Dynasty Signs With...

[knobbs]

Originally posted by KillerOnion
That is precisely the problem, the same circular pattern that everyone else is falling into and stuck like a dog absurdly chasing its tail. What about this is so hard to understand?!?!

And why is my point so hard to understand? Look at any other sport and tell me where you see equipment advertisements outside the sheltered world of that sport. Do you realize how much TV time costs? Especially national TV time? There simply is not enough money to support it yet. But it is slowly coming.

 

[TJ Lambini]

Back to tha real world, and SK speaks out...

http://www.skinnyk.com/index.html

 

[Sherman]

OT: Just finished reading thru SK's writing. What's this with U.S. citizens calling them German, Italian or Irish? True, they have their roots, but can they even speak a word or two of their ancestors' language. Do they get coolness points or feel important by this?

And why has nobody claimed to be French, are they all in Canada?

 

[acsik]

Sherman


SK is intelligent enough to realize that the only Americans are the people who are living in reservoires now and called Indian. The rest is people from all over the world...


Claiming to be french in the u.s? Good luck to anyone who tries I hope he/she has really high tolerance levels!


Cheers

 

[Wadidiz]

Originally posted by Sherman
OT: Just finished reading thru SK's writing. What's this with U.S. citizens calling them German, Italian or Irish? True, they have their roots, but can they even speak a word or two of their ancestors' language. Do they get coolness points or feel important by this?

And why has nobody claimed to be French, are they all in Canada?

(Risking carrrying the thread-jacking too far) Many Americans long for the sense of cultural belonging that many Europeans and Asians have. That is because the US is built more on ideas than on a common, long cultural and ethnical identity. I found that when I was on a business trip to Minnesota (living in Sweden at the time) that almost everyone was quick to say they were "Swedish", "Danish", "German" or "half-Swedish and half-German". It is pretty common to see festivals or celebrations that hail cultural/ethnical/national backgrounds. The terms "Irish-American" or "Greek-American" gave rise to "African American" instead of black. And I have met many Americans who talk proudly of their French ancestry (check out Cajun country and go to the Mardi Gras).

Back on topic:

Kevin makes a lot of sense in his statement and rightly points out that it's not about bad or good products. It is big of him that he doesn't bad-mouth WDP.

 

[DMZ Hasse]

The Onionmeister speaks the truth, or at least he has an interesting point. Some things happening right now are turning paintball into the direction of being a more professional sport that less people play, because of intra-industry cannibalism. That's what pisses me off about the whole SP patent thing, that it will most likely make paintball more expensive to play, thus reaching less people.

A more constructive approach to the patent issue would be to still claim it, but to funnel 80% of the revenues towards creating a professional reffing association for example, or towards something else that might grow the whole industry which everyone will benefit from. The current cannibalism can kill paintball if more succeed in doin the same as SP did. I can't be the only one the world believing that wealth is made by creating value for other people... But, back to marketing:

Nick: Yes, marketing is more than direct response. Which we as paintballers should indeed be happy for.

Maybe, just maybe, with a little attention in media, outside companies could be interested in associating their name with paintball. Just the way Nokia sponsors all of these snowboarding competitions (they must be pouring millions into that...) just to get their brand associated with the coolness of snowboard big jumps.

Focus on the branding part of marketing if you ever want to get an outside sponsor.

 

[knobbs]

The point is, it's not that easy. Of COURSE the answer is getting outside of industry dollars into the scene. Do you think the event organizers don't know that? This year we had Black Flys sunglasses, Fuji film, JVC, Benq, Galyan's, and others....it wasn't much, but it was something. It's slowly coming, but noone is going to throw money at your sport if it's not going to get them anything and so far, none of the industry outsiders think it's worth it yet. It's coming...especially with TV deals on the horizon. But it's not as easy as printing a bunker with a Budweiser logo and then asking them to pay you.

But most importantly, Smart Parts sponsoring Dynasty has nothing to do with this. They are spending money where it will make them money. That's all it is. When advertising outside the industry makes them a profit, you will see them advertising outside the industry.

 

[DMZ Hasse]

Yes. Read my post. To rephrase: Paintball should not focus on (and is not limited to) getting advertizers that need to see their ad-dollar/euro generating sales right away. Focus on what companies want their brands to be associated with.

What do you think the message is when Budweiser sponsors NPPL Huntington Beach?

a) Paintballers, drink Bud!

or

b) Hey, look people! We're still cool! We do cool stuff like this paintball event!

This may be crystal clear to some people, but not to most it seems.

I don't really care what SP spends their advertising dollar on, that is entirely up to them. What they do with the "marker tax" is more interesting, as that affects the future of the whole paintball industry and -sport.

 

[DMZ Hasse]

I think anyone who has ever read even the introduction to a marketing book will agree on that (unless we are talking about bulk email of course).

I hope everyone understands I am not talking about where and how paintball companies should advertise? Or am I unable to make myself understood when writing english?

 

[KillerOnion]

Killer Onion

Originally posted by Nick Brockdorff
I think you have a rather simplistic view of how marketing works.

Sponsorships are not necessarily about generating sales directly.

If they were, you wouldn't see the US Postal Service put 6 million dollars into a cycling team, or JVC put millions into a soccer team.

USPS dont expect people to say "man they cycle fast, I've GOT to send a letter" - and JVC don't expect people to think "great goal, I HAVE to go buy a DVD player".

If marketing was that simple, everyone could do it

There are other factors involved for paintball, like for instance image, wanting exposure with new demographics, the value of being associated with an action sport, news value, etc.

I'll grant you this sport is extremely unprofessional in many respects - but evolution will take care of that quite fast..... K2 taking over Brass Eagle is only the first step we will see in that direction.

I predict that 5 years from now, only 4-6 major paintball companies will still be run by their current management.... and they will be those few that have already today realised, that their companies need professional management.... not just someone who has played paintball for a long time, or the ones that succeeded in having their management evolve into a truly professional management.

The days of the "mom and pop paintball company" is rapidly coming to an end...... and with that change in the paintball industry, you will see developments accellerate dramaticly.

Nick

Quite well said! A point or two to further probe, though. Indeed, JVC and the Postal Service don't have to be as 100% and to the point by going after cyclists and soccer teams, but that's because A)they're trying to add to their product what paintball already has
and B) they have the budget and already established presence to afford being roundabout rather than direct. Their adding sports to sell to the PUBLIC--paintball has the sport but not the selling to the public at all! USPS already has its needs taken care of in terms of penetration and entrenchment: they're already on your street corner and you pick up from them every day. They don't need to be introduced. Paintball on the other hand has an enormous problem of being self contained. The entertainment value is there, but who's looking, or more to the point, how many houses is it in? Effective promotion of any kind gets inside the life and mind of the consumer. It's in your mailbox, on the radio when you're drinking your cup of coffee in the morning (maybe even on the cup itself!), on the side or bottom of your ashtray, along the roadside when you drive to work, popping up in your web browser annoying you...everywhere. Insurance. Credit cards. Viagra. Porn. Budweiser. You don't need any of them, but couldn't escape them if you wanted to. New demographics? EVERYONE sees those examples and countless more. Exactly how many really new demographics has paintball REALLY tried to reach with that kind of effort?