At the Financial Communications Society summit in New York City on April 11, a group of experts discussed the topic: “Baby Boomer…or Bust: How to Market to and Influence the 50+ Consumer.” Participants included the Lincoln Financial Group, BlackRock and J.P. Morgan. They asked the question: “Why is it that some marketers have such a hard time talking to the boomer generation?”

Boomers have protested, broken glass ceilings, and have worked their tails off for decades: yet, many marketers are saddled with incorrect stereotypes about what it means to be over the age of 50. According to the panelists, here are the five most common misconceptions that marketers have of baby boomers:

-They aren’t tech-savvy. False. This generation buys more Apple products than any other age group (because they can afford them). Boomers go online just as much as 18- to 39-year-olds, and are early adopters of new technology. They have Facebook accounts, go online shopping, blog, and own smart phones—especially women. (The next time you walk into a Brookstone, look around; you’ll see the majority of customers are over 50.)

-Older people aren’t cool. Can you say Anna Wintour, Madonna, and Bono? They define cool and make today’s younger “it” girls and boys look pathetic.

-They don’t spend. This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Unlike their parents who survived the Depression and saved every penny, baby boomers are spending big. On average people buy 13 cars over a lifetime; about seven of those are purchased after the age of 50. The average age of an American Express card member is 57 years. After years of working and putting kids through school, paying loans, and building their nest eggs, baby boomers want to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Lincoln Financial Group, for example, has figured out that this generation works hard and plays hard. It doesn’t paint retirement as some end-of-life stage, rather it sells products that are relevant for today’s extremely active Boomer generation and gives them control of their future.

-They see their “golden years” as a time of relaxation. False: Eighty percent of people age 50 years and older, say that they plan to work well past their 60s if possible. They know they are going to live longer and have to budget accordingly.

-They are loyal to brands. Wrong again. Boomers are not as loyal as their parents were. After all, they have watched the cereal aisle go from five to 100 brands. Many are risk takers and adapt to change fluently. If the ’60s  taught us anything about this generation it’s that baby boomers like to experiment and question norms.

In many ways, we know this generation better than any. It’s time we start communicating better with them.

Melissa Pitts is a marketing intern at gyro. She blogs regularly at Newstaco.com, FlamingTortillas.com and Americas Quarterly.
Follow her at @mpittsm

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

No wonder we have a reputation of being entitled. We have more than we could ever want and need thrown at our feet, 24/7.

As both a member of Generation Y and an ad man, I have some insider tips to pass your way—some do’s and don’ts—that can help you reach our ever-stimulated, ever-distracted group.

Five Ways to Gain Our Attention

1. Make it participatory: I still see TV, print and even online campaigns that simply shout a message without inviting participation. In this hands-on world, you can’t afford to miss that opportunity, especially not with the active and tech-savvy Generation Y.

2. Make it easy: We have media ADD. If we don’t get it right away, or at least see how to get it, we’ll lose interest and move on to something we do know how to use.

3. Make it shareable: And not just for Facebook and Twitter, but anywhere and everywhere, especially new trending sites like Pinterest. If you don’t know what that site is yet, Generation Y does, and they are there waiting for you.

4. Take a risk: Gen Y likes daring brands. We’re looking for something that stands out from the crowd in a real way, which rarely happens when you play it safe. Find a great idea, and instead of testing it to death, go with your gut, take a risk, and see how we respond to it in a real-world “test.”

5. Give it meaning: With a reputation for being entitled and spoiled, it’s easy to think we care only about ourselves. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’re altruistic, optimistic, passionate, and want to be part of something bigger than ourselves. Give your message a relevant, meaningful focus, and we could become your most loyal evangelists. Levi’s Go Forth campaign did a pretty good job of capturing that feeling, and Tom’s Shoes wrote it into their business model. You can too.

Five Ways to Lose Our Attention

1. Take yourself too seriously: The power of funny is incredible, especially with Generation Y. We love to laugh. It makes us feel closer to each other and closer to your brand. And your brand doesn’t have to be an Old Spice or Burger King to make a joke. Serious brands can still use humor to illustrate a more serious point. I’d recommend keeping a comedian or two on staff for just such an occasion.

