Watching this video is worth 14 mins of your life

This has nothing much to do with the 50-plus but is something that is important for us all to understand.

Yesterday I wrote about danah boyd and her contribution to understanding the issues of privacy that Facebook and Google are wrestling with.

Today I have just watched her address the Gov2.0 conference where she talked about the importance of information literacy when addressing transparency of government data.
Her arguments don’t just apply to Government data, they become even more important when applied to scientific data that determines Government and corporate policy.

These are the main points she makes.
1. Information is power, but interpretation is more powerful
2. Data taken out of context can have unintended consequences
3. Transparency alone is not the great equalizer

This woman bugs me. Not only does she think logically and write extremely well but she is also an excellent communicator and willing to take views away from the norm. If she ever enters politics she gets my vote. Dick Stroud

Is anybody listening – yes – but not understanding

Part of this title comes from a very interesting blog posting by Jerry Shereshewsky.

Like me he was an early convert to the power of the Internet. He relates how in the mid 90s he would speak at conferences, talking about the business changing power of this wonderful technology. In those days the people attending the conferences were Internet people. We were, in the main, talking to ourselves. I know the feeling well.
The rest is history.

What started with a small band of Internet converts soon went mainstream.

Jerry then speaks about a similar start to things in the 'baby boomer marketing' space. To begin with the attendees at conferences about the ‘grey’ market (and other daft names) were a small band of people who "got it".

Unfortunately, the transition from the niche to general has not happened. Sure the list of companies, who are picking away at the edges of the older market, is increasing but not to the extent that it should.

I have written more than I like to think about why companies are so loathe shifting their vision to older consumers. That said, I thought I would relate a short (true) story to express another set of reasons why I think companies are so slow to change.

Standing in a reception area the size of Terminal 5 at Heathrow I see a couple of young guys bashing away on their MacBook Pros. They looked friendly so I asked if they had come to talk about the Youth Market. Yep, that’s us. You must be the bloke talking about the oldies? Yep that’s me. We then went through the mandatory exchange about how they thought the older market must be so large and how their parents spend their life on holiday and buying stuff etc etc…..

Soon we are collected by a nice young lady who was staging the event. As usual the day was running late and after a quick snack we are on feet speaking, with our time cut back to bring the event back on schedule. How many times I have been here before?

I was speaking in one room my youth marketing specialist chums in another. We exchange cards and good wishes that our sessions go well. The audience, who are the great and good of Mega Corporation Inc, are soon in place. I rattle through my session that covers the full spectrum of what the ageing population means to a company like Mega and some of the things they should be doing. The session ends. A couple of polite questions. Audience departs to samplethe delights of one of Mega’s new products.

One week later the nice young lady, who arranged the event, sends me the feedback. Amazingly, my youth specialist friends and I get the same score. The scores are OKish but clearly the audience thought they got a lot more value out of product sampling session and a presentation about sustainability.

So what do I learn from this experience?

Mega’s great and good were clearly a bright and senior bunch but essentially powerless to react to most of what I was talking about. If Mega ever does anything about the older market the decision will taken by an even brighter bunch of people somewhere on the Executive Floor of Mega Corporation HQ - not by their local country management. Multinational's country brand managers might have all the swagger but exercise little power.

I was talking about things the company should be doing that would require real change – my audience wanted to receive a few ‘tips’ about selling more of Mega’s products to older people. I was explaining the details of what is required; they wanted a handful of magic bullets.

Mega Corporation has a reputation for navel gazing and introspection. Their management’s reaction to both consumer related sessions (young and old) makes me think that the rumours are correct. Having worked for IBM, during its dominant era, when the writing was on the wall that it must change, I have witnessed at first hand the extent that big companies will go to not to have to take big decisions. Instead they fiddle about whilst steering the same course hoping a few minor adjustments will solve their problems.

So the bottom line is this. The reason why companies don’t “get it” about the older market is nothing to do with facts but about their inability/unwillingness/fear/laziness to change. Dick Stroud

Empathy- what’s that?

According to a study that was presented last week at the annual meeting of the Association for Psychological Science, college students of today are not as empathetic as their peers of 1980s and '90. I am afraid that this research is not online so I cannot provide a link.

A few quotes from the press.

"College kids today are about 40% lower in empathy than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of this personality trait."

Why the decline?

"The increase in exposure to media during this time period could be one factor, compared to 30 years ago, the average American now is exposed to three times as much nonwork-related information. In terms of media content, this generation of college students grew up with video games and it increasingly seems that the exposure to violent media numbs people to the pain of others."

"The recent rise of social media may also play a role in the drop in empathy”

I am not sure I buy either of these explanations but the next time some idiot comes out with the nonsense about boomers only caring for themselves and being self-centred you can point them at this research. Dick Stroud

Privacy and all that sort of stuff

Not only does danah boyd really know what she is talking about but she is a brilliant writer. I have been aware that there has been a lot of stuff going on about Facebook and to a lesser extent Google and the privacy of the information they collect. To be honest my daily news reading time has been fully taken up with anything that is vaguely connected to older people, the imminent collapse of the Euro and what has been happening at Roland Garos (The French Open).

Seeing that danah boyd had been writing about the privacy issue I thought I had better find out what has been happening. I am not going to even begin to try and explain since her blog posting does it a zillion times better than I could manage.

Ms boyd did mention that Pew has done research on this subject and came to the conclusion that the young are concerned about their privacy – more so than their parents. Where I do disagree with her is the explanation that the young “get it” more than older people. Of course there is some truth in that argument but I suspect another, more important factor, is a lot of 65+ do not make any information about themselves available online and hence don’t give a damn and also they have a few more important things to be worrying about.

What is fascinating to read is the different way that Google and Facebook have responded to all of the bad press. Even if you don’t feel personally involved in this argument it is an important one to follow. Dick Stroud

GrowingBolder is growing bolder

I haven’t written about Growing Bolder since March 2008. At that stage I had my grave doubts about the viability of the venture even though I applauded the founder's commitment and their use of Web video as the primary media.

