The More Things Stay The Same, The More They Stay The Same

In this topsy-turvy world where there are boggling upheavals every 5-minute news cycle, it’s comforting to know that some things will always remain the same.  

Forget the millennials, online travel could be missing the boom time 
Young, slick, mobile-savvy millennials, if many headlines are to be believed, are the customer segment that many travel startups first target…

As it was, almost a dozen years ago…

14 November 2005
My Favorite Cyber-Myth
…Hitwise found that visitors to the top travel search engines were by far likely to be over 55 years of age. Hitwise attributed this to baby boomers…

15 April 2006
Insatiable Appetite for Information
…Of the travel content viewed by this group, over 70% takes place on agency, hotel supplier, and airline carrier websites…

Dick Stroud has no problems opening this can of worms:

Package design is the dark horse of the marketing world. So says Nielsen.
… So much packaging design assumes the customer has 20/20 vision, a knowledge of how the packaging works and the hand and grip and strength of a wrestler.

I had no problems over a decade ago:

12 June 2006
Boomers in Candyland
…I can rip open any dumb, stupid candy wrapper with my bare hands – as long as one of my bare hands is holding a pair of pliers…

The thrill starts with the grille…

The Crazy Logic Of Media Strategy
Ad Contrarian
… But why in the fucking world would you direct those commercials at 20 year olds? If your objective is to sell more cars, and people over 50 are 4 times as valuable to you, why in the world would your media target be millennials?

12 March 2009
Who’s gonna buy this car?
… I’ve blabbered about this for years.  In 2005 on The Advertising Show yours truly had a spirited discussion with hosts Brad Forsythe and Ray Schilens.  A chunky segment was about marketing autos to Boomers.

Baby Boomers are wonderful, Baby Boomers are horrible. Today and years ago.

Today:

How baby boomers became the most selfish generation
The baby boomers who have controlled this country since the 1980s are a selfish, entitled generation.

Baby Boomers Pitch In
Senior citizens are channeling time and money to volunteer efforts. One estimate: They’ll contribute $8 trillion in two decades.

Years Ago:

April 8, 1997
The Anti Boomer Page 

22 October 2009
Me vs. We Redux Redux
…Did any generation apologize for The Great Depression? I’ll have to check the history books.  If not, it should.  Some of those evil bastards must still be alive.  Anybody over ninety-eight had better atone…

So don’t feel too bad. Not everything is changing.  As I’ve said, take comfort in that.

Now I’m going to make myself some comfort food – maybe a grilled-cheese sandwich and a glass of chocolate milk with a straw – and watch the evening news.

Even More Some of The News That’s Fit to Print

Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Marketing from continent to continent and satellite to server and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press…

Hungry? Senior Nutrition Fellow Ruth Kava sez to Food Purveyors: Ignore Baby-Boomers at Your Peril … “How amazing. How astonishing. How pathetic.” That’d be Dick Stroud wondering about Marketers discovering  the importance of the 50-plus once again and again and again … Advertising campaign gone wrong: The idea of people over fifty driving their cars is so appalling and such an embarrassment that they outright ignored and disparaged the most valuable economic group in the history of the world (or you could’ve read this blog for the last thirteen years) … From the Best 18 minutes you can spend today Dept.: The “Great Volkswagen Ads” Documentary Film … The No Big Surprise Dept.: Boomers buy about two-thirds of the new cars sold annually, as well as half the computers and a third of the movie theater tickets … Read all about Doodyville … Meet the 2016 Influencers in Aging (What? I’m not on the list? The process is rigged!) Congrats to Paul Kleyman and Louis Tenenbaum … ‘til next time…

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Just for Fun:

Mouth Hunters
by Chuck Nyren
I’ve been thinking about buying this house. Then I was told that it might be time to buy a new mouth…

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.
Salesforce 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 …

No 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 …

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Zoomer U in Canada had a boffo blast-off (see my previous post):

ZoomerU 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 …

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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
Almost 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)

Some of the news that’s fit to print.

Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Marketing from continent to continent and satellite to server and all the ships at sea. Let's go to press…

Marketing Author and Global Wayfarer Brent Green won’t be lonely.  Boomers Will Dominate Travel for 20 Years … We’re inquisitive about the ages of voters, not of the presumptive candidates. Which demo might decide the outcome?  Boomers 35% Of Voters In 2016 Presidential Election … Ever wonder why you’re probably wearing sneakers? Barry Robertson explains all: Boomer Megatrend Embraced By Millennials: Sports Shoes As Everyday-Wear … Not Surprising Department:  Boomers find volunteering rewarding … The UI Blues: Discussed ad nauseam in my book, this blog and other blogs - web usability. Counting your pennies online? Banks' Neglect of Seniors in Digital Push Is Shortsighted by Kevin Tynan … Where  VCs circle every June … Marti Barletta wises us up: The end of ‘shrink it and pink it’: A history of advertisers missing the mark with women … The HR Follies: Years spent scratching our heads. Newest itches - Companies that use older workers are the most innovative & Why You Should Hire Someone Over 55. Older workers stay in their jobs longer and bring a lot of experience, yet it's harder for them to find jobs … Till next time.

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Just for fun:
The Path To Bodily Enlightenment
I’ve achieved Mindfulness! It took no effort at all!
by Chuck Nyren

Big Mags Roll Out Big Guns. Again.

Another fusillade, a volley of déjà vus.

And it’s sort of like being in The Twilight Zone, or if that reference is too antediluvian for you, Groundhog Day, or if that reference is too antediluvian for you, there’s got to be plenty of recent movies and TV shows I’ve never heard of with similar plots or themes.

The grey market
Older consumers will reshape the business landscape
Apr 9th 2016
… The Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister organisation to The Economist, found that only 31% of firms it polled did take into account increased longevity when making plans for sales and marketing … One reason for this tardiness is that young people dominate marketing departments and think that the best place for the old is out of sight and mind.

Sounds familiar.  You can read a piece from 2003…

Advertising to Baby Boomers: Back into the Fold 
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.

Or you can read the Intro and 1st Chapter from my book (a free PDF Download):

Advertising to Baby Boomers Download

As Dick Stroud says in a comment:

This article could have been written a decade ago. Very little has changed…

From Forbes:

Marketers Throw Out The Baby Boomers With The Bathwater

I began to grab some quotes from the above and compare them to what I’ve written over the last twelve or so years – but the whole article, every piece of information, observation, and advice can be found in my book, blog, articles, interviews, and chapters I’ve penned.  For me, it’s spooky. Like stepping into a decade-old parallel universe.

And Fast Company:

Forget Millennials—Why You Should Hire Someone Over 55

Except for the “forget millennials” part (I’m a fan), dozens of déjà vus:

The Human Resources/Brain Power Posts (2006-2016)

"No, I don't think a 68-year-old copywriter can write with the kids. That he's as creative. That he's as fresh. But he may be a better surgeon. His ad may not be quite as fresh and glowing as the Madison Ave. fraternity would like to see it be, and yet he might write an ad that will produce five times the sales. And that's the name of the game, isn't it?" - Rosser Reeves

My final words on Déjà Vu – from four years ago:

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.  Some recent headlines:

Boomers Are The Most Valuable Generation For Marketers

Baby Boomers Are A Lucrative Marketing Demographic

Retailers Target Grey Spending Power

Baby Boomers Consider Next Housing Move

Boomers Are Not Like Your Grandparents

Baby Boomers Discover Grandparenting

More Boomers Aspire To Careers With Social Purpose

Baby boomers Are Starting Up Businesses

Hindenburg Explodes In Mid-Air

OK, I’m lying about the last one. It’s not a recent headline. But to me it doesn’t seem any older than the others.

The Déjà Vu No New News

It’s always a treat to get up, make some coffee, open the newspaper (pixels or pulp) and read nothing new.
Even that shticky opening sentence is nothing new.

For some reason, the last month or so has been jam-packed with no news news:

Older people have the spending power. So why are ads obsessed with youth?

If you want the answer nine years before this question was asked, download (for free) the Introduction and 1st Chapter of Advertising to Baby Boomers ©2005/2007:

Introduction and 1st Chapter

More from that Globe and Mail piece:

… The rationale for focusing on younger people used to be that advertisers who could win them over would gain a consumer for life. But research has shown that brand loyalty is fading, meaning this approach may not make sense any more.

Brand loyalty almost always fades, and hasn’t made sense for decades. Read a review of Advertising to Baby Boomers in The Journal of Consumer Marketing.

The Average Age Of A Creative Is 28, While The Average New Car Buyer Is 56 - That's A Problem

It’s been a problem for years and years:

Hire Baby Boomer Creatives
NostraChuckus predicts the future. Again. It was 2003 when he first divined it…

Automobile ads written by … but targeting…:

Non-Diversity = Solipsism
… Someone commented on my comment:
You nailed it Chuck! My reaction (albeit with an agency skew) is that these spots are targeting BOOMERS, but written by 20-somethings? … Young creatives (are there really any other kind?) can't write to BOOMERS…so they write to please themselves. As a BOOMER many of us see right through this common occurrence.

