Marc Freedman: Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life
Lisa Johnson: Mind Your X's and Y's: Satisfying the 10 Cravings of a New Generation of Consumers
Steve Gillon: Boomer Nation: The Largest and Richest Generation Ever, and How It Changed America
Paco Underhill: Call of the Mall : The Geography of Shopping by the Author of Why We Buy
More women over age 45 are using social media than ever before, leaving marketers scrambling to take advantage of the massive female baby boomer population, which typically boasts a higher average disposable income than other age groups.
According to Facebook, since September 2008, the number of women over 55 on the site has tripled and makes up the social network's fastest-growing age group.... read more
"Are you a Net neophyte? Very, very late bloomer? Profoundly paranoid about the totally CIA-monitored Interweb?
Packaged Facts newly released report on The Adult Videogamer Market in the U.S. debunks the perception that nerdy hormonal teenage boys are the driving force behind the video games industry.
According to the report, the prototypical gamer is now as likely to be a woman as a man, with the total gamer population including 25 million adults in the 55 and older age bracket, 13 million retirees, and 28 million grandparents. Additionally, IBISWorld notes that in the U.S. 67 percent of household heads play computer or video games, and 24 percent of players are actually over the age of 50.
I’m not too surprised, given the number of my boomer women friends who, having tried Wii, can’t stop talking about how much they love it. And then there are those who have bought Guitar Hero for their teenager, only to find they can’t tear themselves away from jamming to Nirvana right along side their child (probably to their kid’s mortification). Interestingly, for these women it is less about escaping into an alter-reality and more about expanding interaction with family and friends. The social, educational and fitness components, mixed with the entertainment, are what’s driving this non-traditional gaming consumer.
Interesting facts from the in-progress 2008 Motorcycle Industry Council Owner Survey:
Over the last five years, the number of women motorcyclists has increased 29%
The age of women riders is increasing, today averaging 42 years old
Their primary reason for riding is pleasure, followed by commuting and errands (which previously ranked third)
So, there are more, older, motorcycle mamas taking care of business than ever before!
I’m snuggling down in bed with the January issues of my comfort reading: O (The Oprah Magazine), Vanity Fair and Vogue. Besides being painstakingly obvious that the latter two pubs are starved of ad pages due to the economy, I notice that one advertiser is not holding back on several fronts: CoverGirl/Olay
CoverGirl has recruited fabulous looking 50-year-old Ellen DeGeneres as the face and spokesperson for the new Simply Ageless makeup line. “I'm thrilled to be a CoverGirl," said DeGeneres. "I've been practicing in my bathroom mirror for years...Now finally, you'll all be able to see it.”
Thank goodness for an unconventional breath of fresh air around the all-too-serious genre of anti-aging. But this is Ellen! I’m waiting for her no holds barred REAL take on aging, inner beauty and being an easy, breezy CoverGirl.
Following on the heels of my last post on Encore Careers comes the news of Harvard University's kick-off experiment that it hopes will become the new “third stage” of university education... read more.
The myth of an endless vacation, or winding down and stepping aside in retirement, is giving way to a new practical idealism: real jobs tackling real problems and making real impact. Even in the face of a challenging economy and shriveled nest eggs, the concept of social entrepreneurialism has been taking hold as Boomers inch past 50. Many, having climbed to the top of the corporate ladder, are wondering: “is this it?” or “now that I’ve reached the top of the corporate ladder, is my ladder, in fact, leaning against the wrong wall?”
Enter Civic Ventures and the inaugural Encore Careers Summit, which I had the privilege of attending at Stanford University last weekend.
“The Encore Careers campaign aims to engage millions of Boomers in encore careers, providing personal fulfillment doing paid work and producing a windfall of human talent to solve society's greatest problems.”
According to a 2008 MetLife Foundation/Civic Ventures Encore Career Survey more than 8.4 million people ages 44 to 70 have begun encore careers (the majority of these are women). Of those not already in encore careers, half say they want them.
To recognize and support this movement of Boomer social innovators, the Encore Careers campaign launched The Purpose Prize. Now in its third year, the 2008 recipients include a retired language professor who organizes volunteers to help thousands of war refugees start a new life – in Fargo, North Dakota; an immigrant who arrived with $6 in his pocket who now helps send Latino students to college – with money raised from his fellow gardeners in California; and a retired marketing executive who launched “Get Out and Stay Out” – an organization to help reduce recidivism rates for young men once they leave prison through coaching, education and job training.
