Where people already aren’t.

Stolen from Dick Stroud:

Using social media to target Baby Boomers
Maybe it is just me but I cannot extract anything of meaning from this interview.

Maybe it is just me, but I think this stacks up with some of the best routines of Abbott & Costello, Mel Brooks & Carl Reiner … Actually, it’s more like Carl Reiner interviewing The Professor.

The scary part is that this isn’t just some fellow passing himself off as a Social Media Guru.

Remember the nutty popularity of logo T-Shirts in the 1980s? 

I was told back then that this was the end of advertising. No more print ads, television or radio spots … Who needed them when everybody you met was a walking billboard? 

Logo T-Shirts are still around – but so is advertising, last I looked.

That video interview … I think I said something similar in a 1996 post, but I’m not sure because I’m not sure what this fellow said. You tell me if I said what he said:

The Brouhaha Over WOMM
So your product or service is getting some sort of positive response from users/consumers? Maybe a cult is forming. Or something. People are talking.

Take advantage of this. You'd be stupid not to. Bring in the PR professionals, the marketing people. Reference it in advertising campaigns. Support this grass roots excitement.

But trying to create buzz out of nothing?

Along with passé WOMM, Marketing/Social Media prattle is now a comedy sketch:

The Social Media Guru

Silver Market Phenomenon 2010 Edition On Schedule

From: Florian Kohlbacher
Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 5:39 PM
Subject: The Silver Market Phenomenon Book, 2nd Edition 2010

Dear Author,
It is our pleasure to inform you that the second edition of the Silver Market Phenomenon is right on schedule and has entered the production process at the publisher side. We expect publication according to plan this fall (October/November) …

Thank you and best wishes,
Florian Kohlbacher

The authors (including yours truly) have updated their chapters.  There will also be a handful of new contributors and chapters. 

1st Edition (2008):

The Silver Market Phenomenon

Publishers site: The Silver Market Phenomenon

Still Getting Hits: 2005

Whether due to malfunctions of the ever-changing, amorphous Google Algorithms or simply the slapdash nature of web search, many of my creaky posts still get hits. Some, lots.

And my site meter (that ubiquitous rainbow-ish thing) always surprises me. People search for the darndest things.

Although I’ve been ‘blogging’ since 1996, this one hatched in 2005.  From that year, some of the still popular posts (make that popular by long-tail standards):

Wrap Rage
In the last month, two clients have consulted me about packaging and Baby Boomers. It's a hot topic.

Those Humdrum Empty Nesters
Stuck in their ways. Refuse to try new things, change brands. Why target them???

Rubbing yourself and smiling.
I first saw The Dove Campaign for Real Beauty as a series of print ads (was it in the Oprah mag?) and loved it. No doubt about it — real beauties. The women exuded intelligence, confidence, sensuality.
(New link: Does Reality Sell Beauty?)

Selfless baby boomers switch careers
I guess I've just hung out with too many friends who've always had altruistic goals, altruistic lives, and didn't pile up the dough …

The Three Ages of Advertising Slavery
I saw Hugh MacCleod's cartoon posted a few days ago and it cracked me up.

No News News
Imagine if a company decided to truly target Baby Boomers, if their site was truly boomer-friendly, if Baby Boomer creatives actually designed the site, wrote the copy... imagine how this product or service would break away from the pack...

Marketing to young people is fun!
You get to talk about cool ideas and hot fads and pretend you can actually predict what the next trend will be!

My Favorite Cyber-Myth
How I snicker and roll my eyes whenever I read about Baby Boomers fumbling around on computers, scratching their heads, totally flummoxed.
____

Maybe I’ll do 2006 sometime.

PureWowOwow

Peter Himler tipped me off to this – and I don’t know what to make of it:

Father of MTV launching new property
… Bob Pittman is slated to launch his new digital venture, PureWow.com, at the end of the summer. Pittman's partners on the site, which will target the crossover between Gen X and Baby Boomer females, include Whoopi Goldberg, Lesley Stahl, Candice Bergen and Lily Tomlin.

Sounds like fun – but there’s already a popular site with almost the same name and all the same celebrities:

wowOwow.com
wowOwow is a free daily Internet website created, run and written by Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Liz Smith, Joni Evans, Mary Wells, Sheila Nevins, Joan Juliet Buck, Whoopi Goldberg, Julia Reed, Joan Ganz Cooney, Judith Martin, Candice Bergen, Lily Tomlin, Jane Wagner, Cynthia McFadden and Marlo Thomas.

Wow. I don’t get it.

Not to worry.  I’m sure Liz Smith will sort it out for us sooner or later …

NostraChuckus Scoops New York Times

A blog post stamped May 21, 2010:

We’re all miserably happy, or …
While it’s usually a mistake to assume that Baby Boomers are all the same, in this case it must be true: We’re all happy and miserable.

The New York Times, June 11, 2010:

In Midlife, Boomers Are Happy — and Suicidal
In recent weeks, researchers reported that Americans in midlife are a remarkably contented lot, and that they also have the highest rate of suicide.

NostraChuckus is thrilled to be able to predict news stories weeks before the New York Times. He might kill himself because he never gets the credit he deserves.