Beginning in 2003, my business blog for Creative Services, Copywriting, Consulting, and Speaking. You'll find all sorts of information about the current trends in advertising and marketing to this unwieldy, diverse demographic.
On Friday I stuck this piece in my virtual holster, but Dick “Quick Draw” Stroud was speedier to the trigger:
Even Google talks nonsense
It looks like it was written in 10 minutes after a rapid canter through Wikipedia.
Notorious for ageism, it’s no surprise that Google’s Boomer marketing advice is old hat, confusing, and clunky:
“… Boomers, in particular, tend to benefit from nostalgic targeting that reminds them of their youth.”
As usual, there aren’t really any myths about Boomers and media/advertising that haven’t been punctured by Yours Truly and many others. A pretty good list from a year ago:
How Well Do You Know Boomers?
Myth #6 - Boomers are brand loyal and will not switch
Golly gee, willikers. If you don't know this by now ...
But I guess the industry is still in a river in Egypt.
At the recent Upfront Summit, Crown Media CEO Henry Schleiff apparently caused some trouble.
Click here or the picture below to view the video clip:
The chief of Hallmark's TV operations doesn't think enough people appreciate how rapidly the traditional TV audience is aging or what that means. (Ad Age)
I was quoted along with Mr. Schleiff in a Kansas City Star piece last year:
Baby boomers become the forgotten consumer
August 4, 2008
By Jennifer Mann
"Our viewers have assets, not allowances," Schleiff told Wall Street analysts.
Dear Chuck,
As promised an email about our new agency ‘bureauvijftig’ (literally translated agency fifty, we glued the words together). Our new website (which still needs some images) is www.bureauvijftig.nl.
bureauvijftig is a creation of Arjan in’t Veld (25), Dick Vos (66), and me, Martijn de Haas (37).
Dick is the ex-owner of a large and successful advertising agency in the Netherlands.
Arjan is director and a target group specialist from his former company Inthefield.
I am the marketing strategy and target group specialist from Active Development.
We have several people connected to the agency including art directors, copy writers, online specialists, ages 20 to 66. Some are direct colleagues and some are ambassadors doing freelance jobs. We stress the importance of this broad range of ages as we completely agree with your philosophy on communication for age groups is best made by people belonging to these age groups.* Combine this with sharing insights and experience in a broad range of marketing, communication and advertising aspects and you will be able to connect effectively to a specified audience.
Our main goal is making connections and combining the best of 2 worlds:
We have managed to hook up with the leading university professors in the field of researching the aging population in the Netherlands and worldwide.
Our products are:
In general we are continuing our old ways but bigger and better with a healthy mix of ages. We already attracted our first big client and we feel that this economic spell will force companies to look at the mature market. Our pay-off is result driven communication in which we promise results and even take 20% of the client’s risk.
As you had already discovered, we have changed Arjan’s Mokkamarketing.nl to www.target50.nl. It is an inspirational blog like yours where all our co-workers and ambassadors can report and give opinions on articles and videos about the mature market and the aging population.
We are aiming at becoming a strong player in the traditional industry by bringing new ways. We hope to fly you in some day to give one of your presentations that inspires them all.
Last week we also met George P. Moschis who is an interesting researcher and professor you probably know.
I hope this explanation is clear and am looking forward to you and your comments and questions.
Kind Regards (also from Arjan),
Martijn
_______________________
George Moschis and I are with the same house, Paramount Market Publishing:
Baby Boomers and Their Parents
Surprising Findings About Their Lifestyles, Mindsets, and Well-Being
by George P. Moschis, PhD and Anil Mathur, PhD
My Book: Advertising To Baby Boomers
*An excerpt from Advertising to Baby Boomers:
More about diversity in the advertising industry:
Old Masters and Young Geniuses
What Kind of Genius Are You?
Baby boomers are smarter than you think
Trust Your Gut
Irony
Calcified Advertising Agencies
Rance Crain Makes Perfect Sense Yet Again
Managing Age Diversity in the Advertising Industry
My best wishes for success to you, Dick, and Arjan!
Over a month ago I blogged a New York Times piece:
That NYT piece spawned others, including:
From my book:
Here’s what’s going on: Many boomers (along with every other demo) are jobless – or afraid of losing their jobs:
Longer Unemployment for Those 45 and Older
By MICHAEL LUOWorkers ages 45 and over form a disproportionate share of the hard-luck recession category, the long-term unemployed — those who have been out of work for six months or longer, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
How do you keep your job or get a new one? Make sure you’re really tech-savvy:
From my book:
The big buzz phrase today is social networking. Because Boomers are worried about their work-related competencies, all of a sudden they’re diving into Facebook, LinkedIn, are Twittering, etc. to find out about it all and make connections.
