28 March 2012

Leafing Through The Ether

I try to spend an hour or so a week leafing through the ether in search of something new to write about. I’m rarely successful. Everything is a rehash, and I end up rehashing the hash. Of course, the rehashers have no idea they’re rehashing.

Retirement:

Retire? No thanks, say these baby boomers
image… "I will never retire," he said. "So much of yourself is built around what you do everyday. There is a loss if you aren't doing it."

Over the next decade, an estimated 2.5 million baby boomers in Georgia will move toward retirement. But for the generation born between 1946 and 1964, the notion of retirement has changed.

The Unretiring Kind: Boomers Gear Up for Second Careers
Boomers have never left the stage. Their second acts include starting their own companies, buying franchises and reinventing careers.

Sounds familiar:

May 2006
My Warm Milk and Nap
"Money is not the sole motivating factor behind Baby Boomers working into retirement. They instead see work as a way to stay challenged and mentally active and sustain a link to the community they have been a part of for most of their lives…"

17 August 2007
Time to Retire the 'R' Word
We're not 'looking forward to retirement,' we're looking forward to new lives, new challenges. Only a small percentage will opt for pure retirement. (I predict that in twenty years the word 'retirement' will still be in dictionaries, but followed by the modifier archaic.)

And you might check this out.

School Daze:

Baby boomers bring new meaning to the term lifelong learner
Not all older students are returning to higher education for career retraining. Many are attending universities for pleasure or personal fulfillment.

Sounds familiar:

07 November 2005
imageBaby Boomers, Adult Communities, and Education
I did a conference call consult recently with a couple of on-the-ball entrepreneurs. The product/service targets Baby Boomers and their interest in continuing education…

Green Boomers:

Study: Baby Boomers Believe in Sustainable Principles (and Will Pay for Them)
In assessing whether the consumer would pay more for green, sustainable practices, we found a majority of respondents in the Boomer study indicated they would spend a little more for a healthier green home, with the average willing to pay 7 percent more for their purchase.

Sounds familiar:

image17 February 2011
Green Boomers Redux
It really won’t be too big a job convincing most Baby Boomers to think green – or at the very least consider green/greener products.

Maybe next week I’ll be a better googler, unethering something new and exciting.

20 March 2012

The kids are alright.

The Generation Bashers are back

OK, they never left.  A bit of history:

Me vs. We 
11 February 2008
Baby Boomers were stigmatized when we were in and around our twenties, early thirties. Sure, we were ‘me’ back then. Barring tragedies like war and all sorts of catastrophes similarly horrifying, most young adults are me, me, me.

Me vs. We Redux
26 June 2009
I did read something about a bunch of pundits apologizing for the recession/depression or whatever we’re going through. Apparently, they think it’s all their fault because they’re Baby Boomers. (Did any generation apologize for The Great Depression? I’ll have to check the history books.  If not, it should.  Some of those evil bastards must still be alive.  Anybody over ninety-eight had better atone.)

Me vs. We Redux Redux
22 October 2009
Baby boomers may be popularly portrayed as whiners, complainers and narcissists, but a new study by University of Massachusetts Amherst psychology Professor Susan Krauss Whitbourne says the 50-somethings are getting a bad rap.

“It’s wrong to say baby boomers are selfish and only care about staying young,” said Whitbourne. “They have a feeling of connection to younger generations and a social conscience.”

But this is all getting old and boring.  Now the pundits have a new generation to bash.  One that’s even worse than Baby Boomers!

Young People Becoming More Focused on 'Me'
Today's young adults are more "Generation Me" than "Generation We," according to a new analysis…

Millennial Generation Money-Obsessed And Less Concerned With Giving Back, Study Finds
… Researchers have found the so-called Millennial generation to be less environmentally conscious, community-oriented and politically engaged than previous generations were at the same age…

Wow.  Real no news news.  From my book © 2005, 2007:

excerpt advbb

The kids are alright.

12 March 2012

Digital Distractions II

I wasn’t planning on doing a Digital Distractions II – but there are so many digital distractions that it’s difficult to be distracted. 

Bob Hoffman aka The Ad Contrarian continues not to distract me. Two recent posts:

FarceBook
imageFacebook is like the telephone. It's great for chatting, but not terribly good for selling.

One of the most remarkable things about it is the blind faith that marketers continue to have in it despite its questionable record as a marketing vehicle.

That’s because only 0.051% are distracted.  The rest aren’t distracted.  They refuse to engage!!!  How selfish of them.

