The failings of marketing to fiftysomethings
In this guest posting, Kaye Fallick explains why an ad that makes a baby boomer feel their age is like making a man aware that he has a small penis
There are many bad TV ads out there. But the worst of all has to be the RACV member benefits ad. What makes this ad so bad? It fails on nearly every level. But most importantly, it unknowingly mocks the very people it is trying to attract.
For those who don’t live in Victoria, here it is. It features a little old lady with a quavering voice, driving an old green Morris Minor while reciting the benefits of long-term membership with RACV car insurance. It ends with the hilarious confession that the 20 per cent she has saved, because of member benefits, has been used to buy a ‘wicked’ subwoofer. Cue Morris Minor bucking and rap music blaring.
Making people look stupid is not smart marketing.
Making your target market look stupid is worse.
Making a target market, which represents the highest level of net wealth, look stupid is simply incomprehensible.
We can probably assume that this RACV ad is targetting the broad market of baby boomers. Yes, we know all boomers are getting older and that the oldest turn 65 this year. But even if you are turning 65 and starting to look like a little old lady (or man), you don’t exactly want to be made to feel like one.
For the benefit of the bright sparks who dream up ‘creatives’ like the aforementioned RACV advert, let’s spell out this concept out a little more clearly.
Let’s say you work in an ad agency – you’re a 26-year-old male – and you have concerns about your sexual performance. Would you enjoy seeing a TVC selling insurance, targeted at your age group, which reinforces your fears about the size of your appendage?
NOOOO!
You probably aspire to have a larger dick, so you would either prefer not to discuss your dick at all – or to have this concern addressed in a sensitive way. Believe it or not, that’s how it works with age as well. Whether 20,30 or 60, we are all getting older. Some of us have grey hair. Others forget things from time to time.
But do we respond well to advertising that shrieks you’re getting old and the failings of age are noticeable? No, that’s not the way you will woo me to your brand or convince me to purchase products and services in those categories where 50-65 year olds are outbuying all other age groups; financial services, cars, entertainment, books and household services.
It is also a fallacy to assume that brand loyalty is synonymous with older consumers. Where is the research (or list of brands) to support this?
Maybe, just maybe, there is brand loyalty in the automotive sector among those who have always bought a Holden or a Ford and still prefer these makes.
But I doubt it.
And if so, why do car TVCs still feature images of convertibles on mountain roads doing excessive speed on the hairpin bends suggesting that speed is the key performance attribute? The person making the car purchase decision in most households is the 58 year-old woman. This key consumer says fuel economy, a functional boot and a larger makeup mirror are the most important attributes.
As Chris Cormack from Senioragency notes: “The biggest mistake made in marketing to the 50-plus segment is forgetting this cohort has a lifetime of both advertising messages and purchasing decisions. And that a woman in her 50s influences four generations; her parents, her partner, her children and, often, her grand children.
The notion of brand loyalty becomes even more problematic when we realise in many cases today’s brand didn’t even exist 20 years ago. Think iPods, smart phones, smart cars, kindles and bottled water. For someone enjoying a lifespan of 60+ years, these products are relatively new in the market making the concept of long-term brand loyalty largely irrelevant. And the corollary is that many brands with which those aged 50 and older grew up have disappeared completely.
Marketing to a broad baby boomer demographic is simply a waste of time and resources. No single campaign is going to capture the 5.5 million males and females who are aged 47-65. Why would it? Forget age – this is simply too large a lump to target. And as with other clumsy generational groupings such as Gen-Y, X or Z, a baby boomer segment is far from homogenous.
Smart marketers will get over the demographic approach and dig down, instead, to the life stage or event that provides a story with which to showcase the product.
We started with a bad ad, now let’s finish with a good one, based on the life stage of empty nesting, used very elegantly to sell bathroom product. Yes, it’s the Reece ‘Second bathroom’ TVC.
The message? Empty nesting is fun! We know we’re getting older, but it’s not a conversation we really feel like having. Instead, why not make us laugh or cry by sharing a story that resonates?
Now how about going back and taking another look at the “funny” little old lady TVC and trying to define who would find this funny. And if the person who is laughing is actually likely to buy the insurance?
