Recently, Ammon’s blog post “Will Younger Workforce Ease Fed New-Media Fears?” mentioned the impending wave of Baby Boomer workforce retirement.

A younger, tech-savvy labor force is arriving ready to prove their digital prowess, but lingering security concerns remain. I was wondering, though, even if the Federal administrators and training decision makers were open to letting the kids play, what of the retirees that will be targeted for full-time, part-time or encore work? Plenty of Boomers are leaving the public sector, but many from the private sector are showing up, sharing their experience and enjoying a late-career shift to public service.

How will they be recruited? How will their skills be matched to Government need? And will they be prepared for next-generation of digital work environments?

Last year the Partnership for Public Service initiated a campaign to recruit passionate, experienced retirees from nonprofits and the private sector into the Federal workforce, banking on the echo of JFK’s initial call to duty.

While tapping into this pool makes sense, the Partnership describes several obstacles that make the task difficult, one the most obvious being recruitment. The Partnership describes the Federal Government as “isolated” and gun-shy of hiring “outsiders.” Largely a cultural issue, but HR issues of preferred promotion from within, security clearance, and general flexibility remain issues they are actively seeking to improve.

In order to recruit these individuals, it seems a combination of new and traditional media will come into play. Why do I say this? The older generation (in an ageless cycle) will get their information from younger new-media junkies. A Gen X or Gen Y parent will call Boomer grandparents to remind them that the grandkid wants a Webkinz for his or her birthday. The call (or IM exchange) will go something like this:

>”WEBKIDs? what’s a Webkid?

>”Webkinz, Dad…with a z.”

>”{expletive}”

(Note: Actual conversation heard at recent party.)

After twenty minutes of attempted explanation, Grandpa was fascinated but still unclear about the whole process. Someone whipped out a laptop, got onto the Internet via wi-fi, and gave him the virtual tour, which has Flash animation and audio commentary. In less than five minutes, Grandpa understood Webkinz. As luck would have it, he then opened a present—a Magellan GPS navigation device. In half an hour a former technophobe was ready to navigate both virtual and real landscapes.

How do you connect GPS devices, cuddly web denizens and next-generation Government employees? Simple: Retirees have experience and leadership that could surely help alleviate the impending Federal workforce crisis, provided they can be quickly trained and are able to easily access and implement emerging training architecture.

If the Government can quickly train Grandpa for his new Federal job while simultaneously getting him comfortable with new technology, it will be able to more quickly tap his expertise and avert its organizational mission-performance concerns.

Bottom line? Be nice to Boomers. They just might be our ticket to a well-trained, technologically proficient, high-performing Federal workforce.

After posting my thoughts on Google Docs versus Word, I got caught up wondering how many other players were in the game.

Richard MacManus put together a great rundown that shows there is more to the world of document creation than Google and Microsoft. Digging through his article and following some of links, I found that some folks are liking specific apps from some of the lesser-known players more than the comprehensive suite offered by Google. Right there is power of brand, eh?

Clearly I aligned myself with the Google tribe, and by doing so went straight to their offerings in whole. So I’m basically no different than the folks I chided for aligning with Word simply because it’s the biggest and most familiar—also brand power. Well, what’s different is that my brand of choice happens to be innovating in ways that appear more forward-thinking.

EARTHTimes.org is reporting that the nation of Scotland shelled out $250,000 to develop a new tourism slogan. It will soon adorn posters throughout Glasgow’s airport, and doubtless inspire visitors to immerse themselves in the country’s rich history, culture, and diversion.

And what evocative, provocative combination of words did a quarter million buy for those clever Caledonians?

[cue bagpipes and drums]

“Welcome to Scotland.”

Did I just hear William Wallace smack his forehead?

Comcast’s “Televisiphonernet” is a great spot that works on various advertising levels (humor, message, target audience). Comcast, however, has missed the digital forest for the trees. When searching for this ad online, I was frustrated and confused. Despite my best televisiphonernetting skills, I could not locate this ad in any of the usual places—YouTube, Google, or even Comcast’s own website (for shame, Comcast!). Finally I located the ad on the website of a Bruno publication called Boards.

Comcast should dial up AT&T, who also threw their hat into the buzzword ring with their “Your Seamless World” commercials, otherwise known as Virgicolementoflaggantonio.

They have all of the commercials from this service easily accessible on YouTube. For example:

My suggestion to Comcast is that they stop multitasking and spend some time focusing on their Internet presence. True, message is important, but so is making it accessible to as many people as possible.

The most effective marketing artfully blends a crisp message with impeccable placement (a rare combination of timing and location that hits the right audience at the right moment). Add a touch of dark humor, and you’re impossible to ignore.

Bus side ads are nothing new, but bus tops? A high-level photoblogger captured this CareerBuilder.com placement, which uses the usually unseen real estate above the bus to tremendous (if potentially offensive) effect. The concept is effortless, the targeting is spot-on, and the impact is—well, let’s let just hope the impact remains figurative.

A few weeks ago I took a jab at Google for diluting their brand. In that post I alluded to Yahoo!’s similar moves that came years before Google’s. In this month’s Fast Company, Robert Scoble starts off recalling how Yahoo!’s VP of communications admitted, about a year ago, that the company had a “thin layer of investment spread across everything we do, and thus we focus on nothing in particular.”

Scoble continues by describing how Yahoo! is trying to right the ship. Jeff Yang is back as CEO and focusing on, as Scoble writes it, filling the “cool stuff supplier” role he once did. That new focus is good. Sure, they once concentrated on searching, but now they seem high on Web applications. Give search to Google and rebuild around Web apps if that’s what’s cool today.

Scoble mentions three Yahoo! applications specifically, all centered on community building and content sharing. What I like about the applications he describes is that they are not locked to a particular site.