More from The Ad Contrarian:

Interactivity: Get Over It
imageIt turns out that people on line react to ads the same way people off line react to them -- mostly they ignore them. And when they do bother to read them, they overwhelmingly do not interact with them … While people are interactivatin' like crazy with each other, interactivity with ads is miniscule. Bastards.

Those are strong words.  I merely said that they were selfish.  Bob The Big Bully.

Another piece that didn’t distract me:

Twitter & Facebook share a problem: Proving social ads work
By Mathew Ingram
The point is that Facebook is a social medium, not an advertising one … You interrupt social conversations with commercial messages at your peril.

I hope this will be the last time for awhile where I won’t be distracted by digital distractions.

06 March 2012

Digital Distractions

Advertisers are getting wise to the drawbacks of marketing in the digital nest.  From 2007:

Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers

Federal Express

There are active and passive parts of our day. Without getting into too much psychobabble, as you get older the passive side needs more nourishment. It’s not really passive. It’s focused absorption. At some point you have to climb out of your frenetic digital nest and concentrate on one thing. It might be reading a book, watching a TV show or movie, listening to music, looking out the window.

Or immersing yourself in a magazine.

This isn’t ‘down time’ (that would be sleeping), but nourishing your psyche by absorbing and not actively being involved in what you’re doing.

I’ve updated this theme a few times:

Foretellings
…. And the more people use smartphones, the less they’ll tolerate silly graphical doodads mucking up their small  screens.

imageADWEEK: Magazines Pull Back on Tablet Bells and Whistles
Tablets will become much bigger, lighter, and will be on your coffee table.  You’ll lie on the couch and pick it up, reading your favorite magazines, newspapers, or whatever.  A passive experience.  Simple, straightforward advertising will not be considered invasive.

What’s the newest news?  Not much – but worth a gander:

Finding Your Book Interrupted ... By the Tablet You Read It On
image… That adds up to a reading experience that is more like a 21st-century cacophony than a traditional solitary activity. And some of the millions of consumers who have bought tablets and sampled e-books on apps from Amazon, Apple and Barnes & Noble have come away with a conclusion: It’s harder than ever to sit down and focus on reading.

imageBack to my point about magazines: People subscribe to and buy special-interest magazines not only to read the articles, but to peruse the ads for products related to their interests. Women reading Oprah Magazine, the PLUS Magazines in Europe and Canada want to know about the latest in fashion, make-up, food, exercise and health products.  People subscribed to National Geographic or Smithsonian want to know about themed vacations,  museums, luggage, and traveling products/services.    

Digital interruptions are headache-inducing.  Not so with magazines. Advertisements are welcomed and appreciated.  They are integral, seamless extensions of the magazine  experience. 

29 February 2012

Memo to H.R: Boeing Gets A Bargain

imageBoeing and Microsoft.  They  dominate the business news in my hometown paper. (Actually, it’s not really my hometown paper.  Here’s my hometown paper.)

An inspiring article/obit this weekend:

imageAlbert Seifert, 91, worked at Boeing through seven decades
By Atia Musazay
Employees at Boeing's Auburn Fabrication Division remember coming into work at 5:30 a.m. and seeing their most senior co-worker, Albert Seifert, already there, doing what he liked best: building sophisticated tools and equipment.

What knocked me out:

In 2001, he created a highly useful tool — the Laser Trim Cell — a device that employs a laser to cut stainless-steel tubing…

So Mr. Seifert was eighty years old when he crafted a complex piece of equipment.  The original 2002 article from Boeing:

imageFrom the B-17 to lasers, Al's been there
By Phyllis Miller
… "Al is one of the guys to whom you can take a project and be assured you will get what you designed," … "He is wonderful in providing the tooling expertise, but also in helping younger designers understand what works in the production environment and what doesn't."

Daniel Nydegger, who has worked with Seifert for more than 20 years, agrees. " I believe that when he comes to work, the company gets a bargain," Nydegger said. "A lot of the engineers come to him for advice because of his longevity and the skill level that he has. If Al suggests something, they listen."

As usual, it all sounds vaguely familiar:

07 May 2010
Memo to H.R: Older Brains = Smarter Brains
… A new book makes the case that our brains can age as well as a vintage French burgundy; many of our most important cognitive functions actually improve with age … as Strauch’s book makes clear … older workers can provide valuable brain power to an organization.

I'll leave you with a quote from Rosser Reeves:

Old Masters and Young Geniuses
"No, I don't think a 68-year-old copywriter can write with the kids. That he's as creative. That he's as fresh. But he may be a better surgeon. His ad may not be quite as fresh and glowing as the Madison Ave. fraternity would like to see it be, and yet he might write an ad that will produce five times the sales. And that's the name of the game, isn't it?"