2023 Media Preferences of Older Adults: Annual Consumer Survey
Staying on top of the latest shifts in older adults’ media habits is vital for delivering engaging, effective Medicare marketing in 2023. To do so, we conducted our sixth annual consumer survey to get a sense of media consumption among Medicare-eligible individuals.
This group of more than 65 million eligible people is ever evolving amid national and global changes. So much over the past year has had an impact on this population. To name just a few, they have felt the reverberations of the receding COVID-19 pandemic, crackdowns on unethical Medicare Advantage plan marketing, the continued relevance of social media (and the rise of new platforms) and so much more.
The cumulative impact of today’s fast-paced world is why it is vital to continually check in on the typical media habits of older adults in America. This survey of 577 people ages 63 to 75 looks at the current state and trends in media preferences in older adults to help Medicare marketers optimize channel selection and targeting for Medicare Annual Enrollment Period (AEP), New-to-Medicare and Open Enrollment Period (OEP) campaigns.
Some of this year’s takeaways include:
- TV holds the highest level of engagement of all media, with 76% of respondents watching TV for over two hours each day. The most popular type of content? Drama, closely followed by news programming.
- After an interesting TV ad, most older adults will make note of the advertiser for future research or visit the website – having a memorable URL helps! Just a small fraction of viewers will call the number shown in the ad or scan a QR code.
- In terms of sources for news and entertainment, social media has grown since last year and isn’t far behind the internet and news apps. Facebook dominates, followed by YouTube. Emerging channels (think TikTok and Threads) haven’t quite taken hold among this audience.
- More than 50% of older adults surveyed said they play games on the internet, an increase over last year.
- Use of Zoom and Facetime continue to be the most popular video calling platforms, but their use declined year-over-year as we emerged from the pandemic crisis.
- Despite the many ways older adults can research their options, they still prefer talking with a human representative for specific Medicare questions.
To see all the insights, you can view the Media Preferences of Older Adults and Seniors 2023 Survey below as a SlideShare. You can also download a PDF version of the deck.
Any questions? Reach out to Media Logic today.
