Tampa: Chock full of free-wheeling boomers and retirees
Compared to the overall U.S. population, Tampa contains a high incidence of consumers over the age of 60. Headlining the over 60 crowd are a mix of newly retired, elderly couples, and widowed individuals leading busy social lifestyles. They’re physically fit for their age, politically active and earn solid incomes from pensions and investments. They’re Footloose and Family Free. Largely concentrated in Florida, nearly eight of every ten of these households contain a grandparent. But they’re more liberal than other senior segments, often voting democratic. The share of Footloose and Family Free households in Tampa is 8.8 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Call them Booming and Consuming, this is a financially fit collection of Baby Boomer couples and singles concentrated in the 50 to 60 year-old age range who are beginning to enjoy the early stages of an empty nest and retirement. These consumers have moderate incomes but sizeable nest eggs. Philanthropic by nature and interested in the arts, they donate money to a variety of causes. They are conservative in their thinking and active in the Republican Party. Think of them as the party backers who are inclined to take a date to the next GOP fundraiser. The share of Booming and Consuming households in Tampa is 5.7 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Golf Carts and Gourmets exemplify the prototypical upscale retirement lifestyle. These senior sophisticates are frequent travelers. They are twice as likely as average Americans to have taken a cruise in recent years. They also like to visit friends and relatives throughout the country. Golf Carts and Gourmets are more of a conservative bastion on political issues. Despite pockets of Liberals and Independents, a majority belong to the Republican Party. Many have a global awareness and give generously to political, educational and cultural groups. The share of Golf Carts and Gourmet households in Tampa is 2.3 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Charlotte: Home portal for the upwardly mobile professional
In contrast to Tampa, Charlotte sports an above average population of younger to middle-age, child-centered and career-driven couples and professionals. Leading the wave is a segment of upscale, family-centric households called Kids and Cabernet. These prosperous middle-aged couples with children are concentrated in the suburbs and live in homes valued at twice the national average. Their neighborhoods are havens for college-educated, white-collar professionals with well-paying jobs in the sciences, education, business and finance. Primarily harboring conservative viewpoints, Kids and Cabernet identify most closely with the Republican Party. The share of Kids and Cabernet households in Charlotte is 3.2 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Found predominantly in major metropolitan areas, Couples with Clout tend to live in downtown neighborhoods or close-in suburbs with immediate access to the central city. Largely free from childrearing costs, with fewer than ten percent having kids, these wealthy couples have high levels of discretionary income to satisfy their upscale tastes. They are well-educated, employed in white-collar and managerial professions, and are always on the lookout to upgrade their living situation. Somewhat progressive in their views, they describe themselves as political Independents. The share of Couples with Clout households in Charlotte is 2.4 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

The fast-growing, metro-fringe communities surrounding Charlotte are home to a flourishing population of digitally-savvy professionals. Let’s call them Fast Track Couples. With nine out of every ten householders under age 35, many are first-time home buyers who have settled into new residential developments filled with affordable homes. Most Fast Track Couples are either considering the idea of starting a family or already have pre-school kids at home. Pressed for time and career-focused, they’re not very active politically and have only average rates for being registered to vote. The share of Fast Track Couples households in Charlotte is 2.3 times greater than the segment’s corresponding share for the total U.S.

Winning more votes
As marketers, we are always looking for imaginative ways to target and attract specific audiences. Political candidates know this all too well when on the campaign trail stumping for votes. Whether it’s the Baby Boomer and retiree market that is more prevalent in Tampa or the dynamic, youthful, white collar professional that has settled in Charlotte, each segment of the population has varied preferences, purchase behaviors and motivations to buy. In the world of marketing, consumers settle on a favored brand and then vote with their wallets. Consider taking a consumer “roll call” to determine which segments are most vital (loyal supporters) to ensuring your popularity and which segments lack allegiance (swing customers) to your message. The findings can then provide guidance for developing successful marketing campaign strategies.

