14 October 2016

Tweeters & Zoomers & An Ugly ‘Ism’

Twitter is teetering:
Twitter Shares Plunge, as Suitors Appear to Lose Interest
By Yoree Koh (WSJ)
Twitter Inc.’s shares plunged 12% on Monday as the odds of a sale appeared to dim further, shifting attention back to the social-media company’s troublesome pursuit of a strategy to jump-start user and revenue growth.
Image result for dead twitter birdSalesforce Walks Away from Twitter Deal
by David Faber (NBC News)
… After reports that companies like Google and Disney had already backed off bids for Twitter, Salesforce had been left as the most likely bidder …
Image result for nostrachuckusNo surprise to NostraChuckus,  famed soothsayer and advertising gadfly who’s been startling the world for years with his mundane prognostications:
25 September 2012
Twitter & Advertising
Twitter is a fascinating phenomenon, has worldwide cultural and political influence and will be around for quite some time.
But it is not an advertising platform. How Twitter will eventually support itself, who knows. Maybe some sort of underwriting …


Zoomer U in Canada had a boffo blast-off (see my previous post):
imageZoomerU gets off to a successful launch
by David Cravit
… Zoomer U will offer information and insights online as well as through special events. We kicked things off with a client breakfast on September 28, featuring the noted Boomer advertising expert Chuck Nyren …

New News From Yesteryear:
Is Ageism The Ugliest 'Ism' On Madison Avenue?
by Avi Dan (Forbes)
… The majority of 20-and-30-somethings working in agencies (there are exceptions, of course) have zero insight into anyone different from themselves and they don’t seek that insight. They are too invested in the youth zeitgeist.

Perhaps it’s time for CMOs to stop rewarding agencies with inexperienced talent and look at agencies that rebalance their staff along the lines of age diversity as well as diversity across gender, ethnicity, religion, etc. – so they can produce work that will resonate with the required audience.
Golly Gee Willikers, I wrote this in 2003 (and wrote it over and over since then):
Advertising to Baby Boomers: Back into the Fold
The Giant Leap: There 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, some practically required reading, others instructive and illuminating. 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.

The 'old blood' has moved on. They're top execs or have retired. How do you get them back? Do they want to get their hands dirty again? These former crackerjack creatives must be convinced that they're needed …
I’ll leave you with a few moldy posts…
23 June 2009
NostraChuckus Scratches His Head
Another déjà vu …For me, the strangest episodes are happening while reading news articles about Baby Boomers and realizing that I’ve read versions of them all before – in my book and blog.
01 December 2010
NostraChuckus Conjures The Specter Of NostraChuckus
imageAlmost every day, NostraChuckus stares into his crystal ball and sees himself – but in other guises. These strange visages look nothing like him – yet they do. It’s as if his crystal ball doubles as a phantasmagoric funhouse mirror ...
13 September 2012
The Déjà Vu News
Sometimes I think my browser is playing tricks on me.  Twilight Zone tricks.  Or Google is on the fritz, spitting out news stories from the past. 
16 May 2014
The Age Premium
… Some employers promote innovative programs to show that they appreciate their older employees and don’t want to lose their experience, their rapport with customers or their ability to mentor younger workers …
And the first few chapters of a tattered old book:
Advertising to Baby Boomers© 2005, 2007
Free Download
:Preface - Intro - Chapter One (PDF)

07 October 2016

Zoomer Media/ZoomerU Presentation in Toronto

Image result for zoomer complexLast week I was in Toronto at  ZoomerPlex, a city square of TV production facilities, radio stations, magazine headquarters, and site of an astonishing television museum

David Cravit invited me to keynote the first (actually, a rejuvenated) Zoomer U event:

imageZoomer U is your information and idea resource for all things pertaining to the boomer market – news, trends, data, and creative ideas. Zoomer U gathers the latest thinking from ZoomerMedia experts as well as marketers, demographers, policy-makers and trend-watchers from around the world, and delivers it online and through special events.

The night before, David and Lori Fitzgerald (Publisher of Zoomer Magazine, Director of Sales, Print & Digital) took me to dinner. We probably should’ve taped our spirited discussion and put it up somewhere. These are dedicated folks, and fun to be around.

The next morning I did my song ‘n dance for about seventy attendees.    

I won’t put you to sleep with the entire hour presentation. Just take a short nap with this 12-minute selection of clips (or watch it on a bigger screen https://youtu.be/h5D-rh-iklY) :

Thanks again to David and Lori for inviting me.

Image result for zoomer magazine gretzkyLinks:

Invitation to Event

About Zoomer Magazine

EverythingZoomer.com

Zoomer Radio

Zoomer Television

Trade Shows and Conferences

MZTV Museum of Television & Archive

Moses Znaimer/Founder’s Message

03 October 2016

Digital Ad Shenanigans

It’s been a bad week or so for online advertising foolishness and chicanery. No big surprise for yours truly.  I’ve been yacking about all this nonsense for a decade. 

A post from 2006:

The Brouhaha Over WOMM
… When it all comes out in the wash, WOMM will be the best thing to happen to (silly retronym ahead) traditional advertising. Pretty soon, consumers won't believe anybody - even their best friends. They'll realize that they receive the most honest and straightforward information about a product or service from a TV commercial, print ad, or product web site. At least we don't lie about who we are and why we're saying what we're saying.

You can read a bunch of my posts about this and other sordid subjects here:

Social Media - WOMM - Web Advertising

In a recent presentation I talked a bit about WOMM – then followed my comments with two slides:

image

image

Back to the bad week:

Doubts About Digital Ads Rise Over New Revelations
Image result for wsj… The lack of transparency and trustworthy measurement in online advertising will be among the issues weighing on ad executives gathering in New York next week for annual Advertising Week festivities. Also on their minds: fears that they are wasting billions of dollars on ads that aren’t “viewable,” or visible to the human eye, or are being shown on sites with computer-generated fake traffic…

'Interrogate the Data': CMOs Are Sick of Digital Ad Hype
image… Chief marketing officers are sick of publishers making far-out claims about how great their ads perform, according to Nielsen Chief Operating Officer Steve Hasker…

Is the online advertising bubble finally starting to pop?
image… One of the biggest online advertisers told me late last year that they yanked $100 million/year out of adtech and put it into traditional advertising for one simple reason: “It didn’t work.”