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where seniors meet
Advertising at recreation centers for the elderly
By Kathy Prentice
Senior citizens 65 years and older are the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. But as yet there aren’t many media vehicles specifically designed to reach them outside of their homes.
One of the places seniors spend retirement hours is in recreation centers. They might drop in for a game of cards or spend the entire day.
Now advertisers can put their messages on the same information boards where the days’ activities are posted.
To find out how to get your client on boards at senior recreation centers, read on.
This is one in a Media Life series on buying the new out-of-home venues. They appear weekly.
Fast Facts
What
Advertising on reader boards at senior citizen centers.
Who
Prime West Inc., headquartered in Mount Vernon, Washington State.
How it works
Ads are placed on the perimeter of news and information centers or on reader boards in senior centers. Facilities are non-residential recreation centers run by communities or units of government like counties.
The news and information centers are five feet tall by seven-and-one-half feet wide. A 39-square-inch magnetic calendar for use by the senior center fills the interior.
Messages move across a color, remote-programmable electronic display at the top of the board, and there is also space for printed materials like daily menus on corkboard. Ads border the center on three sides. The unit is covered with lockable Plexiglas doors.
The boards are positioned at eye level in the lobby of each center.
“It’s the center of activity,” says Prime West president John Ruhlman. “It’s where the calendar is, so when someone wants to know what time the trip to the baseball game leaves or what’s on the menu for lunch, it’s where they head.”
Brochures and business cards can be displayed for distribution directly from the board.
The ads are used for both branding and promotion, Ruhlman says.
“A local restaurant might offer a senior discount or a senior hour it wants to promote. But it’s really more about brand exposure.”
Product exclusivity is available.
“For instance, if you have a dental program for seniors we’ll give you exclusivity on these boards,” Ruhlman says.
Most advertisers are regional. Advertisers typically buy regions, Ruhlman says. The advertiser usually provides creative.
Prime West will often modify print ads for its boards.
“The truth is that few have material geared to this,” Ruhlman says. “Most are geared to print ads for periodicals.”
“Think more in terms of outdoor billboards rather than print. Think bigger, bolder.”
Most advertisers use photos and logos. Images are full-color quality printed copies, Ruhlman says.
“We always use photos,” says Jean Webster, marketing coordinator for Simply Sterling. “Images of healthy, active seniors. That’s the group we’re working for.”
Ads are 11-and-one-half inch by nine-inch landscape format displays. There is space for 12 ads per location.
Creative can be changed once every six months at no extra charge.
“We switch photos once or twice a year,” Webster says. “We try to make them seasonal.”
Markets
The boards are available in 150 senior centers in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Colorado, Florida, Texas, Illinois and Michigan. They’re also available in British Columbia.
Numbers
Monthly impressions for the Prime West senior center network are 6,000.
How measured?
Impressions are determined by the number of people moving through specific areas of centers where boards are displayed.
“We calibrate how many people walk by the board. It’s like driving by a billboard. You can’t be sure everybody who drives by looks at it,” Ruhlman says.
“We use an extensive tracking system,” Simply Sterling’s Webster says. Agents’ cards, with photographs, are distributed at the news and information centers.
While seniors are primary users, centers are often leased out to other community groups. “There might be an evening Kiwanis meeting one night and a wedding on the weekend,” Ruhlman says.
Research
What product categories do well?
Anything senior-specific, Ruhlman says. That includes housing, medical care, elder care, restaurants with senior hours or menus, elder law, and consumer products or packaged goods.
Demographics
In 2000 there were 20.6 million women and 14.4 million men ages 65 and older, representing 12.4 percent of the U.S. population, or about one in every eight Americans. The number of seniors has increased by 3.7 million, or 12 percent, since 1990, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The number of Americans currently aged 45 to 64 who will reach age 65 over the next 20 years has increased 34 percent since the last census. Since 1900 the percentage of Americans 65 and older has more than tripled, with the numbers increasing from 3.1 million to 35 million, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
By the year 2030 there will be about 70 million Americans ages 65 and older, more than twice the number in 2000.
Minority populations are projected to represent 25.4 percent of the elderly population in 2030, up from 16.4 percent in 2000.
In 2000, 74 percent of men and 43 percent of women ages 65 and older were married.
The median income of persons ages 65 and older in 2000 was $19,168 for males and $10,899 for females. Households containing families headed by persons 65 and older reported a median income of $32,854 in 2000. Source: A Profile of Older Americans, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Additionally, many adults who attend senior center activities are as young as 55 years old.
Adult children of seniors are not specifically targeted, but are frequently exposed to the advertising messages. “If your mom or dad goes to the center, you often take them there, stay and have lunch,” Ruhlman says.
Making the buy
Costs include creative, production and installation.
One ad at one location is priced at $745 per year. Two to five locations go for $695 per location per year. Six or more locations cost $645 per location per year. To buy the total area is $595 per location per year.
Discounts are available for multi-year contracts.
Advertisers sometimes provide their own printed material, Ruhlman says.
Who’s already on Prime West boards?
Simply Sterling, Wells Fargo Mortgage, Marriott Assisted Living, Secure Horizons, Denny’s Restaurants and Curves for Women are current advertisers.
What they’re saying
“We use the boards to establish a community presence. We place our ads and business cards on reader boards after we run a newspaper ad or do a direct mailing. Seniors will call our agents and say ‘I saw your ad in the paper, then picked up your card at the center.’”--Jean Webster, marketing coordinator for Simply Sterling, a Bellingham, Wash.-based Medicare supplement program.
Web site info
Prime West at www.primewest.com
February 4, 2002 © 2002 Media Life
-Kathy Prentice writes about out-of-home advertising for Media Life, penning her stories from the resort town of Traverse City, in the upper reaches of Michigan.
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