Well the site is still going and seems to be increasing its scope of activities. Chuck Nyren’s blog tells us that the Growing Bolder TV Show has been selected by American Public Television (PBS) as one of the very few new programs for national distribution. This gives the programme nationwide coverage in in high definition.

Clearly, this programme works for a lot of older Americans. My blogging service doesn't like the embed video code from their web site and their YouTube video didn't have the embeding code so you will have to click on this link if you want to see the a sample of programme. Dick Stroud

Twiggy everywhere

I recently wrote about Twiggy becoming the core of M&S advertising. Now Boots have her advertising Olay (ad from Saga).

This has many of the characteristics of the Colgate ad except I would much prefer to look at Twiggy than the expert scientist. Dick Stroud

What a dreadful ad

This ad is from Saga – hence it is definitely aimed at the 50-plus.

Is it just me, but it looks as if it has popped through a hole in the space time continuum from the 1980s. Smiling, reassuring face of ‘expert’, banner headline claim “Instant relief from sensitive teeth”, proof of claim “Clinical Studies Prove” call to action “Now prove it to yourself”.

Maybe this is an ultra smart move my Colgate to select an old time ad format, hoping that its audience will remember it from yesteryear. Maybe, Colgate is stuck in time warp and have not moved their ad creative into a post millennium bug era? From a quick look at their web site, I favour the latter explanation.

I was particularly amused by the memorable micro site that Colgate has created colgatesensitiveprorelief.co.uk. At least this site uses video, even though the style is a single dimension pitch about the science of the product.What would Don Draper have said? Dick Stroud

The Golden Age Fund

It’s strange what ads you see when reading the Economist, or maybe it was Saga, or it might have been The Spectator?

Anyway, the highly original title “from baby boom to gold oldies” caught my eye (I am joking).

I thought it has to be worth a look at the web site - not much there. Even less when you try and access the link that explains what the fund is all about. might be working now it wasn’t when I tried.

From a quick look at Google it appears that the “renowned Scientific Advisory Board” has advised that they invest in the Healthcare sector. I guess, not a bad bet.Strange ad. Dick Stroud

Mistakes with forums and other types of online communities

I have seen more money wasted more frustration and more disappointment over the failure of online communities than most other sorts of Web activities. A while back wrote on this subject, that applies to the 50-plus as much as any other age group.

I thought this blog posting on the HBR addressed some of the problems

The writer identified six mistakes to avoid if you want to make the most of your community.

Here is mistake one.

Don't think you can just plug in and go. Managing communities requires more than technological skills and software; technology is just an enabler. If you don't have people who understand your business and have the skills to facilitate vibrant discussions without dominating the conversation you won't generate good insights.

Go to the blog for mistakes two six. Dick Stroud

UK consumers are not happy – well a lot of them aren’t

Datamonitor has reported that 48% of participants in a recent survey believed they were worse off at present than was the case six months ago. Many respondents have moved beyond simply trading down to cheaper products, and are adopting a wide range of strategies in a bid to contain their expenditure levels.

More specifically, 43% of its panel were limiting the number of shopping trips they made to ensure they did not make too many "non-essential" purchases. 42% of contributors were reducing the amount of food and drink they wasted by taking a more restrictive approach both when in stores and at home.

Datamonitor was quoted as saying

"The recession has changed the way consumers shop, creating a far savvier shopper who is now completely re-thinking the way they spend their money"

"Retailers cannot count on shoppers reverting to old pre-recession behaviour."

This is all before the real cuts start to have an impact on the UK economy!

I thought this was an interesting development from Tesco. Instead of the boring old “Buy one get on free” offer it has started a "Buy one, get one free – later" deal.

This scheme enables people wanting to take part in two-for-one promotions to reclaim the second free product at a later date of their choosing.

"Customers really like our buy one get one free deals but feedback shows smaller households sometimes can't use the free product before its use-by date" So says a Tesco executive director.

I would think this offer will go down extremely well with the older customer. Really smart thinking Tesco.

Email designs are neglecting the needs of Boomers

An article in Mediapost discusses this issue.

To help address this issue, the author of the article has created the Boomer Legibility Initiative for a New Decade (BLIND) group on Linkedin to convince marketers to increase the point size of their fonts by 1 point this year, in 2015, and in 2020. What a sweet idea.

The author says the font size problem is worse with the administrative text at the bottom of emails. 64% of retailers use an 8-point font size or smaller for their admin text, which includes critical information such as unsubscribe and "change your address" links. For retailers, this fine print often includes sale exclusions.

In addition to making fonts larger, the article talks about the other things that could be improved with the use of text.

1. Reverse type, where there's white/light text on black/dark background.
2. Low-contrast text, where text and background colours are very close in value to each other.
3. Text over background images with lots of bright and dark areas.
4. Full caps, which are not only considered shouting, but are harder to read than sentence case, where you capitalize the first word of a sentence and any proper nouns.

I cannot argue with any of these points.

My only word of caution is that marketers can equate ageing to “making the font bigger”. The week before last I presented to a group of marketers from a seriously large company. If I told you any more you would know the company's name.

I concluded by talking about the issues of physiological ageing and how it impacts all of the customer touch points. After a bit of debate, the head honcho concluded by saying: “well I guess we could increase the font on our packaging but since nobody reads it I cannot see the point.” Some people just don’t get it. Dick Stroud

90% of Internet Users in Hong Kong view Web video

This is the conclusion from comScore’s latest research. Most of the eyes were fixed watching Google Web properties.

This analysis does not contain any age breakdown but clearly there are a lot of older eye watching those videos.

Thanks to Kim Walker for sending me the data. Dick Stroud

Apple iPad User Analysis

Who the hell is buying iPads? Demographics are hard to find and anyway the initial surge of users will not be representative of the final mass audience.

