From the young to the ‘more experienced’ in little over a week.
At the moment I’m doing some work on an online campaign for a travel card that lets people over 60 get certain benefits on some public transport. Not being au fait with the over 60s (nothing against my elders, I just don’t happen to know many) I’ve been trying to figure out where the older and wiser hang out on the web. Who better to ask than the only grown-up I know – my mum. (I should point out for legal reasons that she’s not actually over 60, but she would be ticking the right age bracket in a survey).
Anyway, as ever she came up trumps with some great comments about her web use which entertained me so much I thought I’d share them with the whole internet. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you… my mum
Now, about this travel card, which couldn’t be closer to my heart. The kind of websites I go on are often work related, so today I’ve gone on City & Guilds, OCR, LLUK, Edexcel, Companies House. Others yesterday were Privy Council, QAA and QCA. So in other words you would capture me and a million other women teachers, particularly if you extended to DIUS and OfQual. Then if you assume that all women of my age are rock chics at heart, any sites that cover musicians and concerts of that period, museums, art galleries, shopping at Harrods, Fortnums, Selfridges, Harvey Nics etc, Chelsea, Hampton Court (? too far), Sloane Square Antiques Fair, any exhibitions like Grand Designs, the Ideal Home Show, Boat Show, International Homes Show, special exhibitions like Klimt, Egyptian Art, etc. And of course the great shop and drop sites like Tesco, Waitrose and M & S and retail outlets like Bicester Shopping Village, Ikea and Habitat. GARDEN CENTRES !! JOHN LEWIS!! And assuming people have a little money, some of the airlines. Am I being a bit of a stereotype though? What about those poor women stuck in council flats who probably don’t have access to a computer at all? They should surely have an opportunity to have a card, so are you doing a separate marketing campaign for folk like that?
Note the studious use of caps for ‘garden centres’ and ‘John Lewis’, and as if caps didn’t emphasise it enough, the use of double exclamation marks. My mum REALLY!!!! likes garden centres and John Lewis. I also told her about a possible idea I had to get some designers to do some specially commissioned travel card holders and give some away to the first 100 people to register for the travel card. My mum should totally have gone into marketing – check out her creative suggestions. I especially love how she’s happy to open the idea out to students, which is definitely better than my original suggestion of Libertys.
So far as designers are concerned, it would be difficult to press the buttons of such diverse socio-economic groups in one hit, so what about a series of images rather like ranges of stamps? That way you could have Cliff on one, Mick on another and maybe Alan Titchmarsh on another ! Or London sights, gardens, objets like chandeliers and vases, transport like boats and red buses….. Liberty’s sounds v expensive for design work, but you could open it out to London School of Fashion, or Goldsmiths as an award for best design, save money and help some budding artist? I would certainly want a travel card, but most certainly wouldn’t want to feel like an old lady, so no mention of age should be obvious and they should signify fun !! and any forthcoming event would prompt me to apply for one.
In case you’re wondering, she’s referring there to those bastions of British culture Sir Cliff Richard, Sir Mick Jagger and, er, Alan Titchmarsh. Really Mum?? Alan Titchmarsh?? And finally, her very topical and frankly hilarous sign-off:
Eggcetera ….love mum
If you would like to hire my mum to mastermind your next online marketing campaign you will have to come through me. Trust me, she is eggcellent…