2. Be vague: Mission statements and brand platforms sound great in the boardroom, they but mean next to nothing to a 20-something who will skip your ad after about 0.7 seconds.

3. Give us a product instead of an experience: If you’re VW, you don’t sell cars. You sell a transportation experience. From the moment we consider buying a new car, to the moment years later when we trade it in for a new one, we want to be engaged. Give us an experience, not a product. Kodak thought they sold pictures. Now their business will be the butt of every what-not-to-do marketing case study for years to come.

4. Make fun of us: Take a look at this Samsung Super Bowl ad and tell me there isn’t an army of offended tech geeks—who love waiting in line for the latest iWhatever—eager to bash you online. Making fun of us isn’t the way to convert us.

5. Talk down to us: I’ve heard various decision-makers say things like, “I get it, but our customers won’t,” and “We need to dumb down the language for our customers.” If you think your target market is dumb, it will come across not just in your ads but also in your entire company culture. Try it with Generation Y, and we’ll go hang out with someone who thinks everything we do is brilliant (like Doritos).

So we of Generation Y are a pretty strange bunch, and we like it that way. Learning to reach us isn’t just good business, but it’s also a way to prepare for the future of advertising and marketing. Because we’re going to get older, technology will get only more complex, and the next generation … well, they are even weirder than we are.

Brian Havig is a copywriter at gyro

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Pinterest relies on pinboards, or themes for the content. Other Pinners (Pinterest users – stay with me here) can subscribe to one or more of your pinboards.

Pinterest has a passionate user base, which is exploding by the day. It is the third fastest-growing site on the Web per Comscore.

However, many seasoned Pinners — mostly designers, photographers and foodies — resent the influx of newcomers, seeing their contribution to be mostly unoriginal or uninspiring. In order not to breed ill will among these innovators and early adopters, limit your pins to the insightful, original and thought provoking.

Here are some ways Pinterest can fit into your content marketing plan:

1. Thought leadership. Got an interesting chart or infographic in your latest white paper? Pin it! But don’t forget to include a call to action in your pin’s description.

2. Traffic generation. Drive people to your blog by including a strong visual and pinning that.

3. Maximizing existing creative. Got a nice visual campaign going on? Pin those bad boys!

4. Pictures of people. Show off your company’s culture by involving the staff. Include snapshots in and around the office.

5. Pictures of products. If you sell a thing that can be seen with eyeballs, be it books, heavy machinery or label makers, putting it on Pinterest is an option. The travel industry has already firmly embraced it with jealousy-inducing shots.

6. The Pin-it button. You don’t have to do all the pinning yourself. Place the Pin-it button on your site to enable users to share your content on their pinboards.

7. Other people’s stuff. If you share only your own content, you’ll quickly become boring. Pinterest has a lot to do with sharing what you find interesting and insightful from other sources.

Is Pinterest for everyone or every company? No. And only time will tell if Pinterest has the influence of Twitter or the ubiquity of YouTube. But if there’s one thing social media has taught us, it’s this: It’s better to experiment early on. In the case of Pinterest, odds are, you’ll at least see some cute kitty pictures.

Barrett Condy is a senior copywriter at gyro, the global ideas shop.
Follow him @barrettcondy

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

That changed last week when Blogger (a Google blogging platform) rolled out its new Dynamic Views template. Almost instantly, I saw the future and it was an eye-opener.  The new technology is a game changer and has the potential for causing a significant “rethink” for marketers. Two features in particular make this innovation noteworthy.

The first is the visitor’s ability to change the layout of your site. Although dynamic content and websites have been around for years, this is the first tool that I’ve seen that has the potential to turn over complete control of the user experience to the visitor. It enables readers to organize your blog in seven different layouts (try it by clicking the image below).

