Already a Shade of Gray

There’s been lots of empty yack recently about the ‘end of the baby boomers’ and their waning influence now that Barack Obama (technically a Boomer) is about to take office. 

Yet it doesn’t seem as if the President-Elect is listening to such prattle:

Obama Administration: Already a shade of gray
by Paul Briand
A look at the incoming Obama Administration shows it is not quite as young as people might think … There's a distinct tinge of gray to his incoming cabinet and senior advisers ... But the wonks can't separate the Baby Boomers from the new administration as easily as they might want. The Baby Boomer influence is far from dead in the upcoming administration.

Will the business industry apply the same intuitive template?  How about the advertising industry?

Mr. Briand also reports on another useless, over-the-hill Boomer.
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Update: I’ve ‘disallowed’ comments for this post.  Too many political ones.  I’ll take the blame for merely mentioning something that slightly smacked of politics.

More Nimble, More Creative Solutions

Stuart Elliott of the New York Times reports on an interesting ad biz tactic by Intel:

Intel Shifts Image Advertising to a Smaller Agency
Intel is shifting an important advertising assignment — to create brand and corporate image campaigns — to a smaller, independent agency from a Madison Avenue giant … The recession may accelerate the trend of large marketers looking for “more nimble, more creative solutions” to advertising problems, Mr. Venables said. “A company like ours is in a fantastic position.”

This is what I suggested in my book when targeting Baby Boomers.  A few excerpts:
  

While I’ve done a fair amount of consulting/creative strategy/copywriting for major companies, my ‘agency’ is a bit too small to really ‘pitch’ Unilever, Microsoft, Toyota, and all the others for full-service advertising/marketing/PR.  But if you’re one of the big guys or gals, consider a medium-sized agency for “more nimble, more creative solutions.”

And you can call me, of course.  I’ll help you find one.  (Along with spearheading, contributing, and shaking up things if need be.)

Two Webinars

On the same day:

January 28, 2009 (11:00 am EST):

Todd Harff of Creating Results hosts a webinar sponsored by IMMN:

PHOTO FINISH: Choosing Marketing Images that Motivate Mature Consumers
Todd will review findings on what photography captivates vs. what photography turns prospects off.    He'll segment the findings by age, gender, employment status, income and more.  Get ready for some startling insights.

January 28, 2009 (3:00 pm EST):

Carolyn O’Neil hosts a free teleseminar sponsored by The National Association of Baby Boomer Women:

Baby Boomers Get Smart about Digestive Health
A registered dietitian, award-winning food and health journalist, and co-author of, “The Dish on Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous,” Carolyn will discuss topics such as a comparison of products on the market today that tout digestive benefits, how getting adequate fluid on a daily basis is important for optimal digestive health, and how functional foods do more for your body than just provide basic nutrients.

My Brain, Your Brain, iBrain

I read iBrain a few weeks ago, and it keeps roiling and bubbling in my noggin, like a good brain book should.

It’s mostly about Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants – terms apparently coined by educational consultant Marc Prensky. In iBrain, Dr. Gary Small and Gigi Vorgan consider the psychological and neurological traits of these evolving archetypes:

Today's young people in their teens and twenties, who have been dubbed Digital Natives, have never known a world without computers, twenty-four-hour TV news, Internet, and cell phones—with their video, music, cameras, and text messaging. Many of these Natives rarely enter a library, let alone look something up in a traditional encyclopedia; they use Google, Yahoo, and other online search engines. The neural networks in the brains of these Digital Natives differ dramatically from those of Digital Immigrants: people—including all baby boomers—who came to the digital/computer age as adults but whose basic brain wiring was laid down during a time when direct social interaction was the norm. The extent of their early technological communication and entertainment involved the radio, telephone, and TV.

As a consequence of this overwhelming and early high-tech stimulation of the Digital Native's brain, we are witnessing the beginning of a deeply divided brain gap between younger and older minds—in just one generation.

How does this affect advertising creative? More fuel for the idea of a diverse workforce. Younger folks ingest and digest the world differently than older folks. So you’d better have the right guts around to trust.  If you don’t believe me, believe Rance Crain.

More from iBrain:

The current explosion of digital technology not only is changing the way we live and communicate but is rapidly and profoundly altering our brains. Daily exposure to high technology—computers, smart phones, video games, search engines like Google and Yahoo—stimulates brain cell alteration and neurotransmitter release, gradually strengthening new neuralpathways in our brains while weakening old ones. Because of the current technological revolution, our brains are evolving right now—at a speed like never before.

Besides influencing how we think, digital technology is altering how we feel, how we behave, and the way in which our brains function. Although we are unaware of these changes in our neural circuitry or brain wiring, these alterations can become permanent with repetition. This evolutionary brain process has rapidly emerged over a single generation and may represent one of the most unexpected yet pivotal advances in human history. Perhaps not since Early Man first discovered how to use a tool has the human brain been affected so quickly and so dramatically.

Dr. Small @ Google:

Another Industry Is Catching Up

So far this year not much new in news stories about Baby Boomers.  Here’s one I’ve already blogged:

Boomers: The Overlooked Media Sweet Spot
For media planners and buyers, step one is understanding the importance of Boomers in terms of spending power.

Now another industry is catching up:

Older folks like Wii, PCs and cellphones, too 
by Edward C. Baig
The topic of technology and aging takes center stage this weekend at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. On Saturday, CES hosts the first Silvers Summit, a showcase for products and services dedicated to keeping aging Boomers engaged, entertained and healthy.

Grandparents get their widgets on
by Michelle Maltais
The boomer demographic is relatively tech savvy. More than 7 million own gaming systems even though they aren't parents, and 29 million own digital video recorders … Though seniors get their own tech summit at CES, products oriented specifically toward them occupy only a small section of the show floor. But the summit's founder said the growth potential could become too seductive to ignore. "Boomers are going to demand that these things are there -- for themselves and their parents," Raskin said.

Tech Marketers' Next Opportunity: Boomers
by Laurie Sullivan
Increasingly savvy baby boomers - who … control billions in disposable income - could be the target for tech marketers during the next few years…

Two quotes from my book, originally published in early 2005:

And there are dozens of posts on this blog that gab about Boomers and technology.

But it’s fun to read about the many products showcased at The Consumer Electronics Show.