An interesting Boomer blog

It is amazing how you keep coming upon new sources of insights about the older market. This is an interesting well written blog and definitely worth a read.

The description of the company is a little too jargon ridden for my liking: “We’re a collaborative marketing communications venture that employs unique combination of archetypes, stories, and generational insights to help companies position themselves for success in the Boomer market. “ But, the content is written in a much more accessible style. Dick Stroud

Age UK logo and marketing message

Yesterday I had a call from Marketing Magazine about the new Age UK ad campaign.

Before talking about that I thought I had better catch-up with the news and say something about the new logo.

This is a paraphrase of the press release.

'Life loop' is the branding choice of charity formed by the merger of Help the Aged and Age Concern and is appearing on the websites of Age Concern England and Help the Aged. UK.

It was designed by branding agency Corporate Edge . My last musing about the new name can be found here.

"It shows life in the round," said a spokeswoman. "Not a straight line that starts with young and ends with old, but a loop of vitality, a circle of life. It represents the continuous, seamless support that Age UK offers."

So there you are.

This brings me back to the new ad campaign that is reported in today’s Marketing with the image of the older lady.


Here is the press blurb:

The “Our power is our number” ad drive is the first campaign the charity has launched since unveiling its new identity, and is part of a wider effort to build awareness of the new brand and the services the organisation offers to older consumers. The campaign launches on 5 April and includes television and print advertising and a direct mail drive to 2.5 million people.

Age UK works with creative agencies Karmarama and Kittcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw, digital agency Agency.com and media agency Manning Gottlieb OMD. These are all heavy hitters.

My reaction to the campaign was this quote.

“The election is an obvious issue [for Age UK] to build a campaign around because of the propensity of older people to vote”, but he says the strapline veers towards a “threatening tone” without describing Age UK’s role.

Often when you make a quick remarket to a journalist you wish you had kept your mouth shut. In this case I stick with my comment.

It was clear that the journalist wasn’t too sure what Age UK did or was ‘for’. I know about the great work that Age Concern does at a local level but I am still very hazy about its main purpose in life. I would be the first to admit that this is my fault but I suspect I am not alone.

It is very easy to write a blog and criticise but I do think there is a fundamental issue of communicating the new organisation’s purpose. I am not sure if “Our Power is Our Number” is going to make things much better.

Here is the Age UK manifesto.


Dick Stroud

Two presentations on SlideShare that are worth viewing

This is the first time I have seen a presentation about the 50-plus in Germany. Lots of facts and lots of the stuff that applies to all European countries.

Definitely worth a look

The Truth About Generation 50plus In Germany

View more presentations from Ulrich Riediger.

This is a beautiful presentation about social media around the world. I have no idea how I would use the information it contains but it is a really well constructed and visually appealing.

Social Media around the World

View more presentations from InSites Consulting.

Dick Stroud dick@20plus30.com

Kim Walker’s SilverTips newsletter is always worth reading

If you are not a regular reader of Kim’s blog about all things 50-plus in the Asia Pacific region then you can catch with his thoughts in the monthly newsletter.

Here are a few of the topics covered:

• Movies and Music Learn To Profit from the Boomer Market
• Thailand Identifies Senior Tourism Opportunity
• Microsoft Forecasts the Needs of Baby Boomers; Report
• Australia's Telstra Reaches Silver Online Users in New Campaign
• P&G Rethinks Strategy to Reach Older Consumers
• Asia's Silver Elites Show Their Spending Power

That should be enought to wet your appetite. Dick Stroud

Age Concern Liverpool is selling it experience

To be more precise it is selling access to the 20,000 people on its Age Concern database. I thought that Age Concern had morphed into Age UK – maybe not.

Anyway, market researchers can gain access to this group of older people in the Liverpool area by contacting David Rowland at Age Concern Liverpool. Alternatively you can contact the guys at Generation Comms. This is a new consultancy set up to advise on marketing to older people.

This is what Generation Comms says about itself.