Just a week after the iPad’s launch, Yahoo began to analyze the behaviour of the first iPad users on the Yahoo! network. This is what they found

As expected within the classic early-adopter profile, we identified a male skew in the 35-44 age group among these early users. In fact, among all users, men outnumber women 2:1. Given the economy, people with higher earning power were probably the first to buy the iPad. The first Yahoo! iPad users were 94% more likely to be affluent consumers with solid wealth and strong incomes than typical U.S. Yahoo! users.

The sweet spot for the Yahoo! iPad user is within the 35-44 age category, where the population composition is 36% higher than the typical Yahoo! user. Additionally, iPad users over-indexed within the age ranges 30-54 compared to the average U.S. Yahoo! user.

Many iPad users own another Apple product. Nearly half (48%) of Yahoo! iPad users own an iPhone and had visited Yahoo! on the iPhone previously.

My bet is the age skew will increase as the mass market start to buy the product. Dick Stroud

Food and the older diner

Phil Lempert (The Supermarket Guru) has a daily video blog that as the name suggests is about all things to do with supermarkets.

Yesterday he was talking about the impact of older boomers on the grub business. Dick Stroud

Better education translates into longer life expectancy

This should make you sit up and think.

Life expectancy has been steadily rising for Americans, but only better-educated people are enjoying longer lifespans while those with high school diplomas or less are falling further behind. So says a Harvard study.

The idea that life expectancy is set to decrease, rather than increase, because of all of the nasty things we do to ourselves, is more a mathematical quirk than a reality. What we are seeing is the better educated, who are likely to have a better lifestyle, living longer and longer whilst their not so fortunate peers will, at best, live to the same age if not die younger. The average between the two is a meaningless number.

The situation is even worse than these figures suggest. The less educated (and poorer) cohort will not only die earlier but will also have a shorter period of "healthy life expectancy". Not good. Dick Stroud

Marks and Spencer has put Twiggy at the heart of its advertising

M&S appears to have decided that Twiggy is the core of its advertising with other models added to create a splash of multigenerational appeal.

When I opened the company's store card letter I was greeted by Twiggy plus this attractive younger lady.

The company must have been using Twiggy for at least 5 years – maybe longer. It must be a formula that works. Dick Stroud

So this is what Gen Y want?

It is always interesting to read about the way companies go about appealing to younger age groups.

This article relates what Merc is doing to “reach out to younger consumers”.

This video shows a global campaign that promotes the E-Class Cabriolet with model/actress Milla Jovovich (who?) in a coloruful headpiece by avant garde hat designer Philip Treacy (who??).

I quote from the brandchannel article:

The luxury auto brand has been approaching that fickle group with a soft-sell research approach it's calling “customer intimacy” – a relationship that goes deeper than traditional research. According to, VP of marketing for Mercedes-Benz, the tactic creates brand disciples and advocates as it engages the next generation of car buyers.

In the brand's attempts to woo the 16-33 year-old demographic (wait for it - the "digital natives) Merc’s head marketing honcho says: "We asked them questions like, what do you think of brands, who do you turn to for decisions, what kind of TV do you watch -- so we were getting rich sets of data. 

So there you go. That’s what your 16-33 year-old wants. I must tell my mate, 61 last birthday, who has just bought this Merc. Dick Stroud

The road to web site hell - an interfering client

This is an amusing and accurate insight into what can go wrong when clients (some types of clients) want to get involved in Web site design. It is brilliant. Thanks Chuck.

It reminds me of a client I had, earlier this year, who had a size 10 bee in her bonnet about the need for the web site to "keep having something new" irrespepective of the impact it had on the navigation integrity.

With these sorts of clients I will explain, very slowly, using short words, a couple of times and if they still want to keep fiddling about then I let them get on with it and save my energies. Dick Stroud

Web video works – retailers play catch-up

Retailers are responding to the growing consumer appetite for online videos by adding them to their Web sites both to differentiate themselves from competitors and to keep up with what consumers expect from their online shopping experience.

If these were not reasons enought they also find that videos boost sales conversion rates, reduce abandoned shopping cart and product return rates.

The image shows the massive jump in the number of the top 50 US online retailers offering videos jumped between 2009 over the year before.

The adoption rate is poised to climb further. A survey in February 2010 survey found that of the two-thirds of respondents who indicated they were planning a site redesign in the next 12 months, some 42% said they would add video to their site.

That makes it the second-highest priority, behind social media tools but ahead of such as customer reviews and personalised recommendations.

I would like to think that I was ahead of the game when I launched InTwoFocus, my own specialist Web video agency, focusing on older people, a couple of years back. It is always nice to be proved right. Dick Stroud

Going, going, nearly gone

All is not well in the Care Home World. Shares in Southern Cross fell to their lowest level in a year and a half on Tuesday and then a bit further, after the UK’s largest care homes group reported falling occupancy levels and a widening of pre-tax losses.

Average occupancy at the group’s homes open more than a year fell in the period from 88.8% last year to 86.9%. Southern Cross's problems are not all to do with the state of the care industry. The ineptitude of the previous management and their gambling on the bubble of property appreciation continuing forever also has something to do with it.

Things can only get worse and then a bit more. Local Authorities are under extreme pressure to cut costs and the care budget is going to be a major target.

The care industry is not best known for its marketing prowess so it had better start learning fast. Dick Stroud

Who uses US Government based services

I don’t know how many times you have to provide evidence about something before people start believing you.

Anybody with half a brain cell should know that the propensity to use the Web is mainly determined by the educational attainment of the individual not their age – up to age of 65ish. I am astonished that when you tell this to an audience of marketers they are surprised.

Look at these figures from Pew about the uptake of US Government based services. The columns, from left to right read light, moderate and heavy users.

Now I hope that the influence of education as a determining factor is diminishing but I see no evidence showing this is the case. The same situation applies to the UK. Dick Stroud

By their words we will know them

This is a word map of a document that has a lot of importance to the UK. Young old and all ages in-between. It is the grand plan of what our new coalition government intend to do during their time in power.

Do any particular words jump out at you? If you made the assumption that a word’s regularity is some indication of the importance to the policy what would you make of this lot?