The 15 recipients of the 2008 Purpose Prize – six $100,000 winners and nine $10,000 winners – are taking on some of society's biggest challenges, from poverty to pollution and from health care to homelessness. They are also demonstrating that social innovation can spring from an unexpected source: experienced adults over 60.
As Carol Larson of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation pointed out in the Summit’s opening remarks, “Boomers represent an unprecedented ‘experience dividend.’ Are we going to sacrifice this valuable resource to passive retirement?”
“There are only four kinds of people in this world...
Those who have been caregivers
Those who currently are caregivers
Those who will be caregivers
Those who will need caregivers”
-- Rosalynn Carter, 1997
The “typical” caregiver in the U.S. is a 46-year-old female who works outside of home and spends more than 20 hours per week providing unpaid care.There are 34 million people caring for parents today and that is supposed to double in the next 20 years. (Valuing the Invaluable: A New Look at the Economic Value of Family Caregiving).
I’m sure anyone between the ages of 40 and 60 reading this blog is probably navigating a parental caregiving challenge… and is perplexed as to how to find solutions for everything from long-distance management, figuring out if Mom’s taken her meds, wondering if Dad’s memory lapse is the first sign of dementia, and if so what kind of dementia, or how to find a caring assisted living situation that doesn’t freak everyone out…or break the bank.
Realizing a tremendous unmet need in the marketplace, web entrepreneur Andy Cohen and several colleagues from BabyCenter.com launched Caring.com, an online community and resource. While caring for his mom during her losing battle with lung cancer, Andy realized there wasn't a really good comprehensive website that helped people figure out how to handle in-home care, choose products to help with daily living, and make the right financial and legal decisions.
“We looked at the demographics and realized there are going to be a lot of people that need help with care giving of aging parents because the population is aging at an historically unprecedented rate and people are living longer.”
Always on the lookout for examples of successful web 2.0 sites for Boomers, I asked Andy what he’s learned in this last year about what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes to engaging Boomers in an online conversation.
Quality content: “We have a burgeoning social network platform with people posting and asking for information from our experts, but we also have a very robust quality content platform. This demographic is interested in trusted experts and credible information. We’ve invested heavily in offering relevant content first and foremost, and wrapping the social network around it versus other purely social networks. For Boomers, high quality content is key. This rich, quality experience also is what attracts our sponsors, partnerships and advertisers.”
Concierge tools: “We find people don’t know how to get started in all this care giving. So, we started an interactive to-do list concept that has been very successful. People tell us what their situation or particular caregiving challenge is and we’ll deliver up a customized to do list and resources for the 10 things they’ve got to do to get started. We’ve gotten great feedback on this functionality…whether it’s planning a funeral or understanding a diagnoses of cancer, there are so many very basic things people need to know and there is no other way for people to find out.”
Clear community mission: “I see a bunch of Boomers sites that don’t make sense to me because they aren’t clear about what problems they are trying to solve. We’re getting good traction because we’re helping people navigate a very difficult problem. I think Boomers with their kids and their jobs aren’t looking to hang out and chat. They didn’t grow up doing that. But if you are helping them with a problem, like how to invest or how to take care of their parents and themselves, they are going to go to those websites.”
For anyone hasn't followed The New Old Age Blog at the NY Times, it's a great dialog on Boomer and Aging trends. The recently coined 'boomerang parents' phenomenon might be playing out for all America to see if the talk of Michelle Obama’s 71-year-old mother taking up residence with the Presidential family comes to pass.
This boomerang parents trend is on the rise: over the last seven years there has been a 50.3 percent increase in the number of those 65 and older living with their adult children. Having a strong intergenerational family model in the White House can only be a good thing as more Boomers look for ways to understand and navigate this growing family dynamic.
Recognizing the power of personal recommendations in purchasing decisions, Prevention, partnering with Keller Fay Group, has released a first-of-its-kind report that aims to better understand the influence of word-of-mouth (WOM) communications among Baby Boomer women... read more.
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