Generation Communications Partnership has been established by a group of seasoned professionals with a wealth of communication, PR, marketing and business strategy experience to help you to untap customer potential in the 50+ age groups.

It is always good news to see new agencies providing services to companies wanting to market to the older market. I wish them well.

This is the first time I have seen an Age Concern region go it alone and promote its local marketing resources. I wonder I this is the shape of things to come? One Age UK and zillions of Age Regions Dick Stroud

Another agency working in the 50-plus space

It is always good to see new marketing companies entering the 50-plus space. Last week I was contacted by Mark Beasley, a guy I met ages ago, who told me about a new agency he and his colleagues has launched.

This is what it says about itself:

rhc advantage is a creative agency that specialises in planning, creating and managing integrated marketing communications for older audiences. The partners have the insight, experience and expertise to provide our clients with creative and effective solutions to the marketing challenges of an ageing UK population.

From looking at the web site it seems that rhc advantage covers most areas of marketing. I wish them well. Dick Stroud

'Agenda' is likely name for merged Age Concern and Help the Aged

A spokesman from the merged charities confirmed that Agenda was under active consideration. "It is being looked at and staff have been consulted on it," he said. But no final decision has been taken yet.

The article then went on to say that brand consultancy Corporate Edge was hired in January to create the new identity. Chris Wood, its chair, said older people's needs would be central to the branding strategy.

The final sentence made me rock with laughter: “The merged charity's spokesman said it had so far paid Corporate Edge less than £100,000.”

How long is it going to take some wag in the press to work out that this exercise has cost about £17,000 per character. If you take out the word Age, that had to appear in the new name, then the new characters “nda” cost £30,000 each.

I know, I know , I know that is not how branding exercises work but for the sake of the charity I just hope the press understand that, especially if the launch is laced with rumours of job redundancies and cuts in services.

So let’s also hope the press office is up to all of these angles and has its strategies in place to douse them before they gather pace and ignite into a major story.

Agenda.com, agenda.co.uk, agenda.org.uk are all sites that are registered but not being used. Let’s hope that one, or all of them, is owned by the new charity. Dick Stroud

It is not a secret - we are in a recession

I am amazed how few companies are reflecting the fact that most people are, in one way or another, concerned about the recession.

OK, some people are doing well and some doing really badly and there are lot in the middle who don’t know which of these two groups they will join over the coming months.

Great to see that my chums in Holland who run a 50-plus agency are reflecting the reality. As much as I hate Web Intro pages I reckon this works. Dick Stroud

Insights into the Asian Pacific market

Kim Walker is the leading specialist in over-50s marketing in the AsiaPac region.

Even if you don’t have an interest in this geographic region it is well worth reading his latest newsletter. Make sure you listen to his interview on the local radio station.

If I had the time I would have loved to have attended the 2 day conference that he is hosting about Marketing to Baby Boomers.

If you listen to Kim’s radio interview you will hear him describe a radically new auditing tool that enables companies to appraise their 50-plus friendliness. This is something that we have been working on for the past 6 months. I will soon be blogging (and probably bragging) about how it can be used and the benefits it delivers. Dick Stroud

What’s happened in the Boomer World in the past 6 months?

Sit back, follow this link, and Chuck Nyren will explain.

This is a really worthwhile piece of work. Good presentation and a veritable goldmine of URLs. Great job. Dick Stroud

New York creative agency having a crack at the US 50-plus.

The new agency (Agencyfive0) has got off to a flying start with this article in Forbes, by one of the founders.

This is what Five-0 says about itself

At Five-0, we’ve spent the last year studying, researching and conversing with consumers age 50 to 70 across America. We’ve met with experts and authors on their habits. We’ve interviewed researchers and statisticians about their trends. We’ve heard their opinions about advertising and marketing in segments from packaged goods to automobiles to erectile dysfunction.

What have we learned?

We’ve learned that today’s 50+ consumer (the boomer) is changing everything about aging and marketing. From what they buy to where they buy to why they buy etc etc.

