A+E Measures Total Audience Where Every Person Counts

Ageism seems to permeate our society. This not only negatively impacts self-esteem and relationships with each other, it also can negatively impact business economics. A+E Networks has conducted extensive research to help solve for ageism, if not as of yet for society in general, at least in the business world.

According to Tara Lantieri, Senior Director, Primary Research, Ad Sales Strategic Insights at A+E Networks, “The World Health Organization has done extensive work on the issue of ageism globally, on stereotypes, prejudice, discrimination, how we act towards others or oneself based on age. A lot of the research we've been doing is on how so much of ageism is internalized and self-directed. It's a complex issue in the world and prevalent one.”

Marcella Tabares, Senior Vice President, Strategic & Cultural Insights, Ad Sales Research, A+E Networks concurred. “We start developing ageism beliefs and ideas at a very young age. Children between ages three to four already have some culturally, socially constructed ideas of what age means and they’re usually embedded. We started looking at younger age groups in addition to older to fully understand what the effects of those perceptions are,” she noted.

A+E Networks set out on a course of action, called Total Audience - Every Person Counts, to fully understand the complexities of audiences 18-74 and parsing out differences and similarities between 18-49s and 50-74s. “When we talk about every person counts, we mean every person, regardless of age,” Lantieri stated.

“There are two things happening,” Tabares noted, “Young people are cultivating these ideas of what old age looks like, receiving those messages from visual imagery and projecting those ideas onto others. That's why advertising and media are so important. We construct what the world looks like, what identity looks like. Only then do we project those onto others and start internalizing them. We see how it's impacting young people in their 30s and 40s.They actually hold more negative views and feelings about aging than people who are older, because people who are older are ‘in it.’ You've arrived and you realize that it is not as bad as it's been presented to you for decades.”

It’s notable that, according to the research, older adults feel pretty good about themselves. “The reality is, I feel good, I feel strong, I feel active, I'm curious. For me, I turned 50 this year and this is the best time of my life,” Tabares stated.

The challenge to getting this important point across and changing minds is impacted by attitudes of young  agency buyers and planners. “When you look at this industry with a median age in the agency in their 30s or maybe early 40s,” Tabares began, “How can they authentically relate to the experience of aging, and further, how are they able to authentically depict that experience in the creative narratives? It's very hard to do that. So we talked about representation in terms making strategic decisions in creative executions.”

Adequate representation of older adults is another challenge.  “What I found particularly jarring and shocking was the level of representation. Our study of national TV ads found that only one in 10 faces appear to be 50 years or older, yet 50+ year olds account for 46% of the adult population,” Tabares shared. Further, “within that was the lack of representation among older women. Only one in three of those faces appear to be female, yet women account for like 52% of the population. “

She noted that context too, reinforces ageism. “You start to see how small their world is constructed. We're much more likely to see older adults using a newspaper and a lot less likely than younger adults to be using technology. They are a lot less likely to be driving, more likely to be walking or in the house. The world that is constructed is so small and this plays into the stereotypical ideas of where older people are.”

Notably, the research paints an entirely different picture. “And yet,” Tabares, explained, “When we hear from older adults in the research, when we listen to them, we hear about their diversity of experience and all of the ways that they're living their lives. It's much more engaged. It's much more social. It's much more connected with the world. It’s very important for us as an industry to be more invested in understanding the experience.”

There is also the buying power of older adults which has been covered repeatedly in the press. “We talk about the scale of the population, their buying power and their ad receptivity as quantitative points. I don't think it's something that we need to continue to prove because that is like asking me, ‘What is the value of people?’ which is the real question we are asking,” Lantieri posited and added, “A lot of people aren't  trying to reach them and not trying to include them, so I think the first thing we should think about is purposeful inclusion in a way that is truly engaging and true to their experiences.“

It is not difficult for advertisers to get this right, she noted. “It does require balance but advertisers can absolutely get this balance right. We saw in our test that many already have. It's about balancing realism and repeatability, inspiration and respect. Depictions need to be realistic enough that people can relate to them, but they also have to be inspirational enough that there is a sense of things to look forward to.” It is possible to create advertising that resonates and appeals across all age groups.

The good news is that, according to Lantieri, “The data is showing that people are satisfied with their lives and valuing themselves well across many different dimensions that we asked about. I think it's important to acknowledge the challenges of getting older, but do so in a way that doesn't provoke fear. Showing adults and meaningful relationships is also really key because it demonstrates worthiness,” showing the physical aspects of aging in a positive light and show older adults as capable but not patronizingly so.