There was never really any question that the Olympics would attract a rich and demographically diverse audience of consumers. A more pressing question for Olympics sponsors and advertisers is “how good of a match is the audience with respect to the characteristics of my potential brand users?” In other words, “to what extent will I be reaching the type of consumer who is most likely to be interested in my brand?” Tools like the Experian Ad Relevancy Score help to answer these questions. The score, developed from television viewing behaviors and purchase data collected by Experian Simmons, is derived from profiles of actual brand users compared to the corresponding profile of the Summer Olympics television viewing audience. The higher the score the more benefit and overall sales lift that can be hypothetically derived by the advertiser from placing spots that reach this audience. Think of the score as a general measure to quantify the degree to which the ad will be seen by an audience that is most appropriate and relevant for the brand being advertised. Scores are benchmarked against an average of 100.

After applying the Experian Ad Relevancy Score to a subset of key Summer Olympics sponsors and advertisers, we found that the highest scores are attributed to airline brands. The top five include United Airlines (142), American Airlines (133), American Express (129), Delta Airlines (128), and Citibank (126).

United’s investment in the Summer Olympics appears to be a match made in heaven. The brand’s top score of 142 means that the Summer Olympics viewing audience is 42% more likely to be comprised of consumers who are United flyers. United has been the official airline of the U.S. Olympic team since 1984 and clearly has a nice marketing match with this global event. Nike and McDonald’s, also official sponsors of the U.S. Olympic Team, had scores of 109 and 107, respectively.

A more in-depth analysis and profile of Summer Olympics enthusiasts provides further evidence of a strong connection between interest in the London Games and airline travel. Experian’s Mosaic® USA lifestyle segmentation solution shows that consumer segments including Kids and Cabernet, Jet Set Urbanites and Silver Sophisticates, are among those with a 50% or greater likelihood to be avid fans of the Summer Olympics. Consumers from all three of these segments also have a high propensity to be frequent flyers.

Interested in ad relevancy? Take a look at posts comparing advertisers to audience for these events:

NCAA Tournament

Academy Awards

Super Bowl

From archery and athletics (that’s Olympics-talk for track & field) to weighlifting and wrestling, there are 32 medal sports on the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games. It’s a pretty sure bet that the most popular events from a television ratings point of view will include gymnastics, swimming, and track & field. Since Americans would most prefer to watch events where their fellow Americans have the greatest chance of winning (out of 921 all-time Summer Olympics gold medals won by U.S. athletes, 60% have come from these combined disciplines), it’s no coincidence that NBC will devote the lion’s share of primetime network programming to these premiere attractions.

The Olympics craze that is soon to be unleashed has advertisers in the starting blocks and at the ready to launch their own Olympic-size marketing campaigns. The composite television and online audience for the Olympics will span a wide range of demographic characteristics.  It’s one of few sporting events that captures the interest and attention of as many women as men. In other words, lots and lots of people will watch. That means these Games will reach a massive audience and represent an advertising bonanza the likes of which marketers have rarely seen before.

How Should Marketers Capitalize?

Despite its obvious drawing power, a target marketing approach still plays a prominent role in determining the likely success or failure of any Olympic-themed marketing campaign. So, what is an Olympics advertiser to do? What types of consumers are more or less likely to be tuning and checking in?

In keeping with the Olympic spirit, we undertook our own exercise of classifying U.S. households into gold, silver, and bronze categories based on their overall interest level in viewing and following the Games. The analysis is based on television viewing behaviors captured by Experian Simmons.  The segments are drawn from Experian’s Mosaic USA lifestyle segmentation solution.  Topping the podium are such key targets as Platinum Prosperity, Fast Track Couples and Picture Perfect Families.  Here’s a look at six medalist segments (ranked by overall interest in the Summer Olympics), all of which have an above average propensity to be frequent viewers of the Games compared to the overall population.

