25 April 2018

Women Redux

It’s been only a few months since I blogged about the power and influence of women:

21 February 2018
imageWomen
… Ten, twelve years ago there were older women. Now there are older women younger than I am. Weird. It’s some strange time/space warp I’m living in.

Mature women are just all over the place. Take a look:

imageMeet Fashion’s Next Generation: Over 60s
… Baby boomers have been largely absent from advertising, especially in high-fashion, despite driving 42 percent of spending in the US, versus 13 percent for millennial and Gen-Z consumers … Typically, companies gear their campaigns towards a younger demographic, assuming the ads will also appeal to their parents. Now, some companies are reversing that formula.

Here’s a brave campaign, certainly braver than one from a few years ago:

Ads for pee-proof underwear campaign redefine the customers who wear them
by Zoƫ Beery
image New York-based underwear company Icon’s strategy is to go all in with a cheeky, flippant message. Today, their "Piss Off" campaign takes over the Bryant Park subway station in Manhattan…

 CREDITS

  • Jasmine Zhang - Designer
  • Fenghe Luo - Designer
  • Supisara Burapachaisri - Designer
  • Meng Shui - Art Director
  • Kejal Macdonald - Marketing Director
  • Kelsey Duchesne - Copywriter
  • Anna Mackenzie - Photo Director
  • Molly Matalon - Photography 

Pee-Proof Underwear Brand Launches ‘Piss Off’ Campaign To End The Stigma Of Bladder Leaks
imagePeriod-proof underwear company Thinx is taking on the incontinence industry with its sister brand Icon, “patented pee-proof underwear that lets leaky ladies kick pantyliners (and the lame stigma of bladder leaks) to the curb.”

And GRAND Magazine features a cover photo and article about model Yazemeenah Rossi (note: my interest is purely professional):

imageYAZEMEENAH ROSSI: Secrets To …
by Wendy Packer
… Contrary to what some people may think about women in their 60s, Yazemeenah feels prettier today than ever before … She is also very popular on Instagram with women in their 20s and 30s seeking advice on how to stay well as we age …

From The Remember When Files:

21 February 2007
Dove Pro-Age Campaign
… There is a big difference between thinking you are younger than you are, and not thinking that you are old …

15 April 2018

Generations Make Better Decisions Together

That’s what a blogger for Forbes tells us:

Future Of Work: Research Shows Millennials, Gen Xers And Baby Boomers Make Better Decisions Together
by Erik Larson
“Decision-making teams that include a wide range of younger and older employees significantly outperform more narrowly young or old teams.”

Good article, worth a read. But it’s difficult to get too excited about this musty revelation. Yours truly and many others have been saying the same for years.

From my book © 2005:

0976697319.01.I have a business friend who wants to start an advertising agency that would only accept clients whose products are for the 50-plus market, and he wants to hire only people over fifty, from the receptionist on up. It’s hard not to applaud such an idea, but I wouldn’t want to work there. And it wouldn’t be because of the receptionist. I’ve met some gorgeous, very smart ones who’ve mentioned to me that they’re grandmothers. (They’ve got to be lying.) The reason I wouldn’t work there is because I love working with people in their twenties. They sizzle. They’re galvanized. They charge me up.

Lots more:

Diversity = Productivity (2008)
image... Scott E. Page, a professor of complex systems, political science and economics at the University of Michigan, is a fresh voice... Rather than ponder moral questions like, “Why can’t we all get along?” Dr. Page asks practical ones like, “How can we all be more productive together?” The answer, he suggests, is in messy, creative organizations and environments with individuals from vastly different backgrounds and life experiences.

You Know Who's Boss – Consumers (2007)
But Do You Really Know Them Well?
image … It makes all the sense in the world for ad makers (both clients and agencies) to be well-stocked with people who understand consumers, whether young people who fathom the mysteries of cyberspace, a good mixture of people who reflect the ethnic and cultural diversity of our country, and, yes, even older people who understand the vitality and buying power of the great gorge of baby boomers overtaking our land.

Talk about the need for greater diversity in the business largely has fallen on deaf ears. (2013)
Nobody likes to be told whom they should hire -- unless it can be demonstrated that hiring the right mix of people can improve the bottom line…

Intergenerational Teams A Strength (2013)
The company focuses on recruiting new talent and retaining the services of experienced employees, which often results in the creation of inter-generational teams tackling company projects together.

So hire or work with someone who’s not you. You already have a you. Why would you need another one?

02 April 2018

Wearables, Home Monitors

A short video popped up on one of my feeds. It’s from the UK, is a few years old - but I’d never seen it:


I liked it, sent links to a few folks.

imageRonni Bennett blogged it.  Her take on home monitors and wearables brilliantly (and hilariously) complements the video:

Crabby Old Lady and Home Monitors for Elders
image… Marketed as a way to help elders live independently at home for as long as possible, hardly anyone has spent much effort yet to find out how the spied-upon old people feel about inanimate objects acting as nannies and tattling to their human controllers …

Also read the comments.