The second, and most concerning, is the “Flipcard” view (see below). In a sense, it allows visitors to “flatten” your website. Suddenly, the majority of your content (good and bad) is visible above the fold and can be scanned in about eight seconds (the average time spent to view a Web page). Visitors can quickly sort through thumbnail images or blog titles searching for relevant content.

This new, disruptive innovation arrives at a time when corporations are just now beginning to appreciate and understand the value of content marketing and blogging.

According to Hubspot’s State of Inbound Marketing report, nearly 40 percent of U.S. companies are now using blogs for marketing purposes—and for good reason. B-to-B companies that blog generate 55 percent more traffic and 67 percent more leads per month than those that do not.

Those blogs are reaching an ever-growing population of readers. The global population of readers grew 65 percent last year, according to Hubspot. And they are consuming more, as 46 percent said that they were reading blogs more than once a day.  To keep pace, more content is being produced. Emarketer reports that there are 31 percent more bloggers today than there were three years ago, creating an estimated 160 million blogs on the Internet at the end of 2010.

What does this mean for the content marketer?

The speed at which audiences move around online will get faster. They will be more difficult to connect with, engage and keep. Further, we are going to have to be prepared to give control to readers in order to be successful. Based on my experience, here are a few things marketers need to consider:

Flag post – An average reader spends 86 seconds on a blog. To “stop” a visitor who is on the express train to “contentville,” we will have to rethink the titles and images used in posts, and we’ll probably have to live with higher bounce rates. Suddenly, getting the reader’s attention is just as important as getting them to engage.

Relevancy – Turning over control of the site to the visitor also comes with the reality that we are now writing content the visitor wants to read and not necessarily just espousing our opinions or services. Communicating the company point of view is still important, but now it has to be done using the audience’s language.

Understanding the reader – Google Analytics gives us the demographics, but that no longer will be enough. We’ll need to understand what appeals to the reader by monitoring comments, how they’re sharing links, and where they’ve come from, and where they are headed. We’re merely a morning stop along the way and to get to engage, we have to know how to get their attention.

Content production – Producing good-quality content has long been a challenge. Now with the ability to flatten sites, the lack of content will be visible in an instant. Marketers will have to create a content calendar and rely on trustworthy sources for output.

Timing – According to Hubspot research, link-sharing among blog readers reaches a peak at 7 a.m. Comments on blogs top out at 8 a.m., and by 10 a.m. blog reading begins to decline. As the data suggests, when content is posted and distributed matters. New internal processes will have to catch up with external audience preferences.

The real game changer is that this technology will quickly make its way into corporate website design. For years we have tried to figure out the “user experience.” Visitors can now create their own unique experience, actually seven of them, and do it in real time. It is a great opportunity as well as a great challenge, and it’s one that marketers can’t afford to miss.

by Scott Gillum
President gyro Washington, D.C. and Head of gyro’s Channel Marketing Practice

Follow Scott on Twitter @SGillum

Cross-posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Why?

In the tech industry and according to author Tom Grant, Ph.D, companies desire early commitment, due to the industry’s “voracious appetite for leads.” As Grant explains in his report, Tech Marketers Pursue Antiquated Marketing Strategies, the “high-speed innovation” rate drives a hyperfocus on product marketing and lead generation compared to other industries.

In fact, only 22 percent of marketers in the technology industry said that customer relationship management was one of the two most important priorities. Contrast that with 52 percent of marketers in non-tech companies. The focus is obviously on producing a measurable outcome that drives the product P&L: leads.

Developing a relationship with an audience takes time and resources, and it can be perceived as a distraction to the task of finding “ready to marry” prospects. This inward-out view of marketing ignores audience needs and assumes that all audiences are the same, and that all searches must indicate intent.

However, the key to driving demand and lead generation in today’s economy is not being more aggressive and pushing harder, but rather, taking time to develop and nurture relationships. Audiences, like dates, can sense desperation.  Perhaps the way to go faster is to slow down and shift the focal point from the conversion to the conversation.

