An Old Idea for the New Year, from John Singleton
Fifty seems to be the magic number.I spent 50 years in advertising and something really funny happened from the time I turned 50, which was 22 years ago.
Even when you work in the advertising business you have 20-year-olds doing television commercials that are best appealed to 30-year-olds.
I had been more successful than anyone else in advertising in Australia because I realised that 70% of all the money spent is spent by those who are 50+ years old.
So when I was a kid, I wrote for my mum and dad and their friends. When I turned 50 I wrote commercials for my own friends. Nothing has changed.
Advertising is still full of kids who don’t get it and radio and television stations that don’t get it.
As a member of the FiftyUp Club, you do get it.
Remember when we were young? It was great but we had no money. We were saving for a car, then a house, then paying for our kids’ education and then when we finally get a quid, we are 50, fit and having the time of our lives.
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We can afford the house we want, the holidays we want. It is financially the best time of our lives.
But still the kids in advertising don’t want to know about us.
When I quit advertising almost 10 years ago, I hung onto my majority shareholding in my favourite radio stations 2GB and 2CH, which not surprisingly, I could not afford until I was… yes, you guessed it… 50.
So when I was approached to do a joint venture with the FiftyUp Club, I jumped at the chance. And I joined up too.
Just in a month, just in Sydney and just on our two radio stations, we have been able to get 45,000 of us to act as one customer and we have already unlocked a guaranteed saving of at least $100 on comprehensive car insurance, and up to 17% saving on our electricity bills.
There are going to be a lot more benefits for us in the FiftyUp Club in the New Year. I look forward to sharing them with you in 2014.
Best wishes, John Singleton
FiftyUp Club is a joint initiative of the consumer network One Big Switch and Macquarie Radio Network of which John Singleton is a shareholder.
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