Finally, the old canard of older people feel younger than they are, therefore they want to see younger people in ads, is just not true. “I'm not sure where this came from. We’ve seen consistently in our work that people feel about on average 15 to 17 years younger than their age. But feeling younger doesn't translate directly to wanting to see somebody whose looks and body version is 15 years younger. We’ve tested this explicitly because we believed that it’s a myth that's perpetuated for decades and still lives on today,” Tabares revealed.

So for advertisers grappling with the careful balance of engaging both young and old consumers, Tabares has some words of advice. “Show me a real person who looks about my age, where I'm at in my life. We found that works well especially with multi-generational ads. It's not an either or solution. There is a way to appeal to all by showing both younger and older people in a social or family setting, the way we live our lives authentically. That is a key takeaway,” she concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

With A+E, Every Person Counts. The Power of Age Inclusion.

We talk about diversity and inclusion but there is one group that still feels left out of the conversation. That would be older adults who, while constituting over 46% of the U.S. population are often at zero percent representation in certain advertising categories. Happily, A+E’s Marcela Tabares, Senior Vice President Strategic & Cultural Insights, Ad Sales Research, and Tara Lantieri, Senior Director, Primary Research, Ad Sales Strategic Insights, are on a mission to change that.

A+E has embarked on a series of research studies to better understand the themes and attitudes around aging and to dispel the myths about older adults. Being a woman of a certain age, I am especially curious about the takeaways and how we as a society can pivot to a more productive representation.

“I became acutely aware of my own ages beliefs about my life and others because I'm human and conditioned by this society,” confessed Tabares who added, “Believing messages that have bombarded us for decades makes it hard to not be affected,”

The Next Phase of Total Audience Research

A+E has done considerable work on the value of total audience. “Last year we talked about bringing to life the power of the adult 50 plus consumer. We talked about the scale and spending power conducting proprietary studies that were based on actual purchase behavior and receptivity,” explained Tabares.

This latest phase is in creative messaging which is still partially in the field but has already produced a wealth of attitudinal information. “It has been all about understanding the lived experience of being an older adult,” Tabares stated, “We told marketers that this is a really important consumer segment, yet they feel overlooked and undervalued. Let's have a closer look so that we can come up with some insights that will help navigate and provide insights around the creative, about how to connect with them and reach them.”

Crafting The Methodology

Ageism probably started early in our history when we moved from an agrarian to an industrial society. “We use to value our elders or older people because they were the purveyors of knowledge. With industrialization and post modernism, society started to shift toward seeing older people more as a burden on society and the economy,” Tabares said.

The way this plays out in advertising messaging today is with representation that leans on unflattering stereotypical identities of aging. “We tested ads that leaned on tropes whether it's making fun of the older person as the butt of the joke or one that's vulnerable, dependent, weak and frail,” she explained. But, “there are also positive stereotypes such as the happy, loving, doting grandmother grandfather and a person who's retiring, very active and wealthy. So there are positive and negative stereotypes. We're testing that full spectrum.”

The challenge is that the older cohort is treated as one large segment devoid of nuance. In fact there are many sub-segments. According to Tabares, “We have been taught to conceptualize older people as this homogenous group.” In order to craft a more nuanced look at the older cohort, the methodology included an ethnography of 60 participants which then went into field to form a quantitative survey.  “Then we did an ad audit with Marketcast using AI technology to evaluate about 20,000 ads to see what is the representation and who are we seeing in these ads. There is also an ad test in field using survey based data testing 28 different ads that we had identified as representative of some of the consistent themes in terms of the rules or the storylines are the attributes,” she noted.

Highlights of the Creative Study So Far

The results of the ethnography not only reveled how older adults view society’s perceptions of them but also how they themselves feel about aging.

Feeling of Unworthiness - Society, the respondents felt, viewed them as, “passive, feeble, out of touch, undesirable, unsexy and irrelevant,” Tabares shared, “What this brought up was a sense of unworthiness. In the eyes of society, we're just not as worthy. Why can't they see who I really am and that I am worthy.” One 44 year old female respondent expressed a common theme; “I feel like the older, I get the less significant my opinion is and society as a whole is starting to look through me rather than at me.”