Kaye Fallick is publisher of YOURLifeChoices, a website targeted at Australia’s 50+ community
I thought this ad was targeted towards younger drivers so the creative was fine. Would anyone from agency or client care to fill us in?
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Media vehicles targeting these older people always seem to have ridiculous peppy names like, for example, New Choices for Retirement, Get Up and Go, On the Go, Have a Go. To paraphrase Up in the Air, does their target audience not appreciate how little time they have left on this earth?
This is my favourite: http://www.forpeaceofmind.com.au/vol9/index.cfm.
The article makes good points, but I still rail at the idea that people can be grouped by the generation they belong to, any more than they can by their ethnicity or gender. It’s not as if a whole bunch of babies come out in one year, and then the whole world waits 25 years before spwaning again.
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I agree with Kaye broadly, too. Generation Blah is useful for very broad attitudinal views and cohort population sizes, but little else.
I think the RACV ad was made by the subwoofer gag – both mocking the preconception of age and also mocking the Just Cars-style macho insurance ads in the punch. Though that could be a bit of an industry, rather than consumer view.
The Reece piece was excellent as well for insight-driven execution.
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“Maybe, just maybe, there is brand loyalty in the automotive sector among those who have always bought a Holden or a Ford and still prefer these makes. But I doubt it.”
May I suggest visiting Bathurst between October 6 and 9…
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Brands have purchasers of many different ages and its important not to insult either the very young, older and in between as we ask them to consider purchasing our clients products and services.
What a pity that agencies don’t also employ a diversity of ages to provide clients with a real understanding of how to communicate with their customers.
Over thirty years in agencies, there is not one category that I have not worked in and as a result have built a wealth of both skills and knowledge.
But I do believe agencies are not hiring a diversity of ages. As a Client Service Director at the age of fifty I am continually told by agencies the same tired lines including the following:
* This is a young and funky environment and I don’t think you’d fit in.
* You have a fantastic CV. In fact you have more experience than I do and I’m not sure how that would work.
* You are just not the right cultural fit
* Why would you be wanting a job like this at your age
* We are looking for some fresh young thinking. That’s not you is it?
* I think it might be the time in your career to move on and do something else!
* You just need to accept that you are too old for the industry.
Each of these statements are dangerously discriminatory and highly illegal.
I was on a panel in a session at Mumbrella 360 the other week discussing “If 40 is the new thirty, why are there so few people over 40 in agencies” The session was poorly attended as it seems to be an issue that the industry does not want to confront. Elephants in the room are not easy to discuss.
The RACV TVC is but one example of how the industry is simply missing the mark.
Surely clients deserve so much more.
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Hmmm… could it be because nobody really wants to listen to old people complaining about how things were better when they were younger?
Luckily my generation will never get old, as obesity, binge drinking and mobile phone usage will kill us nice and quickly. So it’s really a dying problem.
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I agree with you Tony, a diverse workforce = diverse thinking.
From an agency perspective it’s definitely easier to manage a young, mobile, white, private school educated workforce. It’s cool, this isn’t a complaint, but it simply makes it tough to communcate with people not like us. Even for the open minded marketer it just lacks the authenticity that comes from diverse people and experience.
No matter how much research and insight hunting you do, at 30 you can never put yourself in the shoes of someone 65.
I’m not going to rant about the industry needing to change, I think it should stay young, and the young should moveon as their enthusiasm is exhausted. The trade off is going to be difficulty/inefficiency communicating with Australia’s largest demographic.
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Personally, given the flow of logic, I would called it a ‘phallusy’.
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Good one Kaye, a bit of good old fashioned strategy and thinking being applied rather than someone without a clue developing a “memorable and funny” TVC.
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Who is this Jezza character?
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Seidlemier, the master director of old ladies doing quirky things in TV commercials (Where’s the beef?!), constantly fought against brand guardians who claimed his characters were insulting the target market. The thing he realised early was that no-body relates to these OTT characters personally. Viewers tend to think ” that funny lady reminds me of some-one I know”. I don’t know a single 50-something–and I know a lot of them- who would be offended by this ad. When humour is more realistic, as in Seinfeld, people will empathise and relate. But over-the-top humour is seen for what it is: a device to entertain while making a point. Lighten up Kaye.
