Resources - Mature Market Headlines
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.
> Read the full story
> Return to 50+ Headlines
Why firms fail to leverage trends - good article in the HBR that goes a long way to explain the attitude towards ageing http://bit.ly/bgrj3B
6:53 AM by 20plus30
Heading up to Hershey to see @johncmayer w/the boy for his birthday. He brought his guitar "just in case" :)
4:42 PM by davidweigelt
Jonathan, Joe and Dave traveled to Peosta, Iowa today. They'll be spending the next three days immersing... http://fb.me/ABdFfCpR
9:06 PM by immersionactive
Are you telling me that seniors like to swim too?
from Boomer Immersion
Marketing to Older Adults: More Than a Cheap Laugh and a Fast Buck
from Boomer Immersion
More advertisers? Not for More Magazine
from Boomer Immersion
eMarketer: Seniors Didn’t Catch the Wave
from Boomer Immersion
Nothing More “To Be Determined” for Boomer Social Network
from Boomer Immersion