There must be a schedule within the CBS PR department for pimping the media for stories about how the adults 18-49 demo is outmoded and how new measures (like the radically different adults 25-54 demo?) are more appropriate because they seem to appear on a semi-monthly basis during the broadcast season.
This time CBS PR hits up Business Week for the spin, and even finds two actual people involved in media buying to provide quotes!
Advertisers still pay a premium to reach the 18-to-49 set, say media buyers like Donchin, "but we're no longer as fixated on that. We look at who gets the eyeballs and who makes the buying decisions in a household." It helps, too, that viewers aged 25 to 54—CBS's strongest demographic—watch 90 minutes more of TV a night than 18- to 49-year-olds, says Brad Adgate, a research executive at the ad buying agency Horizon Media.
Fox can still charge advertisers a hefty premium for shows like Family Guy that have built huge followings among young viewers. But CBS's large audiences have helped it to an additional 10% or more for 30-second ads compared to earlier this year. As a result, estimates industry analyst SNL Kagan, CBS will generate $4.7 billion in advertising revenues this year, allowing it to sneak past NBC.
For years, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves has called advertisers' fixation on young viewers simplistic. Now, with 18- to 49-year-old Americans among the hardest-hit casualties of the Great Recession, his theory makes more sense. As Moonves told BusinessWeek in an interview: "Someone needs to show me where an 18-year-old consumer buys more than a 50-year-old." The question for CBS is whether big audiences of graying Americans will jazz advertisers once the economy recovers.
Les Moonves, always on message, which in this case is if you can't win by the rules in place, try and change the rules!
And after they get a “shift” to the 25-54 demo, they’ll move to the 30-60 demo, then onward and upward to the 100+ age bracket. Because, you know, since the elderly vote such much, their TV viewing habits should be important too….
…and anyone who thinks I’m being anything other than sarcastic should be shot for the Crime of Extreme Stupidity.
Honestly I see why advertisers love the 18-49 demo. Older folks are set in their ways and less likely to buy most products that are advertised, especially cars.
However, it obviously does depend on the advertiser what they’re willing to pay. Those electric scooter things old people ride around on probably pay big bucks for an NCIS spot, I would think.
Doesn’t this already answer why advertisers like to reach to the 18-49 demo?
As Moonves told BusinessWeek in an interview: “Someone needs to show me where an 18-year-old consumer buys more than a 50-year-old.”
lol
Personally, I’d be interested in going after that 42-62 bracket. It’s filled with MILFs, and we all know they are the ones with the real buying power.
I would not be surprised to see CBS succeed here. This is total opinion, but with more choice and a greater ability to research where our dollars go these days, it stands to reason that it has to be easier to break through brand loyalty than it was in the old days. If that does prove to be true, then focusing on younger, poorer viewers would become passe eventually.
In any case, if I were an advertiser, and NBC was skewing 4.0 in the demo with only 8 million total viewers, and CBS was skeing 3.0 in the demo with 18 million total viewers, I’d buy ad time on the CBS show, especially if it were cheaper.
There has to be a crossover point where massive total viewer ratings trump small demo advantages. I’m not sure where that point is, but I’d be interested to find out.
I always thought this mindset was somewhat antiquated. People are waiting longer to have kids, get married, etc. The 49 age seems arbitrary to me.
People are living and working longer, something to consider for ratings.
I agree with Moonves that focusing on the A1849 demo is simplistic, especially since a 2.0 is now the benchmark for success and a 4.0 makes you #1. The so-called “graying” demos are not as staid as they once were. More and more of them are taking to the internet and become more flexible with their purchasing.
The “graying” demo to whom you refer as being set in their ways are the already “grayed” demo who still watch the evening news and have neither a cell phone nor a computer. These are not the people to whom Moonves is referring to.
Given the fact that the median age in America is outside this coveted A1849 demo should be a hint that Moonves may be on to something. Besides, the younger and of that coveted demo isn’t watching TV the same as the rest of us anyway. It would behoove advertisers to find a new way to reach them.
A2554 is the new A1849.
Moonvees is clearly self-serving with his POV, but he’s fundamentally correct. Most people over 50 have far more disposable income than those under 50. It seems folly to constantly target those with less spending money.