Gender Differences on Aging - According to Lantieri, “Women are (negatively) impacted by ageless- beauty ideals. They also feel less permission to age and then they're harder about it on themselves when they do. They're more likely to say they must keep the signs of aging at bay compared to men.” Essentially, women have less permission to age than men and, “they're less likely than men to agree that wrinkles and age spots and gray and white hair are normal things accumulated over time. It's not surprising that women 50+ are less confident compared to men.”

Chronological Age Has No Meaning - “Chronological age is constantly being redefined and shifting,” noted Tabares, who added, “Most people in the qualitative research, on average, perceived themselves as 15 years younger. Chronological numbers are a very homogenized narrow view and not very helpful. We tend to feel our age psychologically, cognitively and socially.”

Ethnic Differences – Lantieri did a deep dive by ethnicity and found that, “Black adults 50+ are more positive about aging than other groups. They feel more comfortable, more confident, more optimistic, more likely to agree that their life has meaning and have a lot to look forward to. They're forward looking and not saying that their best days are behind them.” Their positivity includes a recognition of the gains they have in getting older such as, “wisdom, gratitude, increased faith and spirituality. They're also more likely to agree there's no shame in getting older, that aging is normal and it should be normalized. They don't let age related changes hold them back.”

Among the Asian population, “They're more likely to feel confident about how they're doing in terms of their health and their finances, more likely to say that they're thriving financially and they're less likely to report experiencing mental can medical conditions and needing help with mobility and things like that,” stated Lantieri. Overall they report feeling more confident about their health more so than the other groups.

However, “The white adult population 50+ is having a harder time,” she added, “They are more likely to say that aging is scary, less likely to feel that they can lean on their families for help if they need it and  least likely to say that they don't let those age related changes hold them back. They also feel more negative about their appearance versus all the other groups are most likely to say they're less attractive compared to when they were younger.”

Dispelling the Myths of Age

What can we do to dispel the myths of aging? For one thing, older adults want representations that are relatable. “It's all about creating more realistic portrayals,” Tabares recommended, “We are not a homogenous group. Don't hide us. People don't disappear with age. Include more of them in more varied roles.” According to Lantieri, “Contrary to popular opinion, people 50+ are over five times more likely to say they want to see realistic depictions than to see someone who looks younger than them in ads. That was a key finding for us because we hear over and over that everyone wants to see younger. But that's not what the data is saying.”

Advertisers should take heed. Adults 50+ consume a range of goods and services but they are not always properly represented in certain ad categories. “The advertising industry and marketers have already decided like what categories suit older adults and that is a fairly limited set of categories like financial services, health and medicine,” noted Tabares. The gaps are startling. “On average, 5% of the faces in automotive are people 50+ but, they account for like 40% of the dollar spent in the category. How do we justify this? How can anybody look at this data and say this is correct?” Cosmetics is even worse with zero percent representation of regular, non-celebrity spokespeople in cosmetics ads. According to Lantieri, “The AI driven audit classified nearly 90% of faces in national TV ads as under 50, and so it isn't surprising that only 5% of adults 50+ say they always see people like them and media.”

Conclusion

Changing ingrained perceptions can be frustrating. In regard to the ongoing conversation about diversity and inclusion, “Not a lot of people are talking about inclusion among about the biggest consumer segment out there; the population that holds the most powerful economic strength,” stated Tabares, “There's a massive opportunity here. We have to change their understanding about aging and not be afraid of it. As media companies, as purveyors of ideas, we influence culture. We help people understand and make sense of life. It is a moral and social responsibility to start articulating a different narrative, accepting, embracing and knowing that that journey is different than the one that we've been depicting for decades. That's my little soapbox. We're going to get there,” she concluded, optimistically.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Artwork by Charlene Weisler

Home is Everything. Vicki Wellington, SVP, Group Publishing Director and CRO Reveals a New Study Findings

In a highly digital world, one might be surprised that print is actually front and center for readers. A recent study from HGTV Magazine concluded that Home became everything to us in the past year. While in the past, our home was where we returned after a day out. 

 But that attitude has shifted. Home is now a full day experience as we adapted to life under lockdown. “We undertook this landmark research to learn consumers attitudes about their homes--how their relationship to their spaces has changed over the past year, what motivates their home improvement projects, what (and how) they’re purchasing,” explained Vicki Wellington, Senior Vice President, Group Publishing Director and CRO, HGTV Magazine.

The study spanned many phases of research including social media, surveys and in-depth interviews. It was all conducted during the pandemic from March to October 2020 which gave it extra importance as more people worked from home and sheltered in place. “2021 marks HGTV Magazine’s 10^th birthday year,” noted Wellington, who added, “Between that milestone and the deep appreciation of home as the main backdrop of our lives the past year, it seemed an ideal time to take stock of the State of Home.”