1. Platinum Prosperity. They see themselves as citizens of the world with a strong global consciousness and keen interest in international affairs. How’s that for embodying the Olympic movement? A bit older (mainly in their 50s and 60s) and wiser (they are 4.3 times more likely to have earned a graduate-level degree), these wealthy empty-nesters and retirees are a prime target for marketers of luxury goods, products, and services. Many are also fitness fanatics who belong to health clubs, enjoy aerobic sports and watch professional sports events. More than twice as likely to own a second home, they travel frequently both domestically and abroad.
2. Picture Perfect Families. Due to their mainstream media tastes, you’ll most likely find members of this segment taking in the Olympics parked in front of the family room HDTV. Predominantly in their mid-30s to 50s, married and college-educated, the buying decisions of these consumers are heavily influenced by teenagers who largely rule the nest.
3. Fast Track Couples. Younger, career-focused, upscale couples who have recently started a family or are on the verge of having children, these time-starved households are frequently on the go. Convenience is critical to meeting their discriminating demands. That means they are highly likely to take the Olympics everywhere with them by following the Games online and via their mobile devices.
4. Kids and Cabernet. Highly affluent, well educated, and chock full of moms with kids, these brand-conscious suburbanites are the next best thing to a marketer’s “dream team.” They like their products family-sized. Preferring SUVs outfitted with the latest technology, they make frequent trips to athletic fields and school activities. Parents in this segment also spend a significant portion of their leisure time engaged in athletic pursuits including tennis, golf, skiing, and biking.
5. Wired for Success. An eclectic collection of younger and digitally savvy adults, these consumers will lead the charge to a customized Olympics viewing experience by taking full advantage of online and video streaming options. Without children, these households have plenty of discretionary income to spend on the latest fashions and electronic gadgets. Many plan their shopping trips online before making a purchase decision. They are prime targets for Olympics advertisers planning to utilize social media marketing initiatives.
6. Status Seeking Singles. Highly influential among their peers, these urban, upwardly-mobile singles latch onto the latest fads and fashion trends. Mainly in their 30s and 40s, unattached and childless, they strive to be “in the know.”  Their penchant for a highly social lifestyle and all things digital makes them among the heaviest users of smartphones, tablets, Facebook and Twitter.

Companies whose products and services appeal to users in these key segments – think travel, electronics, financial products, retail and more – can take full advantage of a captive Olympics audience via many touchpoints. Let the Games, and the marketing mania, begin.

Data from Experian Simmons demonstrates the effect certain attitudes can have on back-to-school shopping behavior. When moms were asked how strongly they agreed with the statement “I find it hard to resist my kids’ request for non-essentials,” we noticed an increase in the percentage who agreed beginning around the end of June.

The increase is especially pronounced from the middle of July to the end of September. This happens to coincide with the heart of the back-to-school shopping season when moms are most likely to be keeping an eye out for special offers and promotions. The data also provides some evidence that moms are likely to be prime targets for spending on their children earlier in the back-to-school season than marketers might currently think.

But it isn’t really possible to know what all of your prospective customers are thinking. Unfortunately, you can’t speak to each and every mom or dad of school age children in a personal fashion – but neither should you treat your entire back-to-school audience the same way.

Casting a wide net to capture a faceless target audience used to work pretty well when I was a kid a few decades back. It was really a matter of which advertiser shouted the loudest and with the biggest hook. Not only that, but when Sears and Kmart were the only retailers in town, my mom didn’t have much of a choice. And how many marketers really bothered to target dads with back-to-school promotions back then?

Today, there are lots of ways to dissect the back-to-school market. Sure, we can describe households with kids using the usual demographics including age of parents, number of kids, age of children, household income, etc., but that doesn’t really capture the true essence of the back-to-school market. Why? Because demographics alone don’t paint a very interesting or clear picture of how to attract shoppers who are searching for all kinds of back-to-school merchandise and, at the same time, getting bombarded with multiple offers.

