The man responsible for managing advertising for Procter & Gamble, one of the the worlds largest consumer products companies, has said that ‘Age’ will be next on the agenda for advertisers to address as the industry moves to unpick the stereotypes it has helped perpetuate. P&G’s chief brand officer Mark Pritchard was quoted here in […]
advertising
Steroid abuse at 60? Now that’s no stereotype!
We are getting used to seeing ageing stereotype-busters in the media and they are increasingly delightfully positive portrayals. In this blog, I’ve written about some of the darker stereotypes of ageing; ageing prisoners, the rising incidence of sexually transmitted disease in retirement homes, increasing drug abuse and suicides, but this one is new to me. It […]
Flipkart says it’s time to define life by your experiences not age
Defining life by experiences not age, is a big, powerful and uplifting idea. Having spent the bulk of my career in the advertising industry, when I see an ad that brings a big advertising idea to the ageing space, I get a thrill because it doesn’t happen often. This ad from Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart, […]
TV wakes up to the power of older viewers with a raft of new shows
Older viewers have been largely overlooked by media. I remember to the look of incredulity on the face of a senior global media executive when I once suggested he should charge a premium for TV time that attracted a concentration of older viewers. (my blog article on this subject) It now seems that with millennials […]
Telcos need to stop patronising and start understanding their older customers
As with so many business categories, telcos seem youth-obsessed and are adopting an out-dated and sometimes ageist approach to their valuable and loyal, older customers. Telcos the world over are under threat so they should be doing all in their marketing power to hold on to their customers. Back in 2012, I wrote about Sprint’s Active […]
Is P&G’s Olay going Ageless?
An Ageless Cafe by Olay popped-up at an up-market shopping mall in Bangkok recently. This intrigued me for two reasons. Firstly, because Olay is one of P&G’s flagship brands and despite its extraordinary global marketing sophistication, P&G has made some fundamental mis-steps when tackling the issue of ageing. I wondered if the Ageless Cafe had […]
Older Americans (over 54 years) don’t listen to radio?
Nielsen was kind enough to share their US radio listener research in a Tops of 2017: Audio report. The problem is that the research only extends to people up to the age of 54. Does this mean that older people in the USA don’t listen to radio anymore? They suddenly tuned out on their 54 […]
Demographic marketing has become irrelevant in China; Research
Demographic marketing is dead. Long live psychographics! This has been a constant theme of my thinking for the past 5 years and it is now confirmed to be true even in the exploding market of China. Today Chinese people are far less siloed by age, cohort or region according to research conducted by advertising company […]
Why is this perfectly age-neutral product focussing on younger consumers?
It’s hard to get excited about shoe insoles, but I recently spotted this ‘age-neutral’ print ad for Dr Scholl’s GelActiv™ and I thought “how clever that they’ve designed a product for older people but kept it age-neutral”. That would make perfect sense, right? After all, age brings with it a combination of the 25 effects of […]
Bank TV spot captures the essence of ageless marketing
Through the lead-lined curtain of Millennial Marketing Madness (M3) we get an occasional glimpse of ageless marketing. This time it’s a TV spot from UOB (a Singapore Bank), and I love it. Marketers are often hood-winked to believing that Millennials, GenX and others are unique, as if creatures from another planet. But ultimately, each generation […]