Methodology

The study’s methodology highlighted a deep collaboration and a range of techniques. HGTV Magazine teamed up with MarketCast, a leading research and social analytics company, for the full range of research included in the study. They surveyed a nationally representative sample of more than 2,600 respondents for a quantitative study, a qualitative analyses using social listening technology with a sample of more than 1.1 million self-identified home décor and home project enthusiasts and one-hour, in-depth digital interviews with select survey respondents. 

 

Study Takeaways

Generational Differences - There were a few surprising conclusions based on the differences in generations. Millennials, for example, over-indexed on anxiety and worry compared to all respondents. However, they were also more likely to love doing DIY projects and to take on updating outdoor spaces, which provided a sense of being in control.  Wellington also noted that generations had very different attitudes and usage for technology. “Gen X and Boomers embraced smart home technology, primarily for safety, while Millennials turned to it for efficiency and entertainment. Boomer smart home tech mentions were +30% compared to Gen Z and Millennials,” she noted.

DYI As the New Home Entertainment - Especially during the pandemic, “We expected an uptick in DIY, but it emerged strongly as the new form of home entertainment--not only for its practical results, but also for the sense of accomplishment it provided, especially for those completing a creative project with family members,” she added.

Pent-Up Demand – Wellington shared that 7 in 10 respondents believe they’ll purchase home items in-store in 2021, reflecting a desire to return to a level of normalcy as well as a wish for inspiration at retail with store design/merchandising. Interestingly, “Even during the pandemic, we saw flooring, paint and major appliances were predominantly in-store purchases,” she shared.

The Joy of Sheltering In Place - The pandemic has obviously impacted consumers’ desire for more DYI and home decorating.  “There’s no question that having four walls ‘staring at us’ (as one respondent described it) and our desire for comfort has had an impact,” explained Wellington. Painting walls was the #1 on respondents’ to-do list, and people crave warm and inviting colors (social mentions of those hues went up +44% year-over-year). The DIY sales surge has been well-documented with robust quarterly earnings at home improvement stores. NPD Group reports that home improvement activity has increased dramatically with 40% of consumers stating that they plan to continue home improvement projects beyond 2020.

From these efforts, people found themselves enjoying their surroundings by achieving a sense of ‘place’ and comfort. They also were able to tap into their full creative potential, sense of discovery and often spreading their talents into other areas including going back to school and launching new businesses … from their bedroom.

Home Centricity and It’s Spending is Here to Stay - The behaviors that will likely stick are rooted in freedom to change up one’s space more often—to see home as a blank canvas—and the transformation of small changes that make a big impact. Mini-makeovers have long been one of HGTV Magazine’s key strengths.

The Power of HGTV Magazine – “While we expected the percentage of HGTV Magazine readers who took action after reading the magazine to be high, 93% was extremely high! With 11 million readers, that translates to a lot of buying power,” stated Wellington.  

Advertisers Have an Opportunity

The rise of the domestic environment holds great potential for advertisers who can tap into the current zeitgeist. “A magazine like HGTV Mag is very relevant right now with great audience growth over the past few years, upbeat advice and easy ways to make your home your happy place,” concluded Wellington.  There are great rewards for advertisers who tap into this enthusiasm.

Where's the Money? Exclusive Interview with Age Wave’s Ken Dychtwald

American aging demographic and psychographic trends are headed to, as Dr. Ken Dychtwald, Founder and CEO, Age Wave, noted, “a time of profound change.” But, he adds, “Do I think America is ready for the aging of the Boomer generation? Not at all.”

Back in the 1970s, a young Dychtwald hit an epiphany. “I became intrigued by older people, their point of view, what it was like to see life from the vantage point of 80, 90 or 100 years, the depth of perception they had,” he shared, “And I couldn’t understand why we lived in a society where there was so little regard for older people where in some ways they might be the most interesting among us.” 

This soon led to the formation of Age Wave and work in demography where aging trends, especially with the Boomer generation, would act like “a pig moving through a python” changing American attitudes and spending patterns. 

In this interview he explains why companies that ignore or undervalue the Boomer generation do so at their peril.

Charlene Weisler: Give me a lay of the land in the area of population maturity.

Ken Dychtwald: There are three driving forces. One is the birthrate. In the U.S. our birthrate has been hovering at about replacement level for the last several decades. So while we are doing better than the European nations which don’t have enough young people, we are not a young country anymore.