Here’s a news story that is impossible to cherry-pick.  Every cherry has been plucked, packaged, and offered as sustenance by Yours Truly and others for over a decade:

Baby Boomers Are Noticing How You're (Not) Speaking to Them

I’ll snatch one piece of wrinkled fruit, just for fun:

…. One of the biggest reasons for this is marketers are beginning to close the book on this generation by relying on outdated stereotypes to inform decisions and craft messages that ultimately don’t hit the mark. It takes more than a Rolling Stones song on a 30 second TV commercial. Half of Baby Boomers (47%) told us in this same survey that companies are using inaccurate stereotypes in advertising about people their age.

A few moldy posts:

03 October 2005Invoking "The Sixties": Fidelity Financial vs. Ameriprise

19 February 2007
Food fights, Balloons and Dancing Gorillas
19 December 2010
Why does the media think Boomers are smiling, vapid idiots?

And if you’re desperate to hear me bloviate about it all, check out highlights from a European Tour in 2007:


Recently I penned an Afterword for an international marketing/advertising tome due out in early 2016.
A pull:

I wasn’t the first to suggest a necessary shift away from the 18-35 demographic. In 1990, two books were released, Age Wave by Ken Dychtwald  and Serving the Ageless Market: Strategies for Selling to the Fifty-Plus Market by David B. Wolfe.  Many others followed, including The Definitive Guide to Mature Advertising and Marketing by Kevin Lavery  (U.K) and Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers by Brent Green.

What bewilders me about all these brand-new news articles: the  disregard of historical perspective along with the absence of acknowledgements due the original thinkers and doers. It’s not difficult to research almost anything nowadays.  A simple googling of  ‘advertising & baby boomers’ would return over a million hits.
And as a journalist it would keep you from embarrassing yourself.

The No New News News

It’s always a treat to get up, make some coffee, open the newspaper (pixels or pulp) and read nothing new.

Even that shticky opening sentence is nothing new.

Ignore Boomers at your peril
… The 50+ market is tremendous, controlling roughly 70 percent of the nation’s disposable income. We account for 80 percent of luxury travel marketing, buy five times as many new cars as 18-to-34-year-olds, and represent 40 percent of the population.

Pull quote from my book ©2005:

“It will be the Baby Boomers who will be the first to pick and choose, to ignore or be seduced by leading-edge technology marketing. There’s a simple reason for this. We have the money to buy this stuff. Experts say we’ll continue to have the money for at least the next twenty years. Write us off at your own peril.”

That’s a long time to be periled.

Baby Boomers say they aren't moving out of their homes
By Les Christie  @CNNMoney
… In a survey of 4,000 Baby Boomer households conducted by the non-profit Demand Institute, 63% of Boomers plan to stay in their current home once they retire.

Sounds vaguely familiar:

Selling Universal Design/Aging In Place ©2005/2007 (PDF):
… My NAHB presentation had a large section dedicated to the problem‘ of aging in place. It‘s a problem, of course, for AACs. How do you convince Baby Boomers to consider your offerings – whether your community is across the country or across town?

The first slide in the aging in place section was titled Let‘s talk about your competition.  I tossed up logos from Del Webb, Robson, Meritage, and a few others – along with one of a real estate salesman outside a house with a for sale sign. I shook my head. “These are not your competitors,” I said, “This is.”

A new slide popped up that read Home Sweet Home. Many in the audience nodded.

They’re still nodding.

Universities Cater to a New Demographic: Boomers
… As millions of Boomers move into a stage that has no name, no clear role in society, yet vast possibilities, there is an urgent need for democratized versions of such programs—offered at a cost within reach of the bulk of the population and widely available through continuing education programs or even community colleges around the country.

From 2005:

Baby Boomers, Adult Communities, and Education
Campus Continuum focuses solely on developing, marketing, and operating university-branded 55+ Active Adult Communities that are tightly integrated with their academic hosts.

