A Nod To The Netherlands

A few months ago I changed planes at Schiphol. Tramping around the terminals made me giddy. I wanted to stay. That’s because the last time I was there yours truly and a bunch of us had one of the times of our lives:

World’s Largest Event For Active ‘50 plussers’
… And with only an hour and a half to goof off we only saw about one-quarter of the exhibits, maybe.  The four of us were racing around.  That’s how big it was. Nobody could see it all in one day.

The event keeps getting bigger and bigger.  A report from 50 Plus Beurs 2008: 

Last week I visited the 50 plus fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) to have a look at the world biggest event aimed directly at 50-plus consumers. My first emotion was again astonishment over the numbers of the exhibits and people present.

What this event really is: Hundreds of mini-trade shows open to the public. When I was there about twenty bicycle manufactures had large booths and floor space. Ditto for cars, RVs, motorcycles, cosmetics, clothes, sporting equipment, vacation spots, gardening, cooking, housewares, houses – the list goes on and on.

The information sheet for 50 Plus Beurs 2010 (PDF)

There’s still time to reserve exhibit space or make plans to attend.

agency fifty/bureauvijftig

Dear Chuck,

As promised an email about our new agency ‘bureauvijftig’ (literally translated agency fifty, we glued the words together). Our new website (which still needs some images) is www.bureauvijftig.nl.

bureauvijftig is a creation of Arjan in’t Veld (25), Dick Vos (66), and me, Martijn de Haas (37).

 
Dick is the ex-owner of a large and successful advertising agency in the Netherlands.

Arjan is director and a target group specialist from his former company Inthefield.

I am the marketing strategy and target group specialist from Active Development.

We have several people connected to the agency including art directors, copy writers, online specialists, ages 20 to 66. Some are direct colleagues and some are ambassadors doing freelance jobs. We stress the importance of this broad range of ages as we completely agree with your philosophy on communication for age groups is best made by people belonging to these age groups.*  Combine this with sharing insights and experience in a broad range of marketing, communication and advertising aspects and you will be able to connect effectively to a specified audience.

Our main goal is making connections and combining the best of 2 worlds:

• the young and the so called mature consumers
• young and old specialists
• the online and offline worlds
• research & creation
• science & marketing

We have managed to hook up with the leading university professors in the field of researching the aging population in the Netherlands and worldwide. 

Our products are:

• a huge research database; all the target group research that we have acquired over the years and are still acquiring
• a consumer panel; at least 1700 older consumers and a population of 95,000 older consumers from which we can recruit more respondents for qualitative or quantitative research.
• a thermometer test; a tool of testing a campaign or assumption in a population. This test can be followed online by the clients.
• a 2-second test; people decide within 2 seconds if they like your communication. With this test we can see the effectiveness of the first impression. This can also be followed online.

In general we are continuing our old ways but bigger and better with a healthy mix of ages. We already attracted our first big client and we feel that this economic spell will force companies to look at the mature market.  Our pay-off is result driven communication in which we promise results and even take 20% of the client’s risk.

As you had already discovered, we have changed Arjan’s Mokkamarketing.nl to www.target50.nl. It is an inspirational blog like yours where all our co-workers and ambassadors can report and give opinions on articles and videos about the mature market and the aging population.

We are aiming at becoming a strong player in the traditional industry by bringing new ways. We hope to fly you in some day to give one of your presentations that inspires them all.

Last week we also met George P. Moschis who is an interesting researcher and professor you probably know.

I hope this explanation is clear and am looking forward to you and your comments and questions.

Kind Regards (also from Arjan),

Martijn
_______________________

George Moschis and I are with the same house, Paramount Market Publishing:

Baby Boomers and Their Parents
Surprising Findings About Their Lifestyles, Mindsets, and Well-Being
by George P. Moschis, PhD and Anil Mathur, PhD

My Book: Advertising To Baby Boomers

*An excerpt from Advertising to Baby Boomers:

More about diversity in the advertising industry:

Old Masters and Young Geniuses

What Kind of Genius Are You?

Baby boomers are smarter than you think

Trust Your Gut

Irony

People generally get better.

Calcified Advertising Agencies

Rance Crain Makes Perfect Sense Yet Again

Diversity = Productivity

Managing Age Diversity in the Advertising Industry

My best wishes for success to you, Dick, and Arjan!

An Award Winner

I received an email from Martijn de Haas of Active
Development in The Netherlands:

… I thought you might be interested in a Dutch 2005 example of how they tried selling broadband to 50+ consumers. The theme is: "it's hard to keep up with technology”:



They even won the Dutch advertising prize for it. Although I think it’s funny I seriously doubt they got many of the target group to buy it.

