What you should know about ‘Gear for Geezers’…

If you think focusing on seniors means making phones with oversized keypads and “I’ve-fallen-and-I-can’t-get-up” alarms, think again.

The exhibitors at CES’s Silvers Summit spoke with us about advice for the entertainment industry, based on their experience designing and marketing products for an aging population.

“They are the best customers in the world, but nobody has figured out how to do it right for them,” said Aaron Pollack of cell phone provider Jitterbug.

Boomers pay bills on time, give conscientious customer feedback, and are extremely loyal (witness Jitterbug’s churn rate of 1.5%).  While they may be beginning to have issues with hearing, vision, and manual dexterity, they also have the interest, the income, and the time to enjoy great technology and entertainment.

Some advice from the pros for reaching this valuable demographic:

Stick With Sexy Design
Just because they’re aging doesn’t mean they’re square, exhibitors said. Reaching the key baby boomer demographic means creating products that don’t make them feel like they’re getting old.

“My number one advice is to make it sexy.  In their minds, they’re young and cool, and they’re not ready for the old folks home,” said Curt Stone of the Quality of Life Foundry at Carnegie Mellon University.  “You don’t have to dumb it down for them.  Make tech that is universally appealing but also adaptive to special needs, and you’ll have a winner.”

Simplify, Simplify
While the CES floor is crowded with complicated devices and expanding choices, this population wants it simpler and streamlined.  They’re overwhelmed and turned off by remote controls or set-top boxes with too many or unclearly-labeled buttons.

Swedish company Doro has taken it to the ultimate extreme, with a six-button universal remote control (on/off, volume up/down, and channel up/down) that won’t overwhelm anybody.  That may be going farther than most of the 55+ crowd needs, but the key feature of all exhibitors in Silvers Summit was that they cut out extraneous content and features, rather than adding more.

Focus on Making & Strengthening Connections
This population uses their tech to stay in touch with people they care about, exhibitors said.  Companies that support those goals will succeed.

“People stay connected by watching TV together or talking on the phone, and when they lose their hearing and stop sharing those things with their families their connections unravel,” said Michelle Maher of ClearSounds.  “Use technology to appeal to the emotional side of those family connections, and you’ll reach this group.”

Provide “High-touch” Customer Service
That means no labyrinthine automated telephone directories, no overseas customer service, and extremely patient and flexible reps.

“The relationship that develops is more like a family relationship,” said Chuck Lalonde of MyGait, which offers computer systems for elderly customers with custom hardware, software, and support.  He said people call or email with questions like, “How do I find a good Chinese restaurant in Vegas?” and their reps just roll with it, emailing back links to a Google map with directions.

“It definitely costs more to run a call center out of America than India,” said Pollack of Jitterbug.  “But it is absolutely what these customers want.”

Think Differently About Billing & Privacy
As mobile entertainment takes off, mobile purchasing and billing issues will become more complicated, and many aging customers simply aren’t comfortable with paying for things on the fly.  Reaching them may require some creativity and a range of payment options.

Jitterbug found that many users were afraid of contracts and worried about sharing social security, credit card, or bank account numbers over the phone or the Internet.  So they let them pay the old-fashioned way, month-to-month and through the mail.

“We mail them a bill and they pay on time,” said Pollack.  “We have far fewer problems than you might expect.”  Jitterbug also offers automatic online billing for those who are interested.

We’re just in the “first inning” of a new game of digital content delivery, said panelists on the ETC’s Thursday afternoon session on connected devices.  And 2010 will be a year of experimentation, surprises, and gathering data.

“By next year, connected TV will be something people expect,” said Russ Schafer, senior director of product marketing at Yahoo! Connected TV and Desktop.  “By early next year more manufacturers will promote connectivity as part of the experience, and that will drive innovation as expectations go up.”

“This year is about experimentation,” said Matt McRae, VP of products for Vizio.  “Next year we’ll have a lot more data about sales rates, price points that trigger mass adoption, and consumer preferences.  I think you’ll see about 20 million connected units deployed this year, and because they’re connected, the TV you buy in January will be different in December because of updates through the Internet.  For the first time we can layer services on top of content.  How that works will dictate what the second inning looks like.”

The executives from Channels.com, NBC Universal, Vizio, Warner Bros., and Yahoo! Connected TV each shared their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities of connected devices.

“To us, it’s more about personalization, additional services, and multi-screen activity than it is about ‘over-the-top’ services,” said JB Perrette, president of digital and alliance distribution and content distribution strategy at NBC Universal.  “There’s no reason it has to be competitive to cable or satellite, there’s no reason why players in that space can’t also be players in personalized, connected services delivered to devices across multiple screens and with services that don’t exist today.”

“This is not just new ways of delivery to the home, but the whole concept of the connected living room,” said Thomas Gewecke president of digital distribution for Warner Bros.  It’s a foundational change in the movie viewing experience, because now we can deliver services around the movie… so when you turn on the TV, your BD player connects, figures out who you are, and begins to inform your viewing experience.  We are spending a lot of time considering this.”

One of the exciting opportunities of connected TVs and devices is the richness of real-time data from the customer.

“A lot of the data we’ll gain in the next year will come straight from our consumers.  We’ll know what they like and what they don’t like, based on what they do and do not use,” said McRae.  “It’s pretty democratic.

Vizio has already gathered valuable consumer use information from their current batch of connected TV customers.

“Right now, over half of over-the-top use for TV is streaming video like Netflix and Hulu, which makes sense – that’s why you buy a TV, and it’s low-hanging fruit… Another 25% of use, which was a surprise, is actually music,” McRae said.  “A lot of people fire up Pandora and walk away and let it play.  The third most common use was interactivity, like Twitter or Facebook while watching sports or a media premiere.”

Panel moderator David Wertheimer asked about the need for standards.

From a manufacturer’s point of view, McRae said standards are crucial. “There are all these different contents, and they’re different on so many levels from DRM onward.  Making them all work is actually quite onerous,” he said.  “Lack of standards drives fragmentation and different rules.  We need to clean it up so we can focus on discovery and personalization.”

Perrette said simplicity is the key concept for connected TVs this year. “Simplicity in standards, in user experience, in UI, and especially simplicity of the message to the consumer,” he said, bringing up another key issue of consumer education.  “If we get too technical, instead of leading with the experience in a simple way, the adoption experience will be a lot flatter than if we keep it simple.”

Schafer said he would sum up the three key concepts as “Personalization, integration, and scalability.  How do you make integration right?  How do you make it scaleable so you can be flexible for the market you’re distributing in?”

The panel discussed the current state of set-top boxes.  Gewecke said he thinks game consoles are the current leading connected TV device.

“That may not be the case a few years from now, but companies that sell game devices are getting more sophisticated and using them as a means to sell other content and services. WB has seen significant growth in video game partners, and there is a very interesting crossover when you get the right environment between gamers and a video audience,” Gewecke said. “Games have been the vanguard and they will continue to be strong.”

Perrette said the consumer experience is still a challenge with most set-top boxes, but things will improve as navigation becomes more visual and simple.

Sean Doherty, CEO of Channels.com, said the new features like Wi-Fi on connected TVs will help these and other devices catch up with game consoles.  “These TVs have great potential, but there are some bumps in the road to be worked on.  However, I think you’ll see the progress and a greater variety of content on all kinds of connected devices,” he said.