As always, it is great to see new agencies and consultancies entering the 50-plus space. I like the web site and style. A few gripes. Pity about the Intro screen. Also, the name is a tad confusing – is it five0, five-0, agencyfive0. But, these are minor things. Dick Stroud

Ageshift - interesting style of document

This is an interesting publication.

Forster describes itself as the: “UK’s leading social change communications consultancy.” I have bumped into them over the past few years and know that they have an interest in the older market.

This document is part promotional part educational (a collection of bits and pieces about older people). It is pretty good.

A couple of gripes I have the document. Firstly, it republishes, in an uncritical way, research about climate change and older people (Greening the Greys).

When this research was first published I wrote about the far from rigorous methodology that was used to derive the data. It is a pity to see the reports conclusions republished as if they are facts.

Secondly, there is not enough consideration about the heterogeneous nature of the older age group.

Other than that it is a good document and well worth a read. I really like the design, although I not sure about the cover photo, but it certainly got my attention. Dick Stroud

A new 50-plus agency in the Netherlands

Some of the guys I know in the Netherlands have formed a new agency called bureauvijftig’ (literally translated agency fifty).

Chuck Nyren has covered the launch in his blog so I will not repeat the same stuff – best check it out there.

I wish them good luck – I am sure they will not need it. Dick Stroud

Golf clubs = the 50-plus

Where are you bound to reach an older audience? Everybody knows that golf clubs are populated by older people so what better place to advertise your product.

Well yes and no. Firstly, most golf clubs have a high proportion of men – maybe these are not your target audience? Secondly, when somebody is in the protected world of the golf club, are they really susceptible to advertising?

A month or two back I was contacted by the guy who runs Golf Club Media, an agency that specialises in getting promotions in front of golf club members. I asked him to send me an example of how it works.

The above is a campaign that he ran for the Portugal Tourist Board to target the over 50's. It was presented using 600 A3 posters in the club changing rooms. It seems the results were excellent with a recall of over 85% plus a huge increase in the traffic to the travel destination’s Web site.

That facts that further three campaigns have been run seems a good evidence of client satisfaction. An interesting approach. Dick Stroud

Excellent presentation about the 50-plus in AsiaPac

Kim Walker has added an excellent presentation to his Web site. It is his keynote session "The Rise of the Silver Surfers" presented to the iMedia Brand Summit in Kota Kinabalu, E Malaysia.
Great source of date and insights about the Asia Pac market.

Fascinating stuff about “how do you think, feel and behave relative to your actual age”. What a range of results.

As usual the Australians are at the extreme, feeling a shadow of their chronological age. Just shows you what drinking Fosters Larger and wearing a funny hat with corks hanging from it does to your self-perception. Dick Stroud

New online seminar about 50-plus marketing

My thanks to John Rae (CACI Ltd), Sarah Robson (Millennium), Stephen Croncota (Haggar Clothing), Janet Kiddle (Steel Magnolia), Gill Walker (Evergreen), Chuck Nyren (Consultant) and Arjan in’t Veld (Inthefield) for contributing to Henry Stewart's online seminar about the: “Latest thinking in marketing to the older consumer”.

What seems like a lifetime ago, Henry Stewart asked me to contribute and edit this series. The gestation period may have been long but the result has been worthwhile.

Sorry folks but this is not free content. You can get a feel of what it is all about by looking at the above link. My thanks to everybody who helped with the content and production of the seminar. Dick Stroud

Goodbye JWT Boom

According to Chuck, JWT has shut the division of its business that specialised in the older market.

The WSJ reports that the agency has closed its Chicago office, however, Boom was based in San Francisco, so it couldn’t have had anything to do with that.

Maybe it had something to do with the fact that JWT Specialized Communications (of which Boom was part) is the largest creditor of Zounds Inc, a company that manufactures and sells hearing aids and that has filed for Chapter 11.

