Banishing the Myth: Part 284
For the last six years I’ve been fighting the myth that older arts patrons aren’t online as much as younger people. Many arts executives make the assumption that marketing online really means marketing to a younger audience. To a large extent, that is true – but there’s plenty of evidence that older patrons are in fact online as well.
Our research has shown this for years, and the trend is getting stronger. In fact, in our 2008 Arts Patron Research study, 45% of people over 55 said that buying online was their preferred method of buying single tickets for arts events.
As such, I wasn’t surprised this morning when I saw this chart from a recent study by JupiterResearch and Ipsos Insight which shows that folks over 55 actually spend more time online than younger people.
I do find this report a little suspect, because it says that multi-tasking isn’t taken into consideration. But JupiterResearch is a respected outfit, and since this data squares with what we have seen for years, I think it’s more true than not.
I feel like I ought to do a seminar titled "Marketing Online to Audiences over 55."
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