You can look at it in 2 ways:

- the target group laughed because they didn't identify but got the message that was told at the end

- the target group was insulted and laughed it off

I think the latter but would love to hear your opinion …

I agree with Martijn. I’ve written about these types of campaigns in my book and blogged about them a number of times. Here’s just one:

Passat's Midlife Crisis

The spot from the Netherlands is kind of cute, very well produced, acted, directed. Not particularly original. The first scenario is a direct lift from the 1st edition cover of my book (I’m sure it wasn’t intentional) - a clever tongue-in-cheek visual metaphor birthed by Anne Kilgore – graphic artist/book designer extraordinaire. Click here to take a look at it.

The driving into the bushes gag is old (at least since the invention of car navigation systems – so five or six years old). I’ve seen it before. The gag about the mouse held up to the monitor is even older (a variation is a piece of blank paper pressed against a monitor so it will ‘print’).

And, of course, it’s always older people who are the foils for these tepid attempts at humor.

Why would you want to viciously ridicule your target market? They might laugh – but will they buy your product? I think not.

On NPR recently there was a report about students who were given laptops instead of textbooks. While these kids certainly knew how to download music, hang out at Facebook, and play video games – they had real problems opening up and using a word processing program. Many had no idea how to save a document. And when they did save it, they couldn’t find it again to open and work on it – or figure out how to print it.

As an exercise, let’s pretend that a company wants to sell computers to teenagers. I come up with a brilliantly funny spot. It’s full of the greatest of gags. In fact, they’re hysterical. For example - a drooling, pimply-faced, frenzied kid is working on a homework assignment - and is trying to type with a joystick! What a moron! Ha-ha! In another scenario, a kid is unscrewing and taking apart a computer to look inside it – trying to find the document he saved! Ha-ha-ha!!!

I tell ya, everybody'll be falling out of their chairs watching this one. It’ll get lots of advertising awards, too.

And most teenagers will probably laugh – but you won’t see them rushing to buy these computers. They have been made fools of.

And they know it.

"I no longer enter my agency's layouts in the contests ... for fear that one of them might be disgraced by an award." - David Ogilvy

Friends In The Netherlands

In The Netherlands I made many new friends, and finally met up with a handful of folks I'd been in contact with for some time.

Among other things, Arjan in't Veld heads up InTheField Marketing en communicatie and runs the Mokka Marketing Blog. One of his clients is PLUS Magazine. Arjan has been helping with the redesign and implementation of their web site - adding interactive sections like this one.

View the site through Babble Fish to get an idea of what's being done (although don't completely trust the quirky translation).

The Mature Market Interview with Arjan in't Veld.

Martijn de Haas and Michel van den Bosch own the marketing firm Active Development:

Active Development is a consultancy/participating company in the marketing and communication to the 50+ market. We advise and/or participate in efforts of companies in entering the market and effectively reaching the 50+ consumers. This could be in thinking up new marketing strategies, new communication, online activities, and product development. We have a growing database of 50+ consumers who are providing us information in all these activities and who are actively taking part in our panels.

We have developed a small local fair called "the fair for people who enjoy life", or short in Dutch "de Levensgenietersbeurs": www.levensgenietersbeurs.nl

This a fair that is held in relatively big cities in Holland and holds about 30 exhibits. The textual marketing is ageless but the target is attracting the 50+ consumer who has money to spend on luxury articles. From our experience and backed-up by psychological research we found that as people get older they tend to value local socials networks more and more. They want to build close relationships with local entrepreneurs who give them optimal service and a feeling of being a 'friend' rather than a customer.

Here is Active Development - and their Fair - stuffed in the Babble Fish meat grinder.

We can learn a lot from the Dutch about how to market to the 50+ demo. In some areas they're way ahead of us.

Henry Stewart Talks: Latest Thinking in Marketing to the Older Consumer

A few months ago Dick Stroud asked me to fashion a PowerPoint w/ narration for a Henry Stewart Talks offering:

Henry Stewart Talks publishes animated audio visual presentations by world leading experts - advanced content in a user friendly format. We cover biomedicine, life sciences, advertising, management, marketing, finance and transnational crime.

It’s now available:

Latest Thinking in Marketing to the Older Consumer
For all those wishing to gain an understanding of the 50-plus market and to engage with this large and diverse group as consumers, including brand owners, marketers and brand managers, media planners and buyers, advertising agencies, media companies and academics and students of marketing.

My presentation is part of this section:

How the older market is evolving internationally
TOPICS COVERED
The status of UK 50 plus marketing |
The Australian perspective | Advertising and marketing to baby boomers in the USA |
Marketing and advertising to the older consumer in the Netherlands

Watch the first 6 minutes of Dick Stroud’s presentation. 

After zipping through the extract you can apply for a free trial – but I’m not sure how that works.  Give it a try.

