TVP eyes its over-50 viewers
Telewizja Polska (TVP) is promoting its graying population of viewers in next year's commercial offer in an attempt to bring advertisers into its fold, the public broadcaster said.
Viewers aged 50-60 years are an unappreciated population that holds consumer power, according to Biuro Reklamy, the broadcaster's ad office. But while the elderly watch television longer on average than the main 25-40-year-old target group, Biuro Reklamy said it did not have enough information to indicate whether a revenue gain would result from highlighting the non-prime time viewing habits of elderly viewers.
"We are not restructuring our offer," said Marcin Wisniewski, analyst at Biuro Reklamy. "All we are doing is stating the obvious as the older audience has always watched TVP. To advertisers it means that they can make much more rational choices, knowing what audience they can really reach."
So far, advertisers have mainly addressed the 25-40-year-old age group because that's the core working population with money to spend.
But TVP argues that the over-50 crowd, which accounts for about 10% of the population, should not be ignored. The elderly are also serious consumers battling with the younger set for spending, the broadcaster said. For example, 11.5% of 25-49-year-olds want to buy a refrigerator and 10.7% are ready to purchase a stove, TVP said, citing a Taylor Nelson Sofres survey. The elderly managed to top those white-goods spending estimates with 11.6% of respondents wanting to buy a fridge and 10.9% a stove, TVP said.
"According to the surveys that we made, the spending power of the two groups, the younger and the older, is very similar," said Teresa Koprowska, analyst at Biuro Reklamy. "The same number of younger and older respondents declared net revenue of more than zl. 1,800 (a month)."
"Many people of that age are well off as they managed to benefit from the change in the system in Poland," Koprowska said. Moreover, 58% of respondents over 50 years old said they had a strong influence on the consumer decisions of their children, TVP said.
Not all ad agencies are convinced. "The data presented by (Biuro Reklamy) was exaggerated because TVP's studies were limited to larger cities, such as Warsaw," said Jaroslaw Kowalik, media manager at Starcom, ad agency Leo Burnett's media department. "For instance, the situation in the country in Poland is completely different. There is no money there."
TVP also boasts a larger share of the elderly viewership pie than other broadcasters. In September of this year, an average viewer of 50-60 years of age logged in more than 120 hours on TVP's two channels, or 60 hours per channel, as compared to 47 hours for Polsat, according to market researcher Osrodek Badania Opinii Publicznej (OBOP).
"Advertisers should now realize that through TVP they can reach a larger group of viewers and it costs them the same money," Wisniewski argued.
Broadcasters appear to garner the attention of those over 50. Television accounts for 62% of time that the "graying" population spends on media products, according to estimates made by the Central Statistical Office (GUS). So far, however, no clear approach toward older viewers has been observed on the part of advertisers.
"It's not that advertisers are not aware of the existence of older consumers," said Maria Gorska, head of TV buying at McCann Erickson. "If you look at other media, for instance women's magazines, ads for older customers are already there."
Marketing to the elderly is already significant in Western Europe, according to Biuro Reklamy. Fast consumer goods companies such as Henkel already create cosmetic lines for older people, who are ready to pay more for high-quality goods, the agency said. "In Poland it's a group of people that will be getting richer, so TVP has to think about the future," Koprowska said. "It might take some time before advertisers realize that, though."