JWT is in for over $4.25 million. Dick Stroud

Well done Millennium for winning the Amplifon business

Millennium has been appointed by Amplifon – that bills itself as the world’s leading hearing aid supplier - to broaden the company's product awareness and encourage hearing loss prevention amongst mature consumers. Perhaps I should try and get some discount!

I had no idea that the company has 147 UK branches.

Well done the guys in Shipley. Dick Stroud

All change at Millennium

The Direct Marketing Group, Millennium’s parent, is restructuring its business.

Millennium will become a market research and consultancy service for the mature market and will be headed by Kevin Lavery, one of the original founders.

Managing director Fiona Hought will step down from the role and work on a consultancy basis.

The Direct Marketing Group’s founder and chief executive Martin Smith says: “The restructure will allow Millennium to focus purely on offering bespoke mature marketing consultancy and continue to build the research arm.”

Looks like it is all change at the UK's largest agency specialising in the older market. Dick Stroud

Chuck Nyren’s looks back at 2008

Well done Chuck for putting together a look-back at 2008. Make yourself a coffee, sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy. Mr Nyren you are far more industrious than me. Dick Stroud

Silver - a source of knowledge about the Asia Pacific market

Kim Walker has launched a new agency (Silver) providing marketing knowledge about 50-plus consumers in the Asia Pacific market.

Silver’s first phase of services include county reports, a database about the behaviours, attitudes, product consumption and media habits for all of the Asia Pacific markets and access to a concept/issue testing research base of older consumers.

I have been in contact with Kim for most of 2008 whilst he launched the company and at the end of the year met-up with him in Japan. I am certain Silver will make a big contribution to the world of 50-plus marketing. It goes without saying that for UK companies, understanding the dynamics of the Asian Pacific markets is vital.

Along with its business importance I have a real interest in the area and so I was delighted to become a member of Silver’s advisory board.

Like all good 50-plus marketing site, Silver has a blog. The first item is about Expat retirement to Malaysia.

Several Asian governments (particularly Malaysia and Thailand) have schemes designed to attract older people to spend some or all of their retirement (and retirement dollars) in their countries.

As older people, especially in the US and Europe, come to terms with their decimated retirement assets they will look to where in the world they can a better quality of life for their fixed incomes.

One of my friends has already purchased a property in Malaysia and is forever telling me what a great country it is and so inexpensive compared to the UK.

I am certain that one result of the recession will be a reassessment of where older Brits spend their retirement. Right now living in Euroland is nightmare. Sterling has lost over a quarter of its value against the Euro in the past 6 months - what the exchange rate position will be at this time in 2009 is anybody’s guess and I mean anybody.

Kim, welcome to 50-plus marketing land. It will be great to be able to add insights from the Asia Pacific market to our knowledge of the older market. Dick Stroud

Even more 50+ blogs to read

Carol Orsborn along with Mary Brown wrote ‘Boom’. One of the few books I really enjoyed about Marketing to Boomers - in this case it was Boomers of the lady variety.

After several years as chief blogger at The Boomer Blog, Carol has moved onto become Senior Strategist and spokesperson for a new blog that is all about targeting the upscale and affluent women 50+.
Rather than describing the blog, go and have a look for yourself.

Carol, I wish you all success with the new venture. Dick Stroud

Millennium handed Reader's Digest re-launch

Well done to my chums at Millennium winning the Reader’s Digest relaunch. As an agency specialising in the 50-plus market there cannot be any secret about the market the Digest is targeting.

Millennium has been tasked with a number of creative briefs including a direct mail pack, inserts and online activity to help raise the magazine's profile and attract new subscribers, particularly from the over-50s market.

The Reader's Digest UK edition has a monthly circulation of over 635,000. Dick Stroud

The morphing of Focalyst

Maybe this is old news, but it suddenly struck me that Focalyst has changed. More precisely the ownership of Focalyst.

When it was launched it was billed as:

AARP Services, Inc. and The Kantar Group announced today the name of their joint venture dedicated to understanding Boomers and 50+ consumers.