So let’s study the market more closely. I like to define the back-to-school audience in multi-dimensional terms. By doing this, we can develop specific lifestyle segments that can be targeted with the most relevant back-to-school offers and promotions. Here are some examples taken from Experian’s Mosaic® USA lifestyle segmentation solution:

• Babies and Bliss
• Families Matter Most
• Sports Utility Families
• Picture Perfect Families
• Kids and Cabernet
• Hispanic Harmony
• Cul de Sac Diversity

Based on an analysis of purchase and shopping data from Experian Simmons, we can see that these seven segments are quite unique in terms of their shopping attitudes and behaviors. Let’s take a look at some examples:

About 39% of adults who are parents with children living at home agree with the statement “I prefer to shop with my family.” But the percentage who agreed with this statement varies significantly when looking at our seven targeted segments. Cul de Sac Diversity and Hispanic Harmony are much more likely to agree. This could reflect cultural differences and their impact on shopping behavior. In this case, shopping is a family event. By contrast, some of the more affluent segments are less likely to agree. Consumers from the Kids and Cabernet and Picture Perfect Families segments might be more apt to be doing their shopping with fewer family members in tow.

Now take a look at how children have an influence on brands shopped.

Here, the influence of children on brands purchased is most pronounced for segments such as Kids and Cabernet and Babies and Bliss. Shoppers from the Hispanic Harmony and Cul de Sac Diversity segments also have an above average likelihood to say their children influence the brands they choose, but the influence is not as strong. The key take-away here is that certain segments are more brand-conscious than others and, where possible, the power of the brand should be leveraged when developing marketing campaigns that are targeted to these particular segments.

When we look at the influence of the Internet on shopping behavior, a different pattern emerges.

Consumers from the Babies and Bliss segment are most likely to agree with the statement “I often use the Internet to plan my shopping trips.” At the opposite end of the scale, Families Matter Most and Hispanic Harmony are not as likely to use the Internet to help plan their shopping. Clearly, these segments do not behave the same way.

The collective findings from these three statements alone mean we need to develop a unique back-to-school marketing plan for each of the segments. For example, we might target the Cul de Sac Diversity segment with display ads and emails emphasizing a wide selection of brands that kids like. This could be coordinated with certain in-store events and promotions that are designed to appeal to the entire family.

Now let’s look at who the bargain hunters are.

Somewhat surprisingly, Picture Perfect Families are 21% more likely to agree that they shop around to take advantage of special promotions and bargains. I say “surprisingly” because they are one of the more affluent consumer segments out of our targeted audience. This indicates that they are actively seeking out and searching for good deals. Consumers from Babies and Bliss and Cul de Sac Diversity also have an above average propensity to be looking out for special deals.

But notice when asked if they have used a coupon either online or from an email promotion, it’s Sports Utility Families and Families Matter Most who are most likely to agree. Consumers from both of these segments didn’t particularly stand out in terms of their likelihood to use the Internet for planning their shopping trips but they are highly responsive to targeted promotions. This could be an indication that they are less proactive in seeking out special deals but highly reactive when approached with a compelling offer they can’t refuse.

For more information, watch our recent webinar about planning your back-to-school marketing campaigns in style. You’ll see more information on what’s outlined above as well as informative stats around search behavior and how to target the lucrative college student market.

I remember growing up as a kid in rural Massachusetts thinking about how “back-to-school” TV ads were so irritating. Back-to-school? In July? I’m not even half way through my summer vacation! Little did I know back then that marketers like to get an early start to the back-to-school sales season by planting seeds with their target audience and hoping those seeds grow into a healthy crop of new customers. This remains true today and planting season starts even earlier.

The back-to-school sales season represents a huge opportunity for marketers. Here are some facts and figures that help quantify the size of the market:

• According to the National Retail Federation, consumers will spend approximately $70 billion on back-to-school merchandise. About $23 billion of this is spending by parents of children in kindergarten through 12^th grade. The remainder represents spending by students starting or returning to college. All told, the back-to-school season is the second largest consumer spending event for retailers outside of the winter holidays.
• According to the U.S. Census Bureau, this year there will be over 55 million students enrolled in schools from pre-kindergarten through high school. About 56% of these students are in grades one through eight, 28% are in high school and 15% are enrolled in preschool or kindergarten.
• About one-third of households contain children under age 18. That translates to roughly 38 million households. The vast majority of these contain school-age children.
• The back-to-school season is not just about reaching kids in elementary school, middle school, junior high school and high school. Another 20 million students are expected to be attending college. That’s a huge opportunity to sell things like dorm room furnishings, electronic gadgets and computers, just to name a few.

