At FaceTime Strategy, we’re always looking for links of causality between current events and the demographic trends behind them. One trend that isn’t going away is the evolution of feature-focused brand advertising to story-telling as a means of customer engagement.  This shift is evident in a “Freakonomic” fashion from the bedroom to the boardroom across America – and driven by a single primary factor – the aging of our population. 

A Baby Boomer turns 64 about every 7 seconds – and at 77 million strong, they are the largest cohort in this country.  Age impacts the way the human mind processes information. As our minds age, we become increasingly prone to adoption of information in a storytelling format vs bulleted features. 

A recent study polled corporate marketing chiefs with budgets of under and over $1M to determine differences in their marketing strategies. The results – large-scale marketing budgets are driven more by a Big Idea than focus on ROI. 

Some will say it’s always been that way – others say the day of accountability is at hand and soon every budget dollar will be tracked back for effectiveness or simply not approved again. I think the Boomers will have their say – and they want Stories.