Boomers

Arjan in't Veld, a young Dutch man, and the Future of Boomer Magazines

When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school, it’s a wonder I can think at all.

When you read those words, if Paul Simon’s eponymous song “Kodachrome” doesn’t come to mind, you must not be a Boomer (and/or a classic rock fan). The song is playing in the background while I’m grooving to... ah, writing this post.

The odd thing is that I’m listening to Paul Simon transport me back to my youth — Kodachrome... give us the nice bright colors, give us the greens of summer, makes you think all the world’s a sunny day, oh yeah — while another browser window is open to a new Dutch online magazine ... created for Dutch citizens over 50 ... by a 27-year-old child of Boomers ... and I’m impressed.

In 2007 while on a speaking tour of Europe, I met and had lunch with Arjan in’t Veld (last name translates to “in the field”), a striking young man towering two meters tall (that’s over 6 ft. 5 in.), with fire in his belly and a goal to turn his marketing education into a business focused on people old enough to be his grandparents and parents.

He quickly transformed from a college graduate with a master's degree in marketing to becoming one of The Netherlands’ leading authorities on 50+ marketing.

Bureauvijftig, his marketing agency founded with partner Dick Vos, has attracted a banner list of international clients who see vibrant opportunities when they think of all the Kodachrome colors swirling around Boomers (those alluring hues of Euros and U.S. dollars).

Now for the magazine, ENNU, you’re going to click here: www.ennumagazine.nl. Then you will see this:

  
The magazine has been written and recorded in Dutch, so if you don’t read Dutch or understand the spoken language, you’re not going to appreciate fully how well all the content has been developed. But I’ll bet you’ll be impressed with clever integration of multimedia to create an engaging and enjoyable user experience.

If you want to hear Paul, click on page 4:

 
You should then feel the same sense of kinship I have always felt for the Dutch since they have so fully embraced American music and culture (with their own twists, of course). As you travel through Amsterdam, you’ll often hear the music that defined Boomer youth, and Arjan’s team has embraced this intercultural experience with the inaugural edition of their online publication.

If you want another taste of something more familiar than foreign, click on page 15, a layout clearly dedicated to single Boomers seeking new love. Notice also how photo frames above the Boomer couple are actually windows to external 50+ dating websites.

 
Sometimes it takes getting out of our own country to encounter new ways of experiencing being Boomer through media, as has this new online journal taken some very creative steps toward envisioning a 50+ magazine for the future.

Consider the possibilities that will soon unfold with the introduction of Apple iPad. Suddenly, a merely printed magazine seems inadequate.

I can read the writing on the wall.

The Super Bowl, Baby Boomer Men and Classic Rock Bands

The educational travel industry focuses mostly on older adults who have time, money and propensity to participate in higher-end travel adventures emphasizing learning experiences. The industry consists of tour operators, such as World Leaders Travel; planners, such as executives with Yale University alumni association; and suppliers, such as Menlo Consulting Group, Inc., a respected travel industry research company.

I was a keynote speaker for the Educational Travel Conference in Providence, RI, during the week before Super Bowl Sunday, where I spoke about marketing to Baby Boomer men. About 450 attended the conference.

Until recently, the industry has primarily marketed to members of the Silent Generation, or those born in the U.S. between 1925 and 1945. But the industry is gearing up for Boomers who represent the next big marketing opportunity.

One entrenched myth in the industry is that women make most travel decisions, so I had my work cut out for me. But I was able to put forward several persuasive arguments (backed by recent consumer research) that support targeting Boomer men as a significant and burgeoning niche segment.

About halfway through my speech, I presented a cartoon from The New Yorker magazine. It’s a simple idea that you can easily imagine.

From stage left you’re looking down on four old rock musicians with balding heads and stooped bodies. A sell-out audience before them appears jubilant and celebratory. The lead singer speaks: “This next tune is a hard-rocking, kick-ass, take-no-prisoners tune we wrote about turning sixty.”

As expected, the audience laughed at this irony. And I asked them what Tom Petty, Bruce Springsteen, Mick Jagger and Paul McCartney have in common recently. The answer: They have all been entertainers during halftime for the annual Super Bowl extravaganza.

Then I asked who would be providing halftime entertainment during Super Bowl XLIV. Several from the audience shouted out, “The Who!” Sure enough, vocalist Roger Daltry and guitarist Pete Townsend — the only surviving artists from the original band — rocked out to laser lights as if they are among today’s hottest artists — which, of course, they’re not.

Mission accomplished: cartoon irony mirrors human reality. Lead acts for the last six Super Bowl games have been classic rock artists, with most over the age of 60. (Petty will be the final artist among this elite group to become 60 — in October 2010.)