Another driver is longevity. When Social Security was drafted, life expectancy was 63. When we signed our Constitution, the life expectancy was 45.  We never envisioned there would be that many old people. We didn’t set up our culture language, governing, benefits to engage or handle the needs of hundreds of thousands of older people. 

The third engine is the most dramatic. We have this huge post WW2 Baby Boom beginning in 1946 where the boys came home from the war and 92% of all women who could have kids, did – 4,000,000 a year for eight years. This Baby Boom generation is an age wave that will reshape the center of gravity for society and pull it towards the second half of life more than it has ever been in history.

Weisler: Describe Boomers and how they differ (or not) from other generations before and after.

Dychtwald: Boomers are the beneficiaries of more longevity than any other generations of Americans. And while there has been a great deal of talk about income inequality, we are about to see increasing longevity inequality because there are more and more ways that people can buy their way to longer life or buy their way to greater health that people with fewer resources can’t afford. It is not inconceivable that there will be some Boomers who will live to 150 or more. They will likely be the billionaires. 

The Boomers will also mainstream a new paradigm for work, learning and leisure throughout ones’ life. Previous generations lived what I call a ‘linear life’.  You learned, then you worked like crazy for forty years and then if you had a little bit of longevity you had some retirement time. We busted up that model when we changed majors in college, changed careers a few times and often had more than one marriage. So the idea of reinvention is not uncommon.  What you will see mainstreamed (and younger people like this model too) is a more cyclic model of how to live ones’ life – like going back to school at age 45 and learning a new career. A more balanced life across a lifetime will become the model. 

You will also see the rise of female power and influence. Women outlive men so as we become increasingly elder society it will become increasingly controlled by women. And over the past decades women are outpacing men in all sorts of things such as education. It has not been fully unleased but in years to come the aging of the population will converge with female power.

I also see more uncertainty. Since the 1930s there has been more security for older people from Social Security and then in the 1960s, Medicare. During WW2 unions negotiated for pensions. Powerful lobbying organizations such as AARP stand and protect the interests of older people. Today’s older people have benefitted from the growth of the stock market. But that is not the demographic equation we are heading into. We are going to have a lot more older people and fewer younger people. There won’t be enough younger people to shoulder future costs – it is not supportable and not sustainable. So I think that you will see that a lot of the guarantees of security evaporate in this Boomer generation. 

Next, the Boomers will mainstream the next purpose of maturity. What we saw in the 20^th Century was a huge focus on the medical breakthrough that allows more people to grow older and live longer but never really created a role or purpose for these individuals. Boomers are trying to discover a sense of purpose.  

The last thing is that Boomers are not especially good at putting a good PR spin on themselves. My parent’s generation was hard working and obedient. They were drafted and served in a war and then they built America. But they were also a profoundly racist generation and their treatment of women was almost unfathomable. Yet they are called the Greatest Generation. I don’t think the Boomers will get that kind of treatment. I think they will be thought of as self-indulgent and irresponsible. 

Weisler: How do we change the advertiser and media mindset that undervalues older Americans?

Dychtwald: Most people in business are driven by shareholder value – where can I make the most money - and perhaps the most untapped opportunity is hiding in plain sight. Back in my grandparents and parents time, when modern media was emerging on the scene, people were pretty set in their ways. You weren’t changing your toothpaste brand when you were 50 or buying a new kind of hair product when you were 70. That is called brand loyalty and people were determining what product references were from the age of about 15 to 25. So you needed to heavily load your targeting of people between those ages because if you could capture them then, you would have them for life. Conversely, why bother marketing to a 50 year old because they have already made up their mind about everything.

Well, we all know in business today that’s all bullshit. There are a lot of products I am buying today that didn’t exist before. There was no software when I was 20. And, I have a lot more money and freedom now than I had before in my life to do whatever I want. So people who are 40 or 50 or 70 are no longer brand loyal, are reinventing themselves and very eager to try new things. 

That linchpin of the 1960s and 70s is a problem because it is a lie. Everyone in business knows that – like a wink and a nod. Why will the market move towards a redefinition of age breaks? Because, like Willy Sutton said, that is where the money is. It won’t be in all categories but there are a few like Financial Services, Leisure, Health, Medical, Beauty and Wellness that will soar. Seventy percent of all of the wealth in America is held by people over 50. So you can spend a lot of time and energy creating apps for 23 year olds but guess what – they don’t have any money.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com