Put it another way, what words would have expected to see and don’t? Let me suggest a few. Words associated with ageing/older people. How about cuts in public expenditure? What about the financial deficit reduction? How about business growth/stimulation?

As far as I can see it is very big on ‘Government’ even bigger on ‘support’ (strange when there is so little money to spend on it) and a tad too big on the dreaded word ‘programme’.

I guess you would expect to see ‘ensure’ and 'new' figuring large as eye candy words that have to be sprinkled about liberally (I will come back to that word) to make it feel as if it might actually happen.

Coming back to the word ‘liberal’ – you will find it mentioned twice as many times as the word ‘conservative’. How weird when it was the Conservatives that won the most votes and the most seats.

Not an encouraging start. Dick Stroud

Facebook campaign

Today I received an e-mail from a US PR company promoting their client's campaign to increase the number of boomers volunteering.


What interested me was the prominence of the Facebook campaign and the comment.

The trend of volunteerism among Baby Boomers is increasing, according to the to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report (2009), there was a significant increase in volunteering across all age groups, with boomers leading the charge having nine million volunteers being over the age of 65 years old.

In my book the 65+ are only just on cusp of being boomers. In the UK there is a definite split in the propensity to volunteer between the 65+ and the younger older age cohort.

I wonder what the situation is in the US. Anybody know?

I was also amused at the choice of the image. Whatever this anti-ageing prescription this boomer is taking it is working. Dick Stroud

Silver Surfers Day - one more day to go

For the last few months I have been providing some assistance to Digital Unite, the company that organises Silver Surfers Day (SSD). This is a one day event where organisations in the UK stage events to help older people start on the road toward using the Internet.

How times have changed. When the event first started it was all about the very basics of e-mail and “What is a Web site”. This year includes the contribution of:

Decca that has staged a web site to help people understand how simple it is to download music. The site even includes a video of Dame Vera Lynn.

History Pin, in partnership with Google, has launched a web site that moulds Street Maps with photographs from the past

There is a lot more stuff that should be of real interest to older people.

You can read more about the day on the BBC.


Believe me this is one hell of a big venture to run. Well done the guys at Digital Unite. Dick Stroud

A new entrant mapping the UK Online Media Landscape

UKOM APS is a media industry measurement of UK consumers’ online activity, specified by UKOM and delivered by Nielsen. It is new to me.

The service is aiming to enable online brand advertising to be planned in the same way as agencies use BARB for TV and NRS for the National Press, allowing placement of advertising across a whole medium to achieve clear reach and frequency objectives. Well that is the official theory.

I suggest that you download a presentation that provides some interesting insights into the online behaviour of the Brits.

I am a bit baffled by the exact definition of “Reach Profile”. However it is defined, I thought it was fascinating to see that the 35-49 and 50-64 year olds are about the same. Look at the difference between the social economic groups. Also, it looks like 41% of the UK’s online population is 45+.

Always good to get a new set of digital metrics but of course they all tell the same story. Dick Stroud

Fascinating announcements from Google

This is not strictly about the 50-plus but it has the potential to have considerable impact on them and the 50-minus.

If you have the time, watch this video from the Google IO conference. If you want a condensed version read this FT blog posting. If you only have 30 secs read these announcements.

Maybe this will get your attention. Google announced a:

Web application store
Video standard (and will convert ALL of it YouTube video)
Set of Cloud services

The new Chrome web store will rival Microsoft programs and Intel’s AppUp store and provide tablet makers with the tools to fight Apple’s iPad and iTunes. Google's WebM video standard will be a long-term threat to Adobe’s Flash technology and will irk the hell out of Apple. Finally, its Cloud services and associated Google App Engine for Business will certainly get the attention of Amazon and Microsoft and all of those floating around in the clouds.

Make no mistake. This stone in the pond is going to create big ripples. As far as I can see the more choice the better. Dick Stroud

Well being on the up for the 50-plus

After 50, daily stress and worry take a dive and daily happiness increases, according to an analysis of more than 340,000 adults.

The research (A snapshot of the age distribution of psychological well-being in the United States) published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that young adults experience more negative emotions more frequently than those who are older.

Negative emotions, such as stress and anger, are similar in that they consistently decline with age, but worry holds steady until around 50, when it sharply drops, the study shows.

You can read a summary of the findings in this article.

The analysis is based on a Gallup phone survey of 340,847 adults, ages 18-85, which was compiled in 2008 as the first year of a 25-year effort to measure well-being in the USA.

I have just purchased the research paper and will have a read and comment in detail. In the interim it is worth having a look at the Gallup Healthways web site.

If you are trying to appeal to the older mind then by attempting to increase the feeling of well being you are pushing at an open door. Dick Stroud

I am not feeling too well Dr Google

Google ranks second only to doctors as source of health information

Not that it comes as much of a surprise, but after asking your doctor, Google is the next most influential advisor about health information.

A national survey found Americans rely highly on Google searches as a source of health care information. The survey, conducted in April 2010 discovered that 22% of respondents consider Google searches 'influential' in seeking health information.

The search engine ranked second only to doctors (44%) in reported influence and was named more than twice as often as nurses, pharmacists, advocacy groups and friends or family members.

Online communities aren't yet a major influencer in health care. Only 12% of respondents used online forums in their last search for health information, and only 37% considered forums somewhat or extremely reliable.

I am not sure what you do with this information but if any of your activities are involved in the health business then improving your Google footprint would seem like a good idea. Dick Stroud

We Didn't Start the Fire

Whether you are a Billy Joel fan or not, you probably remember his song, 'We Didn't Start the Fire.'

Here it is, set to pictures... Lots of images from the past.

This is another good version.

Seems like only yesterday. Ahhhh. No deep marketing message. Just enjoyable. Dick Stroud

Lots of praise for Hyundai

This is a very thoughtful article by Brent Bouchez entitled: “How Many Buying Cycles Do You Have Left?”

GM has just hired the former CMO of Hyundai, as its marketing and brand supremo.