Now the organisation describes itself as a

Millward Brown specialist practice supported by AARP Services Inc.

OK, I know that Kantar and Millward Brown are both WWP companies, but it is the subtle change in the words about AARP's role - “joint venture” to “supported by”. The WPP Web site still lists Focalyst as a joint venture with Kantar. Methinks this results from WPP's inability to keep its Web site content up to date.

Maybe this change explains the brilliant speaker list for the forthcoming Focalyst conference since Millward Brown must have the greatest address book for getting to senior management.

Also, the company is also a lot more active in generating 50-plus content. This is what they have to say about Boomers and ‘giving’.

If anybody know why AARP's role has been diminished do tell.

Look's like WPP has the US 50-plus market to itself. Dick Stroud

Merged age charity appoints chair

Dianne Jeffrey has been appointed chair of the charity that will be formed from the merger of Help the Aged and Age Concern England. This is excellent news.

As anybody who regularly reads my blog will know, I have been extremely critical of Age Concern’s recent commercial ventures– especially the Heyday disaster.
I don’t know Dianne very well but I think she is just what this merger of the two charities requires.

Marketers in the US have AARP, which is a useful conduit for engaging with the older market. Let's hope the UK gets something as good. Dick Stroud

So much promise so little delivery

Finerday and tgi50 both promised a lot but so far have delivered nothing other than a couple of out of date holding pages.

Come on guys what’s going on. It cannot be the long English Summer that has kept you from the job (for non-Brits, it hasn’t stopped raining). It cannot be the buoyant UK economy (from all reports we are about to dive into a 1920s recession). So what is going on? Dick Stroud

A collection of oldies specialists

On Tuesday I took part in the in a panel event titled 'Coming of Age‘. It was an interesting session conducted in a bar in the middle of London’s Piccadilly.Once I heard that how could I not accept the invitation

It provided me with a chance to meet David Noble who runs the social networking site Wanobe, Stephen Morgan, MD of Squiz who worked on the new 50Connect site, my old chum Sarah Robson, Research & Planning Director at Millennium, and Andrew Thatcher who runs mychumsclub.

I have to say they were not the most responsive audience I have ever encountered, maybe it was the lateness of the day, the proximity of the next glass of wine or the subject matter. It couldn’t have been the speakers!

Many thanks for the guys at NMK for putting on a well organized event. In the next couple of days I will be posting my words of wisdom. Dick Stroud

Weber Shandwick’s Baby Boomer group

Really good to see that a major PR company has decided to provide services to help companies communicate with the older audience. The Web site isn’t that informative but it is a start. I wish them well. Dick Stroud

AdAge takes an interest in the UK

It is not often that AdAge comments about the UK, not often it comments about UK agencies and never (I think I am right in saying) that it comments about a UK agency, which is yet to be launched, that will focus on the 50-plus (or as tgi50 likes to say the “50-just”). I have already commented about tgi50.

It just shows you the power of the personal brand. The founder is Robert Campbell who was the co-founder of London agency Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe. After the sale of the business he became vice chairman of Y&R Europe, Middle East and Africa and then VP at McCann Erickson for the same region.

Well done Robert. No beating about the bush - I am jealous! Dick Stroud

New over-50s agency

Brandrepublic reported the launch of a new agency (tgi50) specializing in the 50-plus market. The launch of tgi50 is scheduled for 16 August, which as everybody knows is Madonna's 50th birthday – must remember to get her a card.

The guys behind the agency are Robert Campbell and Toby Constantine. As can see they have extensive careers in the marketing business.

The company will offer services such as sales promotion, direct marketing, digital, PR, mobile and search-engine optimisation. It does not plan to produce traditional advertising campaigns.Campbell said: "It's a challenger organisation to Saga. We will be acting as a conduit for contemporary brands that usually aim at under-35s that now want to target the over-50s market but wouldn't be seen dead in Saga magazine."

The more companies talking about and selling to this market the better – I wish them well.