We have long known that relevancy drives conversion and that conversion drives revenue. Getting to relevancy requires us to engage with the audience to understand their unique needs and motivations. As a result, our role changes from dictating to facilitating and understanding that it’s now on the buyer’s time frame, not ours.

New technologies such as Bizo enable us to know who the audience is at the first interaction. We also know where they’ve been for 30 days (who they’ve been dating, so to speak) before the conversion point, via Google Analytics’ new Multichannel Funnels.

We can serve up custom content through retargeting based on audience profiles, adapt for whatever device they are using, and deepen engagement by providing specific product or brand messages that align with their journey.

95% of prospects on your website are not yet ready to talk with a sales rep.” Source: 2011 MECLABS research

We no longer have to interrupt a buyer’s journey to gauge the interest level.   We no longer have to call a prospect to qualify him or her.  When a company offers something of value (i.e., relevant and personal), buyers are more likely to share their interests, desires and needs, but only if we listen, nurture and respect the relationship. According to Forrester, this intimate information is critical to creating real opportunity (leads) for the sales force.

In the Technology Buyer Insight Study, Forrester found that although tech has done a good job of equipping its sales force to discuss company products, it had failed to provide reps with insight into the buyer’s roles and responsibilities. Only 29 percent of CIOs said that sales reps could “relate to their role”; less than a quarter (24 percent) of business leaders said that reps were “knowledgeable about their business.”

Still too touchy-feely for you? Consider Harte Hanks’ report, Mapping the Technology Buyer’s Journey, which states that the relationship with the vendor is still a top five consideration driver. The first and second most important drivers are what you’d expect: (1) Meets all needs and (2) cost.

Competitors can match your price, but they can’t necessarily match your understanding of the buyer’s need or the relationship developed through that journey.

by Scott Gillum

President, gyro Washington, D.C. and

Head of gyro’s Channel Marketing Practice

Cross-posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

You can follow Scott Gillum on Twitter @SGillum

But often they need to take a step back. Mobile devices have for the first time ever made location and context the most critical things to consider in mobile marketing. You should start planning for mobile by considering where your audience is and what you anticipate they will be doing when you create a mobile experience.

Unlike previous platforms such as the computer or television, portable digital devices hold our office, our lives and our connection to everything in our hands. Now the location of the customer with the mobile device and the context of what the customer is doing determine whether or not the moment affords receptivity to messaging or the ability to perform tasks on the devices.

And brands are getting it wrong quite often. One example of a contextual miss we see is the use of QR codes on direct mail pieces. The fact is, the recipient more likely prefers computers or laptops to experience content than on a mobile device. As direct mail arrives at a home or office, the use of mobile devices at the mailbox is minimal. QR code at a conference? Yes, absolutely. No one carries around a laptop then.

The best way to get your head around mobile marketing is to start creating a mobile strategy in which the user is the centerpiece. What can we create for these users that will be useful, usable and desirable? What ethnographic observations can we bring to the table? How can ideas be influenced by locations and contexts in which they will be used? Once you answer these questions, all the other details, technologies and choices will be much easier to determine.

by Mike Tittel
Executive Creative Director – Cincinnati

Cross-posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Now I fully understand why business-to-business companies desire the attention of C-level executives, but I have to ask, is this really the right target? Is Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO, truly going to make the final decision or even influence the decision about a new manufacturing line that will be purchased for a GE Aviation plant? Or for that matter, will David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Aviation, be that involved in the decision? Many exerts would say no.

“C-level executives (CLEs) rarely get up in the morning thinking about interacting with salespeople.” (Selling to the C-Suite). In fact, when asked what keeps them up at night, most CEOs said shareholder value, not what new supply chain processes and equipment they want to explore and purchase for their company.

In addition, the actual numbers of CLEs is quite small. According to Steve Lutz, “As there is no listing for C-level executives in the census, let’s estimate the number of C-level executives in the B2B selling world using the Global 2000 list of companies. If we estimate that the Global 2000 on average has five C-level executives—CEO, CFO, COO, CIO, president—and seven additional ‘close to C-level executives’—EVP sales, SVP marketing, SVP HR, divisional president, etc.—then we arrive at a total of approximately 24,000 senior executives for the entire pool of over 10 million U.S.-based salespeople to call on.”