AARP has produced a supplement for HR Magazine all about hiring experienced workers (or not letting them go):

HR and the Aging Workforce

Good stuff, but yours truly and others have been screaming about this for over a decade.  Take a look at one or two of these:

Human Resources/Brain Power

"No, I don't think a 68-year-old copywriter can write with the kids. That he's as creative. That he's as fresh. But he may be a better surgeon. His ad may not be quite as fresh and glowing as the Madison Ave. fraternity would like to see it be, and yet he might write an ad that will produce five times the sales. And that's the name of the game, isn't it?" - Rosser Reeves

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Just for fun:

Never Leave The Hospital! Health Tech Wearables, Implanted Chips
I'm having issues. I'm worried that the medical industry might want me to worry too much about my health. A little worry is good. But constant worry? It seems as if they want me to think of nothing else but my vital signs for the rest of my life.

Finally Live The Life You've Always Wanted With Wearables!
Along with Google Glasses, you'll also be wearing Google Nose and Google Mouth.

The Déjà Vu No New News News

It’s always a treat to get up, make some coffee, open the newspaper (pixels or pulp) and read nothing new:

Why Boomers Are More Likely To Succeed as Entrepreneurs
A study by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation reported that the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity over the last few years is not Gen-Y upstarts, but Baby Boomers in the 55-64 year age group. In fact, Boomers are actually driving a new entrepreneurship boom as they retire from their traditional corporate jobs and seek more meaningful sources of work.

How far back do you want to go?

March 25, 2005
ADVERTISING TO BABY BOOMERS Targets Clients and Entrepreneurs
A large section of the book is dedicated to helping Baby Boomer entrepreneurs get their marketing and advertising up and running. The author as well gives advice and guidance to the small businessperson on how to fashion a handmade campaign.

27 August 2005
Baby Boomers Conquer Self-Employment Market
The interesting thing is this boom, which is said will resemble the dot. com boom of the late ‘90’s, will be led by baby boomers and would-be retirees and tend to be better educated, healthier, and more tech-savvy than their 20-something predecessors.

Or check out all of these posts from the past:

Entrepreneurs & Baby Boomers
All of a sudden every other news article about Baby Boomers is focused on business and entrepreneurs.

Part II of The Déjà Vu No New News News next déjà vu.

Soon On The Shelf: 2013

Let’s begin with the last post of last year:

18 December 2012
Until next year (if it happens)…
Like The Mayans, NostraChuckus unleashes prognostications not limited to calendar years.  Often he foretells decades in advance.

Of course, that Great Seer of The Mundane and The Obvious was highly profiled in 2013.
First post of the year:

01 January 2013
Windows 8
… Redmond screwed up a bit with their new OS. Lots of folks aren’t happy with the Start Screen. You can do your own binging about the brouhaha. It has to do with the touch interface when there’s no touch. The OS works flawlessly on phones and tablets, not so well on desktops and laptops with regular ol’ monitors and screens. Third-party workarounds are available – and I use them.

News article, December 9:

Windows Start menu to return in Windows 8.2By Mark Hachman
In what could be one of the more startling reversals since New Coke, a report released Monday claims that Microsoft will bring back a Windows 7-style Start menu to what is being called Windows 8.2.

Second and third posts this year:

07 January 2013
Tablets
Moses and the pharmaceutical industry once had exclusive dibs on this word.  Nowadays, tablet commonly refers to a specific type of computer doodad technology.
14 January 2013
Tablets Redux
… Researchers have developed a revolutionary tablet screen as thin as a sheet of paper that can be twisted and dropped without damage - and it could replace your laptop within five years.

Need I say more?  Watch TV, zip through magazines and newspapers.  Tablets are taking over the world.  More ‘traditional’ advertising will follow. 
Scroll to #3:

I believe that we will stop seeing media as social and start thinking about our media as being either active or passive.

Active, Passive, Smartphones, Tablets:

04 November 2013
Smartphones & Tablets
Clients and just about everybody else seem to be confused about advertising on all these new-fangled gadgets. Added to the mix are odd, stupefying concepts like digital and mobile and native. Most of this stuff is gobbledygook, but I’ll try to separate the chaff from the chaff…

My favorite post this year, probably because someone else wrote it:

15 September 2013
Boomer Gnashing Teeth
What the hell’s with all the packaging and options? I just want a simple, effective toothpaste like there used to be in the (19)60’s. I don’t want flash marketing. I don’t care if it’s “Complete” or “With Scope” or “Whitening” or “Cinnamon” I just want a god damn mint toothpaste with a simple screw cap.

And check out a series of posts about AARP – with a focus on their magazine and media:

The AARP PostsThere is a slow overhaul of AARP Magazine going on, no doubt for the better ...

Happy New Year.