Joseph Coughlin: The Longevity Economy

"Old age (as a concept) is made up. Most of it was invented by human beings for short-term, human purposes over the past century and a half. Today, we’re stuck with a notion of oldness that is so utterly at odds with reality that it has become dangerous. It constrains what we can do as we age, which is deeply troubling, considering that the future of our older world will naturally hinge on the actions of the older people in it."
– Dr. Joseph Coughlin

I met Joe Coughlin in 2006. We were presenting at a private conference for a pharma outfit, still wet behind our hairy ears.

I had attended and/or spoke at various marketing and boomer conferences - and thought I’d heard it all. But Joe’s presentation was like no other. We chatted on and off through the day and shared a cab to the airport.

Since then, Dr. Coughlin and MIT AgeLab have become potent forces researching, investigating, educating, and promoting all things elder.

The focus of AgeLab has evolved. In the beginning it was gizmos, mostly. Now it encompasses just about every facet of age-related life:

AgeLab Research Themes & Projects

Dr. Coughlin’s new book is likewise like no other.

The Longevity Economy
… Coughlin provides deep insight into a population for whom the defiance of expectations is the new normal, and who are building a striking, unheralded vision of longer life that very few in business see coming. His focus on women -- who are leading the charge away from traditional ideas of retirement toward tomorrow's narrative -- is especially illuminating …

Google The Longevity Economy and/or Joseph Coughlin for press and reviews, along with videos of his appearances over the last decade.

My take:

Dr. Coughlin covers a handful of subjects I’ve written and talked about for years: advertising/marketing and the horrors of not understanding this demographic, the importance of entrepreneurs, the power of women as decision-makers, etc.

What I love about the book: Joe’s fascination with history. No matter what the subject, he delves into all the antecedents.

My presentations usually include a history of advertising. I talk about diversity and creativity through the years. So, I’m a sucker for history.

For me, the paragraph summing up the book is on (appropriately enough) page sixty-five:

A few selections from my book and blog:

Advertising to Baby Boomers, ©2005,2007
… I'm fifty-four, and (according to the advertising and marketing industry) I haven't brushed my teeth, bought laundry soap, purchased a shirt, or taken a shower in almost twenty years. And as far as big ticket items - well, those rabbit ears work just fine on my 13-inch black & white T.V. They just need a nudge and a jiggle every now and then, that's all. And if a new needle is needed for my phonograph, I just get in my '73 Pinto and head over to the Goodwill and, when no one's looking, twist one off of a dusty old turntable and put it in my pocket ...

09 April 2009
Why couldn’t it have been…?
… I guess what upsets me about this campaign is not the campaign itself.  I like it.  I see people around my age – they’re entertaining, loose, funny. I’m wondering what the payoff will be. What a letdown. 
Why couldn’t it have been a car?  Laundry soap?  A computer?  A razor?  Anything but some age-related malady …

16 September 2009
Boomer Backlash II
… If every time someone over fifty sees a commercial targeting them and it’s always for an age-related product or service, pretty soon their eyes will glaze over, they’ll get itchy and grumpy.

The Real Issue: Marketing and advertising folks grasping the fact that Boomers will be buying billions (trillions?) of dollars worth of non-age related products for the next twenty-odd years. If you target this group for toothpaste, computers, clothes, food, nail polish, sporting equipment, toenail clippers - anything at all (almost), and you do it with respect and finesse, they will appreciate and consider your product.

I’ve been scribbling and bellowing about advertising and baby boomers since 2003. After the first few years it dawned on me that I was part of a bigger picture. Admitted blustery profundity: We’re changing society and the effects will be felt for generations. Millennials will be old someday and they’ll be old longer than we’ll be old. We’re paving the way.

There are lots of folks who’ve educated us and continue to educate us. Names off the top of my head: Robert N. Butler, David Wolfe, Ken Dychtwald, John Migliaccio, Kurt Medina, Matt Thornhill, Brent Green, Marti Barletta, Mary Furlong, Myrna Blyth, Carol Orsborn, Rick Moody, Mark Miller, Paul Kleyman, Scott Rains, Kevin Lavery, Dick Stroud, Reg Starkey, Laurie Orlov, Richard Adler, Todd Harff, Bill Thomas, Louis Tenenbaum, Arjan in’t Veld, Martijn de Haas, David Cravit, Moses Znaimer, Maxime de Jenlis, Florian Kohlbacher, Christopher Simpson, Gail Sheehy, Marc Middleton, Ronni Bennett, Jim Gilmartin, Gill Walker, Dave McCaughan, Kim Walker, Tony Mariani, Barry Robertson, Frédéric Serriere, Bob Hoffman, have I left any out? No doubt.

Joe Coughlin is the Point Man/Person at the moment. Read the book.

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Posts about MIT AgeLab and Joseph Coughlin:

22 April 2008
Bookmarked Brains: MIT AgeLab

19 May 2009
Fast Company Names Joseph Coughlin to Top 100 List

12 April 2010
Designing for Older Consumers

04 August 2010
Universal Design As A Beginning, Not An End

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Just for fun:

The Dotty Thing
by Chuck Nyren
On the way to the store to do Thanksgiving dinner shopping. She’s thumbing through the newspaper inserts and reviewing her list …

Smartphone Ads = Silly Graphical Doodads

NostraChuckus is having a good year.

The famed Soothsayer and advertising gadfly has been startling the world for nigh on a decade with his mundane prognostications. Over the last eleven months, he’s been featured in nearly every other post.

