A Chance at Marketing to 50 Million Strong
There’s another good article in the New York Times’ technology section today. This time, it’s about Disaboom, a website that caters specifically to the country’s 50 million persons with physical and mental disabilities.
Disaboom is the work of J. Glen House, who himself become a quadriplegic after a skiing accident. His vision was to combine social networking with content helpful to the disabled community, and to bring in sponsors who wished to grow in that community. Howard Lieber, vice president of sales for Disaboom, said, “I don’t think mainstream advertisers realize the magnitude of the marketplace and how underserved it was.”
Disaboom stock went public in May (DSBO.OB) and went online October 1st, hoping to get 1 million unique visitors a month over the first few months and then double that. They also acquired lovebyrd.com, a dating service for disabled persons.
The Times article also mentions the success Ford Motor Company is having with Disaboom. Click-throughs to the site off of Disaboom have been “a huge success for us so far,” according to Kathy LaPointe of Ford.
The demographics are staggering. Although a large share of the 50 million Americans with disabilities is over 65 years old, it is estimated that 19% of people between age 16 and 64 live with some form of disability. According to one estimate, by 2030, one in four Americans will be disabled.
According to a Harris poll, 69% of adults with disabilities, or 21 million, had traveled for business or pleasure over the last two years and more than half had stayed in hotels. The marketing opportunities to persons with disabilites is massive and cannot be ignored. Disaboom.com is a very intriguing outlet for such ventures.
Technorati Tags: disaboom, web marketing, lovebyrd
