2019-01-LR-Final

JIM FRONEBERGER: EDITOR
Millennials
During the 2018 ICAS Convention,
one of the hot topics of
discussion during the education
sessions was how to attract more
Millennials to airshows. The Pew
Research Center defines Millennials as
those born between 1981 and 1996, so
that generation represents people who
are approximately between the ages of
22 and 37 today.
The Millennial generation is
important for a number of reasons,
and most of these are not unique to the
airshow industry. First and foremost, according to projections by
the U.S. Census Bureau, Millennials are on the verge of surpassing
Baby Boomers as the nation’s largest living adult generation.
Millennials are projected to overtake Boomers in population
during 2019, as their numbers swell to 73 million and Boomers
decline to 72 million. Generation X (ages 38 to 53) is projected to
also pass the Boomers in population by 2028.
As the Boomer generation continues to shrink, we can expect
Gen Xers and Millennials to continue to grow their influence on
our society. According to Pew, Millennials already make up more
than one-in-three American labor force participants, making
them the largest working generation. The Millennial generation is
also more ethnically and racially diverse, more progressive, more
technologically-savvy, and more affluent than their predecessor
generations were at the same age. Two bright and energetic
29-year-olds have even been elected to Congress - Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Iowa’s Abby Finkenauer.
For airshows, the importance of attracting the Millennial
generation was captured clearly in the ICAS 2018 Spectator
Survey. For 2018, the percentage of airshow spectators who were
over age 55 was just shy of 25%. But over the preceding 20 years,
the 55+ percentage had averaged closer to 18%. Our audience is
aging, so we must attract a younger audience to be successful in
the years ahead.
The Baby Boomer generation represents people like me
who were born between 1946 and 1964, so it’s easy to see why
airshows are so popular with our generation. We grew up during
the post-war aviation boom, saw the advent of the jet age, the
space age, and Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the Moon. When
we were growing up, our heroes were astronauts and test pilots,
and aviation captured our collective attention like nothing else.
For the more recent generations born from the late 1960s
through the turn of the century, the advances in aviation and space
technology were more evolutionary than revolutionary, and air
travel became a way of life, not something that was exciting, new,
and sexy. The revolutions for Millennials have been in computer
technology, communications, and an explosion in entertainment
alternatives. So, it’s easy to see why going to an airshow may not
be as appealing to a Millennial as it has been to us Boomers.
Baby Boomers also grew up in a post-war/cold-war era where
patriotism and celebration of our military-might were virtually
synonymous. Airshows are obviously one of the most visible
displays of that brand of patriotism. By contrast, Millennials
have grown up in a much more complex and diverse world order,
leading to a broader and more nuanced view of what it actually
means to be patriotic.
All of these trends point to the need for airshows to adapt to
attract a younger demographic, and ICAS 2018 was full of great
ideas:
• Make your airshow a cool place for Millennials to go and be
seen with their peers.
• Learn how to market through social media.
• Enhance food and drink options with healthier, Millennialfriendly
choices, craft beer, and food trucks.
• Stay ahead of the game and embrace innovation.
• Seek sponsors that will attract Millennials.
• Add experiential, engagement activities.
• Embrace activities and events that work well with social
media to show Millennials having lots of fun.
• Shorten the flying portion of the show and add live music and
other things Millennials like to do.
• Do the unexpected to get more attention on social media.
• Make sure your marketing plan is mobile-friendly.
• Include Millennials on your airshow marketing team.
That last point – including Millennials on your team – may
be the best advice of all. But one thing I noticed at ICAS was
that ICAS has the same problem as airshows in general. We are
definitely an industry of Baby Boomers, and Millennials were
certainly in the minority at ICAS. We need to change that and
bring some new, younger faces into our business. We need our
established performers to mentor newcomers and bring them
along like Sean D. Tucker is doing with 27-year-old Johnny
DeGennaro, the wingman for his new two-ship formation team.
We need show producers and support service providers to do the
same to bring a fresh new perspective to our business.
Maybe we need to let our old Baby Boomer airshow die and
create a new type of airshow to attract the next generation of
airshow fans.
www.airshowmag.com 6 January/February 2019