I pointed out that these 60-plus men retain broad appeal across generations, but certainly among Baby Boomers, and most certainly among Boomer men. Men of this generation who grew up on a steady auditory diet of Petty-Springsteen-Jagger-McCartney-Daltry also have the money and moxie that most major advertisers savor.

In tune with the The Who and for one of the showcase commercials, contemporary rap artist will.i.am covered the English rock band’s “My Generation.” This song is one of the group’s defining statements, where Daltry famously asserts: “I hope I die before I get old (Talkin’ ‘bout my generation).”

This Super Bowl commercial, produced for upstart marketer Flo TV, stood apart from the others — a quick-cutting nostalgic montage of television news and cultural ephemera from the sixties through the present. Further, will.i.am took some serious license with The Who's legendary lyrics: “I don't wanna die young; I wanna get old (Talkin’ ‘bout my generation).”

Last year, will.i.am covered Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young” for a Pepsi commercial, which I discussed in a blog post last February. If you compare carefully, the new ad contains some of the same archival television footage included in the Pepsi “Forever Young” Super Bowl commercial.

Stuart Elliott, a prolific advertising critic and columnist for The New York Times dedicated his column on the Monday following Super Bowl Sunday to a theme of nostalgia, the common creative characteristic he spotted in most of the ads that ran during the 2010 Super Bowl. I found it curious that he discovered nostalgic twists in every other TV commercial BUT the one spot that was unabashedly nostalgic — at least from a Baby Boomer perspective. He didn’t even mention the will.i.am cover for Flo TV. However, he did perceptively identify a plethora of brands relying on classic rock as fundamental to their Super Bowl pitches:

Among the old-school rock acts heard were Cheap Trick, for Audi; the Electric Light Orchestra, for Select 55 beer; Kiss, for Dr Pepper Cherry; Kool and the Gang, for the Honda Accord Crosstour; and Bill Withers, for the Dante’s Inferno video game sold by Electronic Arts.

History, it seems, does repeat itself: with classic-rock men bands dominating the nation’s largest stage today and with nostalgic ads tapping into our halcyon memories from the past.

Susan Boyle, Baby Boomer Celebrities, and A New Culture of Fame

Popular culture favors youth. Celebrity favors youth. Many of today’s icons of the Baby Boomer Generation achieved fame before turning 30, certainly by 40.

And unlike older generations, where many youth icons faded away after age 50, Boomer icons persist successfully today: filling stadiums, such as Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Gene Simmons, and Bonnie Rait; and winning starring roles in movies, such as Richard Gere, Jessica Lange, Meryl Streep, and Sigourney Weaver.

The Boomer generation’s cultural hegemony is maintaining, even expanding celebrity status for those well past 50, including all the aforementioned artists who all turned 60 this year.

In Marketing to Leading-Edge Baby Boomers, I raise another possibility for the future of fame, if not a wish: that this generation would be capable of recognizing and elevating artists who do not achieve acclaim until after the age of 45.

I propose this possibility as another tangible sign that Boomer dominance over popular culture will not soon fade as critics predict; rather, the generation would continue to influence paradigm shifts about aging and popular celebrity appeal. Perhaps for the first time in western culture, older artists might step to the international stage, also for the first time—talented individuals who rise above ageism, looks-ism and longstanding social barriers to reach acclaim after reaching a certain age.

Well, this week my wish has been granted.

Last April, an understated woman opened her mouth and sang “I Dreamed a Dream” from the musical “Les Misérables” with nearly perfect pitch and clarity. The judges and television studio audience became enthralled, struggling to find congruency between what their eyes were witnessing and their ears were hearing.

Susan Boyle, age 48, a church volunteer from lackluster Blackburn, Scotland, became an instant celebrity. The YouTube video of her shocking performance on “Britain’s Got Talent,” the UK version of “American Idol,” has received over 33 million views and nearly 90,000 five-star ratings. According to Visible Measures, a company that computes viewings of Internet videos, her catalog of on-online clips has been watched over 310 million times.

Melissa Lonner, senior producer at NBC’s “Today” show, where Ms. Boyle performed on November 23, clarified the meaning of this watershed moment in her comments to the New York Times: “She is the perfect Cinderella story. She connects with the public and crosses over so many socioeconomic platforms. And she made a great record with songs that everyone knows and can relate to.”

But trouncing Simon Cowell, the cynical talent judge, is not the end of this Boomer woman’s remarkable accomplishments. This week her new shrink-wrapped CD, “I Dreamed a Dream,” sold over 700,000 copies in the United States; became the fastest-selling debut album in British history; and soared to the number one sales position in Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, and Australia.

Equally thought-provoking is the manner in which this album has been purchased. Ninety-four percent of the sales have been CDs, not digital downloads, which is counter to the prevailing trend where only 77 percent of music sales today are CDs.

