Let Them Eat Cake

I want to support bloggers, really I do. After all, their time is money and their contributions are valuable. They feed the content beast - never mind that we also need them in PR circles.

Like the HuffPost bloggers, I contribute to a number of online publications - MediaPost and Mobile Marketer being the most prominent - and I know that my columns attract decent attention most of the time. And like the HuffPost bloggers, I also entered into an "unwritten" agreement with these publications that my contributions would go unpaid. In return, I would receive increased recognition, credibility and traffic to my site.

Sounds like a rather fair and attractive deal, doesn’t it?

It was for the Huffpost blogger army (who very happily contributed and blogged and posted for FREE), until Ms. Huffington scored a massive payola from AOL earlier this year. Since then, the unpaid contributors have decided that their arrangement wasn’t such an attractive and good deal after all.

So what’s the first thing you do in the United States when you think you’ve been untreated fairly - or change your mind, or find an ambulance-chasing lawyer? File a class action law-suit of course!

Whether the unpaid bloggers “revolt” and $195million class-action lawsuit will gain any more traction remains to be seen. I personally find it ridiculous that the bloggers feel they are entitled to part of AOL’s payment for the Huffington Post. Ego-tripping more like.

Whilst I haven’t heard Arianna scream out “let them eat cake,” yet, sounds to me like they want their cake and to eat it as well.

Good luck with that.

Why Baby Boomers Matter for Luxury Marketers

Today, I'm re-posting an article by Elizabeth Zelesny from Luxury Daily as it addresses a topic near to my heart - mobile! (And because in it, Ms. Zelesny most graciously chose to quote me.)

Luxury brands and retailers are preparing for the future by targeting young, affluent consumers with their marketing initiatives. But when it comes to luxury spending via mobile and online, what about the baby boomers?

Although the times are changing, and many in the young, affluent Generation Y consumers are spending as much as the baby boomer generation, it is still important for luxury brands to target the older market. Luxury marketers must understand the unique desires and differences between both the under 40-year-olds and over, especially in the mobile space and online.

“I think it’s incredibly important for luxury brands to target baby boomers via mobile because it’s such a perfect demographic,” said Lauren DeLisa Coleman, a New York-based socio-political digitalist and president of Punch Media Group.

“Here you have a population which turned 46- to 64-years-old in 2010, thus typically more affluent than their younger counterparts and in a better economic position, at least in theory, to actually purchase rather than aspire to luxury brands.

“Younger boomers are also making more and more smartphone purchases, so it’s a beautiful way to engage them on a platform that is always on,” she said.

Boomer consumers
Baby boomers were the first television generation and, later, the first PC generation. Now, they are mobile users.

This demographic uses technology differently than younger generations and luxury marketers need to understand their digital habits.

A new report by eMarketer titled “Digital lives of Boomers: Reaching them Online,” found that 78 percent of boomers are online, when is nearly 60 million adults.

Even as the baby boomer luxury consumers numbers decline, the eMarketer report said the penetration rate will remain high through 2015.

According to the report, the baby boomers control more than $2 trillion in annual spending.

Boomers spend more time and money online than any other demographic.

Young boomers, ages 47-55, spend about an average of 40 hours per month online, according to eMarketer.

Older boomers, ages 56-65, averaged only slightly less, at 36 hours per month online.

This is vital information for luxury brands and retailers because it is not just the tech-savvy, Generation Y consumers buying high-end products via mobile and online.

The baby boomer generation is tech-savvy, too. And they shop online.

Forrester Research reported that boomers spend an average of about $650 online over a three-month period in 2010, compared with $581 by Generation X Internet users ages 35-46 and $429 by Generation Y consumers, ages 18-34.

Baby bloomers
Boomers may be slower to embrace mobile applications than their early-adopter counterparts, but as the smartphone matures, the baby boomer generation has come around to the power of both mobile applications and the mobile Web.

“Media makes fun of boomers being slow adopters of tech, but that’s not generally true,” said Vanessa Horwell, chief visibility officer of ThinkInk, Miami Beach, FL.

“The generally accepted wisdom of effective apps applies to boomer appeal as well: ease of use, attractive, responsive and intuitive interface, relevance and utility and a low or free, download price point all resonate with boomers and users in general,” she said.

“An app that telegraphs its utility – particularly if it’s a branded app – will gain the most traction with this lucrative market.”

Many luxury brands have developed mobile applications in which a game is involved. These marketers, it would seem, are targeting the younger affluent consumers.

How should luxury brands target the older consumers with their mobile applications?

To continue reading Ms. Zelesny's article at Luxury Daily, click here.

Original News and Quality Reporting Doesn't Come For Free

While the bloggers over at the Huffington Post are still bitching about not getting paid for their opinions, The Washington Post featured a great article last week that shatters myths about the future of journalism and supports why quality news and journalistic content should not be free.

I’ve always been a strong proponent of paid-for content – we pay for everything else that we need, value and want. Quality news and content should be no different.

Case in point? The Daily.

Despite many pooh-poohing The Daily when it first came out on the iPad, it represents – to me at least – the future of news and digital journalism for our always connected and ADD-stricken minds. Engaging, entertaining, easy to digest and instantly-gratifying, The Daily creates an experience while delivering news and information of value easily. The New York Times would be wise to take a lesson or three from The Daily’s playbook.

Back to The Washington Post’s article, Five myths about the future of journalism, Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, debunks the following myths:

1. The traditional news media are losing their audience.
2. Online news will be fine as soon as the advertising revenue catches up.
3. Content will always be king
4. Newspapers around the world are on the decline.
5. The solution is to focus on local news.

Other news organizations struggling to define their relevance and revenue models should also take note.

My take is that over the next 18-24 months, we’re going to see a significant shift in attitude when consumers finally recognize that you pay for what you get.

If you want quality news and reporting, not regurgitated word-vomit, you will have to pay for it.