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Luckily, I was recently in a room with ten or so people with grey hair. A demographic that won’t be buying hair-dye it is true. However they all drove to the venue in newish cars and were willing to discuss car-insurance comparisons. Get your mojo on people . . . the grey-hairs are alive, joyful and expendable-income rich.
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OK – I’m a baby boomer. That means I’ve experienced more innovations (so far) in my life than any other generation.
We were the first generation to use computers, the internet, freezers, airconditioning, colour TV, microchips, pesticides, plastics, supermarkets, mobile phones, faxes (been and gone, largely), International Direct Dialing (you, know – picking up the phone and speaking to people on the other side of the planet), earphones pumping music from portable devices into our heads, air travel, space travel (OK – that one I just watched live on TV – and they DID actually land on the moon, by the way), etc, etc. And just don’t get me started about rock and roll, live concerts, recreational pharmaceuticals, and the music industry….
I absolutely agree with the sentiment of this article. The average baby boomer thinks of themselves as having been on the leading-edge of most things for all of their lives. Despite the best efforts of their children, they still think of themselves as a thirty-something. Little old ladies are who their grandparents were.
End of rant. Please get back to being impressed by how cool it looks to have a tat above your bum crack…. Just joking! 🙂
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Even funnier if she was rumperdumping outside the student-house that just held an allnighter.
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Worst example ever of advertising (and, incidentally, product naming) targetted to this market? “The LASTING CHANGES Retirement Community” (delivered, of course, in sympathetic and funereal tones on their radio ad). Great, a new ‘lifestyle option’ which actually tells you up front that once you move in, life will never be the same…yep, that’s gonna work. Tipping it was developed by someone from a younger demographic!
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Peter rush has nailed it
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Peter, just wondering – if no one is relating personally and the funny old lady is simply reminding us of someone we know, where is the engagement? I look at this ad and think it is actually trying to sell insurance to people who are aged at least 75. And it is trying to do so by suggesting they are behind the times. so maybe you can help me lighten up a little by explaining the target market for the ad – who the agency is hoping will buy insurance – and how this persuades this target? I am clearly missing the point – but think I ‘get’ it with the Reece one….
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I think this RACQ ad needs to be seen in the context of the full suite of ads developed by RACQ over the last 5 or 6 years. They are undoubtedly some of the funniest ads on Queensland TV. All of them are caricatures of well recognised stereotypes like this one and feature different genders, age groups and ‘lifestyle choices’. I heard they have been so successful for RACQ that a new campaign was prematurely abandoned to rerun many of the ads from five or six years ago developed in this style, with more developed recently. Some that immediately spring to mind are “Charter boat, what charter boat?”, the ladder ad “Still looking”, rabbit ears (more old folks, products for the ‘more mature’ while the 65ish husband is making rabbit ears behind his wife’s head for their portrait photo), the nagging wife who can be heard interrupting her husband but not seen while he exits the picture, the radical horn doorbell the revhead installed to his mother’s disgust, the true Queenslander and the woman in the car harrassed by her kids (possibly the very first one). I don’t work in marketing or advertising (or the insurance or motor vehicle industry for that matter) but I can’t think of any other brand where I can remember so many of their ads or get such a laugh seeing them over and over again – six years and hundreds of viewings later the oldest ones are still funny and it’s great to see the new ones come through. I like the reece plumbing ad but not as much and have only ever bought a set of taps from them because their showroom is next door to a house I was renovating. My demographics? I am female, on the cusp between Gen x and the Baby Boomers, I live in Queensland, I have a sense of humour and I changed my car and household contents insurance to RACQ this year. Guess they can’t have got it too wrong.
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John G,
I think the answer to the author’s premise in the opening stanza (and all else that follows per chance) lies in the onomatopoeic surname of Ms Fallick
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Hey Stephanie, not in marketing, not in advertising, nor insurance, nor motor vehicles, so what do you do? How come you’re into mumbrella?