Add this one to the list.

How Often Do Consumers Intentionally Click Mobile Ads?
by Rimma Kats Nov 28, 2017
… A new survey found that most consumers say they rarely or never mean to click on ads served up on their phones …

… Baby boomers were the least likely to engage with mobile ads. Nearly a quarter said they never did, while another 49% said they rarely did so. Just 4% said they clicked on a mobile ad at least somewhat often.

From May 2010:

Foretellings
… The more people use smartphones, the less they’ll tolerate silly graphical doodads mucking up their small  screens ... Advertising on smartphones will be considered an annoyance, invasive, and rather dinky …

25 September 2012
Twitter & Advertising
… The mobile/social media soothsayers will have you believe that there is this unknown, magical mode of persuasion that has never been thought of before – and will reveal itself any day now.

If you believe that, I have a Blackberry in Brooklyn I want to sell you …

28 August 2013
Tablets & The Magic of Muggles
… Banner ads have been a washout, social media marketing is a cesspool, advertising on smartphones is not only teensy-weensy but competes with activity (talking/texting, apps, simple search).

04 November 2013
Smartphones & Tablets, Apples & Oranges
… Advertising on smartphones? Only if you think something half the size of a matchbook cover will catch and hold anybody’s attention …

22 September 2015
Marketing Miscellanea
… Baby boomers also had a highly negative response to mobile ads ... Fewer than 8% said they were likely to purchase a product advertised on their mobile phone … Overall, just 5.2% were interested in receiving ads on their phone at all …

There are more. But NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense is getting hazy now.

Just For Fun: Brain Games or Mind Games?

I have a song & dance act on Huffington Post.  It has nothing to do with advertising.

A recent ditty and jig is inspired by some recent news stories:

Brain Games or Mind Games?
On the internet (where I believe everything I read except if I write it) I’m finding news stories about a new Brain Game study. They’re not fake news, more like flake news…

It’s a subject I’ve written about ad nauseam on this blog:

01 May 2017
Brain Games or Mind Games?
You certainly get the ‘hard-sell’ impression that if you don’t buy and play these games, eventually your brain will leak out of your nose and ears…

Take a look.  Perhaps you’ll find it amusing.

The November Flurries

Wind is blowing very which way in The Great Northwest, leaves and branches swishing and diving. 

It seems that way on my computer screen, too. A messy swirl of stories:

Dick Stroud’s blog is a good one to steal from. There’s always something there worth filching. One  post mentions a Nielsen Norman Group newsletter:

Horizontal Attention Leans Left
by Therese Fessenden
… Web users spend 80% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 20% viewing the right half…

I’m moving
everything
on this blog
over
here
from
now
on.

A company I know nothing about, Skyword, and another newsletter:

Have We Forgotten Baby Boomers in Our Race to Lure Millennials?
by Lauren McMenemy
… 79 Percent of Baby Boomers Feel Patronized by Advertisers. Maybe because it seems we are really, really bad at it.

Could be:

Human Resources/Brain Power
"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?" - Rosser Reeves

Or you could download the first few chapters of my book © 2005/2007:

Preface - Intro - Chapter One (PDF)

I don’t know what this is, but it looks like something you’d buy a grandchild:

Tablette-Belami

One more flurry:

Good interview with Mark Beasley: Chairman of the MMA
… In 2013, he co-founded the MMA, a UK-based organisation that aims to address the age myopia of the marketing world. The MMA runs the Mature Marketing Summit, Europe’s leading event for all interested in the subject of marketing and older consumers, now in its fourth year.

If You build a website, they will come.

I have a client. An entrepreneur. He has a good idea for a service, has a solid business plan. He’s already successful in the Real Estate industry and his business proposition is Real Estate related.

Disclaimer: Rarely do I blog about clients, large or small. I find that writing/talking publicly about any consult or campaign fractures an unwritten confidentiality pledge. Most advertising bloggers follow this rule. So, no names and not much of anything.

We’ve put together good copy, a good website, good graphics, even a handful of down-to-earth short videos. He has a very engaging personality and explains his business quite well. I’m happy with the work we’ve done so far. It’s been easy (don’t tell him that) because he’s a breeze to work with.

The problem is that my client is obsessed with Facebook. He also suffers a bit from a decades-old malady, “If You build a website, they will come.”

Facebook. I’ve blogged about social media advertising for over ten years, have little faith in it. Sure, if you’re putting up a local pizza joint page then Facebook’s great. But marketing this service you’ll have to do a bit of blanketing. It’s not local. It’s super-niche,but has to reach as many eyeballs as possible. Only a small (very small) percentage will be interested.  That percentage will be enough to (likely) ensure success.

I’ve convinced him that Google AdWords might be a smart move. His service is something people would search for, there are only one or two competitive services – so his company would be in the top three unpaid searches. On one screen, he’ll end up with two ‘ads’ instead of one.

But I’d still like to see something in (silly retronym ahead) traditional media. This would give the company much-needed gravitas.

And the right eyeballs.

More info on social media non-advertising:

03 October 2016
Digital Ad Shenanigans

The advertising industry has been living a lie Mike Shields

10 October 2017
The Pitfalls Of Social Media Advertising

Attack of the Zombie Websites
Posted on October 17, 2017

 Craig Silverman

01 February 2017
Black Ops Advertising by Mara Einstein

Social Media - WOMM - Web Advertising
A collection of posts through the years.