31 January 2014

Brains

I’ve already declared this The Year of Fashion, so that’s that. Too late to drape the annum in a new cloak.

In January 2010 I declared it to be:

The Year of The Baby Boomer Brain 
… For many years, scientists thought that the human brain simply decayed over time and its dying cells led to memory slips, fuzzy logic, negative thinking, and even depression. But new research from neuroscien­tists and psychologists suggests that, in fact, the brain reorganizes, improves in important functions, and even helps us adopt a more optimistic outlook in middle age.

I had to do some searching to find the above, wasn’t sure which year was the year of the baby boomer brain. I guess my cranial hard drive needs to be cleaned and defragmented:

Older People's Brains May Be Slower, But Only Because They Know So Much, Study Says
The Huffington Post|By Emily Thomas
imageA new study from Germany has likened the memory abilities of older people to full hard drives: They don’t lose cognitive power over time; they just function slower because of an increasing amount of information.

"The human brain works slower in old age but only because we have stored more information over time," lead researcher Dr. Michael Ramscar said in a written statement…

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/shopping?q=tbn:ANd9GcSdx3ZSii4vQSTh2jXBk_lP2wHIHfgRRe4b1ejJZO63jKZKVonOuMwYRmFJStx8H9qO-PvgYQpM&usqp=CAYWhew.  I don’t need a new C:Drive.  The one I have is plenty big, a terabyte or two.  It’s just slow. 

I could use a new monitor, however.  And maybe a Google Chromecast to stick in my ear.

Of course, Ronni Bennett has something to say about it all – along with a bunch of good links:

Senior Moments: A Feature, Not a Bug

Slog through posts about brains and some other stuff:

Human Resources/Brain Power
(2006-2012)

My question is …

What happens when hard drives become obsolete and everything ends up in The Cloud?

20 January 2014

Television Repeats

Not only the shows…

Marketing gurus and Great Seers of The Mundane and The Obvious iterate ad nauseam. 

The repetition doesn’t annoy me.  What does: Many offer up their prognostications as something fresh, profound, even controversial.

Why TV Ad Spend Will Grow More Than Digital Spend In The Next Five Years
image… TV advertising and audiences are not shrinking. The average American watches more than 34 hours of TV programming every week … TV advertising works. Sight, sound and motion on 60-inch, high-definition screens deliver results every day for brands like McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Walmart, State Farm, Kellogg’s and Ford. Audiences are massive. They are passive audiences.

Sounds familiar.

15 April 2007
Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers
There are active and passive parts of our day. Without getting into too much psychobabble … the passive side needs nourishment. It’s not really passive. It’s focused absorption. At some point you have to climb out of your frenetic digital nest and concentrate on one thing. It might be reading a book, watching a TV show or movie, listening to music, looking out the window…

15 February 2009

Television Still Shines
As enamored as advertisers are with the interactive potential of digital advertising, they know that online is a complement to offline, not its replacement …

16 July 2009
Facts
Consumers find TV ads more helpful than any other type of commercial message … They find TV spots more helpful than online banner ads in deciding what products or services to purchase by an astounding margin of 37 to 1 …

18 April 2011
The Flat-Screen Rectangle of Common Sense
… Broadcast networks' overall ad volume during the upcoming upfront market will grow strongly to over $10 billion … as well as averaging double-digit percent gains…

28 March 2011
TV Advertising Most Influential: MediaPost

06 March 2012
Digital Distractions
Advertisers are getting wise to the drawbacks of marketing in the digital nest.

Even I’m getting bored sifting through these moldy posts. Just one more:

[image[10].png]01 May 2010
Foretellings
… That silly retronym “traditional advertising” will remain the premiere force for introducing people to a product or service, along with sustaining its shelf life. Television, print, radio, and billboard ads will continue to have the visceral power they’ve always had – if only for their sheer size, simplicity, and cutting-edge audio/visual qualities.

08 January 2014

The Year of Fashion

For some reason, everyone’s talking about clothes and accoutrements.  Maybe it’s time for people fifty and beyond to dress appropriately – meaning (probably) inappropriately, but comfortably – with a willing nod to fashion.

It’s been attempted many times before, with calamitous results:

29 August 2005
The Very Secretive Forth & Towne
If you're in the advertising/marketing industry (or in the retail clothing industry, I'm guessing) you're probably sick of hearing about Forth & Towne - a new set of thirty-odd stores opening up around the country.

28 February 2007
Bye-Bye, Forth & Towne
Gap Inc. announced plans yesterday to shutter its Forth & Towne division, which catered to women ages 35 and older … Forth & Towne was launched 18 months ago in New York and Chicago to much fanfare as a place for fashion-conscious baby boomers to shop …

There are more posts through the years about fashion and advertising, but I’ll spare you.

The new stuff in Media Land:

imageFashion: A mature market
By Andrea Felsted and Norma Cohen
Retailers are struggling to find the right formula for the demanding baby-boomer market…The problem is that few clothing retailers have successfully managed to market to the baby-boomer women – ironic, given that advertising has for decades been geared to selling the postwar generation everything from blue jeans to Pepsi.

Hmmm.  It could have something to do with this:

Advertising to Baby Boomers
Preface and 1st Chapter (PDF)

The Giant Leap
CVRCompThere had better be a minor revolution in the creative end of the advertising industry. Talented men and women in their late forties and fifties need to be brought back into the fold if you want to reach us. This includes copywriters, graphic artists, producers, directors, and creative directors.

Truth is, you can analyze marketing fodder all day and night, read countless books about marketing to Baby Boomers, attend advertising and marketing conventions around the world, and soak up everything all the experts have to say. Much of what is out there is valuable and useful … But if you plan on implementing a creative strategy and turn it over to a different generation of advertising professionals—you'll forfeit the natural sensibilities required to generate vital campaigns.

Ronni Bennett’s recent blog post tells us something’s up:

Friday, 03 January 2014
Elder Fashion Sense
…Apparently, being in public in clean, attractive clothes selected to fit well, that match or contrast pleasingly along with shoes and hat that enhance the outfit is something to be remarked upon…

imageThanks to Ronni I’ve become a fan of…

Advanced Style
Advanced Style offers proof from the wise and silver-haired set that personal style advances with age.

The promo for the documentary:

OK, it’s a stretch – but watching the first few seconds of this video reminded me of the first few seconds of a short film from forty-four years ago:

I know of more fashion-related projects slated for this year, so fashion might be on my plate throughout 2014.


Unrelated to advertising:

imageThis week a piece by yours truly is published in HuffPost Featured Fifty Fiction:

The Woman of Many Containers
by Chuck Nyren

It’s my fifteen million pixels of fame….