Further in, Gill Walker features some terrific examples of 50+ advertising and marketing in Australia – and Arjan in’t Veld is fascinating as he unravels what’s happening in The Netherlands.

What extraordinary virtual company I keep.

The First Annual Baby Boomer Girlfriends Spring Break

Beverly Mahone - author, journalist, talk show host, media and Baby Boomer pundit - has something going on that has an exciting, fun, unique feel about it:

The First Annual Baby Boomer Girlfriends Spring Break
In 2007, many of you contacted me suggesting we have some kind of event to connect baby boomer women all over the country in order to network, make business contacts and to celebrate who we are. Well I listened and now we are going to do just what you've asked.

Listen to Beverly talk about it on Growing Bolder Radio.

This is the type of grassroots event that should be on all marketers' radar. It might look small and insignificant to a P&G, a Unilever, a General Motors - but the 'realness' of it will reflect on your brand more than a booth at a standard convention or event.

And the future of this Spring Break? Read on ...

I don't want to get into the whole story - but when I was on a speaking tour in Europe recently, my gig in The Netherlands was at this unbelievable event. Ninety-eight thousand visitors, five hundred and eighty-seven top-of-the-line booths. Ten or fifteen years ago when it began, the booths were folding tables and chairs, the vendors hawking trinkets and vacation packages.

Also in The Netherlands there is an impressive annual event on a smaller scale. One of the producers is Martijn de Haas - profiled recently on The Mature Market site.

Beverly left a comment on another post:

"Do you think you could put on a dress and come speak to the fabulous women at our Baby Boomer Girlfriend's Spring Break in Daytona Beach?"

Maybe next year, Beverly. But … where do I shop for this dress? It'll be tough finding something in my size - and is stylish. I might have to make a short detour here on the way to Florida.

Or ... I could wait until I get there. For the 2nd Annual, you just might have hundreds of booths, with dozens dedicated to fashion.

More about it all.

The Netherland's PLUS Magazine

Back from The Big Apple for a private consulting/speaking assignment. Bayard Presse and Roularta Media flew in 40+ advertisers of their 40+ magazine PLUS - a major player in The Netherlands.

Of course, I was a bit concerned that I'd have to tone down my presentation, speak slowly, that any humor might not translate. Was I ever wrong. These wonderful folk followed me from start to finish - laughing, leaning in, asking questions. In The Netherlands English is not a tossed-off second language, but a requirement in schools.

And the Dutch are friendly, involved, jovial, and (no surprise) keenly intelligent.

I presented first - and for the next few days had lots of rousing huddles and chats with almost all the organizers and attendees.

Actually, I was one of the unofficial organizers, recommending three of the seven speakers: Laurel Kennedy of Age Lessons, John McMenniman (former Nestle/Disney exec and former president of The Advertising Hall of Fame), and John Migliaccio. And I had a few special friends of mine drop by for lunches, dinners, and meetings: Susan Silver, Mary Duffy, and Peter Himler. Peter had some other meetings that came up unexpectedly, so he wasn't around for too long - but Susan and Mary spent lots of time floating around and were appreciated by all.

I also popped in to say hello to Marcia Soling of The Advertising Educational Foundation and hand her a copy of the updated edition of my book.



A very special treat for me: I finally met Dick Stroud - and as a bonus, his beautiful wife Stella. Too bad she's not on this huge billboard in Times Square. She should be.

Global Diversity

I received an email the other day – actually a group email from a marketing company in another part of the world:

Hi…

We have recently refreshed our website and loaded some detailed analytics reporting, especially around our downloads and referral sources.

We have added links to your sites as part of our ‘global family’. I would be grateful if you could do the same on your website.

I also refreshed my website recently and forgot to include links to global alliances. That was fixed fast. Glad someone reminded me.

Our alliances are loose, unofficial – but we all share common goals.  If you’re involved in advertising and marketing to baby boomers and older, check out the links below.  It’s fascinating to find out what professionals around the world are up to:

Evergreen Advertising
A communications agency specialising in advertising and marketing to Seniors and Boomers. (Australia)

Silver Group
Our purpose is to help business and government benefit from the unprecedented global growth of the 50+ population. (Asia)

20plus30
20plus30 is a consultancy that advises companies about all aspects of marketing to the 50-plus. (UK)

Owl Marketing
We offer experience and enthusiasm. Collectively, we have the wisdom of many years in the corporate and agency world. (UK)

Bureauvijftig
Fifty Agency knows the language of 50+. We know the media behavior of 50+. Both online and offline. (The Netherlands)

Off to Istanbul …

For this:

International Advertising/Marketing Techniques Targeting Baby Boomers

 

Special Thanks to Gill Walker of Evergreen Marketing for emailing me great stuff from Australia, Dr. Florian Kohlbacher for sharing a yet-to-be-released white paper on advertising in Japan, and Maxime de Jenlis of Bayard Presse for shipping copies of Notre Temps and PLUS Magazines from France, The Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Spain so I could scan ads from all over Europe.