With every marketing opportunity come certain marketing challenges. It’s never easy. Marketers of back-to-school products face their own set of challenges when vying for the attention of parents of school-age children. Here are some specific examples:

• Who are my key targets and how can I differentiate my marketing message?

Targeting a market that includes a vast array of families with contrasting attitudes, opinions, motivations, lifestyles and shopping behaviors is incredibly challenging. Not all of these families are working from the same shopping list. And not all of these families will respond to the same marketing message. Segmenting your market into finer target audiences is highly recommended.

• How should my marketing budget be allocated across multiple online and offline channels?

You have multiple sales and marketing channels to consider. You don’t want to build a marketing plan without a well-defined strategy for reaching your best targets. For instance, moms have a greater propensity to have a smartphone compared to the overall adult population. Thus, marketers should then be thinking about integrating mobile applications into their overall strategy.

• What can I do to make my message stand out above the crowd?

Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes. I’m sure some of you are parents with children in school or in college. It’s a very crowded and cluttered back-to-school marketplace with many, many retailers clamoring for attention. One idea for standing above the crowd is to start by identifying your existing customers who are most likely to have families with children. Then send them an email early in the summer with suggestions for fun things to do this summer season. This can be followed up later with an email campaign containing some tips about getting ready for back-to-school. The key is to grab their attention and start engaging early.

• What variety of offers and promotions will enable me to capture a significant share of back-to-school expenditures?

To capture your fair share of the back-to-school market you’ll need to develop offers and promotions that are both enticing and relevant. This requires learning as much as you can about your prospects and what motivates them to buy.

For instance, a typical mom with elementary school-age children might enter the back-to-school season with the following thoughts:

“I want to buy him the cool gear to go back to school with: new clothes, shoes, backpack and lunch box. And I don’t mind, I actually LOVE back to school shopping.”*

That mom may quickly respond to your marketing message. Or, you could have a mom with these thoughts:

“I’m not upper class – we’re in the lower/middle income bracket and money is tight for us. I budget for school expenses as I would anything else…and I won’t have my son miss out because ‘we can’t afford’ something… I’d give up something else first.”*

She loves shopping for back-to-school, she has budget limitations, and she’s willing to make certain adjustments to her budget with the best interests of her child in mind. If you knew what she was most likely to be thinking, do you think it would influence the messaging and offers you would use to attract her? Well, of course. Attitudes shape shopping behavior.

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Watch our recent webinar about planning your back-to-school marketing campaigns in style. And stay tuned for part two of my blog series on the topic in a few days.

*Feedback was compiled from PHD in Parenting: http://www.phdinparenting.com/2011/08/22/who-should-pay-for-school-supplies/

Americans are again embracing the concept of multigenerational family living. Whether it’s the outcome of a failing economy or other economic and sociological factors, households that contain adults and children from multiple generations are a mega-trend.

The demographic developments are undeniable. An expanding elderly population has begun moving in with their adult children with greater frequency. At the same time, these adult children could be parents of young adults themselves who, for a variety of reasons, have decided to move back home. In both cases, younger children under age 18 also might be present in the home.

One example of this marketplace trend is the emergence of the segment called Sports Utility Families. Defining characteristics of this segment include the following:

• About 59% of Sports Utility Families have four or more persons living in the household.
• They are extremely family centered. Fully 80% of Sports Utility Families have childrenunder age 18. They have a high incidence of children across all age ranges and are 4.1 times more likely than U.S. householders overall to be caring for teenage children.
• Although they earn upscale incomes, they do not feel financially secure; they worry about the future and wish money were less important in their lives.
• They make a high percentage of online and catalog purchases in outdoor, home office, pets, toys, travel and home décor categories.

Marketing to Sports Utility Families and other types of multigenerational households can be complicated. In many cases, there is no single primary decision maker in the home. Purchase decisions are likely to be shared and influenced by multiple family members. Marketers need to carefully craft their communications when an elderly parent, a young adult or other minors are all sharing the same living space. For example, a household that might initially look like a traditional family with preschool children can easily be overlooked when targeting seniors with a healthcare-related offer. Knowing that this “traditional family” also contains an aged parent dramatically changes the picture.

