Thoughts

[Mario]

Originally posted by Sid_Clan
PS, why not get yourself up here for a weekend, or bring the family, Scotland is amazing mate, and if you time it right, we can go cliff jumping....150ft off a cliff face into freezing cold Scottish water......ah.....now what could be better than that??

warmth, sex, being inside, death, chocolate, jenna jameson, life! 'i wanna live!!' to name but a few.

Back to topic, can anyone answer my questions? im geniunely interested.

 

[Syltiz]

Originally posted by Robbo
You bet your ass I am saying just that, fcuk the woodland sites, they don't give a damned **** about us, they don't help us, we need to look after ourselves here and not rely or look to them for anything. Sites that cater for Sup Air are the ones we need now, we need to look to them and others to help fuel our growth

I see and agree with the logic of this, the part that I see as being difficult to overcome is that an indivdual freshly exposed to the game via Sup Air will be reluctant to climb into a field and try it out... it might seem to extreme whereas recball gently introduces them to a less-extreme version first. But if this method has not scared off players in Germany then my thinking is probably flawed.

Don't worry, the idea of a woodland Rambo isn't that persistent in people's minds when the sight of a Dynasty player on a bunker run with a pounding rock music backdrop blasts into their brain, it will erase any Ramboesque associations Paintball might have in a heartbeat, trust me

From my own limited personal experience of showing members of the public more about our sport... I can barely get them to sit down and watch some videos off the net of NPPL and so on, how would they of their own volition expose themselves to sights of Dynasty and rock music? Does this not tie back to the idea of getting 'ball presented in prime mediums like TV and non-Paintball magazines?


Take a look at the growth in Germany and then take a look at companies like Max, Opm and others, these are hugely successful German companies and they are growing...big time !!!

I just worry that in the German case was sterilised to begin with, meaning there was not alot of noise to compete with... in the UK the marketing would have to combat preconceived ideas and radical punter-Paintball marketing, making the required investment that much bigger and more daunting.

I dont meant to be overly negative, I just come from a country (South Africa) where Paintball is way behind the UK and facing similar problems so I have often thought about these sorts of things.

 

[Sid_Clan]

Southern Softie!!!!

Okay started writing my post when it had like 2 replies, by the time I was finished we were on page 2.....pants!!!!!!

Ever seen Field of Dreams Robbo??

If you build it they will come, you are by far the most influencial man in paintball in the UK, if not Europe, in fact hold on, were you not in the World...so.....why not use your influence mate, you want to make things better, build a Pete Robinson Academy, get the funding from the big names you know and do it......life is about oppertunities and sometimes a few risks, but think about what you will have acheived......

Sid

 

[cheese]

i agree with robbo
im 14, ive just got into the sport and havent been that many times
at my local paintball site we play woods-ball but at the end of the day we play a game like sup air but with hay bails
this game was the best by far it was the most exiting,fast and fun thing id ever done

 

[KitsuneAndy]

Does the structure of our tournaments differ to those that the continental and US tournaments? (I'm not talking about pro level, but right from the bottom up).

I used to run a music promotion company and ran several succesful "battle of the bands" competitions. But it takes some incentive to get a lot of people interested. You wont get a band that will travel half way across the country, hire out equipment etc if at the end of the night, even if they win they will not cover their own costs.. I know it's not exactly the same, but I'm sure you can see what I'm getting at.

 

[Dusty]

for a sport to be successful and more importantly accessible it needs to be affordable, available and popular.

this can be done in the UK with more and more decent quality tournaments coming up. the addition of a purpose built reball site which i saw mentioned somewhere along with the gentlemen Robbo mentioned before doing their bit, this sport could grow quickly if marketed correctly.

marketing comes down to finance and contacts. television, the holy grail by all accounts, is key. even if it is a format which is not the most popular can be broadcast, at least it is a step in the right direction.

is it possible to run paintball as a demo sport alongside some other major events? even here in northern ireland i have seen paintball outside the Odyssey complex in Belfast, which is host to some of the biggest concerts shobiz has to offer.

why not go to the Max power petrol head shows, the motocross shows, things like that which are regarded by the public at large as "extreme" events? boys toys shows as well, anything which is viewed as modern.

someone needs to take the bull by the horns and do it.

someone who is known by the major manufacturers, charismatic and presentable. he/she needs to have the backing and contacts to make this work.

anyone spring to mind??

 

[elsancho]

robbo

I THINK that before you start recruiting the ballers of the future via your torni ballers campaign you really need to look at the state of british tornaments that are out there.

now im a northerner i played tornies like the series at elsham, that site is just plain badness, its wet, its uneven, its got molehills everywhere. if you tried to slide on that field you'd put your pack out for sure. the set up areas arnt much better either, the only space you get is either in a disused cattle barn or an out-side shed.

the point im getting at is its not very professional is it ? you dont see the likes of the local 5 a side footy teams dodging molehills on a sunday do you ?

and its not just the elsham site thats not up to scratch the northern quarter is vertually on a sewage plant for fu*k sake and and uttox... is there actually grass on that field ??

the location of the sites are an issue aswell, u have to go rite out into the sticks to find the damn things, to promote a sport you need to put it in a place where it can been seen by many others. having a torni in the middle of no where wont be seen by any passing trade. having a torni at a well established area/public area is where it needs to be at.

take the NPPL for example that is pure paintball gold, it has its issues but the fundamentals are there the locations ( huntington beach, bicentenial park) etc etc all well accesed and public places. your set up areas are almost perfect decent sized tables and under a decent roof. and the condition of the field its self its perfect nice flat and grassy pitches.

the yanks have the rite idea, why on earth have we not followed by example and out done them over here in blighty

i know for sure that if the oppertunity came id mover over to that states in a shot.pemberton had the rite idea.

so before you start advertising about the glorious wonders of the paintball world we need to look after the players weve got and sort our tornaments out.


rant over.

peace

 

[Iron Lions - Ed]

Pushing DVD’s of Dynasty, XSV etc out there to our young demographic, and trust me, the conversion factor, in my opinion, is going to be a true eye opener.

I agree a big marketing push at the young demographic could well result in a surge of interest. Ideally shove a load of action filled DVDs at them. It's just a case of who's paying? Sites could give them as part of entry fee for punters but where is the benefit to them? They lose their punters. Teams could try and distribute locally but how are they going to afford to give out DVDs? That leaves Industry.

The people who are going to benefit are industry through selling more markers etc to this larger tournament playerbase. I assume they all have marketing teams but maybe all their attention is focused on promoting within the sport without taking the long term view of promoting the sport to the public to generate larger playerbase and therefore a bigger market to sell to.

 

[Iron Lions - Ed]

take the NPPL for example that is pure paintball gold

It's really not fair to try and compare your local domestic event to the NPPL. If you want to do that create a Millenium vs NPPL thread where you may have some good things to discuss

 

[LV 4 26]

Tagged Gear

When we launched the Tagged Gear range last year at the clothes show, we had a preconceieved idea that we were not able to push the clothing using paintball as a marketing tool because of the environment that we found ourselves in. The first days sales were abysmal to say the least. On the second day we put a guy in full Dye kit handing out catalogues and played CFOA and Sunday Drivers as loud as we could and the response was amazing. Just normal joe public gathering round to watch the DVD's and have a chat.
Great time.