"Agencies and marketers are trying to figure out how to speak to
an audience they ignored before," Mr. Schroeder, 68, told Ad Age .
In his view, marketers aren't spending much time or putting forth
the effort to make advertising resonate with seniors, and that
could hurt them in the long run. Senior Creative People will offer
strategic consulting and creative execution. "Essentially what we
want to do is sit down with a client and offer what it's like to be
a senior, because that 's what we're uniquely qualified to do."
All four men, now in their 60s and 70s, are alums from a time
when DDB's Bill Bernbach
prompted a so-called creative revolution in advertising. During
their tenure, they worked on a swath of iconic campaigns, including
President Johnson's 1964 presidential campaign ad "Daisy" and the
"Think Small" and "Lemon" print ads for Volkswagen. Collectively, they have
experience working on brands that range from Johnson &
Johnson and IBM to Credit
Suisse to Whirlpool and Alka-Seltzer.
"We offer a dimension that the agencies don't have, and perhaps
don't want to get involved with," said Mr. Schroeder. He contends
that many talented younger creatives think they can write copy that
resonates with older groups, but that 's usually not the case.
For now, most of the people joining the firm will be DDB
veterans, but as time goes on, Senior Creative People will likely
recruit people with different agency backgrounds.
Senior Creative People is also starting a mentoring program that
should have four colleges on board by the start of the new year:
one each in New York, Los Angeles and ideally Chicago, as well as
Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary. The mentoring
program currently has no name. Mr. Schroeder said they were tossing
around "Mad Mentors," but that name was already taken.
"We came out of a social-change generation, and it's still in
us," said Mr. Schroeder. While the group is taking their return to
Madison Avenue seriously, in the end, it's lighthearted. We are
"hoping to effect change, make a few dollars and have some
fun."