average’. Since Internet use is most closely correlated to education, rather than age, I wonder how you can use this data. Dick Stroud

Have 4mins 39 secs to spare?

Last week I wrote about an event I attended where a group of us 50-plus marketing nuts tried to impart our wisdom to a bunch of digital marketers.
If you have a few minutes to spare you can listen to what I said. Dick Stroud

The internet played in mobilising demonstrators

This is the first, and I suspect the only time I will quote an article in the Socialist Worker.

For some reason this weird organisation decided to research how people got to know about anti-war demonstrations. It was no surprise to discover that 24% of protesters found out about the demonstration through a website.

It was a surprise that it was not the “internet-savvy youth” who rely most on the web, but older age groups. In particular the 36 to 50 year olds.

Young people were less likely than others to have found out about the demonstration through an email from someone outside of their immediate social circle. Just 3% of the under 18s and 7% of those aged 18 to 25 mentioned this, compared to 22 percent of the over 50s.

This suggests it is the older activists who make the best use of internet and email communication. How interesting. Dick Stroud

Content providers are overlooking the needs of many of today's Internet users

Why when you read this type of headline do you know that the “many of today’s Internet users” are likely to be the 50-plus?

An outfit called Burst Media has conducted an online survey of 13,000 web users 18 years or older and found that the majority of Internet users 45 years and older believe that online content, as well as website design and online advertising is skewed toward younger web users.

There is a good reason for this perception – it IS skewed towards younger web users!

The survey that is only reported in press release format has a few other observations:

· Website usability is an issue for older web users more than for younger people.

· Loss of connectivity is ‘devastating’ at any age. I think that is a bit strong but I know what they mean.

· All ages of people are looking at an “Expanded Universe of Sites”

So there you go. Nothing much new, a couple of statements of the obvious but it does reinforce what us 50-plus marketers have been saying for as long as I can remember (which is not long these days!).

Woops. I should have looked in more detail. There is a report on the site about this research. Thanks to Tom for pointing this out. Dick Stroud

Access to the Internet in the US

Pew Internet has just published some research about the way Americans do (or don’t) access the Internet.

No great surprises, other than a slightly higher level of broadband access amongst the oldest ages group than I would have expected.

Of course the main determining factor is not age but education, as is shown by these numbers. Dick Stroud

Media consumption in the US

Here is an interesting factlet. By 2010, adults 35 and older will spend nearly $3.5 trillion a year. Of that the 45-plus are forecast to spend over $2.6 trillion (Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Wolf Resource Group).

Another factlet. People aged 25 to 54 spend the most time at work or at home on the Internet a week (7.3 hours). That's more than young adults aged 18 to 34 (5.1 hours) or teens 12 to 17 years old (3.4 hours). (Turner Broadcast System chief research officer, Jack Wakshlag, citing Nielsen Media Research data). So much for the young being the “Internet Generation”.

Final factlet. 42% of YouTube users are 35 to 54 years old and that 19% are over 55. The 12-17 year olds make up only 20% of YouTube users.

These an a lot more interesting things about age, technology and media can be found in this article from Broadcasting Newsroom. Dick Stroud

Online fraud and the 50-plus

Imagine this situation. You are a marketer working for the UK’s Post Office and have just been given the job of launching and managing the organisation’s broadband service. That’s a bit like Wal Mart starting to sell Porsches.

You might ask yourself why on earth the UK needs yet another broadband supplier. I bet I know the answer. The Post Office did ‘some research’ and found that a lot of older people are not connected to the Internet – especially the 65+ - especially the poor – especially those with little education. I suspect these conditions were lost in the analysis.

The reasons given for not being online were probably a hotchpotch of ‘can’t see the point’, ‘can’t afford it’, ‘don’t know what I would do with it’. Amongst this list would be something to do with the fear of fraud.

Ahhhhh says the Post Office marketer, I am sure we can something about this and immediately commissions a bit more research that of course shows that older people are fearful of fraud – who isn’t?

Since the Post Office is one of those nice cuddly, trusted brands, then who better to wrap their corporate arms around the older person and provide them with their means to connect to the Internet?

To help position the Post Office as a good citizen it needs to pump out its research findings to reinforce the link between itself and the senior surfer. This brings me to its most recent utterings.

Now I don’t mind this approach – in fact it is what I would probably recommend to the Post Office – but it result in UK’s media, including the BBC, being stuffed full of misleading generalisations about older people and fraud.

It is a perfect illustration that the only way to get heard is to shout a single message– even if that grossly simplifies and distorts the truth. Dick Stroud

The UK’s Post Office enters the broadband market to target excluded audiences

This is a quote from the press release.

The new broadband services is primarily targeted at the ‘NETSKI’ generation (whatever that is) of 50-65 year olds with a high disposable income who are going online for the first time - and customers wanting to pre-pay in cash.

The managing director of the Post Office, said: "Until now, some significant groups in society have missed out on all the internet has to offer purely because broadband is perceived as a complicated luxury”.

The new broadband services will be backed by a £9 million marketing campaign across TV, national print and online media, as well as in-branch. The campaign will feature reformed boy band, Westlife.(what a strange choice)

I am not so sure about this idea.

The affluent, well educate 50-65 year old does not view broadband as a ‘luxury’ but a necessity.

