VBR: Staycations

With the already established MixFunGuide.com and TheFanGuide.com websites, the trend toward families cutting costs by reducing the travel and expense of their family vacation is a prime marketing challenge for our advertisers and real revenue opportunity for the creative account executive.

The latest buzzword for the trend mentioned above is "Staycation" and here is some information that can help you craft a compelling VBR that gains the attention of your prospects...

Let's start with Weber, the grill-maker, which released some survey results last month that say this is the summer of staycations and grilling. They surveyed over 1,000 people and received some interesting results:

• Among grill owners planning staycations, a whopping 80% plan to grill weekly
  
• 41% plan to grill at least several times each week
  
• Once having the term explained to them, 51% of the respondents said they plan to take one or more staycations this summer
  
• 24% who are changing their traditional summer vacations to include a staycation this year
  
• 40% say they plan to try new grilled foods or grilling recipes
  
• 13% plan to purchase a new outdoor grill this summer
  
• 7% plan to update or improve their current grill
  
• Others plan on buying grilling accessories (11%) or a grilling cookbook (8%)

What about state tourism organizations as a target?

• In Pennsylvania The Constitutional Walking Tour of Philadelphia is pushing its staycation not only as inexpensive and educational, but as a green-friendly trip.
  
• Connecticut created a web site that highlights staycation destinations in the Constitution State and offers discounts to many of those places.
  
• The Arlington (Texas) Convention & Visitors Bureau has a local and regional campaign designed to get the locals to go to Six Flags Over Arlington and spend the night with the family in a hotel.

Retailers can be Staycation destinations, too!
Wal-Mart is making things interesting for consumers, with its subsite makeyourdollarstretch.com and a downloadable desktop Widget called 101 Days of Summer Staycations.

The Staycation trend may have been created the need to cut spending on the rising cost of gasoline (and everything else!) but it may also have been created to help the innovative marketing professionals earn additional profits this summer!

Boomers are a Booming Business Online

WashingtonPost.com (free registration required for access to the source article) reports that the Boomer generation is taking to the web in increasing numbers, and supplies info on how they are using features and service found online --

Half of all Americans over 60 years old use the Internet, while more than 80 percent of baby boomers are online. Nearly 21 million boomers and 7 million Americans born before 1946 have been online for more than decade.

Most older Americans use the Internet for e-mailing, but some users make travel arrangements, check news, and find health information online. Thirty percent of web-savvy boomers shop online a few times a month, the same percentage as younger generations. "Our goal for this study was to find different behaviors than conventional beliefs," said Mike Irwin, president at Focalyst, a market search company focused on older consumers. "The degree to which these Americans use the Internet is much greater than what most people would think."

Irwin expects to see older Americans to increasingly use the Internet for financial transactions and management as they become more confident in Internet security. Online social networks that have lured younger users may also become more popular with younger boomers.

Focalyst's findings are part of a larger survey studying the behaviors of older generations.

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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• Excellent source material for calling on verticals mentioned in the article.
• Rebuttle statements for claims that the web is strictly for the young.
• Companies that train Boomers to use their online tools ahead of the competition will win.
• Create member-interactive social hubs on the web targeted to Boomers.

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