World’s Largest Event For Active ‘50 plussers’

Last September I was on a speaking/consulting tour in Europe. One of the stops was Utrecht, The Netherlands at a private business symposium coinciding with the annual 50PlusBeurs.

The symposium was running late. Very late.  Just before I was to go on (an hour and a half after I was scheduled) they asked me to do a twenty-minute presentation instead of my usual fifty.  I did (and wasn't happy with the way it went), then headed out of the conference room with Brent Green, Carol Orsborn, and my More-Significant-Than-I-Am Other to look around.

We'd never seen anything like it. I'd heard what it was, but was nowhere near prepared. Ninety-five thousand people in five days. Over twenty thousand the day we were there.  Six huge halls. Five hundred and eighty exhibits. The sheer immensity was overwhelming.  AARP puts on an Expo every year – but it’s one-quarter the size.

And with only an hour and a half to goof off we only saw about one-quarter of the exhibits, maybe.  The four of us were racing around.  That’s how big it was. Nobody could see it all in one day.

For example, there must’ve been fifteen bicycle exhibitors with at least one hundred bikes to check out - and room to ride them in a demo area.  Next, I climbed in and out of about twenty motor-homes – but never made it to the automobiles or motorcycles. No time. 

I never even entered four of the six halls.  One I just glanced in.  It looked something like this: 

Almost every exhibit was over the top, a show in itself.  Click here to watch a Windows Media Video that gives you a good idea of the quality and variety of offerings. 

What’s really amazing about this event is the return rate for exhibitors: 85%. They make money, they know it’s a great investment, great promotion. They know it's a great market segment.

The average age of 50PlusBeurs attendees is sixty-one. So the entertainment and general feel is for a slightly older demographic than Baby Boomers. My guess is that this will change over the next five or so years.

Time was up.  We had to fly to Munich. I was working, not playing (I kept telling myself – for practically the whole two-week tour).

I want to get back to 50PlusBeurs someday so I can really soak it in.

If you are involved in the European 50+ Market, 50PlusBeurs is something you should see.  And don't worry about waiting a year or two if you can't make it next month.  It'll just get bigger and bigger. This year they'll break 100,000 in attendance.  My guess is that the turnout won't plateau for a decade. 

Download the English version of the 50PlusBeurs Brochure for 2008.

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Update September 3, 2008: This post was picked up by the international news service Agetimes.com. 

Erickson Retirement Communities Spot

I must still be young and mushy of mind, for I’m constantly surprised by the shenanigans of marketers when they try to target the 50+ Demo. By now nothing should surprise me.

Erickson Retirement Communities is a major player in their industry. I have a lot of respect and admiration for John Erickson. He's done some incredible things. And I like the fact that Erickson builds communities for the middle-class - while not ‘going for the gold’ like so many AACs.

But their marketing/advertising is pretty pathetic. That might just do them in eventually – especially with Baby Boomers.

Take a look at this latest spot:

Now try this exercise:

Turn the sound off and watch the spot again. Pretend that the voice over is saying something like, “Your financial security is important to you. At Ajax Investments we want to make sure that you have the freedom to enjoy the prime of life and do the things that are important to you, with no financial worries … blah blah blah.”

Now pretend that this is a D2C for a heart medication. “Enjoying a healthy, involved life is what life is all about. If a heart condition inhibits your activities, Ajaxavin may help. Please ask your doctor if Ajaxivin is right for you, blah blah blah.”

How about a laxative? Depends? A vitamin supplement? Come up with other products/services and write and perform your own V.O.’s.

This isn’t a commercial about Erickson. It’s a generic template.

Back to the spot: The voice over is a what? A daughter with kids? There aren’t too many Baby Boomers with kids that young. The largest chunk of Boomers are grandparents. The average age of a new grandparent is forty-eight.

So who's this woman doing the voice over? How old is she (with kids that young)? The child of Baby Boomers? If so, then why are her parents in their seventies? The grandfather looks like he's in his late seventies.

It’s the Baby Boomers who are helping their parents make decisions about retirement communities. This commercial misses the ‘sandwich generation’ by decades.

Don't Forget The Zwischen Kids und Senioren

I have no idea what I say in this article—but whatever it is, no doubt it's very profound and important:

Don't forget them! Zwischen Kids und Senioren gibt es noch eine Zielgruppe

Was sie für Werbetreibende außerdem so attraktiv macht, ist ihre unerwartete Flexibilität. "Zugegeben, ich habe eine Lieblingszahnpasta, aber sonst bin ich allem Neuen gegenüber aufgeschlossen", versichert Chuck Nyren, Autor von "Advertising to Baby Boomer", und fragt verwundert: "Wie kommen Werbeprofis bloß darauf, dass unser Geschmack bereits festgefahren ist?"

And as with Oprah - anytime I can help boost the careers of stragglers and wannabes like Susan and Julianne (and Paul) by simply having their names associated with mine - it's fine with me. I'm the beneficent type.

Forgotten Consumers

A few weeks ago I was interviewed by Jennifer Mann of The Kansas City Star for an article about advertising and marketing to Baby Boomers.  It ran, and I linked to it in the left column of this blog under In The Media.

Now the piece has gone wide in many of the McClatchy Newspapers, including The Monterey County Herald, The Olympian (Washington), and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Here's the piece in The Bismarck Tribune:

There are almost 100 million consumers in the United States who are age 50-plus. They control more than $8 trillion in assets, more than 70 percent of the disposable dollars in the United States. Yet they barely get passing notice from American advertisers.

Creating A Monster

Recently I put together a PowerPoint with narration for a Henry Stewart Talks series on Marketing to the Older Consumer. Dick Stroud is the ringleader. There are a handful of other folks from the U.K. and around the world contributing.

It was fun – but Dick and Henry (Is there a 'Henry'?) may have created a monster. 

I’d never recorded narration with PowerPoint. That may surprise people who know me, since I can be quite the blabbermouth when prodded.  I casually clicked the start button and without thinking about it thought I'd be creating one big wav file somewhere.  I just kept prattling and clicking without stopping. "One-Take Nyren” is my nick.

But while playing it back the sound went in and out between slides. I thought my mic was malfunctioning. 

Then I did something smart – which sounds impressive, but it’s not. Most people ‘do something smart’ by doing something smart before doing something – like reading the directions. I usually wait until I’m completely lost or something royally screws up before I bother with something silly like directions. That’s how smart I am.

PowerPoint handles narration by embedding individual sound files on each slide. This was why my voice was cut off between slides. 

And it's advisable to wait a second or so between slides – stop talking, wait, click, wait, talk. That’s so the wav file can finish up on a slide, and another can kick in for the next slide.

I had to rehearse a few times to get used to it all.

What's good about it: If you mess up the narration you can go back and re-record over that slide only - without losing the sound files on the other slides.  It also makes it easy to rearrange, add, or delete slides. 

What's bad about it: There's no way you can get on a roll.  What you're really creating are separate scenarios for each slide.  I imagine that, with practice, you'll be able to simulate a seamless  song an' dance. 

The monster created: I had so much fun that I want to do more. And more.  Short ones. And publish them here.  

So sometime soon you might just find a few PPPPs (PowerPoint Presentation Podcasts) on these pages.  Dick Stroud, as usual, is way ahead of me.