Zoomers

Media mogul Moses Znaimer seems to have taken over all things Boomer in Canada. He’s even renamed them. They’re now Zoomers.

The number of business and media outlets that are Znaimer/Zoomer-centric is quite impressive, and worth visiting. There’s a classical music station, a magazine, a Zoomer social network, a Zoomer university, a Zoomer consumer show ……. oh, I’m getting tired. Just click the pull-down menu on top of this page for the complete list. 

The first time I heard the word Zoomers many years ago it referred to folks using these things, racing around and having fun. So that’s what sticks in my mind. I can’t shake it.

Would a Boomer/Zoomer media empire play here in The States?  Maybe not.  We’re too diverse, unwieldy, eclectic. However, if someone wants to bankroll me for ten or twenty mil, I’ll be happy to put one together.

I’ll even change my name to Chuck Znyren.

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Brent Green has a good take on it all.

Even as America goes gray …

What was my reaction to the President-Elect’s speech and the crowd at Grant Park?  I felt like I was whisked back in time to when I was young and idealistic.  (Now I’m middle-aged and  idealistic.)  

Here’s an excerpt from a post I tossed up a few years ago. Little did I know how prescient it would be:     

1/02/06

"Even as America goes gray … its skin will become more polychrome. Buoyed by higher birth rates among minorities and increasing immigration from Latin America and Asia, parts of the United States will become as diverse as a New York subway car. Minorities will make up one-third of the U.S. population in 2016…
                                                       - Andrew Zolli 

A vital connection between a large percentage of Boomers and Millennials is being nurtured by the former. Millennials will be the real Boomers - diverse and inclusive. 
__ 

And the the grandparent connection is more profound than politics.  (Sorry - most of the links have vanished.)

Also: An interesting apology.

Baby Boomers & The Economic Collapse

Lots of folks have been asking me about Baby Boomers, the economic collapse, and how you should now advertise and market to this demographic.

The how hasn’t changed.  Simple answer: Make sure you have the right guts around to trust.

And if you’ve been hopping around this blog for the last three and a half years, or read my book first published in early 2005, you’d know that the what likewise hasn’t changed.  Unfortunately, not too many have paid attention.

A large chunk of Baby Boomers were never planning to retire.  Now, another huge chunk won’t be able to retire.  That’s a lot of people still in the work force – and they’ll be staying there for another ten or twenty or thirty years, contributing mightily to the economy.

And if you work, you buy. What do you buy? Almost everything.  Clothes, appliances, computers, toothpaste.  The list is endless.  Regular, ol’ stuff.  Stuff almost exclusively marketed to twentysomethings with ad campaigns that don’t resonate with middle-aged consumers. 

What Baby Boomers will still be buying but not buying as much of: houses and condos in retirement villages, financial services, expensive vehicles, expensive vacations. Health-related products and services will be the only ones to remain steady, or grow.

So sell them clothes, appliances, computers, toothpaste.  This way you’ll beat the competition.

Keep Preachin’

----- Original Message -----
To: nyrenagency
Subject: Keep Preachin'

Keep preachin' brother because some still refuse to hear.

My students presented a campaign geared to baby boomers to a group of judges at the National Student Advertising Competition. When we mentioned your book as proof that boomers don't like flashy ads, some 25-year-old copywriter/judge from **** West told them, "I can't believe boomers don't like slick ads."

So, keep preachin' and maybe they too will one day hear.

B*** A********, Asst. Professor (at a major university in the northeast)

Boomers in Black & White

Sometimes I think advertising odd.

Lately, Baby Boomers are all in black & white.  Here’s a spot for Sprint cell phones – and it’s obviously targeting boomer technophobes (although I’m not convinced that this is a crucial market):

I already talked about this one in a PowerPoint presentation:

  (Click the pic for the video)

A Lipitor spot:

(Again, click the pic.)

Print ads aren’t immune to this ashen epidemic:

I’ll admit that some of the above ads are wrapped in broader campaigns produced in black & white.  Even so …

For many years we’ve been portrayed as immature, vapid middle-aged folks who think we’re still teenagers living in the The Sixties.  Mad Ave’s new take on us is that we’re merely characters in a handful of Woody Allen movies.