So, what’s a B-to-B company to do, since most C-suite members are not interested in being marketed or sold to?

“You marketing guys are all alike. You think that because I’m the CIO you have to send everything to me. I get tons of stuff from you and all your competitors. Let me tell you something, this is not how we make decisions. I have talented people responsible for their own areas. You’re using me as an executive mailroom, and I don’t appreciate it.” Excerpted from Marketing to the C-Suite, by Scott Hornstein.

Perhaps a better spend for marketing and sales is to focus dollars and attention on the group-decision gauntlet that is at the core of the B-to-B purchase process. Most B-to-B purchases involve a team of at least five employees from various departments; this team is corralled to find the right supplier/partner/vendor for the company’s need. There is rarely a C-level executive or even an EVP in the group. So, wouldn’t it be a better investment to create marketing communications that address the specific needs and motivations of middle management since CLEs delegate the task of vetting potential solutions to these people?

However, if you do believe it is critical to target the C-suite, make sure you have a compelling message. Remember, the C-suite cares “less about the widget and more about return on investment.” Messaging to the C-suite should be personalized, specific to the issues facing the company, and unique.

by Carolyn Ladd

Vice President, Planning

In the lead up to the 8th IDM B2B Marketing Conference the premise for my blog series is this: the staunch divide between B2C and B2B no longer exists.

Over the coming weeks, I will attempt to look into how this has happened and more importantly, what it means. How can we use some of the latest business theories, anecdotes and musings to effectively tackle a new brief and critically, add real value to our clients’ brands.

As a sweeping generalisation, it used to be that marketers and agencies made the communications decisions. Ultimately, we would rely on people being ‘switched on’ at varying times. So we’d patiently wait for people to respond to the direct response ad, direct mail and so on.

Now, we’re always ‘on’ – whether we are an avid social networker, smartphone user, proud owner of a tablet device – or whether we are not. That means that our professional and private lives have blurred, merged and in many ways become one. The psychology of having our personal life interrupted by our work is intriguing. Is it an invasion of our privacy and leisure time, or do we secretly relish in what it does to enforce our status – highlighting our success and demonstrating that we are always in demand. More on that later.

Add into the mix that business is now cool – Robert Preston, Martha Lane-Fox and  Richard Reed, not to mention the Bransons and Gates, are our equivalent of stadium filling popstars (who also appreciate being  associated with ‘serious’ fiscal  success). A key proof point is that the business publishing sector is actually one of the fastest growing in the world.

So there are 3 big things to think about:

1. Tech has allowed us to be always on, we’re no longer 9 to fivers
2. The ‘always on’ idea removes the ‘I’m at work thinking’. Work is no longer a place, it is a state of mind
3. Business is cool, in fact, business is uber cool and people want to be a part of it, more than ever.

So as business decision makers, over the last decade we’ve evolved and that means that the way we’re talked to must evolve. And this should probably be happening faster than it currently is.

The 2011 IDM B2B Marketing Conference takes place on 18 May

By
Richard Perry
COO
gyro

But today the relentless drive to shift activity online seems to leave this form of media as a relative bystander. I got thinking about this when I visited my yahoo inbox earlier today. I reckon I receive around 50 emails each day into my yahoo account. A symptom of my interest in ‘what brands are doing’ and concurrent willingness to tick the box and hand over my email address at every opportunity.

Of those 50 emails I estimate a good 5-10% are from the nice people at Groupon. Now they know quite a lot about my preferences – yep, couldn’t help ticking the boxes – which should mean I receive the odd very cleverly targeted offer from them right? Well I guess I do occasionally but the odd spa / facial discount does seem to sneak through – perhaps inevitable when you are playing a tenacity and frequency game as they clearly are. Anyway, the main point and interesting thing about Groupon is the channels they use to reach me — essentially email. I have not once arrived home to find a shiny, super-relevant Groupon mailing on my doormat. This is astounding given what they know about me. Think about it. I went to them, volunteered some pretty personal information and what did I get in return? A barrage of emails!