Brent believes that Hyundai advertising is the only car advertising in the U.S. that truly appeals to the boomer consumer. Since the 50+ buy 56% of all new cars in the US (50% in the UK) then having onboard somebody that understands that demographic is not a bad idea.

In January 2009, perhaps the worst month in automotive sales history, Honda, Toyota and Chevy sales dropped more than 30% whilst Hyundai was up 14%. OK, I know so little about the US car market that there may have been other factors involved. However, it is worth further investigation and worth reading what he has to say. Chuck Nyren has also commented upon this article.

What seems to be the secret of Hyundai’s success?
It puts the product front and centre.
It is straight-forward, honest and informative.
It tells viewers what they need to know about the brand and the product, simply and elegantly.
It doesn’t assume that the viewer is not an idiot. The copy (read by Jeff Bridges) is mature and insightful.

Finally, the advertising does not rely on digital or viral or social media, but on "traditional" media.

I never think there are any “golden rules” for success at creating ads for older people but these don’t sound bad to me. Dick Stroud

The 50+ worker

This report, from Friends Provident and created by the Future Foundation, looks at the workforce of the future, through the eyes of three groups: those over 55, new graduates and the ‘sandwich generation’ who are balancing the dual demands of young children and ageing parents. It is the second of their reports and speculates how things on what life will be like for your average worker in of 2020.

It is well worth downloading and contains lots of interesting analysis. I don't agree with some of the conclusions but it is a good contribution to the subject. I thought this was an interesting set of responses to the question of continuing work.

I fear that we might be in for a period of intergeneration strife, where older works want/need to keep working, but this is perceived as stopping young people entering the workforce. Of course this is not a strong argument but it could play well to the media, who are not renowned for the depth of their analysis. Dick Stroud

P&G overtly targets American Boomers

How interesting. This is the title of the press release that has just arrived in my inbox: "NBC Digital Networks and Procter & Gamble Productions Target Baby Boomer Generation with the Launch of 'Life Goes Strong'."

So what is this all about? In the words of the release: "P&G is launching a network of websites celebrating the topics and passions at the centre of this dynamic generation's everyday lives."

From what I can see it is, what us oldies once called, a ‘portal’ site that contains themes of information about ‘family’, ‘technology’ and ‘style’. You can see that this is the launch package with more to follow.

Here are a couple of quotes.

"Knowing that more than a third of all Internet users are adults between 45 and 64 years-old, we saw an opportunity to work with Procter & Gamble to create a site network that can actively fuel this age group. With expert content that ranges from caregiving for both kids and older parents to fashion trend 'don'ts' to a look at apps for grown-ups, we're confident that Life Goes Strong will deliver on its promise to celebrate the interests of mid-lifers." (NBC Digital Networks)

"Our unique collaboration has enabled brand marketers within P&G and beyond to engage with consumers around their interest areas and passion points. With this property in particular, we're enabling advertisers and brands to reach a powerful demographic with an annual spending power of $1 trillion." (P&G)

Here are my immediate thoughts:

1. No forums or pretence at social networking. Very wise.
2. Interesting name. Of course it doesn’t mean anything but is a combination of words with positive connotations that I suspect most people will see has “life goes on”.
3. Low budget. It is a nice enough portal but hasn’t cost the earth. My guess is that it is something of a punt to see how it performs.
4. Interesting choice of the launch topics, family, style and technology. Safe and a give-away about the target audience - the more sophisticated consumer.

Now here is the interesting question. Why would a sophisticated older boomer get their tech fix from this site rather than the commentary in the general or tech press? Same question about older women (and men) regarding ‘style’? However, it is a lowish budget venture that gives a framework to hang boomer related content around and provides an anchor for digital WOM activity.

It will be fascinating to watch how this baby venture develops with the resources of NBC and P&G as the parents.

It is a web site that I will be keeping a close watch upon. Dick Stroud

The Talents of a Middle-Aged Brain

At the end of April I wrote about a book by Barbara Strauch, the health and medical science editor for The New York Times, who had just published The Secret Life of the Grown-Up Brain.

Amazon, as usual were very reliable and a copy popped through my letterbox with a couple of days. It is excellent. I cannot wait to write an article about the author’s findings and their implications.

This is an interesting blog posting by Anne Mai Bertelsen who also found the book interesting.

These are her take on the implications for Marketers and Advertisers.

"Dumbing down" is not needed: the middle-aged brains' ability to process complex ideas, employ inductive reasoning and problem solving suggests an opportunity to communicate and market complex ideas and products to Boomers. This is particularly relevant for those developing and marketing financial products. Too often, there is a tendency to dumb down this information as if consumers can't grasp the complexities. While this might be true for the younger brain, research suggests otherwise for the middle-aged brain.

Get to the point: While brain processing might start out a little slower, the middle-aged brain's ability to grasp the gist of an argument faster and better suggests long, drawn-out explanations are not needed or helpful.

Tap into empathy to get attention: with more personal experiences to draw upon, middle-aged brains are more empathetic. And, empathy elicits emotions, which research also suggests impact message recall and purchase decisions.

Minimize auditory and visual distractions: Since the middle-aged brain is more apt to be distracted -- or fall into a "default" daydreaming mode, as scientists call it -- minimize the auditory and visual distractions in communications. Those distractions work against a middle-aged brain's ability to focus on a marketing message.

This seems sound advice to me. More about this subject to follow.

Chuck, thanks for Twittering about this blog post. Dick Stroud

A new source of older images

I have just received an e-mail telling me about a new source of images of older people based in Australia.

These are links to some technology and lifestyle related images. Dick Stroud

The many faces of Joanna Lumley

Brits will know that Joanna is something of hero with many older, and I suspect a few of the younger, members of the population.

