If the need to use or employ professionals is so 'beyond question' then why is there so much good amateur stuff on the web? This is the age of 'reality media' where the feeling of 'being right there' is what sells - gritty, unpolished (to some extent anyway) shots that show *reality* not staged, studio polish .. and with the quality of the digicams available (which I've seen firsthand in the last few weeks at my own club) I'm perplexed by all the fuss about how hard everything is. All we want to do is collect some snippets of good footage & put a short DVD together to catch people's attention.Given a bit of co-ordination & some volunteers it could cost us very little. Only small bites from each bit of footage may be suitable (ie. not boring or repetetive) so we need as much as we can get. I already have an offer of some great material of wave at Wilpne Pound (thanks Mark) - if anyone else has anything to contribute then I am happy to collect/borrow until we can do something with it. Please email me on [EMAIL PROTECTED] if you can help out.
Cheers, Richard McLean --- Boonahgliding <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: --------------------------------- the need to use or employ professionals is beyond question. the firstquestion however is what is/would the budget for such a project be -both for designing a campaign and implementation - then you have a frameworkfor the design and also feedback on results. for what is a limitedmarket no advertising budget however large may be cost effective in ourcase. i believe the answer lies in what mike borgelt mentioned. atboonah we have enough people coming and trying gliding. the problem hasbeen keeping them interested and giving them value for money. the k-13as our pride of the fleet was not helpful. the retention rate andinterest grew dramatically with the purchase of the k-21. we have nowordered a new (not second hand) single seater. the club rooms have beenrenovated with more to follow and we have good facilities at both ends ofthe strip. membership has grown 30% in 18 months. we have just made allwives/children club members as one "family membership" and all glider hirefor juniors 50% off. the best advertising we have had has been done for acouple of give-away flights and we are most appreciative to those mediaoutlets who have supported us. perhaps it would be possible for the gfadevelopment officer to take this approach as media outlets are often lookingfor "copy" and we offer spectacular footage and excitement. i suppose mywhole point is, clubs or any activity are/is only as vibrant as the peoplewho drive the activity and some clubs will be advantaged or disadvantaged bycircumstances including geographical location. paid advertising we havedone rarely gives a profitable return (the adelaide uni scenario is dead setscary!!) word of mouth and membership activity win hands downanyday. rob --------- Original Message -------- From:"Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia."<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Discussion of issuesrelating to Soaring in Australia."<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] GFAMarketing Committee Date: 31/07/04 13:18 The direction of thisproject is of some concern; it suggests that we've learnt little fromprevious adventures in this area. GFA Executive and Council has beendown this road before in the past. I know - I was there. Theone thing I recall from previous promotional ventures was that glidingpeople, even dedicated gliding people are not very good at it, especially inthe selection and development of promotional material - movies, videos,brochures and the like. Most of us who were still around at thattime will remember the saga of the "two brochures". We approach thechallenge from our background and experience, not understanding thatthe people we are trying to reach usually see "gliding" in a totallydifferent perspective. Quite a few people in this listhave already come in enthusiastically with what we think would be "goodstuff". While it is - for us - it probably won't succeed inmaking the sport sufficiently attractive to the outsider to want to have aflight with the view of "taking it up". This exerciseneeds to be undertaken by a professional public relations outfit, and wehave to be prepared to sit on our hands and believe and implement what theycome up with. We also have to be prepared to pay what they askand it ain't cheap. These are two reasons why we will almostcertainly not go down that road. Thus history will berepeated. I wish the GFA committee well. However, unless theydraw on significant expertise in the advertising and promotional game fromwithin their own ranks, or are prepared to seek same from elsewhere if theyare short in that area, I have to be just a little bit sceptical of anyspectacular or even significant results. Whatever they decide to do,it won't be easy. We all know that gliding is a fantastic sport. However the huge majority of the general population will never be convinced. Sorry to be so gloomy, but that's how it is. --------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Aus-soaringmailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring ________________________________________________ Messagesent using Dodo Internet Webmail Server > _______________________________________________ > Aus-soaring mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies. http://au.movies.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
