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Thinking ahead: Can't be done

MediaPost Publications, 7/13/09

Abstract:

The other day, a potential client said to me that his general agency claimed to have had lots of experience talking to boomers.

I replied that the operative word in that sentence was "had."

After all, any agency over 20 years old was certainly built on the back of the boomers.

But that was then, this is now.

In the never-ending battle to stay "current" with the coveted 18-34 markets, general agencies grow younger and younger each year. Along the way, the boomer "experts" have been replaced with Gen Y experts followed by Gen X experts. So while there might still be a handful of boomers at my client's general agency*, for the most part, the experienced boomers have long-since moved on to other pastures.

In fact, today the average age of a general agency creative person is 28. And nationally, less than 5% of agency personnel are over the age of 50.

I asked the same client if he would hire a youth marketing expert who hadn't worked with kids since 1990. His answer was obvious, and he immediately got the comparison to general agencies and their past knowledge of boomers.

Boomers are constantly evolving, and turning 50 is affecting them in ways never seen before because it is the demarcation of a new and uncharted life stage. A life stage you can't understand at 25 or 30 or even 40.

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