posted by Bea Fields at Fast Company

Generation Y. You’ve heard that they don’t watch TV, and you’ve probably been told that they don’t read that much. Your research tells you that you can’t target them through MTV anymore, and you certainly can’t tell Gen Y what is cool. So how do you reach these 71 million “Millennials” that spend over 200 billion dollars annually and will soon replace the baby boomer generation as the largest percentage of the workforce? The answer is simple—you STOP marketing to them. Let me explain.

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Posted by Craig on June 30th, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Posted under: Demographics

Let’s face it, the game has changed forever. Now it’s customers, not companies, who decide which brands live and die.

Today’s real competition doesn’t come from other companies but from the extreme clutter of the marketplace. You can’t fight clutter with more clutter.

In order to stand out you need a brand and advertising that is different. Radically different. When the others ZIG, you must ZAG.

At Sticky, we believe that a radical ZAG strategy comes first. Build a good ZAG and the rest will follow. Your team will have something to believe in. Your potential customers will know what you stand for. Your opposition will be nervously looking over their shoulders at you.

The result should be a brand that delights customers so that more people buy more things for more years at higher price.

Sticky applies Zag Theory to each level of the advertising process.

• Branding
• Positioning
• Creative
• Media Placement
• Digital

We ask how treating each of these aspects differently will help our clients stand out from the crowd and make quantum leaps in marketing effectiveness.

The cliche is that you should look out of the square for your advertising and media ideas. We suggest you get as far away from the square as possible. Create totally new geometry. ZAG.

Posted by Craig on June 28th, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Posted under: Strategy | Zag Theory

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

If men and women could only unite, Australia might get some stimulating television in the second half of this year. But they can’t, so we’re stuck with the programming preferred by viewers aged over 55 — the time of life when, apparently, the sexes are most similar.

Last week this column pointed out that the seniors are the biggest consumers of TV, while the groovers watch the least (37 per cent of prime time viewing is by people over 55, up from 32 per cent in 2003; 28 per cent is by people 16-39, down from 30 per cent in 2003).

So the network that wins the year will be the one with the geriatric appeal. Off the back of a truck has fallen some fascinating research about the age of viewers for each station’s most popular shows this year. The median age of Australians is 37, which is to say that half the population is older than 37 and half is younger. But the median age of viewers for most top programs is well above the national figure. Half the people who regularly watch Today Tonight, for example, are over 54. What you’re about to read suggests that TV is, to put it politely, a mature medium.

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Posted by Craig on June 27th, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Posted under: Demographics | Television

Source: David Dale, Sun Herald blogs

Australians are crawling back into their cocoons. The age of adventure is over. You can tell from the way they’re watching TV. Don’t try to show them anything edgy, surprising or demanding. They want slow, reassuring, and predictable.

The programs that symbolise the national mindset right now are Domestic Blitz and Better Homes and Gardens. We demonstrated enough bravery by watching The Chaser boys and electing Kevin Rudd. Now we’re pulling up the drawbridge.

This behaviour pattern seems to go in three year cycles. From 2002 to 2004, as we retreated from September 11 and the Bali bombings, the top shows reassured us that every problem had a solution. Messy garden? A team of fairies will fly in for a weekend and redecorate it. Messy crime? A team of scientists will shine a blue light on it and find the culprit within an hour. Our favourite sitcoms came with cues to tell us when to laugh.

In 2005, we started to take a few risks, tolerating and then embracing shows that kept us in suspense from week to week.

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Posted by Craig on June 25th, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Posted under: Demographics | Television