For all the talk about the importance of fitness to Boomers, the big U.S.-based gyms do precious little to attract them. Clubs in big cities like Bally focus strictly on buff 20-somethings in their ads, and adamantly refuse to target the 50+ market, which has the motivation and money to work out. They’re following the age-old marketing adage of the auto industry, to wit: you can sell a young man’s car to an old man, but not the other way around. Now, Associated Press reports, niche gym operators are springing up to serve the 50+ and senior markets. Players include Healthfit, Club 50 and Nifty after Fifty. Some of these outfits are franchises, in case you’re thinking of tapping into the midlife bulge market.

How can a conference in the heart of the Silicon Valley proceed without wireless Internet access? I don’t know, but that was the only disappointing aspect of yesterday’s Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit. The technology gap kept me from blogging the event, but I took good notes. It will take me a few days to plow through it all, but I’ll be posting highlights over the next few days.

Mary Furlong & Associates put on a high-energy event. The highlight is the awarding of $10,000 checks for best business plans targeting Boomers–one in a general category and one healthcare-specific plan. Ten outstanding finalists pitched their plans to a panel of judges. In in the general category, a key theme seemed to be ideas that deliver  simplicity, save time or reduce the time in accessing technology. In healthcare, there were exciting entries from top univerisites including Stanford,  UC Berkeley and John Hopkins. The startups wanted to solve problems ranging from disability from stroke to presbyopia (the need for reading glasses).

The winners:

• Healthcare: SeroNostics, a UC Berkeley-based venture, is developing a hand-held diagnostic device that allows physicians to quickly analyze bodily fluids and diagnose diseases such as influenza.
• General: World Hearing Organization, a San Jose, CA-based venture, is developing mobile centers that come to hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare venues to test patients’ hearing and sell hearing aids at discounted prices.

Keynote speaker at the summit was Piper Jaffray Senior Internet Analyst Safa Rashtchy. Theme: the Internet has arrived as the dominant medium of our time. He discussed the explosive combination of communications and entertainment (“communitainment” sites such as MySpace and YouTube) and the dramatic fragmentation and decline of traditional media brands. One interesting stat: Piper forecasts that search-based advertising will grow from the current $15.8 billion to a $44.5 billion market over the next five years. Total global online advertising will hit $81 billion by 2011. Daily use of the Internet in American homes now is second only to television, and 40% of consumers told Piper they’d choose the Web over television if forced to choose one or the other.Where will Boomers fit into this overall picture? Rashtchy noted they’re already the largest single user group on the Internet, accounting for about 38 percent of total users.

As an online audience, he said, Boomers are:

• A sophisticated audience. They’re more in control of their consumption of information than the norm.
• Purposeful in their use of the Internet. Boomers expect to get something done, “gain a value.”
• Resistant to push ads, and intolerant of bad or busy interfaces (who isn’t?)
• More willing to give a single media channel time and attention. There’s less fragmentation than among younger people. If you have a clear message that is concise and not overcrowded, Boomers will pay attention.
• Putting a value on their time and willing to spend.

Here are Rashtchy’s rules for winning Boomers online:

• Focus on your value proposition and simplicity—solve everyday problems for users.
• Create strong brand by gaining Boomers’ trust.
• Include all Boomer demographic segments in online media and marketing. We’ll all need online information and services, not only the affluent.
• Remember that users are in control, so respect their knowledge.

Unilever moved to the front of the pack in understanding Boomer marketing when it launched the Dove Pro-Age campaign, which is widely seen as a huge success and a virtual playbook for the correct approach to Boomer marketing. Now the company is getting noticed for its interesting research initiative on Boomer s as packaged goods customers. Turns out the research was conducted–in part, at least–to convince it’s own people Boomers are not a demographic target that should be “left for dead” says Advertising Age:

Indeed, one of the reasons Unilever researchers launched the boomer project was to show its own marketing executives that “you’ve got to continue to think about this target,” said Eileen Kozin, director-consumer futures. “It’s a huge target, and they’re not going away. They’re still going to be influential as they get older, and they’ve got the money to spend.”

The key findings are not surprising: Boomers account for 45 percent of all households, but 60 percent of packaged goods purchasing, due to their affluence. Download the Unilever report [pdf] here; Dick Stroud has interesting comments.