For more on the New American Consumer pre-order the 2012 Digital Marketer report, set to release in April, and check our blog weekly for ongoing insights.

On average, advertisers will spend over $1 million for a 30-second spot aired during the men’s tournament championship game.

Because the event is stretched out over a three-week long period and reaches a relatively affluent consumer base, the tournament has broad appeal to advertisers. While perhaps not as impactful as a single sporting event with a much larger audience, such as the Super Bowl, advertisers can still benefit by delivering their message to a healthy-size audience with increased frequency. Based on an analysis of television viewership data tracked by Experian Simmons, the men’s tournament will reach nearly 20% of adults age 18 or over. That’s counting all games over the full length of the tournament.

Several national advertisers targeting men’s tourney viewers can expect to reach a large percentage of their brand users. In fact, the five advertisers with the greatest brand penetration among likely men’s tournament viewers include Coca-Cola (65%), AT&T (50%), Ford (24%), LG (21%) and Honda (15%).

But it isn’t necessarily the biggest brands that reap the greatest reward from advertising during an event with the staying power of March Madness and the NCAA basketball tournament. This is one conclusion from an analysis based on Experian’s Ad Relevancy Score. The score is an estimate of how closely a targeted audience that is exposed to an ad (in this case, the audience that is likely to be viewing the men’s tournament) matches up against the profile of a brand’s existing customer base. A high score indicates that the audience is a strong match and good fit for the brand. In other words, the ad should be particularly relevant to those who are viewing. A low score indicates that the ad could be less relevant because the targeted audience misses the mark relative to the characteristics of the brand’s most likely users. The average Experian Ad Relevancy Score for a brand is set at 100.

When ranking brands based on an analysis of the Experian Ad Relevancy Score for the men’s basketball tournament, we narrowed the advertiser field down to an Elite Eight. Five of the top eight scores are for automotive-related brands. The qualifying brands and their associated scores are as follows:

On the women’s tournament side, the viewing audience skews older and less affluent than the men’s tourney.  About 25% of women’s tournament viewers are age 65 or older.  This compares to 17% for the men.  The women’s tournament captures a disproportionate percentage of viewers who are retired (22%).  The corresponding percentage for the men is 16%.  The women’s tournament also draws a lower share of viewers from the highly coveted 18 to 49 year-old age demographic (45%) compared to the men (55%).  With older viewers, it makes sense that the women’s audience is 1.5 times more likely to read a daily newspaper.

College graduates comprise approximately 33% of the women’s audience and 43% of the men’s audience.

College graduates comprise approximately 33% of the women’s audience and 43% of the men’s audience.  For the men, this is 1.6 times the percentage of the overall population with a college degree.

Based on an index value that identifies behaviors that are more common among tournament viewers (an index of 200 indicates that the behavior is 2 times more prevalent among tournament viewers compared to the overall population), women’s tournament viewers are more inclined to shop at an office supply store (128), home furnishings store (128), or a home electronics store (124) compared to the incidence of the overall population shopping at these types of stores.  Viewers of the women’s tournament are also more likely to visit a variety of quick service or fast food restaurants including Subway (129), Wendy’s (133), Burger King (132), and KFC (144).

Over half of women’s tournament viewers say they walk for exercise.  This is a 22% higher participation rate compared to the general population.  Other popular sports activities among women’s viewers are golf (176), soccer (156), tennis (153), and jogging/running (130).

Both men’s (146) and women’s (162) viewers have a high propensity to say that they are more likely to buy products from companies that sponsor sports teams and sports events.

The rising availability of the internet as a broadcast channel for viewing tournament coverage has a larger impact on the men’s audience than the women’s audience.  About 27% of men’s tournament viewers agree that because of the internet, they spend less time watching television programs on a television.  This compares to 20% for women’s tournament viewers.