This is not exactly an ad to knock your socks off and I doubt if many people will be bothered to read the scintillating copy “If you lead a full and varied life you need a yogurt with a difference. Like Muller Vitality, the deliciously different probiotic yogurt…. I would expect some better if Peggy Olson was the copywriter. Dick Stroud

The game and gaming 50-plus woman

According to this blog that reported on some research done by YouGov (of which I can find no trace)

39% of women over 55+ have downloaded one or more app on their smart-phone. This trend is similar in the US. Facebook’s own statistics show that there are almost twice as many women over 55 on Facebook as there are men of the same age. Perhaps most surprising of all, there are now more women over 55 on Facebook than there are teenagers. (Source: Inside Facebook Feb 2009)

The report containing this information was created by Lady Geek that ran an online survey a sample of 16,810 smart-phone owners in Feb 2010.

For some reason Lady Geek’s web site doesn’t like my browser. Maybe it will like yours. Dick Stroud

Specsavers memorable ad

During late Jan and for most of Feb 2010 Nielsen in the U.K. analysed TV advertising for their memorability.

This Specsavers ad ranked 2nd for ad recall and 3rd for brand recall. What this translated through into additional or lost sales for Specsavers we will never know, unless some kind soul at Specsavers would like to tell us.

My personal take on the ad was that I found it amusing. I think it just stayed on the right side of the line of being patronising or gaining its impact at the expense of portraying older people as dim wits. As this blog posting illustrated, older people have no problems laughing at themselves but like everybody else don’t like being laughed at.

I think the inclusion of the younger faces experiencing the same fright as the older couple helped.

Also, the choice of these older people will play well with the slightly younger and brighter old who find the dithering of older people annoying, even thought they will be in the same position in the near future – but not yet.

An interesting ad to dissect. Dick Stroud

Encouraging the employment of older workers the AsiaPac way

Singapore's Ministry of Manpower has launched a multimedia campaign to promote the employment of older workers that highlights the importance and benefits of employing older workers to CEOs, HR Directors, HR Managers and Line Managers.

Have a look at Kim Walker's blog for details. Dick Stroud

Boo words of ageing

Senior citizen. Senior anything. Nursing homes. Care homes. Old people. Retirement estate. All of these phrases are moving into the category of not being mentioned in nice company.

I know that I instinctively use the word 'older' when I could use a more descriptive term but it somehow doesn’t feel right.

I guess this is a form of political correctness, but it makes me feel uncomfortable when somebody points out what is happening. The Ageing in Place Tech blog has a good article about just this subject.

I wonder what the next stage is - “less young” people?

There are good reasons for being careful with language, for instance I say ‘retirement’ and it will have a very different meaning to your understanding. However, I have a feeling that I am being pressured by the language police. Dick Stroud

The message to marketers is to focus on 'feel' age not real age.

How many more times do we need researchers to tell us what we should already know?


This stuff is about older, well educated, Japanese. I quote.

The message to marketers is to focus on feel age, not real age. "This study says natural age is not a good descriptor or discriminator upon which to base segments. You see it all the time in varied demographic groupings like 29-40 year-old females, 55- 64 year-old married couples, etc. But there are so many psychological variations of age within those segments. We segment in this way because it is easy and we can."

It amazes me that this still comes as a surprise to some people. Dick Stroud

Do you win the election or win the war?

I think I can be excused one more off-subject blog posting since the UK is in the middle of one almighty muddle over the outcome of its general election. If you are looking for anything that might be remotely useful for 50-plus marketing it will not be in this posting.

What would you do if you were Dave (Cameron)? Do you do a formal deal with the Nick (Liberal Democrats), do you try and govern with a vague set of promises from the Liberal Democrats or do you force Nick into doing a deal with Labour. No, I am not crazy; I mean do you decide to chuck the election?

I once played a lot of poker and hopefully have developed some sort of skill for quickly judging the strength of my hand compared to the others at the table. Dave has an amazingly strong hand, if he is prepared to forgo the immediate possession of the keys to Downing Street until some time later this year.

An economic nightmare is about to engulf the UK. Whoever is in power and has to respond is going to be seen by the electorate as to blame, even thought the fault is that of the previous Government. You do not want to be in the middle of this mess with some patched up political agreement. Believe me, you don’t.

Here is some free consultancy to Dave that he will never read and ignore if he did.

1. Portray yourself as a man who is only thinking of what is good for the UK and as somebody who is not prepared to do patched up deals.
2. Don’t give Nick any of the things he most dearly wants – in particular no to PR – but do it in a way as to be seen to be doing what is in the best interest of the British People.
3. As the Labour Party ramps up its offers you increase the pressure on Nick that the British People will not look thing kindly on somebody who trades their best interest against small time political gain. Of course that is what Nick will do.
4. With an impossible deal, from the Tories, to sell to his members, Nick is forced to renounce is opposition to doing a deal with Labour and to support the party that lost the election.
5. Dave and the rest of his team then go on holiday for a couple of weeks as the press feeds on the stories of who gets what from the Lib Lab deal.
6. All hell will break out on the Financial Markets - a really horrible budget will be necessary and within a month the governing ‘team’ will see their popularity drop like a stone
7. Wait a few more months as the situation deteriorates and splits appear between Lib and Lab and with each of their parties. We might well have had a General Strike by now.
8. Dave spends his time telling anybody who will listen “I told you so” but in a tone of regret not triumphalism
9. Wait a bit longer
10. When things are desperate you force a vote of no confidence and trigger a general election

You win big, big, time. Nick and his party are history and the Labour Party is wiped out in all but Scotland and the high public spending dependency areas. The electorate will be willing to accept any sort of policies to get them out of the financial mess.

Will he do this - No? Why – because he is a politician and the thought of being PM will be too strong to resist, even for a 6 months or so.

The next few days will tell how much of Cameron’s youth was spent playing Texas hold ‘em or in some worthless student activity.

I am sure I have broken all the rules of IP but I thought the cartoon from the Economist was too good not to share. Dick Stroud

Out with the kids in with the dogs

This week the WSJ had an article arguing that as the kids leave home the dogs move in. I have to say that it did not provide a great deal of evidence to support this claim. Lot of anecdotal comments and quotes from a dog training centre and stats from a dog magazine. (Remember that WSJ is subscription so the link might not work).