All three—Flickr (photo sharing), del.icio.us (Web bookmark storage and organization), and Upcoming.org (a calendar of events tool)—offer a way to syndicate content to other locations, like to your blog or organization’s website.

Die, static website, die!

Big-budget organizations may certainly buy applications like those for the sake of customization, privacy, and accountability, as part of a larger content management system install or whatever.

But what gets me excited is how these free applications can help the small-budget folks. Imagine you’re leading a little nonprofit running long on cause but short on funds. With these three applications as part of your site, you can very easily keep your calendar of events up to date, promote other sites/pages, and publish photos—AND you can make all of that content available to others via syndication.

And you can get free help. With the Flickr app, your supporters can populate your Flickr application by tagging their pix with a tag you specify. Del.icio.us and Upcoming let you create networks that promote and syndicate content from your supporters. Let the people talk for you!

Yahoo! fearlessly continues to revise its brand, which can help you build yours.

Neologisms are cool.

They really are. At least to word-nerd types like me. Nothing proves that the English language is alive and kickin’ more than the dozens of new words that are added to the lexicon seemingly daily. Some of them can be classified buzzwords (mumblecore, anyone?) but some are really useful, and we wonder what we’ve done without them (I could have used frenemy in middle school).

So naturally my word-nerdiness was piqued by Comcast’s ads for its Triple Play package—TV, phone, and Internet combo—which feature neologisms describing the people who happily enjoy Triple Play, as well as the product itself. This collection of [mostly] portmanteau words even has a portmanteau name: TripleSlanguage. See what they did there? Good stuff.

TripleSlanguage’s website features an interactive flash card for each word and a short animation illustrating its usage. I don’t know about you, but I telebinge weekly. There’s a short quiz that will declare you a Triple Slangfessor if you pass. That’s Mrs. Slangfessor to you.

The site also includes a call for new vocabulary submissions. At press time it didn’t seem as if any had been submitted—or at least not greenlighted by Comcast. Personally, I’m too busy televisiphonernetting to submit one right now, but I encourage you to try it out.

The folks who brought us Band-Aids and baby oil have a bone to pick with the world’s most recognizable relief organization. Johnson & Johnson doesn’t think that the Red Cross has rights to its . . . er . . . red cross.

As explained by Brandweek:

In the suit, J&J asked the court to force the Red Cross to have “all licensed products with the red-cross emblem destroyed and to permanently enjoin all sales of products bearing the emblem on first-aid, safety-preparedness and related products.”

The Red Cross CEO, Mark Everson, called the action “bizarre” and “obscene.”

Johnson & Johnson claims to have been sporting the image since the late 1800s, which makes it boss of the cross. Next, they plan to go after M*A*S*H reruns (that thing was everywhere!) and maybe they’ll take on the Swiss flag, because they’re not fooling anyone just because they’ve reversed the colors.

Let’s do the math: Classic household brand in just about everyone’s medicine cabinet targets an organization that spends most of its time filling sandbags and collecting blood donations. Someone over at J&J has been snorting the talcum powder.

Oh, I love meta-analysis, so here goes. Web usability guru Jakob Nielsen is rippling the pond with his missive on whether or not it’s better for one write too-brief blog posts or author more extensive posts similar to traditional articles. His thesis:

To demonstrate world-class expertise, avoid quickly written, shallow postings. Instead, invest your time in thorough, value-added content that attracts paying customers.

The man makes some great points, and there’s much to be said for an industry expert who would be better served building his or her credibility and profile with lengthier, well-supported posts. They might tax reader patience, but then, those aren’t the readers you’re trying to reach.

That said, let’s not blame an apple for not being an orange. A blog is a somewhat schizophrenic outlet. One day, you may have the stuff to author an elaborate post dissecting a specific issue. You may, the next day, dash off a quick comment on an industry-relevant item from that morning’s headlines. And again, there may be days when you want to post a few picks of your dachshund rooting through a sack of hamburgers.

Nielsen fears (perhaps appropriately) that less relevant posts hurt your “brand equity”. Interesting, but couldn’t that frequency build rapport with your audience? You may not snag major traffic when a post is less than profound, but your audience will make that call regardless. If they like it they stick. If they don’t have time, they click. Simple.

He’s emphatic about about in-depth content being value-added content, pointing out that audiences appreciate well-conveyed expertise if it meets their immediate needs.

For most sites, the content is not the point. Instead, you want to answer customers’ questions as rapidly as possible so that they’ll advance in the sales cycle and start buying (or donate, or sign up for your newsletter, or whatever else you want them to do).

Elite, expertise-driven sites are the exception to the rule. For these sites, you don’t care about 90% of users, because they want a lower level of quality than you provide and they’ll never pay for your services. People looking for the quick hit and free advice are not your customers. Let them eat cake; let them read Wikipedia.

Many of our clients deal with extremely well-defined audience segments, and need to consistently convey expertise with clarity and authority. As such, a content-driven blogging approach would be ideal. It takes intellect and energy, but as Nielsen demonstrates, it adds tremendous value to a messaging effort, and boosts brand equity.

I walked into a 7-11 looking to indulge my health food habit, and was sidetracked by a bag of Doritos sparsely decorated with white lettering against a white background: X-13D. The potential eater is invited to taste test, figure out the flavor, and enter a product naming contest online.

A brilliant marketing ploy that I couldn’t resist. After the first chip I felt like the proverbial Violet Beauregarde: is that mustard I taste? Ketchup? Onion? Yes — and pickle, beef, and bun. A cheeseburger!

An interesting experience — not exactly pleasant, but interesting. And the contest website, like the product branding is intriguing, and a great example of the power of participatory marketing. Users can generate clues, advertisements, and enter the contest. Is “Cheeseburger Paradise” too obvious?