Another big missed opportunity for marketers: unmarried Boomers. A new report from Marketresearch.com notes that unmarried adults head up half of all U.S. households, and 43% of those are over age 45. It’s a highly attractive target audience, notes MediaPost’s Marketing Daily:

Single Boomers are particularly interested in experience-oriented travel, luxurious personal care products and spas, and mind-body services, as well as products for their grandchildren. Single Boomers ages 45 to 54 are as likely to use online dating services as 18- to-24-year-olds, and nearly half of those in this age group are interested in starting a new business. Next to married adults, single women are the largest group of home buyers. Last year, they accounted for a record high of 22% of all home sales, versus 9% for unmarried men.

As they so often do, marketers blow this opportunity by stereotyping the consumer as “mature” and “older,” rather than understand the broad range of needs and interests. Too bad.

The full report is available for download, but it’s expensive.

Could the automotive industry be waking to the huge 50+ market opportunity? Anyone who has tried to sell automakers on targeting older consumers can tell you the industry is among the most youth-obsessed categories around–and that they’ve been missing some big opportunities by failing to reach out to older consumers. Boomers account for more than half of all car sales, and dominate luxury purchases, as well. Now, Newsweek writes that carmakers are catering to growing demand for more environmentally responsible vehicles, and that Boomers are leading the charge:

Fifty-four percent of all vehicles purchased last year were by people over 50,” says Chrysler trend watcher Steve Bartoli. “We call it the silver tsunami.”

When Boomers were kids, carmakers scrambled to meet Boomer demand for muscle and sports cars; later, it was minivans and SUVs. Today, it’s hybrids and fuel-efficient crossover vehicles. But carmakers haven’t really figured out how to target Boomers. Newsweek notes that they’re scrambling to identify the next big trend, so far without many success stories. Ford took a shot at a car marketed specifically to Boomers with its Ford 500. The idea was a sedan emphasizing comfort and safety (built on a Volvo platform), and it sold moderately well in 2005, it’s first full year of sales. But momentum tanked in 2006, and the model was later re-branded as a resurrected Taurus. Toyota’s more subtle Boomer strategies include its emphasis on environmentally friendly models, and humorous ads playing to empty-nester freedom and adventure themes. One ad for the Highlander SUV depicts a middle-age couple dropping off a child at college. Copy reads: “5:15 p.m. Dropping the kid off at college,” the text declares. “5:17 p.m. What kid?”

My good friend and colleague Rance Crain writes that the advertising industry doesn’t get it when it comes to the buying power and importance of the Boomer market in this week’s Advertising Age. Rance, who is editor in chief of Ad Age and president of Crain Communications, notes that 50+ Americans have plenty of disposable income and are gearing up to “pursue their passions, whether it’s to start another career, go back to school, do charity work, travel, cook, play sports.” Rance goes on to say:

The ad business is woefully out of touch with baby-boomer buying power. Young ad people think older people are stuck in their ways, so it’s a waste of money to try to get them to change brands. But at the What’s Next Boomer Business Summit, AARP’s chief brand officer said 60% of people over 40 research different brands before making decisions.

The sad fact is that older people aren’t worth as much to advertisers as younger ones. If it weren’t for prescription-drug and denture-cleanser ads, the nightly TV news programs would go broke. Barron’s said that Food Network celebrity chefs didn’t want anything to do with its article on boomers because “the talent doesn’t really like to be associated with an older group” — it brings in lower ad revenue.

One of Crain’s other publications, Investment News, recently commissioned a study of Boomer attitudes regarding financial aspects of retirement. The magazine reaches an audience of professional financial planners. Survey results are here.

Rance blames outdated attitudes at agencies, and the perspective of “24-year-old media planner[s]. It’s hard enough to get them to evaluate an integrated marketing plan on the basis of overall effectiveness rather than take it apart and judge each component on a CPM basis. What chance would a magazine have that tried to convince media people that their over-50 circulation actually had value?” I laughed out loud at that line, having been-there-done-that with Satisfaction Magazine.

Full disclosure: I do some editorial consulting work for Turnstile Publishing, a company owned by Rance separate of Crain Communications.