If you can’t make it to Istanbul, you’d better be here instead:

What’s Next? Boomers Business Summit

Plenty of blogging when I return.

50 Plus Beurs 2008 Utrecht

My friend Martijn de Haas of the marketing firm Active Development attended this year’s 50 Plus Beurs. He’s been anointed Guest Blogger Extraordinaire:

Last week I visited the 50 plus fair in Utrecht (The Netherlands) to have a look at the world biggest event aimed directly at 50-plus consumers. My first emotion was again astonishment over the numbers of the exhibits and people present. As Chuck mentioned in a previous post there were about 600 companies present. We are still waiting for a press release on the number of visitors.

I had a chance to attend twice this year, and noticed that the average age seemed to have dropped a little. We definitely spotted more Baby Boomers and we think it’s because they used alternative media targeting a somewhat different audience.

Followers of Chuck’s blog know that when you add a 50+ label to a service or product, you will attract an average crowd that is at least 10-15 years older. Especially Dutch women in their fifties don’t want to be confronted with age like that. Still, with the turnout it’s a great market to tap into. This sometimes creates a problem in our industry as companies that want to approach 50 plussers take part in this fair and their young marketers end up seeing their misconceptions about the 50-plus confirmed.

Most of the companies do really well and one can imagine the sales that will occur in follow-up sales. As many gave out freebies or let visitors take part in competitions, people went home with bags full of goodies and the hope of winning prizes later on.
In return they gave the companies their addresses.

A partial list of industries represented:

Housing
Whirlpools
Many, Many Travel Agencies
Cars
Furniture
Food Supplements
Wellness
Charities
Political Parties
Care Products
Publishers
Newspapers
Stamps
Bikes
Kitchen Equipment
Nordic Walking
Golf
Nintendo Wii
Staying Fit
Fashion Shows
Music
Entertainment

There were not as many financial and insurance companies present compared to recent years. We don’t know if it had to do with the current crisis or with the fact that exhibiting in the past didn’t bring them enough business. From our consulting activities we know for a fact that insurance companies are actively developing products and services for older consumers.

All in all we think they didn’t break the 100,000 visitors this year and it could be a consequence of the shift in advertising. The average age of the consumer seems to have dropped a little which may indicate that the event is evolving into an event targeted at Baby Boomers. Enough reasons for anybody in the business to visit it again next year!

Martijn de Haas

Added 10/09/08: More Pictures

 

 

 

 

 

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Back From Istanbul: Part Two

I took the attendees on a wild ride around the globe, stopping in the U.K., France, Belgium, Germany, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Canada, The U.S., Australia, and Japan. We critiqued all sorts of TV spots, web sites, and print ads.

Then we settled in Turkey.

Most attendees were from the country’s thriving, boisterous financial sector. A major concern: Baby Boomers and older in Turkey have not warmed up to online banking and financial services. They make an attempt - but soon become frustrated, returning to their old ways (needless trips to the bank, using mostly checkbooks and snail mail, etc.). They are simply not online.

I couldn’t dig too deeply into hierarchy and usability issues – although I did talk (almost endlessly) about graphic design and how important it is for older eyes. Instead, I offered a bit of motivational marketing.

In the early 1980s, Turkey’s government loosened its (almost total) grip on the economy and freed up manufacturing and banking resources. The economy slowly gained momentum. Today Turkey is an international economic powerhouse.

A gentleman brought up all this during a break. I knew about it, but thought it might be too hot a political potato and decided beforehand not to talk about it. He convinced me to toss it around the room.

My idea: Folks now in their fifties, sixties, and early seventies were the thought-leaders and workers who accomplished this unprecedented economic growth. It’s something they are and should be proud of.

In your advertising/marketing campaigns, make the connection between these economic achievements and the recent growth of the internet. They will feel as if they are not only a part of the technological revolution, but helped make it happen. Their accomplishments are the reasons Turkey is a major player on the world stage.

Of course, you wouldn’t simply say all this. Marketing and advertising creatives would come up with vivid scenarios to tell the story.

Back From Istanbul: Part One

Back From Istanbul: Part Three

Back From Istanbul: Part Four

European Speaking/Consulting Tour in September

The European speaking/consulting tour with Brent Green, Carol Orsborn, and You-Know-Who is shaping up. Here's the itinerary - and a few embedded links with info about the engagements:

Stockholm: Monday, September 17
Oslo: Tuesday, September 18
Brussels: Wednesday, September 19
Utrecht (The Netherlands): September 20
Augsburg (Germany): September 21
Paris: September 24
Madrid: September 25

Then I'll be in London for a couple of days.