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Geepers, I edited a magazine for a friend with a PR agency for 12 months (no formal qulas there either) and currently work in community engagement for major capital works for an electrical utility. A communciations colleague forwarded another Mumbrella link on a hot PR debate to our team today and the excerpt for this post caught my eye. I don’t normally comment but these are really great ads, especially seen as a collective suite over time and there’s no way RACQ would still be running some of them up to six years later if they weren’t effective. Perhaps Queenslander’s are just a bit more offbeat than the rest of the country and don’t take themselves so seriously. We’re certainly ‘behind the times’ in many respects but most people who live here like it that way. You can still get seafood crepes at some regional pub restaurants and profiteroles were still on the menu before Adriano what-his-name brought the croquembouche back.
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Kaye great article, highlighting an obvious problem for agencies and marketers having a lack of understanding on how to approach this market… oh Stephanie it was the RACV not the RACQ
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Dick Peters – thanks for noticing my surname – love your name too 🙂
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Oh look, Kaye said ‘dick’. Twice. That means she must be a cutting-edge, uber hip gonzo journalist.
The RACV ad is not the best ad ever to exist, but it’s not bad either.
Quite similar to Reece in fact, except the joke is on the twenty something young man (which, as Kate notes for no particular reason, means he has a small appendage), not somebody a little closer to Kate’s own age and gender. Actually, the old lady gets off lightly compared to the lad- at least she is vaguely aware of what’s happening in the world.
Kaye, your analysis is typical of how humourless the world and this industry has become. After writing comedy scripts for over 20 years I can only be sure of 2 things: 1.For it to be funny, somebody has got to be the butt of a joke.
2. And if you want to avoid crucifixion from the thought police, make sure that person is a white, heterosexual, middle-aged male.
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Hi Tim,
Don’t attack Kaye, attack her argument. And Tom, thanks for clarifying that there is a an RACV campaign not associated with the RACQ campaign previously linked incorrectly,
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Are there any jobs going in sentence/paragraph deconstruction and reduction, while highlighting meaning and intention? Old school precis if you like.
I feel this is my area of expertise.? . . I am serious . . .
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http://www.senioragency.co.nz/who.html
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The problem with ad agency creative departments is a perennial one: They are too often staffed with young men and women who, no matter what the product, care deeply about gag-driven work that might win an award, and care less about work that connects with people who might buy the product.
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I’m a boomer not a fumeur & still have a sense of humour
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I’m now fiftyeleven and feel no more than thirtytwelve. What gives me the sh*ts is those magazines/newspaper liftouts for the ‘over 50s’ packed full of articles and ads for retirement villages, incontinence products and denture creams. I’m sorry folks, these are not for the likes of me or anyone I know of the same vintage. I don’t even like hanging about with old people. While the ‘little old lady’ ad gives me a laugh (well at least the punchline does), I’m buggered if I’m buying the product (actually, at fiftyeleven, I’ve already forgotten what the product is).
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Shit I hate whacky old people in ads. Always have, always will.
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Go Dan …go hmmm … you two should get together and start an agency specialising in non-incontinece products and those 50-11s n 12s who will NEVER live in a retirement village – approx 94% according to research I’ve seen 🙂
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Thanks for the suggestion Kaye, but I’m currently on a cushy wicket and at fiftyeleven, I don’t need the stress of a start-up. Perhaps an opening for a visionary twenty-something. Happy to let them know the kind of things me and my ilk would buy.
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Or failing that some new product manufacture.
Mobile with large visible keypad would sell millions.
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I could not agree more with the premise of Kaye’s post. I particularly dislike the ads for 50+ age groups placed on my Facebook page – I don’t want a retirement home – not now or any time soon. Products which advertise like this are noted – and avoided.
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In light of the content of this article, please tell me that “Fallick” is a pseudonym?
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I think the writer for this, and many people who have commented have really got the demographic of this ad wrong.
The product is about “long term rewards”, they are advertising to young people today, so that over a long term they will get the discounts, and buy a wicked subwoofer with the savings.
This promotes them to stay loyal to RAC for many years because they’ll get more of a discount, rather than switching up every 12 months.
Insurance is a long term relationship with a customer, and many people will stay with the same insurance company if they feel they’re getting a good deal and are happy with the service, so catching people early in life is critical for insurance companies. Because if a 20-something is happy with their car insurance, well guess where they’re going to go for their home insurance?
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No Grant – a real name 🙂
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