Generation Gap Can Harm Integrated Campaigns

If you want to get the most from your integrated ad campaigns you have to know who your target market is – and how to best reach them. That is the verdict of a new study from Forrester Research.

by Kristina Knight

Just because YouTube and MySpace are incredibly popular with many Internet users, it doesn’t mean marketers will automatically see a revenue boost by hanging their campaign hopes on these two portals. What will boost sales is getting the right campaign into the right hands, and for each generation there is a portal that will do it, according to research.

Knowing which side of the generation gap your target market falls is the first step.

Non-vertical search is the starting point for all age groups. This “constant” accounts for roughly 71% of all website visits. Another 8% come from vertical search. However, once you’ve begun a search marketing campaign there are more platforms to help boost revenue.

Generation Y surfers tend to click on banner ads, rely on word of mouth and blogs for their information. For Generation X, it’s a combination of email, search and word of mouth to pass information along. Baby boomers prefer newspapers, however, a growing segment are using social sites built for the older generation. Sites like GrowingBolder.com and Eons.com are building a reputation by catering to the wants and needs of the over-50 crowd – which actually does more online shopping than the 18-34 crowd.

Tags: integrated advertising campaigns, online advertising, search engines, search marketing