108- The Jane Fonda of public relations
As many of you probably know, time is a strange concept that seems to pick up speed as the years go by. One day, I celebrated my fiftieth birthday and I asked myself, how is this possible? Yesterday I was 35, and now here I am 15 years later.
I still remember it like it was yesterday – I was the youngest employee at the Opéra de Montréal. I was 24 years old and, after a bachelor’s in music, I’d just finished my graduate degree in arts management at Concordia University in Montreal. My role models were musicians, pianists and politicians, who were 20 years older than me at that point.
After a bout of depression the day after my 50th birthday, I wondered, was I still loving my career in public relations? The answer was yes, because my two deepest motivations are still the same:
1- I love learning new things.
2- I love discovering new ideas.
Public relations is a constantly changing universe, fuelling novelty and new ideas, which are the engines that drive this business forward. So yes, I still have just as much love for this marvellous profession, which is about getting businesses and visionary leaders known and launching new products.
I have to admit, there are fewer and fewer people from my generation – the fifty-somethings – doing launches or new product events. Many, probably the last ones to receive generous pension plans, have left their jobs as journalists or executives, opting for early retirement. And the pandemic has only sped this process up.
For a few years there, our clients were fixated on the Millennials (Generation Y): there wasn’t a single service offer or PR strategy that didn’t put them at the bullseye of the consumer target. And since they’re now becoming the new thirty-somethings, it’s time for our clients to start obsessing over Gen Z: the next wave of potential customers.
The youth cult was still everywhere, but nothing kept me from looking elsewhere… but where?! When I saw Jane Fonda on the cover of ELLE Magazine, and a few months later as the cover girl on the ultra-famous Paris Match, it was a revelation. Fonda is known for her commitment to the environment and now, at over 84 years old (she was born in 1937), she’s more active than ever. One of her latest accomplishments is her role in the wonderful Netflix series, Grace and Frankie, which is now in its seventh season.
More recently still, the French paper Le Monde told her story in a series of five articles. So, might our clients be interested in something other than young people?
*Baby boomers are the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z arrived between 1997 and 2010. So, generally, Zillennials are 40 and under. Curiously, no one seems to be paying attention to Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980.
Taken from the following article:
https://www.lapresse.ca/societe/2021-02-18/la-generation-z-a-la-conquete-du-monde.php
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https://prschool.natapr.com/evergreen_fr
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* NEW MEDIA CANADA: https://nmc-mic.ca/2021/12/02/digital-newspaper-readership-continues-to-grow-research-shows/
I still remember it like it was yesterday – I was the youngest employee at the Opéra de Montréal. I was 24 years old and, after a bachelor’s in music, I’d just finished my graduate degree in arts management at Concordia University in Montreal. My role models were musicians, pianists and politicians, who were 20 years older than me at that point.
After a bout of depression the day after my 50th birthday, I wondered, was I still loving my career in public relations? The answer was yes, because my two deepest motivations are still the same:
1- I love learning new things.
2- I love discovering new ideas.
Public relations is a constantly changing universe, fuelling novelty and new ideas, which are the engines that drive this business forward. So yes, I still have just as much love for this marvellous profession, which is about getting businesses and visionary leaders known and launching new products.
I have to admit, there are fewer and fewer people from my generation – the fifty-somethings – doing launches or new product events. Many, probably the last ones to receive generous pension plans, have left their jobs as journalists or executives, opting for early retirement. And the pandemic has only sped this process up.
For a few years there, our clients were fixated on the Millennials (Generation Y): there wasn’t a single service offer or PR strategy that didn’t put them at the bullseye of the consumer target. And since they’re now becoming the new thirty-somethings, it’s time for our clients to start obsessing over Gen Z: the next wave of potential customers.
The youth cult was still everywhere, but nothing kept me from looking elsewhere… but where?! When I saw Jane Fonda on the cover of ELLE Magazine, and a few months later as the cover girl on the ultra-famous Paris Match, it was a revelation. Fonda is known for her commitment to the environment and now, at over 84 years old (she was born in 1937), she’s more active than ever. One of her latest accomplishments is her role in the wonderful Netflix series, Grace and Frankie, which is now in its seventh season.
More recently still, the French paper Le Monde told her story in a series of five articles. So, might our clients be interested in something other than young people?
*Baby boomers are the generation born between 1946 and 1964. Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996, and Gen Z arrived between 1997 and 2010. So, generally, Zillennials are 40 and under. Curiously, no one seems to be paying attention to Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980.
Taken from the following article:
https://www.lapresse.ca/societe/2021-02-18/la-generation-z-a-la-conquete-du-monde.php
Join me and sign up to our lists and training sessions where I show you step-by-step public relations tactics that you can implement immediately.
GET PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT YOU, FOR FREE
https://prschool.natapr.com/evergreen_fr
THE FREE NATA PR MODEL
https://prschool.natapr.com/Le-Modele-NATA-PR
SIGN UP TO OUR LISTS
www.natapr.com
* NEW MEDIA CANADA: https://nmc-mic.ca/2021/12/02/digital-newspaper-readership-continues-to-grow-research-shows/