I’ve been screaming about over-the top monitor/wearable doodads for almost a decade.  A few moldy posts and two Huffpo pieces:

05 December 2009
Microsoft & AARP Study: Boomers & Tech II
image… How biofeedback-onic do you really want to be while taking a walk in the woods or playing some doubles?…  It’s a mark of honor to sustain a sports injury, but I’d feel rather silly if I were limping about and had to tell everyone, “I fell over while Wii-ing …”

15 October 2015
Baby Boomers Not Wearing Wearables
[image3.png]… While we’re not sailing around slaying metaphors, we are doing something almost as unforgivable: we’re getting old. What a curse.
And apparently we’re all supposed to strap on high-tech wearables as penance …

Never Leave The Hospital! Health Tech Wearables, Implanted Chips
huffington_post_logo1I'm having issues. I'm worried that the medical industry might want me to worry too much about my health. A little worry is good. But constant worry? It seems as if they want me to think of nothing else but my vital signs for the rest of my life …

Finally Live The Life You've Always Wanted With Wearables!
… Along with Google Glasses, you'll also be wearing Google Nose and Google Mouth.

Most of these gizmos are useless, will fall by the wayside. They also may turn out to be harmful. As you get older you have to hone your senses, not lull them. These whizzing, beeping doodads are often distracting and/or give you a false sense of security.

And the ones that are helpful won’t be an easy sell. So far, most of the advertising is clumsy and patronizing.    

26 March 2018

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense has spot-on prognosticated what would come true in 2018

Image result for nostrachuckusIt’s still March and already NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense has spot-on prognosticated what would come true in 2018:

Image result for 1960s color tv09 January 2018
The Year of Big
That’s my prediction. Advertisers will finally follow simple common sense, something a certain seer has been urging for years …  An advertisement you hold in your hand is about as big as a large piece of confetti…

Proof of NostraChuckus’ uncanny predictive powers of  the mundane and the obvious:

imageAdvanced Ad 2018: Attribution Data Points to TV Ads Driving More Sales
3/26/2018
by Jon Lafayette
… TV advertising works, and marketers should buy more of it, according to an executive at a company specializing in attribution measurement …

The Drum19 March 2018
Marketers who prioritise digital advertising have delusions of effectiveness
by Samuel Scott
… Marketers think that online video and social media are the second- and third-best mediums for brand building. But in contrast, Ebiquity found that the top six mediums are actually traditional ones that are always proclaimed as “dead”.

This isn’t the most exciting video in the world, but it’s short and informative. Stick with it and you’ll learn a lot about the silliness of itsy-bitsy advertising:

NostraChuckus’ Crystal Ball of Common Sense is getting hazy now…

21 March 2018

Mark Ritson

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/816023246659153920/GJd223zm_400x400.jpgMark Ritson is a fun fellow. And a troublemaker. I like him.

I don’t follow him on Twitter (actually, I do now, just clicked follow as I write this) but I really don’t have to follow him. His posts are always mucking up my feed because over a dozen people I do follow retweet him. Sometimes there are four or five retweets almost in a row of the same Ritson tweet.

Now there’ll be one more.

Dick Stroud tossed up a video of a recent Ritson talk:

Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Is marketing in such a bad state as depicted by Mark Ritson - probably
… When reading about the exploits of marketers I spend more and more of my time shaking my head in disbelief. How can they be so dumb?

Click the YouTube logo for the wide-screen version:

At 2:20 Mark goes on a waggish rant about the death of. Everything in marketing and advertising is dead and replaced by ……?

I’ve laughed about this for years. A few moldy posts:

01 May 2010
Foretellings
… Television, print, radio, and billboard ads will continue to have the visceral power they’ve always had – if only for their sheer size, simplicity, and cutting-edge audio/visual qualities.

18 May 2010
Advertising Is Dead. Again. (Part I)
It’s official.  The last sixty-four years of advertising has been declared ‘ineffectual’.

19 May 2010
Advertising Is Dead. Again. (Part II)
But … what about social media marketing?  That’s the new thing, what everyone’s talking about, the only way to go nowadays. It’s the greatest thing since the telephone.

21 July 2017
The Interminable Death of Television
Nothing I can think of is as lively and chipper as television in its final throes. If we all began dying as happily, healthily, slowly, and painlessly as TV, we wouldn’t fear the process - but welcome it.

At 12:18 in the video, Mark talks about one of my favorite subjects (because it doesn’t exist), Brand Purpose. He does a funny bit where he asks the audience to match the brand purpose with the product/company.  I did pretty much the same thing a decade or so ago when talking about Baby Boomer sites and their mission statements:

14 September 2006
INVASION OF THE BABY BOOMER POD PEOPLE

27 August 2009
Advertising to Baby Boomers Can Be Tricky Business
… “Now, take out a pencil and paper.  It’s time for a test.  Match the graphics with the tag lines.”

Around 19:40 he’s all over digital nonsense. Again, very funny. Reminded me of some of my takes on digital nonsense:

07 December 2012
What is Digital Advertising?
… Television is now digital, commercials are shot with digital cameras – so are commercials digital advertising?  Are digital spots on digital radio digital advertising?  Print ads are created on computers, usually rendered as PDFs, delivered digitally. Digital advertising?  Magazines, both editorial and ads, are digitally produced.  Digital advertising?

04 November 2013
Smartphones & Tablets, Apples & Oranges
Clients and just about everybody else seem to be confused about advertising on all these new-fangled gadgets.  Added to the mix are odd, stupefying concepts like digital and mobile and native. Most of this stuff is gobbledygook, but I’ll try to separate the chaff from the chaff …

[image%255B22%255D.png]
Keep watching Mark Ritson’s video for more laughs and insight.