But is this roiling ether the best place for advertising?
Me commenting on the NYT article:
As far as Boomers being tech/web Luddites - I’ve been dispelling that silly myth for years - in my book and blog (Advertising to Baby Boomers, first published in early 2005).
But monetizing social networking sites … well, they still haven’t been able to do that with the Millennial and Gen Y demos. What makes anybody think you can do it with Boomers?
Someone commenting on the A-Twitter article:
Drivel Indeed
How many people I'm "twittering" with doesn't tell me much of anything. I want to know how it translates into sales.
Nielsen has an interesting take on it all:
I predicted a bit of this back in November 2008:
Baby Boomers & The Economic Collapse
And if you watched the video above, you know that this isn’t an either/or for advertisers. But if you had to pick one …
Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bloggers?
A BIGresearch survey conducted in mid-2008 found that blogs influenced only 3.3% of adults in their apparel purchases. A Harris Interactive poll showed that bloggers were rarely the first source used when considering purchasing decisions.
Kit Simpson deconstructs the recent Kmart WOMM campaign:
Kmart goes to the Twits
When it comes to social network marketing, success comes in being able to do it -- not whether it actually boosts sales … If each of the 6,000 people went to Kmart and bought $100 worth of merchandise, that would represent roughly three and a half one hundredths of one percent of their revenue. (To be precise, it would be 0.003529411764705882% -- but let's not get picky.)
For the umpteenth time …
The Most Effective Marketing/Advertising Model For Reaching Baby Boomers: What is now called traditional advertising pushing you to an age-friendly, informative product/services web site.
Good news for the advertising/marketing industry and consumers: The Federal Trade Commission is seriously considering cracking down on the nefarious doings of word-of-mouth, buzz, and blog marketing.
I was tipped off by Peter Himler’s blog, The Flack:
Truth-in-Blogging
Who'll forget all those "influential" bloggers who received spiffy new Nikon digital SLRs to tool with and talk about. (Come to think of it, I can't recall any of them spilling a negative word about their gifts from the early adopter gadget Gods.)
How long have I been railing about word-of-mouth marketing? Since 2005:
To me, nothing is more dishonest and 'old school' than shills showing up at bars or wherever and pretending to be your friend and offering you gum or lipstick. They remind me of shills used in medicine shows (talk about 'old school'...) And if I start reading blogs that are thinly disguised sales pitches, I'll never read the blog again. (Except, of course, if the reason for the blog is to sell you something, in which case it's really old-fashioned copywriting/advertising. Authorized company blogs, for example.)
And I’ve blogged about this subject ad nauseam:
Advertising/Marketing Article of The Month
The Brouhaha Over WOMM Returns
What's Plaguing Viral Marketing
Backing up much of what I’ve been saying for years:
Bloggers Be Warned: FTC May Monitor What You Say (subscription)
By Michael BushJim Nail, chief marketing officer of TNS Media Intelligence and a WOMMA board member, said the revisions will bring more credibility to word-of-mouth and social-media marketing. "The thing that makes word-of-mouth marketing powerful is people believing they are getting truthful and honest opinions from real users," Mr. Nail said …
"The FTC is ... putting out guidelines to make it clear to people who are involved in social media and viral marketing that the same rules apply in this context as they do in the more formal context of paid advertising and infomercials." There are no legal implications for social-media sites such as Facebook or marketer sites such as Amazon, where consumers often post product reviews. However, Ms. Jacobs-Meadway said, paid endorsers who post on those sites can be held liable if they do not identify themselves as such.
Similar policies are already in place on the other side of the pond:
Buzz marketing illegal from May
One particular clause in the Regulations will make a number of activities a criminal offence including seeding positive messages about a brand in a blog without making it clear that the message has been created by, or on behalf of, the brand … Also, using “buzz marketing” specialists to communicate with potential consumers in social situations without disclosing that they are acting as brand ambassadors, will be illegal … Seeding viral ads on the internet in a manner that implies you are a simple member of the public, will also be against the law.
Many WOM marketers are thrilled that their industry may be cleaned up:
“We think it is a smart approach,”
said Sharon Swendner, president of .Com Marketing, an interactive agency that gets paid to blog. “We would all like to believe that the markets are self regulating, but unfortunately, as we've seen from banking, it doesn't always work that way.”
And excerpts from a few comments on the Ad Age article:
“What's there to complain about--they're just enforcing transparency and truth in advertising.”
“It could bring added credibility to the blogging space …”
“It's a shame that the FTC has to be the one to give the wake-up call but I'm happy that at least someone is.”
“These laws go without saying.”