I’ll be 50 next year. I doubt that all of a sudden I will stop buying stuff. So I agree they need to change things up a bit.
I bet those advertisers who take the older viewers for granted would see their buying power if the ancient 50 year olds stopped taking their kids and their grandkids to the fast food restaurants, just stopped buying anything advertised on TV for a week. To begin with who decided anyone over 50 is old. It used to be old, 50 years ago. People keep saying this demo is set in their ways and that is just rubbish.
Some are but so are some 20 and 30 year olds, the idiots making decisions about TV advertising certainly are. I thought advertising was all about making those who don’t want your product want to buy your product. These advertisers are just lazy.
And if the older group already buys your product do you want them to switch? I thought brand loyalty was a plus for a company.
It all comes down to advertisers not wanting to pay for what they already have.
CBS has and always will be at least in the forseeable future an old fart network. When I say that, I don’t mean that in a negative way. CBS has always attracted older demos. I guess that what happens when you always or least most of the time look for quality shows thus earning the Tiffany Network nickname.
They tried to be young in the mid 1990′s. Did not quite work out for them.
They should be greatful for the shows that attract the young and old demos alike. NCIS has brought in the young demos in its seventh season than previous seasons.
Again, people get hung up on ageism that doesn’t exist, and bogged down on issues of philosophy and buying power, when that’s not what’s behind this.
At this point I’m convinced that anyone over 50 who doesn’t want to believe market economics simply is going to ignore it regardless of what we write. But the advertisers do NOT take the older viewers and their spending power for granted. It’s just that the over 50 viewers are so abundantly available in the TV viewing world, advertisers don’t need to pay extra to reach them. The advertisers reach them pretty much no matter what they do.
i have always thought it is insane to forget the over 50 crowd…younger dosen’t mean more buying power at all and its bad business to think that it does.
It isn’t even just 18-49 that the advertiers want. Who they REALLY want are the 18-35 year olds in the so-called “golden demographic”.
Apparently, older people such as myself just stop buying things once we reach a certain age.
And, for the record, I know plenty of “old/elderly” folks out there who use computers, cellphones, and in many cases are early adopters (people who buy first generation shiny new stuff). My 80 year old mother, for example, has not one, but TWO cellphones and got her first computer when she hit her mid-60′s.
Advertisers are making a serious pile of faulty judgments.
Media buying will take a LONG time to change. I recently worked for a FOX affiliate who (at the time) did not have a news program. Our programs routinely slayed the competitions’ news. Regardless, 35% of local media buying (that includes national advertisers spending locally) is news, so that was 35% of the market’s money we would never see.
It’s all in the tone of how it’s put. Look at the top of this article. Showing a picture of father time to represent old people pretty much sums up the lack of respect that people have for anyone older than 49. Skewing older is synonymous with the plague as far as anyone under 40 is concerned.
“It helps, too, that viewers aged 25 to 54—CBS’s strongest demographic—watch 90 minutes more of TV a night than 18- to 49-year-olds, says Brad Adgate, a research executive at the ad buying agency Horizon Media.”
The key phrase is “90 minutes more of TV a night.” That’s why advertisers can afford to pay less. Older people generally watch more television than younger people. I wouldn’t have thought the difference between 18 and 25 & 49 and 54 would be so vast in terms of viewing habits but Mr. Adgate gets paid to know this stuff.
Robert, your point about over 50 viewers may well have applied 10-15 years ago, but with the totally fragmented nature of broadcasting these days, combined with loss of eyeballs to the Internet and other endeavors, I’d say any show that can generate a sizeable audience of any age has some economic value. I realize advertisers may not yet be on that bandwagon, but I think anyone who believes that a show that generates a 3.5 18-49 with total viewers of 8 million creates more value for advertisers than a show that generates a 2.7 18-49 with 16 Million total viewers is nuts. Of course, I’m not an expert, but then again, if you never deviate from the path you’ll never know about the path untaken.
The thing that network types fail to remember is we do remember how to use an off and on switch on our TV’s and then you can’t reach us at all. It’s time to STOP ignoring a large sector of the viewing audience that has more disposal income than the youngsters you lust after.
If older people aren’t being served by TV, then why do watch so much more?
I don’t understand why people demand to have advertisers target them.