The reason why a 50-65 year old has not adopted broadband is for one of the four reasons:
A. Use a PC but cannot afford broadband
B. Use a PC but cannot see the benefit of upgrading to broadband
C. Don’t use a PC and never will
D. Don’t use a PC – would like to – but it all it seems too much of an effort to learn

So what will this new service do to get over these four barriers? I am not sure. For the sake of the Post Office I hope they are! Dick Stroud

It's all about socio-economic group

When Robert Worcester, the founder of MORI, writes something, it is worth it is worth reading. In this brief article he explains, in words of one syllable, the idiocy of using the Internet to target older (and not so older) poorer people.

Look at the analysis. Less than one in ten of the 65+ who are in the DE socio-economic group have access to the Internet.

Look at it another way. If you are an AB, in the 55-64 year age group, you are more likely to be online than anybody aged 15-34 in socio economic groups C2DE and only 6% different from anybody in the C1 group. Remember that in this case socio-economic group is a proxy for the level of person's education. Education above everything else determines Internet connection. Dick Stroud

The UK Communications Marketing (Part 2)

Here are a couple of more graphs from the Ofcom study.

Two things stand out.

From 25-64 the penetration of Internet users is pretty much constant and then dives after 65. This we know. What is really interesting is to see the number of hours spent online. The highest figure is for the active Internet user over-65. So what we have got is a small but very active band of 65-plus Internet users.

This brings us onto the second point about the gender of older users. Look at the big jump that occurs around 60 in the percentage of men. Now this has some interesting implications for marketers. Dick Stroud

Playing games and using the computer

Some more figures from the US Department of Labor Statistics showing the hours spent each weekday on games and using the computer, by age group. What an interesting shaped curve. I am amazed that the figure rises so high for the 75+. Research is always true? Dick Stroud

Internet shopping

A report just published by the UK’s Office of Fair Trading estimates the domestic internet shopping market is worth over £21.4bn, and last year over 20 million people shopped online with nearly a third of them spending over £1,000. This is a substantial body of research and if Internet shopping is your thing then it worth downloading.

The thing that caught my eye was the age analysis of internet use and of the propensity to shop online. See above charts are taken from one of the downloaded annexes. As you can see, and would imagine, there is a big drop at 65+ for the level of Internet use but once somebody is connected there is little difference in the likelihood to shop online. This is exactly the same behaviour that you see with online banking. Dick Stroud

Digital habits of the 50+

This 100 page survey,conducted for a UK Government agency, has a few interesting bits and pieces about the digital habits and wants and needs of the 50+. Much of the research is irrelevant. Click the above images for an enlarged view. Dick Stroud

Factlet about European Web users

This is not strictly about the 50-plus but a very useful element of research from Comscore (remember that the 50-plus are significant web users). Dick Stroud

More 55+ Internet users than 35-44 year olds

UK internet users aged 55-plus are set to overtake 35-44 year olds as the demographic age group with the largest representation online. Those aged 55+ accounted for 22% of UK visits to all categories of websites in the four weeks to 12 May 2007, up 54% since 2005 and 40% since 2006. This compares to 23.5% of Internet visits from 35-44 year olds.

The VP of Research for Hitwise UK commented: "Among the top categories visited by those aged 55+, Search Engines, Adult and Shopping & Classifieds are the favorites, and are consistent with the most visited categories overall". Not surprisingly, Travel and News and Media websites are also high volume sites. Last week, 27% of visits to Travel websites and 24% of visits to News and Media websites were from those aged 55+.

You can read more about this analysis in this press article from Internet Retailing. Dick Stroud

Fascinating facts - handle with care

Nielsen//NetRatings has released research about the UK’s internet population segmented by age and gender.

If you want any proof of how age segmentation is a total waste of space it is this data.

Anybody who has spent 5 minutes researching how the over-50s use the Internet know that there is a massive difference between the over-65s and their juniors.

By lumping these totally different age groups together you end up with a conclusion about the 50-plus that is at worst useless but more likely dangerously misleading.

A little bit of free consultancy to Nielsen//NetRatings. When you next publish these numbers at least split the 50-plus into two age groups. Dick Stroud

Social networking factlets

There is something about the enormity of the Internet and its global reach that I still finding amazing. Research published by Universal McCann came up with these factlets:

More than 170 million people globally now post blogs that are read regularly by 340 million internet users –the largest audience is the US, where 64 million read blogs.

The number of people watching video clips online has doubled from 31 per cent to 62 per cent in the last nine months.

194 million Internet users have joined a social network.

Even if these numbers are 20% inaccurate they are still stunning. Dick Stroud

Watch out myspace – 50plusmarketing has you in its sights

Between my first and second cup of coffee this morning I set up my own social networking Web site. Really. Go and have a look.

Ning is a new venture that claims to be the only online service where you can create, customize, and share your own Social Network for free in seconds. The network can be public or private.

This is a smart Web site and I really hope it succeeds. My nagging doubt is that now I have all of this networking power – what I am I going to do with it? Probably more important – when am I going to have time to use it? I have a blog, I have my own channel on YouTube and couple of Wikkis and now Ning.

I am drowning in opportunity. Dick Stroud.

Blogburst syndication

This is what it says on the Web site.

Pluck's BlogBurst network is an opt-in aggregation and syndication service that brings high-quality, topical blogs together with high-traffic web sites. With BlogBurst, bloggers gain visibility, audience reach and traffic through placement on major online publishers and media destinations in real time.

We will see if it works in practice. All of your publishers out there - click the icon for more information.

Marketers like WiFi users

Research from Pew Internet concludes that wireless users are more frequent Internet users and they get more news online than boring home broadband users.

Wireless Internet users are, on the whole, younger and better educated, and they have higher incomes than Internet users in general.

As you can see, WiFi hasn’t made too much of an impact on the 65+. Dick Stroud