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The top earners in Europe enjoy the better things in life. Pippa Considine discovers what tempts Europe's finest to spend their hard-earned cash
If you spot a man in comfortable trousers heading to the airport in his BMW 5 series, while snacking on a lump of Lindt chocolate, he's likely to be one of the Euro elite. There is now quite a bit of information on this creature. As well as the annual Europe 2004 research, there's EMS and its new look at top earners, EMS Select. TGI's Europa research sheds more than a bit of light on the better-off European, not to mention the observations of media owners and planners.
No prizes for guessing that there are more men than women taking home a fat pay cheque each month. EMS takes a look at the top 13 per cent of European adults. Of those, 65 per cent are men. When you whittle it down to the top 4 per cent, studied for the Europe 2004 research, that 65 per cent becomes 79, with an average age of 47.
Probably the most interesting thing to advertisers about these individuals is that they have a lot of money. Seven hundred and fifty billion euros of earning capacity is concentrated in the top 3 per cent of Europeans. The highest 4 per cent has an average personal income of just less than 80,000 euros.
And they don't keep it all in the piggy bank. At CNN, Jonathan Davies, the senior vice-president for advertising sales for EMEA, says that the channel's viewers bought 1.7 million cars in one year. "Often advertisers are doing branding campaigns and...