Each month this newsletter takes a topical look into what is happening in the lives of Baby Boomers, Xers and Gen Y with a focus on products/services/brand/experiences that embrace social and digital technologies. Click here to download a free copy of this month’s edition. Headlines this month include:

Boomers

• Adult Playgrounds Help Seniors Stay Active In The UK
• The Apple Of A Boomer’s Eye
• As Boomers Age, Some Are Smoking Pot Again
• Hot Trend For Retirees: Work-Camping
• The Biggest Baby Boomer Brands

Gen X

• Clorex App Gives Consumers The Content They Want
• Gen X And Y To Pave The Way To Economic Recovery
• Kids Create Edible Art With Yummy Dough
• Disney Targets Moms With Craft Finder App
• Augmented Reality Brings Kid’s T-Shirts To Life

Gen Y

• Fitness Freebies For Healthy Teens And Tweens
• Gen Y Goes For Online Banking
• Disney Gets Its Goth On
• Gen Y Dish On Culinary Trends
• Nintendo Adds Twain, Shakespeare To New Mobile Device

David Stutts | E-mail | Twitter | Blog | SlideShare | LinkedIn

It’s Not About You, written by Jay Waters, Chief Strategy Officer. This paper explores two smart media-centric ways to get consumers thinking about your brand – MyPrime™ and DecisionPointPlanning™ – when they need it most

We’ve written quite a few “white papers” over the last couple of years with a lot of insightful thinking. Most of which is still relevant, so we’ve decided to repost all of them here. This is #4 of 13. Enjoy.

Jay Waters | E-mail | Twitter | LinkedIn

Your Best Brand Assets, written by David Stutts, Director of Brand Planning. This paper explores one of the great untapped brand-building assets every company has, but few truly use to their greatest potential – customer-facing employees.

We’ve written quite a few “white papers” over the last couple of years with a lot of insightful thinking. Most of which is still relevant, so we’ve decided to repost all of them here. This is #3 of 13. Enjoy.

David Stutts | E-mail | Twitter | Blog | SlideShare | LinkedIn

The following is a press release excerpt from our Alabama Tourism client regarding a strong social media program Luckie helped concept and develop:

Alabama Tourism has launched a Facebook fan page for 215 cities participating in the “Year of Small Towns and Downtowns.” The Great Alabama Homecoming makes it easy to become a fan of the towns, find information about homecoming events and RSVP for the celebrations.

The Facebook site provides an innovative “Great Alabama Homecoming” state map that highlights participating towns for quick access to each event. Each city is located on the map with a historic marker icon. A simple click on the icon takes visitors to the fan pages of each town. More than 12,000 Facebook users have already become fans of the small towns and several cities already have more than 1,000 fans.

You can read the full release here.

David Stutts | E-mail | Twitter | Blog | SlideShare | LinkedIn

Let’s Kill The Client, written by Brad White Chief Creative Evangelist. This paper explores how no agency/advertiser relationship is perfect, and how it takes a lot of effort to create the kind of relationship that fosters great work.

We’ve written quite a few “white papers” over the last couple of years with a lot of insightful thinking. Most of which is still relevant, so we’ve decided to repost all of them here. This is #2 of 13. Enjoy.

Brad White | E-mail | Twitter | LinkedIn

On March 18th Luckie coordinated a first-ever live chat between snack cake fans and the “real” Little Debbie — Debbie McKee-Fowler, granddaughter of company founder. More than 1,100 Little Debbie faithful joined in and submitted hundreds of questions about the brand, products, and life as the little girl on the box.

While Debbie only had time for a few dozen of the questions submitted, we’d like to thank all those who participated and made the chat such a success. If you missed out, check the transcript below to see how it went for yourself:

We’ve written quite a few “white papers” over the last couple of years with a lot of insightful thinking. Most of it is still relevant, so we’ve decided to repost all of them here and will be doing so over the next couple of weeks. Enjoy.

Learning From Turtles by Jay Waters, Chief Strategy Officer. This paper explores shifting from a model where marketers are trying to get consumers’ attention to a model where consumers give marketers their attention.

Jay Waters | E-mail | Twitter | LinkedIn

Before I get on my soapbox, I first want to acknowledge how excited I am about the whole digital universe exploding before our very eyes. New media, social media, experiential media and all the media that don’t even have names yet.

It’s as if the whole marketing sandbox enlarged exponentially almost overnight. And the ability to measure practically every action, reaction or waking thought of consumers is staggering.

You can’t hardly get on the internet without some analytics company monitoring your every move. They can tell where you’ve been, how long you were there, where you’re going and what you had for lunch. And much of this data is useful because it can help companies decide if they are passing muster in the way that makes CEOs, shareholders and accountants jump for joy. Yes, I’m talking about the almighty (cue the trumpets) ROI.

But let’s take a step back for a minute.

Before the analytics, before the Webtrends data, before the PowerPoint presentation with 426 charts, there has to be an idea. An idea big enough that it makes it worth all that effort that goes into measuring, analyzing and predicting effectiveness.

And big ideas do not come from computers. Big ideas come from people who often spend massive amounts of time consuming late night pizza and bad coffee. And while the makeup of the teams may have changed, what hasn’t changed is that moment when someone blurts out something that at first sounds preposterous or crazy or moronic but upon further examination is amazing.

A big idea might just be even more important than a big investment. So maybe it’s time to take another look at the old ROI model and start working against a new one. The new ROI stands for Return on Idea. And while it’s still just as measurable, maybe it puts the emphasis back in the right place.

Brad White, Chief Creative Evangelist | E-mail | Twitter

Photo credit: lapolab on Flickr.

We at Luckie were honored to partner with the Parkinson Association of Alabama for the video below, which was created by our in-house Luckie Underground video wing.

This video will be shown to those recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, along with their loved ones. We believe it’s a frank yet uplifting piece, one that will hopefully make it somewhat easier for patients to make sense of this life-changing diagnosis.

As one of the Luckie staffers who conducted the interviews, I want to take this chance to thank each of the patients who volunteered their time for this project. I could have talked to each of them for hours more, and I think their stories will inspire hundreds of others with Parkinson’s for years to come.

Big thanks as well to Hugh Hunter, WorkPlay and Freeplay Music for their contributions to this nonprofit project.

We wanted to share some of the agency’s latest work for Regions, a longtime client and one of the nation’s largest banks:

This spot started running earlier this month, with the goal of helping spread the word that Regions is lending. Whether it’s financing for consumer home improvement projects, a mortgage, or business expansion, Regions is a dependable partner in the community that can help.

The spot features the familiar “life-green” Regions bicycle, which has become one of the best-known brand icons across Regions’ 16-state footprint since Luckie first developed the imagery in 2007.

The new lending campaign also includes more targeted executions in print and radio, with key messages for consumers or business owners. The TV ad was directed by David Cornell with production by Los Angeles-based Form.

To learn more about lending from Regions, visit Regions.com/Lending. To learn more about Luckie’s video capabilities or to see a customized reel, contact Broadcast Director Janis Rogan.