I see a growing number of brands behaving in this way. Shifting away from ‘traditional’ channels … in many cases due to a collective perception that ‘traditional’ must be less effective and efficient than other, newer-media. Of course this is not the case and used in the right way and given the right role – usually as part of an integrated strategy – traditional direct channels can have fantastic impact.

We help HP sell digital printers across EMEA so I am well versed in the argument for digital print and how that has revolutionized the commercial model for direct mail. But clearly not all brand owners can be as familiar with its benefits and possibilities. It does seem inevitable to me that as familiarity with these print technologies grows, the balance of new and old channels will return to a level that reflects their respective, rational merits. Smarter and more integrated re-targeting strategies and platforms will be a big driver of this and is an area in which brand owners are sure to find plenty of marketing gold.

By
Richard Mabbott
SVP, Planning
gyro London

Not too long ago, the smartest, most creative idea sealed the deal twixt agencies and clients. But with prospects now looking for ‘best value’ in every transaction, it has become clear that agencies must change the way they sell creativity – and that those who cannot adapt will struggle to compete.

As industry thought leader, we felt a responsibility to develop an understanding of this issue -  so we’ve set out on a journey to become the agency that loves procurement more than any other. The planning and business development teams here at gyro in Manchester  commissioned a team of crack MBA students from Lancaster University Management School to help us explore how agencies can adapt to the growing necessity of dealing with procurement , whether our quest for creative excellence really does conflict with procurement’s true motivations and how we might re-shape our rules of engagement.

It was a process that started with some introspection. With every pitch, we’d felt increasingly compelled to tailor our thinking to procurement types we perceived as somehow better accustomed to rubber-stamping the purchase of more immediately quantifiable products and services such as toilet rolls, photocopiers and cleaning services.

Having parked our perceptions, delving into the nature of agency relationships with procurement was most enlightening. Certainly – at first glance – it looks like a case of ‘never the twain…’

Agencies think that procurement personnel don’t understand -  or care – how they work, that hey do not understand the value of creativity, and that  their influence is disproportionately powerful. Indeed, agencies seem prepared to do whatever is required to work around procurement. On the other hand, procurement teams believe that agencies do not like them and will do anything to avoid engaging with the numbers – and even that their own marketing function are somehow ‘in league’ with agencies.

The reality is simultaneously more prosaic and reassuring. Our research revealed that procurement teams are not all the faceless bean-counting machines that agencies consider them to be. They are open to communication, would like greater involvement throughout the pitching process and want to be though of as a facilitating partner in the buying process. They even appreciate their shortcomings and are actively looking to agencies to help educate and develop their capabilities.  And – brace yourself – they’re not all about cost. Specification, working processes, issue escalation and management of the relationship are all on procurement’s radar – so ignore these details at your peril.

Ultimately, we can no longer ignore the harsh reality that organisations have put in place processes to extract best value from all suppliers. Rather than work around them, agencies should seek to forge relationships with procurement professionals as we do with our marketing contacts.  Agencies can no longer afford to assume that ONLY the procurement function or the ONLY the marketing function has the casting vote in every organisation. Indeed, our MBA team defined the Client as ‘Marketing + Procurement’. As such, it’s crucial that we understand that you can’t have one without the other – and that we engage and address each audience in the most relevant way.

Whatever we learn from our project one thing is startlingly clear: not only has the recession accelerated procurement’s involvement – it’s here to stay. And, rather than treating procurement with suspicion, those agencies  – and marketers – that reach out a little more just might find themselves winning more pitches.

‘Why we need to learn to love procurement’ is a research project undertaken by gyro in conjunction with Lancaster University Management School. We are currently analysing and summarising the outputs. If you would like a copy of the final analysis, please email lucy.cunliffe@gyrohsr.com