Where 85-year-old volunteers rule digital marketing...

That the Internet and digital marketing has infiltrated virtually every segment of society is no surprise. But somehow, it was still surprising to see that first hand last weekend in a very vivid example. I spent the weekend volunteering in Maryland onboard a WWII museum ship. The average age of the crew is somewhere in the mid 70s, and the all-volunteer organization that operates the ship has about 2,000 members. So far, they have relied almost entirely on grants and fundraisers through their 2,000 members for the $250,000 annual budget. However, as more members of the WWII generation die off, the membership is decreasing and the financial returns from those mailings are consequently slipping as well.

With the first digital marketing class still fresh on my mind, I asked the Chairman of the organization, “What are you doing for digital marketing?” He responded very proudly that for the first time ever, the organization was entering the digital marketing realm and all of their efforts were being spearheaded by an 85 year old woman who had no background in marketing- or the internet!

Of course our generation is used to the Internet as a daily, integrated part of our life. But listening to this 85-year-old volunteer talk about banner ads and paying per impression (“I don’t quite understand what that is, truthfully”, she confided), I could only marvel at the Internet’s reach. Perhaps most interestingly, she detailed a new relationship with the local newspaper, which was not only designing their banner ads, but also coming up with multiple opportunities for cross-promotion for the organization and the newspaper. Not only was an 85 year old spearheading this organization’s digital marketing, but traditional media was helping to facilitate this jump in order to save its own revenues!

I also wondered what the digital marketing world will look like in ten years… if 85-year-old volunteers are now starting to care about Search Engine Optimization and banner ads, what does the future hold? If we all become increasingly more sophisticated with our digital marketing, will it again be a case of whoever has enough money in the budget is the winner? Or is there enough room on the internet that everyone will still have a voice that can be found and scrappy but intelligent start ups can still thrive, even without large advertising budgets?