Selling to Seniors, Circus, The Book, and Me

I've been writing. Pundit stuff. Now it's over for awhile (I hope). Some people find it hard to believe - but I'd rather be writing more copy and less pontification pieces.

Although I do enjoy it. And it seems to be worthwhile. I receive loads of complimentary email and phone calls. And very high-paying and very (because I'm a nice guy) low-paying consulting gigs. And I get to see my name misspelled in newspapers and magazines, usually attached to garbled quotes. I feel like a politician sometimes - misquoted and taken out of context.

The Pundit Stuff:

I critiqued three print ads (Geico, Fox Hills Senior Living, Pacificare) for the Selling To Seniors Monthly Report. These are always fun to do. My contributions are slated for the January 2007 issue.

Millennium's Circus will carry a second piece of mine in their 3rd issue. Again, always fun to do. I like being published internationally, having my work translated into other languages …

Okay, that's a big lie. The translations are from homespun English to English English: words like neighborhood ending up as neighbourhood. It amuses me.

And I've sent my publisher, Paramount Books,the final draft of the 2nd Edition of Advertising to Baby Boomers. Included will be four updated chapters, four new chapters, and a slim Forward and beefy Afterward that brings everything up to date. I think they'll be issuing it in paperback (I'm fighting for that, so it'll be less expensive). Should be out in February 2007.

Like Ringo, I got blisters on my fingers.

The Blogging Boomers Carnival

Lifetwo.com has an interesting project going - a handpicked selection of blogs by Baby Boomers:

BloggingBoomers

A collection of leading baby boomer blogs are coming together to create a weekly blogging "carnival" to promote important and relevant information, advice, and community for baby boomers. This will be one of the first blog round-ups of its type aimed specifically at baby boomer-related issues … "One of the reasons baby boomers are under-represented in the blogging world is the shortage of blogs of interest to them -- as well as the difficulty of finding them. "We created BloggingBoomers to fix both of these problems," says Wesley Hein of LifeTwo.

I'm not sure where they're headed - but it wouldn't be a bad bookmark for anybody marketing to Baby Boomers.

All That Vapid, Mindless Imagery

Dick Stroud, blogger extraordinaire and author of The 50 Plus Market, has pointed us to a company offering interesting images of Baby Boomers and older for web sites and print ads. I railed about the lack of this a few months ago in my post INVASION OF THE BABY BOOMER POD PEOPLE.

Follow the link on Dick's post to Veer. Their images will give you better ideas about how to portray Boomers. Trust me - we're more diverse, multidimensional, intelligent, involved, and interesting than we're being portrayed.


... Okay, so we're not always that interesting.

Boom Time

I was interviewed recently by Matt Histand, Senior Editor of The Advertising Specialty Institute's Counselor Magazine:

ASI (Advertising Specialty Institute®) is the largest media and marketing organization serving the advertising specialty industry, with a membership of 22,000 distributor firms (sellers) and 3,300 supplier firms (manufacturers).

For fifty years, Counselor™ has been the leading source of news in the promotional products industry. The unique position of ASI in the marketplace gives our editors and reporters an unmatched perspective, and that translates into the most insightful and readable magazine in the industry.

Matt put together a very good piece about (you guessed it) advertising - along with a list of what Baby Boomers might like when it comes to promotional items:

Boom Time

Baby Boomers start turning 60 this year, but they show no sign of slowing down. As a group they control an estimated $2.3 trillion in annual spending power and the next chapter in their lives will bring about tremendous change and opportunities for advertisers.

Other good pieces include an interview with Colin Powell and one about the value of older employees.

Last year I was interviewed by Counselor's sister publication Advantages Magazine for its feature article, Boomers Beyond:Marketing to a 50-Plus Audience:

Advantages is written to inspire and motivate promotional products sales professionals. Each monthly issue is packed with sales-friendly product showcases, dependable ideas, proven sales tips, and helpful case histories.

Study: TV's youth obsession backfiring

Here's a piece by AP's television and entertainment writer David Bauder:

Study: TV's youth obsession backfiring

Nearly two-thirds of Americans say they believe that most TV programming and advertising is targeted toward people under 40, the survey said. More than 80 percent of adults over 40 say they have a hard time finding TV shows that reflect their lives.

Mr. Bauder does an excellent job of reporting all sides of the issue. (It's not surprising, because I read him regularly and he always does top-notch reporting by highlighting various viewpoints.) However, for me there's not much new here. That's because I'm knee-deep in this mess. What is said can be found in my book, this blog, and other books and blogs about advertising, media, and Baby Boomers.

If you're new to all this, the article will be illuminating. And there are fresh numbers to crunch:

Advertisers will pay a premium for young viewers: $335 for every thousand people in the 18-to-24 age range that a network delivers, for example. Viewers aged 55-to-64 are worth only $119 for every thousand, according to Nielsen Media Research.

What I do find fascinating has less to do with the article and more to do with its syndication. When a news outlet picks up an AP story it can change the headline, the lede, and has the right to edit the piece for space consideration. Most editors simply leave it alone - but often they feel as if they have to justify their existence - and play around with the headlines.

From "TV's youth obsession backfiring" we get these anti-boomer, ageist variations:

Television's new obsession with youth irritates boomers

TV industry's irritating baby boomers

Baby boomers piqued at TV's youth obsession

Boomers disdain TV's youth mania

And the winner is … MSNBC:

Baby boomers upset TV isn't all about them

In the spirit of fun and games with the news, I've come up with a few of my own reasonable, moderate, neutral headlines for Mr. Bauder's article:

Youthful TV Execs Live in Bubble, Will Bring Down Network Television

Message to Television Advertisers: Don't Trust Anyone Under Thirty

Really Dumb Twenty-Something Media Planners Clueless, Should Be Fired

Young, Myopic TV Execs Think It's All About Them

Oh, how I love to be 'fair and balanced'…

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For another take on David Bauder's article, read Brent Green's Boomers Do Not Need Their Own TV Network.