Hey 👋, nice of you to make it. Hope you’re enjoying the Summer 🌧😩.
"Knowledge is acquired when we succeed in fitting a new experience into the system of concepts based upon our old experiences. Understanding comes when we liberate ourselves from the old and so make possible a direct, unmediated contact with the new, the mystery, moment by moment, of our existence."
Aldous Huxley
Old Farts and Splitters
There's quite a lot of older people in the world 🌎. Did you know that? We get older 👵🏻. Yeah, it happens. And we’re ageing, as a species. In fact, 2019 was the moment where for the first time, there was more older people, than young people. In 1950, there were twice as many humans on Earth under 5 as over 65. One hundred years later there will be x3 as many humans over 65 as under 5 🤯.
These old people” haven’t traditionally been a marketers best friend. Advertising seems to hate them 🤮. The great Bob Hoffman talks at length about this. But older shoppers are the hot new thing for consumer brands. Because, they’ve got money. Although Gen Z (whatever that is 🤷♂️) have $143 billion in spending power, people over 50 have $7.6 trillion in spending power. Cha ching 🤑.
This generational power report also suggests that people older than 57, account for over 50% of the economic, political and cultural power. Never feels like that does it. But, old people are interesting (William Shatner interview glaxon 🔥🔥🔥) and interested in doing stuff. Imagine. They’re all over Facebook, shopping, exercising, dating and making friends, old people use the internet, shocker 😱.
Also, like Bill and Melinda, we live longer and spend longer together so we’re splitting up more often, later in life. There’s a rise in silver splitters. As soon as the nest is empty, there’s a sense that there might be more. Still discovering, still seeking and still with lots of disposable income. Opportunity knocks ✊✊.
Love, Entertainment and Tarzan.
We want the 1/4 inch hole, not the 1/4 inch drill, right? Theodore Levitt said that, ages ago. Anyway, point is, companies that own the future, understand that. They serve customer needs, not products. Definitions, boundary lines don’t exist. This piece by Mathew Ball on what an entertainment company is in 2021 was great. He reckons an entertainment business needs to do three things:
1. Create/tell stories 📖.
2. Build love for those stories ❤️.
3. Monetize that love 💰.
Nice to think about building love. Versus attention, which feels more like extraction. Love builds worlds, with multiple entry points, experiences and ways to pay. Liquid and linked. Just look at Netflix’s first high end fashion line for their new show Halston. Like the dress, buy the dress. World building. Extending. Expanding.
Music’s 🎧 the same isn’t it? Creators look for ways to build their worlds, reach audiences and monitize it. This long read on Twitch was great. They’re bringing music (and live music streaming) to gaming. Allowing artists to connect directly with new audiences. It’s new, so difficult to stick into a neat category. Which is also interesting. One to watch (literally).
Meanwhile, Google launches its 1st store in NYC, while Apple might get into the ad business and Facebook have launched a QVC’esque “Live Shopping Fridays”. Media companies too, are becoming increasingly liquid (and linked….to 💰). Which makes me think of of Will Page’s book Tarzan Economics and the idea of always letting go of the past, to swing to the future. Which is cool.
5 (ish) things:
100 visions of motherhood 👩👦👦. Beautiful.
Lockdown winners: Fishing (yes 🎣) and DIY dentistry (no 🦷 🤮)
Great ads from Guinness, Greenpeace, Hunky Dory’s, Warburtons, Diet Coke and Vacation (who’ve launched a fragrance) 🍿🎬.
Only 50% of people think with an internal monologue. 🤯 and 😂 and 😳.
The song of the Summer 🎸🥁🤘🎧.
Watching:
Snap have launched their new Augmented Reality specs. Not perfect. And they’re still glasses 🕶, but interesting. They’re a signal. Of something greater yet to be realised. Evan Spiegel, their CEO admitted that “For it to be [a] really widespread consumer [product], it’s probably another decade.”. Feels like a huge opportunity. A screen less, device less, connected, smarter world. Baby steps though, right?