Vega aims for mid-age cherry pickers

What do I know about Australian Baby Boomers? Nothing. There are experts in the field, however.

Because I know nothing, this article from the Sidney Morning Herald fascinated me (you may have to log in). Especially after such recent shortsightedness in the Big Apple and elsewhere.

Cherry-picking from the article:

DMG Radio has confirmed widely held expectations that its new Vega FM stations in Sydney and Melbourne will target about 3 million metropolitan baby boomers who are cherry picking their mix of news, current affairs, talkback and music from a variety of radio stations.

Vega settled on its music strategy less than three weeks ago after eight months research but is saying little about its programming until Monday when the station starts broadcasting at 11am. "It will be a play list beyond the dimensions that have been contemplated before," Mr. Thompson said. "It's going to be different and much larger."

Media buyers and advertisers reacted positively, saying the station would gain immediate advertising support.

Here's more about it from another Australian news source.

This business model/program strategy should be vetted by the powers-that-be here in the U.S.

Jean-Paul Tréguer Gets International Ink

Good to see my friend Jean-Paul Tréguer recently profiled by Mary Blume in the International Herald Tribune.

I reviewed his book many moons ago (the first review this side of the pond), and we met and chatted two or three times at The What's Next? Boomers Business Conference in 2004. His was one of the best presentations.

A quote from the article:

"The problem is that ad agencies in general are obsessed by their creative image. Their campaigns are to promote the agency, to make it famous, to win a gold lion at the Cannes advertising festival. We take another direction, which is what the consumers of that generation like to see. They are not looking for a creative image about funerals or humor about incontinence pads. What they are looking for is solutions."

Visit Jean-Paul's Senioragency.

Booked on The Advertising Show

Looks like I'll be the August 7th guest on The Advertising Show, sponsored by Ad Age.

This is a fun, spunky, highly informative two hours of live radio, hosted by ad vets Ray Schilens and Brad Forsythe.

And they're Baby Boomers — so we should have a grand time. I'm very much looking forward to it, keen on finding out what their takes are on advertising to boomers. (Not long ago they began riffing on it, but had to get back to that week's guest.)

Visit the web site. There are dozens of archived shows featuring impressive advertising, marketing, and media pros.

However, I don't think they archive every show - so I'm going to have to do something between now and then to be important enough for archiving. Maybe if I rob a bank, assassinate someone, 'out' a CIA agent, or (this would be my best shot) break up a celebrity marriage, I'll be deemed worthy.

Aetrex Worldwide Targets Baby Boomers

The Mature Market picked up this press release about Phil Simms being hired as corporate spokesperson for Aetrex.

Baby Boomers are wary of spokespeople - but I guess if you have to have one, Phil Simms isn't a bad choice for sports-related footwear and such. He's innocuous enough. Of course, if they are really targeting Baby Boomers 'worldwide' it's a good bet that few people outside of the United States will know (or care) who Phil Simms is…

Then I visited the Aetrex Web Site. What a pile of confusing, vacuous, over-hyped, over-branded nonsense. It's almost as overblown as the preceding sentence of mine. I wore out a pair of virtual sneakers just trying to get to an actual product of theirs, having to slog through all sorts of silliness.

They even have something called a Brand Statement - whatever that is.

Here's my favorite piece of self-defeating hogwash on their web site: "The word Aetrex is a derivation of ae-treks, meaning One Journey."

....... What??? I've never heard of the word/phrase 'ae-treks' - and neither has Google. The word 'ae' does mean 'one' (it's of Scottish origin) - and (juicy irony here) the word 'trek' means to make a slow or arduous journey.

Let's get real: the word aetrex is not a derivation of anything. It's a made-up word. Made up from scratch. Which is fine. I love made-up words. I make them up sometimes. And Aetrex is as good a name as any for a sports shoe company...

But please — don't give me a bunch of jive about etymological origins — because if you do, the only conclusion I will come to is that these shoes and orthopedic accessories are for slow, arduous walking — not for the active lifestyle Phil Simms is pushing.

And as I've said, it certainly was quite a lonesome, exhausting aetrek for me to track down anything relevant on their web site. I should've brought along someone to talk to.

But at least Aetrex is wise enough to target Baby Boomers. Good for them. And it will be good for them, even if they're not doing it as well as they could.

Kantar Group and AARP Services Form Joint Venture Company

This is interesting news. It might end up being big news.

Dick Stroud has put a positive spin on it, with a caveat.

I'll probably blog about this as it plays out. Actually, I'm peripherally involved in a related marketing/advertising project by AARP — so I'm not surprised by this joint venture. It makes sense.

For now, I'll simply say that pressure on ad agencies coming from marketing companies and clients is a good thing.