Anyway, I reckon the proposition might be right, basing my comments on observations of friends and family. I wonder what the psychological trigger is of the children moving out and the dog moving in. Maybe, the need to have activity in the house? Maybe having some more cash? 

Certainly if I was in the dog food and accessories industry I would want to find out. Dick Stroud

Can't wait until tomorrow?

I looked at this analysis and thought that it could apply to Boomers, Gen Y and probably Gen X. Other than my great-great-grandmother, who doesn't think Apple is a great brand? Actually, this analysis refers to Generation Y.

This just makes me have even more belief in my theories of Age Neutral Marketing. Dick Stroud

Top brands for Generation?

OK, these are the top brands for Generation?

Tell me, what generation are we talking about – X-Y-Z –Seniors-Boomers?

I’ll let you know tomorrow. It should be obvious what are the top female and male brands. Dick Stroud

Heston Blumenthal takes on hospital food – what idiocy

This is pure gripe. Pure moaning and of zero use for helping you with your 50-plus marketing. I am sure you have got better things to do than read any further.

Don’t get me wrong, I reckon Heston Blumenthal is good bloke, a close friend’s daughter, who is a chef, reckons he is one step away from sainthood.

However, this current venture demonstrates a lot that is wrong with UK plc.

Heston is collaborating with the University of Reading and the town's Royal Berkshire Hospital to bring his Michelin-star quality to the menu.

This quote from the media paints the picture

The meals are to be enhanced by increasing their umami properties - the Japanese word for delicious and savoury which is often described as the fifth taste, alongside sweet, sour, bitter and salty.

They will initially to be tried out on patients at the Royal Berkshire Hospital next year, after a lengthy period of research and testing, and it is hoped the project could then be rolled out nationwide.

The three-year project, which is in its first phase, involves scientists working alongside Mr Blumenthal, initially on enhancing the flavour of minced meat.

Unfortunately, I have been spending far too long surrounded by older people in hospital and have seen all too plainly the issues with the food and why so much of it is not eaten.

The idea that fiddling around with the taste of the stuff is going to make one jot of difference is sheer idiocy. OK, a three year research grant for a bunch of academics is good to have (for them) and no doubt they will have a few good meals at Heston’s restaurant along the way, but don’t for a nano-second think it will make any difference. It is a bit like having a rusty old car with a failing engine and thinking that changing a light bulb will increase its performance.

Why don’t older people eat the food? It is cold by the time it gets to them, it is badly cooked, it has the cheapest of ingredients and it is dumped in front of them, irrespective of if they have the means to use a spoon, knife or fork and whipped away after an hour or three, eaten or not-eaten. Abysmal cooking, abysmal service and abysmal assistance to people that need assistance.

If the academics at Reading were to do anything of use then they should have a go at solving these problems. Methinks the attraction of a Heston’s good grub will be too strong. Dick Stroud

What’s on the mind of the “Sandwich Generation”

Kids and not so young kids on one side - ageing parents on the other – you in the middle. Welcome to the Sandwich Generation. Why this term has remained confined to the US I don’t know because it applies equally to all nationalities.

This article, from the WSJ, argues, rightly in my view, that today's teens are closer to their parents than previous generations. I am not sure if teens have grown up faster or their parents are desparately seeking to hold onto their youth. Whatever, the two groups seem to have more in common.

In my language I would say that this blending of generations is good proof for marketers to get their heads around the concept of age neutrality.

To give you a feel of the issue, a MetLife's Mature Market Institute found in a recent survey that "middle boomers" (the 28 million Americans who are ages 52 to 58) have at least one parent still living and half still have children living at home. Nearly three in four of the middle boomers have been providing financial assistance and support to their children and grandchildren and that's averaged about $38,000 over the past five years. Some 14% are providing care to older parents.

Not a comfortable place to be in the middle. Dick Stroud

We now have two elephants in the room

This is nothing specific to the 50-plus but it has a massive impact on their wellbeing.

You often get the best view about your own country by reading the overseas media. I think the WSJ provides the analytical detached view about the UK and Europe that is missing from the domestic media.

This is what it had to say today

I would go as far as to say that it feels as though this contest in Britain is happening on a different planet. The scale of the national deficit and debt and the measures required to tackle both have barely been mentioned. The voters seem incapable of handling the truth and the parties do not want to break ranks and be the first to tell them.

Meanwhile, the crisis in the euro zone is metastasizing. The markets are unconvinced by the deal to support Greece. Debt-laden Portugal and Spain are next in line as the day of reckoning approaches for the high-spending European model with its vast borrowing and excessive welfarism. The talk is now of the ECB potentially printing money just to keep the wheels in motion.

Into this chaos will step a British Prime Minister. He will instantly face searching questions from investors about what he plans to do about his country being as over borrowed as Greece. That person will need room for manoeuvre and a mandate. If the polls are right he will not have either.
Instead, barring a late surge for one of the parties, it looks as though Britain intends to spend the foreseeable future engaged in constitional navel-gazing. It is a frightening prospect.

Just as we have realised that Elephant 1 is in the room (the recession resulting from the credit crunch) it is being joined by its older brother Elephant 2 (Austerity resulting from reducing the balance deficit).
I hope marketers like elephants because they are going to be with us for a long time to come. Dick Stroud

Who is still targeting the older voter?

I thought that it was interesting to run each of the UK political party’s videos to see who is targeting the older voter. The Labour Party – nope. The Lib Dems – a bit with the “trust me I don’t kick my dog” personal appeal of Nick Clegg. The Tories – definitely – with a re-run of the past 13 years with a catalogue of Labour’s mistakes/faults/dishonesties… The rumour is that the first version ran for an hour and 8 mins!

It is clear to me who still thinks the older voter matters the most. Dick Stroud

The natives are revolting

The Third Sector has an item entitled: “Age UK runs into resistance as it tries to build up a federated structure.”

It appears that some large local Age Concerns are resisting overtures to join Age UK because they are worried about losing independence and, in the words of the article “put off by what they see as the secretive and corporate nature of the new national charity”. Strong stuff.