Websites that attract a significant proportion of men’s tournament viewers include CBS Sports, ESPN, and FOX Sports.  About 65% of men’s tournament viewers say they have visited the CBS Sports website within the past 30 days.  The corresponding percentage for ESPN and FOX Sports are 57% and 56% respectively.  Interest in football, golf, and baseball also appear to be strong indicators of men’s basketball tournament viewership. Advertisers that keep these kinds of facts in mind can more precisely target their audiences during major sporting events like March Madness.

The NCAA basketball tournament culminates with the men’s and women’s Final Four in New Orleans and Denver respectively. Advertisers can expect a national viewing audience for the men’s championship game in the range of 20 million. In contrast, the 1979 championship game between Michigan State and Indiana State, featuring Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird, drew a record 35 million viewers. The women’s championship game is likely to draw a viewing audience in excess of 4 million.

The size of the cumulative viewing audience for the men’s tournament outnumbers the women’s tournament by a factor of more than 3 to 1.

Based on television viewing statistics compiled by Experian Simmons, the size of the cumulative viewing audience for the men’s tournament outnumbers the women’s tournament by a factor of more than 3 to 1. The variance widens substantially when controlling for such factors as household income and education. Among households with income of $150,000 or more, men’s tournament viewers outnumber women’s tournament viewers by nearly 5 to 1. Adults with college degrees are 32% more likely to watch the men’s tournament compared to the women’s.

Men are 2.5 times more likely than women to say they watch the men’s tournament. Men are also more likely than women to watch the women’s tournament. Still, women account for a larger share of women’s tournament viewers (36%) than men’s tournament viewers (30%).

Television coverage of the men’s tournament should reach deep into the ranks of America’s most prosperous households. This is one key finding from an analysis of the composition of households containing adults who are most likely to be tuning into the action. For example, four of the six most affluent market segments, based on Experian’s Mosaic lifestyle segmentation solution, have a 50% or greater likelihood to be watching the men’s tournament compared to U.S. households overall. Using an index value that measures general level of interest in the tournament (an index of 200 indicates that a particular segment is 2 times more likely to be watching compared to the national average), highly engaged segments include American Royalty (184), Picture Perfect Families (171), Kids and Cabernet (160), and Platinum Prosperity (156). Many from these same households are likely to be watching some portion of the tournament on an iPad. In fact, iPad owners are 54% more likely than adults overall to be men’s tournament viewers.

Visit the blog tomorrow to learn more fast facts!

Over the past several decades, a large percentage of America’s most wealthy households moved from the inner sanctum of the cities to the outlying suburbs. Recently, however, the tide has changed somewhat, and has given rise to a new segment: Jet Set Urbanites. These are in-town sophisticates who are an affluent mix of singles and childless couples pursuing high-rise living and fashionable lifestyles in urban neighborhoods. This segment represents a subpopulation of aging Baby Boomers looking for the perks that can be found in a city landscape.

Some key differentiating features of Jet Set Urbanites compared to the U.S. population overall include the following:

• Jet Set Urbanites are 9.2 times more likely to have household incomes of $250,000 or more.
• They are twice as likely to own stocks, mutual funds and money market accounts.
• Philanthropic and progressive, they support a range of nonprofit groups and are generous with their money, especially for charities involved with health issues, the environment, the arts and public broadcasting.
• They are 1.9 times more likely to say they will “spend whatever I have to, to make myself look younger.”
• Their leisure interests include taking cruise ship vacations and traveling abroad.

Their leisure interests include taking cruise ship vacations and traveling abroad.

Jet Set Urbanites are active online users. They go online to bank, make travel plans and manage their investment portfolios, and they regularly telecommute to their offices. Most of their media interests have been transferred to the Internet, and that’s helped them get out from underneath the piles of newspapers and magazines that used to accumulate in their apartments; they now go online to read newspapers and magazines, read movie reviews and monitor weather reports. For entertainment, they like to download music, listen to Internet radio stations and join chat forums. Their favorite Websites include Facebook, Wikipedia and Netflix. Though they like to shop online, they’re only moderately receptive to email and display ads.For more key insights pre-order the 2012 Digital Marketer report, set to release in April, and check our blog weekly for more exciting previews of what’s to come.