Coffee with a sprinkle of intellect…

Now I’m not a big gamer. In fact, I know nothing about gaming, but when I think about gamers, an early 20’s male comes to mind. The truth is that my assumptions are more than just a little off.

According to the latest fact sheet released by the ESA, a.k.a the Entertainment Software Association, the average age of a gamer is 33, and 38 percent of these 33-year-olds are female.

This information means worlds to marketers of the technology. Apparently Generation X hasn’t dropped the pastime and Generation Y never picked it up.

Advertisements vary greatly for early 20-year-olds and early 30-year-olds. This could mean the difference in buying a product or passing it by.

So there’s my interesting stat, and have a happy Monday.

My good friend Robert Kittinger recently wrote an article on the social behavior of intenet users. I’m telling you, this guy is ahead of his time… a real bright guy…

I can’t say enough good things about him. Anyways, take a look at the article. You’ll thank me later.

Best wishes for your arrival, do you know that the budget has put aside 1,000 euros for you? Big Kiss. Silvio Berlusconi

This letter was sent to 600,000 newborns in Italy this January.

Good thought… in theory. However, the only-Italian-baby money was sent to immigrants too. Now the Italian government is asking for those non-Italian babies to pay the money back.

Indian givers!

One source estimated the number of immigrants who received the award to be around 3,000. Ouch. I’d move this issue into the crisis zone about now.

Here’s a funny story….

Ben and Jerry’s released a new flavor of ice-cream flavor called “Black and Tan.” Apparently not too much research was done because the ale they intended to name the flavor after is also the name of a notoriously violent British militia that operated during Ireland’s war of independence.

Needless to say, a few of the Irish were offended. I mean, who wants to eat an ice-cream named after the group acredited with brutal atrocities to your ancestors?
A spokesperson for the company later apologized saying, “any reference on our part to the British Army unit was absolutely unintentional and no ill-will was ever intended.” In retrospect, they should have done their homework on that one.

Print media is struggling under the pressure from the web. How are they coping with this growing monster that ensures their ultimate demise? 

Well, it seems they have fallen in love with it. 

The web’s latest victim, Elle Girl will be off the stands after the June/ July issue. They are going to be focusing their editorial efforts online after that point. Ironically, there is no evidence of the magazine’s closing on their website. You can still sign up for a subscription, but I guess that change is soon to come. Here are some excerpts from a memo sent to the staff about the “shift in focus.” 

From Jack Kliger, president and CEO, Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S.

I am announcing today that, in light of ongoing research combined with five years of experience in the teen market, we are redirecting the strategy for the ELLEgirl brand. Following the June/July 2006 issue, ELLEgirl magazine will be discontinued, and the company will increase its substantial investment in the brand’s digital formats focusing on ELLEgirl.com and wireless content.

…Going forward ELLEgirl.com will become the cornerstone of the brand’s digital initiative. The ELLEgirl Web site, which launched before the magazine, was successfully received from the onset. In the past year alone, ELLEgirl.com has tripled its unique visitors, doubled its page views and doubled its ad revenue. ELLEgirl.com was recently listed in Media Metrix as one of the top ten teen sites.

…When teen girls are not on the Web, they are on their cell phones. Working closely with our sister company Lagardere Active North America, which launched in the U.S. eighteen months ago, we are developing ELLEgirl ring tones and wallpaper mobile pages, as well as a number of projects in the mobile blogging area…

Jack Kliger 

Last week Fortune wrote an article on old media’s newfound love for new media. Unfortunately, their new sweetheart has shown to have the kiss of death.