Consumer insights – direct mail and people aged 55-64

The UK’s 55-64 year olds are part of the baby boomer generation – a large and distinct target audience.

People in this age group are likely to experience key life events such as retirement, the marriage of a child or the birth of a grandchild.

Part of a generation who are young at heart, this group are often frequent travellers and relatively well off.

This 2011 MMC report profiles this target audience and highlights marketing opportunities.

It uses the latest data from TGI, Ebiquity and BMRB to profile the attitudes of 55-64 year olds to marketing across all media channels, in particular how they respond to direct mail and what is most likely to trigger their response to advertising.

Key insights include:

• 55 to 64-year-olds are 43% more likely than the average UK adult to have an ISA.
• They take an average of 3.33 holidays per year, the highest mean average of any age group.
• They are the third most heavily mailed age group, receiving 19% of all mailings sent between January and December 2010, particularly mail order, general insurance and charities post.
• 79% of people aged 55-64 will open mail if it contains a coupon, with 1.5m saying they have used a voucher or a coupon received via direct mail in the past 12 months.
• 49% of 55- to 64-year-olds have done something in the past 12 months as a result of the direct mail they’ve received.