The only marketing blog that has picked up this story is Lunar.BBDO. – have a look at the comments. It does amuse me the way that some young marketers respond to ventures that are not aimed at their own age group, but that of their parents. Weird. Dick Stroud

Digital knowledge centre about the 50-plus

A new website has been created by the Dutch organization Route 50Plus and brings together news and knowledge about the over-50s.

Route 50Plus.com is a B2B site focused mainly on trade, industry and press - but is also contains resources for anybody wanting to be kept informed about the latest developments in the 50-plus market.

The following organizations are partners of Route 50Plus: Plus Magazine, 50 Plus Beurs, SeniorWeb, Nederland Bureau door Tourisme & Congressen, Omroep MAX, De Telegraaf, MediaPlus, and Booming Experience.

The more Web material about the 50-plus the better. I wish Route50Plus well. Dick Stroud

Retirement Revised - worth visiting

I met Mark Miller when we were presenting at the same event in New York. At that time he had just launched 50+ Digital a consulting company to print and online clients.

Since then he has been a busy guy and has just launched a new Web site RetirementRevised, focused on retirement information needs of 50+ Americans. This is an interactive companion to Retire Smart, the weekly newspaper column he writes for Tribune Media Services.

Definitely worth visiting the new site. A nice clean design with some interesting material. Interesting to note the use of video and Mark’s intention to create his own video material.
I wish him well with the new venture. Dick Stroud.

Let’s prove there is still life in the oldies

The UK has an Older People's Day on Oct 1 (A what I can hear you asking) and to give it some context a bit of research has been done to list the 60 goals for the over 60s.

Some of the daily press picked up on the story – here is the article in the Telegraph and a taster of the content.

The survey of 1,000 over-50s found that many intended to spice up their retirement by embarking on extreme sports such as parachute jumping or hang-gliding, learning new skills such as cooking or playing an instrument, and travelling. Some dreamed of seeing the Northern Lights, swimming with dolphins and going on safari. Others craved new cultural experiences, such as going to the London 2012 Olympics, visiting the opera, and seeing a West End show. A few just wanted to eat more cakes, have more sex or grow a beard.

I was thinking to myself, what outfit was staging this event. Surprise, surprise I discovered it a Government Initiative . I wonder how many bureaucrats this venture has kept employed! For a lot of over-60s the luxury of retirement is a dream. They are forced to keep working to pay the salaries and pensions of the sorts of characters that came up with this idea. Dick Stroud

The launch of immn

In the past couple of years I have worked with Millennium in the UK and Evergreen in Australia - both founder members of immn (International Mature Marketing Network).

This is what they say about themselves.

The founding members of the International Mature Marketing Network [IMMN] realized that, over time, their professional paths kept crossing, and each time was a learning opportunity to delve deeper into the 40+ market. Which begged the question: why don’t we do this more often, in a more formalized way? The answer to that question is IMMN, a professional organization for people interested in the 40+

This looks to be an interesting venture. It is great to see more organizations focusing on the older market. I wish them well. Dick Stroud

The Web is full of surprises

I reckon I have a pretty good handle on 50-plus related web sites in the UK and US. Yet, I am always finding established Web sites that I have never heard about.

By chance I came upon Savvy Senior that is an information/resource service devoted to meeting the needs of older Americans by providing information via a nationally syndicated newspaper column, e-mail newsletter, senior resource books, a weekly radio show and television features on NBC’s Today show. Well that is what the web site said.

I have subscribed to the weekly newswire to see if it is as good as it claims. Dick Stroud

Media for life’s next chapter

Welcome to a new marketing venture serving companies targeting the 50-plus.

50+Digital’s mission, according to its launch press release, is to provide “Media for life’s next chapter.” The company will develop, launch and operate advertising-supported consumer and business-to-business media properties for interactive and print media.

The company’s first venture is a blog covering business trends in the 50-plus market, including marketing, media, financial services, real estate, health care, lifestyle and demographic trends.

It is great to see more companies targeting the 50-plus market. Dick Stroud