The New York Times speculates why Boyle’s album has been acquired in greater numbers in the form of atoms instead of digital bits:

For many in the music industry Ms. Boyle’s sales are a reminder of a large and often forgotten audience: older listeners who, whether they are less tech-savvy than younger consumers or they simply prefer to hold purchases in their hands, favor CDs over downloads.

Coincidentally, this week Microsoft and AARP released a new study entitled, “Boomers and Technology: An Extended Conversation.” Michael Rogers, the futurist author, concludes: “Boomers want technology to fit the lives they have made and the values they hold dear. If their children are the technology pioneers, the first to explore new territory, Boomers are the settlers, arriving later to set up schools and libraries, to sink deep roots, and to build permanent structures.” 

Boomers know how to download music; many own iPods and have scads of MP3’s loaded on their computer hard drives. Yet, the soft touch of Susan Boyle’s voice begets the higher touch preference for a CD over a digital download. And for all those in the technology arena, often shaping their business decisions according to preferences of younger generations, this defining moment should be an adequate reminder that Boomers have the economic might and market dominance to shape the future of technology adoption and usage.

Susan Boyle’s new CD includes “I Dreamed a Dream,” the song that made her famous; religious hymns “How Great Thou Art” and “Amazing Grace”; and covers of popular Boomer rock songs by the Monkees, Rolling Stones, and Madonna.

In my book I also touch upon the underlying psychology that might be driving Susan Boyle’s meteoric rise to fame:

Although this generation’s impact has been significant in the entertainment world, Baby Boomers do not want their legacy to rely solely on the great work of rock musicians and Hollywood actors. They are certainly proud of the accomplishments of two famous Bruce’s—Bruce Springsteen and Bruce Willis—but the people they admire in their everyday lives include thousands of heroes who never achieve mass-market celebrity. These unsung superstars may be famous for their accomplishments in only a single quiet industry—and many prefer anonymity to celebrity—but they are nevertheless as important to the Boomer legacy as its Tinsel Town celebrities.

One of the uplifting possibilities of the Boomer generation arriving in later life is a realization that ordinary older people can achieve extraordinary dreams if given a chance. Society used to erect nearly insurmountable barriers before those who sought fame for the first time after the age of 40.

As the culture of fame finally admits older newcomers—those who have not spent months or years preparing for greatness, but rather have practiced their art and nurtured their dreams for decades, as has Susan Boyle—we witness and celebrate the complete realization of human potential across the lifespan, unimpeded by age or prior socioeconomic status. 

Rock Music, Boomers and Dan Fogelberg

"...and I'm in Colorado when I'm not in some hotel, living out this life I've chose and come to know so well." — Dan Fogelberg, August 13, 1951 - December 16, 2007

Boomers and rock music are synonyms. We trace our lives with music. Some of our songs are hard-edged and confrontational. Some are soft and poetic.

Yesterday, one of our softest poets died. Dan Fogelberg passed away at 56 following a three-year battle with advanced prostate cancer.

Dan created part of the sound track of my life beginning in 1972. When I was grieving the departure of a girlfriend in college, Dan brought me closure with "Be on Your Way." When I was discovering new love with my future wife, Dan sang "To the Morning" in the background. When I realized the follies of my youth and looked ahead to the responsibilities of adulthood, he gave me perspective with "There's A Place in the World for a Gambler." When the urge came to own a piece of Colorado mountain property, Dan offered his sage counsel with "Long Way Home (Live in the Country)." When my father passed away, Dan further elevated my appreciation and gratitude for Dad's life with "Leader of the Band."

After the announcement three years ago that Dan was cancelling a concert tour because of advanced prostate cancer, I felt as if a brother had just received such a horrific diagnosis. Like thousands of others, I sent him a get well note:

I finally hugged my father before he left. I finally found peace after lost love. I finally claimed a purple mountain for my soul — all this because of your musical journey, always more than lyrics and melodies. I finally discovered gratitude and grace. Your music is timeless; your heart, boundless. If you should despair, remember it's part of the plan, then set it free. Here's the hope you've given us ... back at you. Let it shine, brother.

My great good fortune was to have seen Dan perform live shortly before his fatal diagnosis. The stage did not have set embellishments we associate with big musical acts: just a bar stool, a majestic grand piano and overhead spotlights. The Paramount Theater on Colfax provided a simple, rustic, honest context that is Dan's overriding message. His perfectly tuned passion and joy came through every soulful song. We left the theater feeling better about our lives, having witnessed in two hours a pure distillation, exoneration and exaltation of mortal existence.

As the Boomer generation ages, we will continue to lose great musicians and poets like Dan, and these moments will cause survivors to pause and ponder their gifts. We could not have been fully Boomers without them.