Recently there was a item from a trusted source about a new travel company targeting Baby Boomers. I’m not linking to it because I wasn’t impressed. Dull and lifeless stuff. Just add it to the invisible list of the same old same old.
A day or so later I stumbled upon another news story about a travel company targeting twenty/thirty-somethings.
The irony for me: The latter company has a good site, good copy – and with tweaking of their offers and philosophy would be a great model for targeting Baby Boomers.
That one I’ll link to. In a minute.
I’ve been writing and speaking about this subject for years. From January 2004 (get out your magnifying glass or skip it):
The article was expanded for a chapter in my book (©2005, 2007). Excerpts:
Pouncing Mouses
Many sociologists and futurists are predicting a few more radical social and political upheavals triggered by Baby Boomers before we’re packed off in coffins and urns, sprinkled over mystical mountains and mundane golf courses, or blasted into outer space so we can eternally commune with the cosmos.
On the other end of the spectrum, we’ll also be revolutionizing the tourist industry for the next thirty years, taking hundreds of millions more vacations before the ultimate holiday. Travel companies are having big problems trying to figure out what to offer—and how to reach us. We’re not lining up on docks for meaningless cruises on silly ships, nor are we allowing ourselves to be bundled into cookie- cutter cavalcades so we can gawk at decaying castles from the lumpy seats of double-decker buses. Nobody is going to tell us what a vacation is. We’ll tell you.
There’s a cottage industry out there preying on the blubbery and frightened tourist industry, making wild guesses as to what Baby Boomers will want to do with all our free time. I won’t list them all here. They range from ecologically correct junkets to health-nut boot camps to intellectually and culturally themed excursions to the beating down of well-publicized, well-traveled “unbeaten paths.”
This book deals with advertising to Baby Boomers, but I’ll over- step my bounds and propose a business model: Boomers are internet- savvy. Boomers are not passive. We do not want to simply slap one key and have our vacation pop up on a screen. We want to rattle lots of keys, have our mouses pounce and bite off appetizing chunks of graphic and description from all sorts of sources––and build unique, variegated vacations.
Some smart dot-com entrepreneur will partner with thousands of travel companies, resorts, hotels, museums, airlines, car rental companies, and build a modular travel and reservation website. Myriad tempting experiences will be offered. The website will calculate the price of each activity, cataloguing and coordinating everything. It will be a package you fill with goodies.
Planning it will be half the fun, and immediately entice and involve the site visitor. For a few days you’ll be lying on a beach. The next day you’ll travel to a large city and take in whatever sights you wish, perhaps joining a guided tour. In the morning you’ll be driving to a tennis resort for a day or two. After that will come a scenic road trip to a local winery for a prearranged private tour. Keep driving, and you’ll check into a secluded lodge, and hike in the mountains for a few days. Then you’re off visiting another city in another country, mostly to just goof around. Finally, check in your car, hop on a train, and before long you’re naked and slumping into a vat of hot mud at a famous health spa, followed by a shower and reservations at a five- star restaurant.
30 Advertising to Baby Boomers
You could even spend an afternoon in lumpy seats on a double- decker bus if you want.
Possible Copy/Campaigns:
• We don’t tell you what a vacation is. You tell us.
• Package your own vacation.
• The unPackaged Packaged Vacation
• Tell us what a vacation is. Then take it.
_____
And there have been a slew of posts. Just a few:
My Favorite Cyber-Myth (2005)
How I snicker and roll my eyes whenever I read about Baby Boomers fumbling around on computers, scratching their heads, totally flummoxed.
Cookie-Cutter Cavalcades (2009)
If you spend too much time rocking on the front porch, will your brain droop into autopilot? One antidote for this is educational travel …
Travelers Angry with Web (2009)
NostraChuckus was sure the online travel biz would make things easier and easier, more fun and more fun – where one of the best parts of a trip would be planning it.
Here’s the travel company for twenty/thirty-somethings:
contiki
All our tours are flexible and give you free time every day. So you’ll have plenty of time to do your own thing. We also give you plenty of great ideas (and prices) with our Explore More optional activities.
Like to mix it up? Keep it simple one night & a little more spectacular the next? Budget tours give you a chance to stay in everything from cabins, hostels to hotels & even a 16th century French chateau.
Sounds like tons of fun to me – very close to my version of a perfect travel service for Baby Boomers. Pick and choose, pick and choose.
The PDF brochures are a bit busy for my eyes (they’re not for my eyes) – but wow. I’m excited. Download or view a couple:
contiki ebrochures
So where’s the travel company with variety and oodles of pizazz for Baby Boomers?
Lasker's creative and powerful use of "reason-why" advertising to inject ideas and arguments into ad campaigns had a profound impact on modern advertising, foreshadowing the consumer-centered "unique selling proposition" approach that dominates the industry today. His tactics helped launch or revitalize companies and brands that remain household names--including Palmolive, Goodyear, and Quaker Oats.
When Lasker moved to Chicago in 1898, advertising agencies were still mainly brokers of space in newspapers and magazines. Lord & Thomas employed just one graphic artist and a part-time copywriter. All that was about to change. America's population was swelling, and manufactured goods were flooding into the market; the emergence of large-circulation newspapers and national magazines like The Saturday Evening Post meant companies had new and inviting places for promotion.
Commercials are supposed to be somewhat clear. Yes, they can be artsy. Yes, they can be clever. Hopefully they are both entertaining and informative as well. But, a commercial's main focus needs to be selling a product or service. If consumers watching these commercials are unsure of that main focus, the marketers are doing something wrong.
“Cruikshank and Schultz provide vivid details of Albert Lasker’s revolutionary advertising and public relations career, launching and revitalizing beloved American brands. The Man Who Sold America tells a fascinating story, and reveals valuable lessons and insights for anyone interested in communications and the media.” - Carol Cone, Founder, Cone Inc., and Managing Director, Edelman
