IAO AGD BillBoard Sighting!

[MagDog68]

I joined the Thordic Fan Club because he has been a productive AO member long before most of the "Popular" people here knew about the site.

I am pleased to be the first member of the Thordic Fan Club - I don't think I like your implication that it is a bad thing.

~Fred

[MagDog68]

Am I the only one who thinks this is a great ad that is just posted in the wrong place?

~Fred

[shartley]

Originally posted by MagDog68
Am I the only one who thinks this is a great ad that is just posted in the wrong place?

~Fred

[MagDog68]

This ad would be great in Maxim! One of those eye catchers and when you turn the page all will be explained - and the model will be wearing pasties - LOL. Something anticlimactic has to happen. maybe she has a hairy chest or something. Who knows?

~Fred

[MagDog68]

Miscue - those pictures are out of context

Miscue, you can't use those pictures in this argument - you are comparing apples and oranges. KAPP can use those images in Paintball Publications or a Men's magazine like Stuff or FHM, but it dare not put it on a billboard near a major highway.

I am not in any way shape or form a conservative or holy roller here - I don't want anyone to get the idea that I dislike the ad. As a matter of fact I love it! But I would also be embarrassed to walk down the street with my mother and point out the AGD logo on that billboard.

My point is that there is a time and place for everything and that billboard is not the place to display AGD alongside a half naked woman.

~Fred

[bofh]

IAO timing

Is it just me, or does anybody else find it odd that in Bulter County, PA, both IAO and Pennsic are going on in the same week?

http://www.pennsicwar.org/penn31/

It's a shame I'm not going to either this year.

[Thordic]

SCA people scare me...

[alkafluence]

This whole issue has been a bit disconcerting...

Okay, I'm 22, a recent college grad and I was in a fraternity. Do we want to say target audience here? But I find this off base and completely against the very image that AGD has maintained for all these years.

My first marker was a Tippman, I loved that marker because you could throw it off the Sears Tower and it would still function; but eventually my playing style demanded a more capable marker as I started playing in some tournaments and things other than just rec-ball. At this point I was about 15-16, and I started doing some research into some of my different options. And guess what? I bought a mag (that I still have to this day) because of its "solid reputation" and especially because of it's stellar performance.

At the time, my parents were extremely questioning of my purchase because that is alot of money (Yes! It was my money from a job I worked 30 hours a week at.) to spend on a paintball marker when you're that age. [Remember there were no Timmy's, Impulses, or 1k+ Angels back then] If my mother would have seen a billboard like this before I had made my purchase and made the connection between them, you can sure bet that I would not have been able to get that mag even though it was my money.

People can argue for or against the merits of "sex selling" all day long until they are blue in the face. But, the truth of it is, it has to be in the right place [If you want to market this way, it should be in Maxim or FHM, etc. I'm sure any PR agent or marketing rep will tell you this] On the other hand - a huge billboard in the middle of Pennsylvania is NOT the place. Consider how many people might or will be in the same position I was back when I was younger.

This has seriously made me reconsider my opinions of and position regarding AGD. Tom, I seriously hope you will reconsider on doing this type of thing in the future.


Now that I've finished, what has probably been my longest post on AO to date, I will return to my job and revitalize my brain with my morning coffee.

[cledford]

http://www.warpig.com/paintball/arti...Oconcert.shtml

Sorry Bill, I'm not trying to attack you - but I just don't see how extreme sporting can be two things at once - extreme and family oriented.

I'll be at the IAO and will reserve opinion of the matter until I here the music - but if it's anything like the Punk I'm familiar with, it wouldn't be considered a feature presentation at a family event. How many Punk bands play at amusment parks?

-Calvin

[billmi]

Cledford,

I didn't take your posting as a personal attack at all, nor should anything I've written here been construed as a personal attack on anyone. I'm talking about pros and cons of methods of marketing.

As for the punk music and the IAO... if you're not following that scene, the phrase "punk" may be making you think of stuff from the 80s (Dead Kennedy's, PiL, Skinny Puppy, etc.). Up until a few years ago, that's what I pictured in my mind when I throught of punk - Johnny Rotten looking pretty scraggy and being pretty sleazy on stage when I saw him opening for INXS in '87. The look and sound of punk and emo these days is pretty different, and not at all necessarily (though like music in general, sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't) at conflict with a "family audience." My eyes were oppened when Jim Stiffy (a pb player from Penn) handed me a demo CD from a punk label he was helping to promote. It had songs from Allister, New Found Glory (their from the Screen To Your Stereo CD is SWEET) Midtown and others. There are even punk bands like MXPX, Relient K, etc. that get airplay on the Christian radio charts - it's certainly not "anti-family" type music if anything could be called that, but modern punk music is being tied in with a lot of extreme sports these days.

Take a listen to Mest and Midtown, and The Reunion Show (the bands playing at that concert). Check the Mardi Gras Open 2001 episode of PigTV - the song in the music montage is from Midtown.