There are 332 local Age Concerns that are federated to Age Concern HQ. In fact they are all independent charities that have been trading under a single banner. These local organisations have been invited to sign ‘brand partnership agreement' on condition they first sign wide-ranging confidentiality agreements. They are also being asked to pass information about their beneficiaries to the national body and cede control of their websites. So says Third Sector

So far 25 of the organisation have signed up, but others are resisting, including some big city organisations. This raises the possibility that Age UK and local Age Concerns will end up as rival charities. In my last posting about Age UK I pointed out how few of the organisations mention the new organisation upon their web sites.

"The fear is that we end up with this national juggernaut of an organisation competing against us," said one senior Age Concern manager, but if we sign this agreement, we are worried we will lose independence."

Talk about tiptoeing on egg shells. At a stage when the whole charitable sector is under strain the last thing that Age UK needs is for an all-out revolt from its front-line staff. Let’s hope that sense prevails. Dick Stroud

Frugality among consumers is outliving recession

I have noticed that some journalists and commentators have been talking about the post-recession era. I can understand that comment coming from Asia but certainly not Europe (try telling that to your average Greek) and not the US.

Certainly things are looking up in the US, as long as you don’t talk about the fiscal deficit, but the overhang of past couple of years will weigh heavy on consumers for a long time to come – even assuming we don’t have another bout of financial upheaval.

This article in the Washington Post, originally from AP, gives an interesting insight into how much of the recession mentality has stuck in the psyche of Jo and Jolene Consumer.
I guess it can be summed up by this quote.

They're not spending freely — and they have no plans to.

Frugal is good and is likely to stay that way for some time to come – especially amongst the older population. Dick Stroud

Age UK’s advertising has more punch

I have already commented about Age UK’s new TV advertising. This is an example of the new imagery that the organisation is using. I like it. It is a difficult balance between making the portrayal of older people unreal and false and depressing. This works for me. What do you think?

A note of warning for the charity. I just searched Google for “Age Concern” and found that only one of the top 14 links showed the new logo or mentioned the name. That is a bit worrying. Dick Stroud

Digital literacy starting with the iPad

The video says it all. Dick Stroud

Thank you Apple

The iPad. It’s new. It’s cool. And, it’s a terrific design experience that is likely to excite and delight your grandmother…and you. It is a stellar example of what designers should consider when creating systems for older, no actually, all users – from systems that deliver fun to medical devices. Designing for discriminating baby boomer consumers is more than usability, more than function; it is delivering it all in package with a promise and a bow.

This is what Jo Coughlin, Director of the MIT AgeLab had to say on the iPad. You know what? He is 100% right.

Another of Jo’s articles titled that “Good design its all in your head” is well worth a read.

At long last I think we are getting somewhere with designers appreciating the excitement and challenge of combining elegance with outstanding usability, rather than seeing it as being a chore.

We have Apple to thank for a great deal of this attitude change. Dick Stroud

Teenagers cannot help being a pain they enjoy it

14-18 year olds seem programmed to “contra-hedonic motivations” – in words us poor marketers can understand they want to either to maintain or enhance negative affect or to dampen positive ones. Basically, they want (need) to be miserable.This is unlike the reactions of the 70+ who have exactly the opposite reactions.

Methinks it has something to do with ‘hormones’ – the explanation of parents the world over.

This is a fascinating study (Seeking Pain: Differences in Prohedonic and Contra-Hedonic Motivation From Adolescence to Old Age" in the journal Psychological Science) that you can download for free or alternatively read a simplified version on the Harvard Business Review blog.

The graphic shows how adolescents are more likely than individuals of older age groups to experience episodes of “mixed affect”, that is to simultaneously experience positive and negative affect of high intensity. Sounds to me like it all part of the same phenomenon.

If adolescents do have a propensity to want to be in bad moods some of the time, then aiming products at this emotional need is no different than aiming products at people's desires to be happier.

Maybe this research is well known to youth marketers but it is news to me. The message about marketing to older people is that they want to be happier and will do more than any other age group to be so. Dick Stroud

Why are marketers so conservative

The 2010 Social Media Marketing industry report is all about how marketers are using social media to grow their business and is definitely worth downloading.

The result that amazed me was how conservative and very ‘2008’ most marketers are regarding using mobile apps. What is a matter with today’s marketers?

As the report says

Surprisingly, most marketers indicated they were using mobile networking apps (like Facebook on an iPhone) to interact with their fans. However, most are not involved with creating custom mobile apps, mobile advertising or even optimizing their websites for mobile smartphones.

To me it is as obvious as the nose on your face that smartphones will dominate the mobile market – they will become the only mobile device. How much longer can the dumb phones continue – 2 – maybe 3 years? There will never be an opportunity like now to gain the prime real estate on consumer’s mobile phones. And to do it so cheaply. It is an absolute no brainer. This applies to the older and younger market and all groups in between. Dick Stroud

Guys who really understand digital marketing and the older consumer

Well done to the guys at the US digital agency Immersion Active for getting featured on the American Express small business web site.
I have known one of the founders, David Weigelt, since the early days of their business and we have spoken together at a couple of conferences.

To my mind David and his partner have positioned themselves as the top digital specialists in the US that understand older consumer. Congratulations. Dick Stroud

Broken car, broken house now broken bones

RIAS, the UK’s specialist over-50s insurance company, has just launched a “Broken Bones” cash plan.

Customers get a lump sum payment of £400 if they break a bone in an accident.

For a premium of £16.00 a year per person (as insurance companies love to do and spell it out as just £1.33 a month) the cover provides a £400 cash payment, which can be used for anything at all.

RIAS reckon that over 7.7m UK men and women suffer a bone fracture, after the age of 50. I would love to know where that figure comes from.

So I guess that the £400 applies if you break your finger or neck?

This is a strange insurance product. I will be interesting to see how it does and how fast RIAS’s competitors start to offer fracture insurance. Dick Stroud