And of course, even if this concert were a group like PiL, that were not so "family friendly," it's a connected event, with a separate price tag, and separate crowd from the tournament (the gates don't even open until after the tournament and trade show are closing up for the night), this music won't be blasting at the tournament attendies (families or otherwise) unless they happen to also be concert attendees.

Much on your lines of thinking about the whole "Extreme" image, I wondered the directions things would go when it was announced that there would be an "Extreme" tent.

After I saw it, I thought it a dichotomy. They had the main vendor tent, and the "Extreme" tent. The "extreme" tent had paintball companies, a DJ, side show acts (an escape artist and blockhead - he'd tap nails into his nose), and even a body piercer. The main vendor tent had typical paintball booths. I saw a lot of families walking through both tents. The side-show acts and body piercer (this doesn't mean people were getting naked to get pierced - he was piercing ears, tongues, etc.) had people pointing, and watching with their families. Yes, families also walked through the vendor's tent as well, but it's the main vendor's tent that housed the Wicked Impulse Wet-T shirt contest that led to the two families I saw leaving.

Extreme doesn't mean extrmely offensive.


See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

[1stdeadeye]

A little too serious folks?

My God!
Aren't we all getting a little too worked up over 1 billboard outside some little town in western PA. What do like 5 people live there? I know the IAO is a big deal in the Paintball World, but how many of the general public are actually going to see it? Whether you like the ad or don't, who is really seeing it? It's not like it is on the Jersey Turnpike by the GW Bridge where millions and millions pass by daily.
As a matter of fact, how many in the paintball world actually are going to this event? 1,000? 3,000? 5,000?
I am more disappointed in the fact that I think that this is poor judgement on how to spend AGD's advertising dollars. Open up any paintball magazine, and you will see it filled with WDP, WGP, Tippman, and Spyder ads. Why do you think so many people play with spyders? It sure isn't the quality!! Ha, ha, ha. I would like to see more exposure where it will actually do some good. If this billboard is a hit, how many more markers does it sell? Great, Tom can corner the Western PA market! Spend the money in more targeted venues! I can understand not wanting to make a mistake and playing catch-up, but look at what your competitiors are doing. How many billboards do the other companies have combined?

P.S. As for the ad, it is nothing special. I am not offended by it, nor drawn by it. I don't find it very original though. Check out WGP's current campaign for the Autococker-"You Da Man"! Pretty simple and catchy.

Anyhow these are just my two cents.

[wimag]

Originally posted by shartley

please do not be so quick to express how you think i may feel. I can assure you i have no problem with the ad. I like the ad. Yes i am a parent with two children.

[cledford]

Thanks Bill...

Bill,

Thanks for the open debate. I appreciate the frank and well thought responses - and did not take offense to any of your posts either. I was a bit concerned about trading differing viewpoints with a paintball icon, so am glad that it all was taken in stride. This issue obviously has created strong opinions about several different areas related to it and appreciate the fact that 1) we can enjoy open debate, and 2) Tom has provided us a place to do so.

I look forward to meeting you in PA. We're planning an AO dinner Sunday the 4th, will you be around?

-Calvin

[billmi]

Re: A little too serious folks?

Originally posted by 1stdeadeye
My God!
Aren't we all getting a little too worked up over 1 billboard outside some little town in western PA.

[Begin Sarcasm meant to entertain, not to belittle 1stdeadeye]

Oh, you're so right, we've gotten so worked up and out of hand! AGD has put up a billboard and we've taken the outrageous, outlandish and excessive action of using a discussion forum to..... discuss it! Next thing you know someone will chat about it in a chat room, or talk about it on a telephone!

[end sarcasm]

The point of the ad is to try and generate this sort of discussion.

As a matter of fact, how many in the paintball world actually are going to this event? 1,000? 3,000? 5,000?
I am more disappointed in the fact that I think that this is poor judgement on how to spend AGD's advertising dollars. Open up any paintball magazine, and you will see it filled with WDP, WGP, Tippman, and Spyder ads. Why do you think so many people play with spyders? It sure isn't the quality!!

Well, I'm sure if the E-Mag were available at the same price as a Spyder you'd see more E-Mags out there, that probably has something to do with it too, I just don't think that's something that is in economic reality.

You need to consider with the IAO marketing audience though, that it's not just how ever many thousands of players attending. The IAO has by far the best attendance of store owners of any event in paintball. For manufacturers and distributors it's a good place to attend, advertise and make an impression. A player buys one paintgun, but a dealer will by several, or tens, or even hundreds if they are big enough. Making a dealer into a "convert" is very powerful, because they then go out and make their customers into "converts."

Wimag,
Maybe you're seeing something in Shartly's post that I didn't. He said that parents on AO had expressed feelings about the billboard different than the parents Tom had spoken to. He didn't say all parents on AO felt that way, only that some who did spoke up about it.

See you on the field,
-Bill Mills

[wimag]

Bill, i am rather comftorable in what i wrote earlier.
He assured Tom that parents on AO did not represent what Mr. Kayes "cross section" felt.
Like i said earlier i have no problem with the ad. I support AGD in what they did.
My original reply was no way to be interpreted as any type of attack, but rather as support to AGD.