Category Archives: powersports

mc mag folds; 30 years and out

In an announcement e-mailed – ironically, considering – June 18, Rick Campbell, Publisher and Editor of Motorcycle/ATV/UTV Industry Magazine(s) and the Powersports International Internet Expos (PIIE), will cease operations July 1, 2010. (www.mimag.com)

Campbell is the latest casualty in print’s war of attrition with online (digital) content, further hampered by a devastated powersports market in an overall struggling economy. The main culprit remains loss of ad revenue, the lifeblood of publishing and the sauce that has historically driven the presses.

announcement ends 30-year run

While MIM’s readership remained fairly constant, the same couldn’t be said for the B2B’s clients. Campbell recently took a big redesign step of downsizing from a tabloid format to a more conventional, more economical letter-based layout. The move bought time, but no new revenue. Continue reading →

buell brand warrior bites back

ouch! this buell brand warrior skewers the motor company

This bullseye parody by halfthrottle over on YouTube has garnered nearly 150,00 views since it was posted on May 24th, and though Harley’s flailing marketing isn’t specifically called out, it’s a broad – and accurate – indictment of a brand that can’t decide what it should be.

It isn’t until the final frame that the impetus links back to Harley throwing Buell under the bus in 2009. But regardless of the inspiration, there’s no way to argue with the summary judgement of a powerful brand that’s been drifting on the wind for the past three decades. And that’s now paying what may be the ultimate penalty for a status quo strategy.

wal-mart’s brand marketing blunder

wal-mart rethinks choice, risks loyalty

Larry Silvey’s the editorial director at Advanstar’s Aftermarket Business, and a favorite target is retailing giant Wal-Mart. In a recent column he called them out on two fronts: their new, and puzzling, supplier relationship strategy in which they took over delivery duties of goods from supplier to store, and a marketing decision pitting store against name brand that apparantly backfired. Our interest lies mainly in the marketing side so we’ll leave logistics aside and look at what happened after Wal-Mart marketing decided less is more when it came to consumer choices in the shopping aisles. Continue reading →

hallett defines personal brand strategy

building your personal brand

Josh Hallett’s a social media pioneer who currently directs new media for content creation powerhouse Voce Communications. Their clients include Sony, Playstation, Yahoo, Disney and eBay. He spoke recently as part of PRSA Tampa Bay’s 2010 Professional Development Day on what’s needed in order for a personal brand to achieve online awareness across various media. (Read our series of articles on the same topic here.)

While his work mainly centers on large multi-nationals, Hallett’s comments were directed at the growing number of professionals who need to develop a coordinated online identity that for many is currently just an ad hoc combination of social networking mixed with the occasional hosted blog and a neglected twitter account. Continue reading →

hd’s hail, mary? looks like

Harley Davidson’s Rebrand Strategy: Kitchen Sink

HD’s still looking for new directions out of the forest of consumer walk-on-by it’s lost in. Media Post’s industry pub Marketing Daily delivers details of TMC’s latest Maxim-ized efforts aimed at winning back share, on the back (figuratively speaking) of spokesperson/model/rider Marissa Miller.

Sigh… I get it. Dangle eye candy in front of viewers, Pavlovian response goes off, reader imagines she’s showering with him, wife’s ok with that, then he’s lickity split off to the dealer where he rite’s dat check before the steam evaporates.

But – but – it’s the chik riding the bike! By herself! And fem biker-ettes need men like fish need bicycles. Meanwhile, the campaign theme “Start Something” indicates an exhaustive naming session that apparantly sailed right past “Hey, What’s Up?” as an inspired call to action.

The image problem remains the bike line, not the actors. The communications problem remains. Period.

i’m no nostradamus, but…

Looking back (i.e., hindsight) a blind man on a galloping horse could have seen this coming. I’m talking about Jesse James’ walk this way into “rehab”, although exactly how anyone is “treated” for sex addiction escapes me, unless you’re talking eyelids braced open and eyedrops administered frequently ala “Clockwork Orange” therapy. Well, there’s the ultimate sacrifice, but who wants to go there?

Anyway. In 2000, Sandra Bullock, and this is way before West Coast Choppers rolled into living rooms across America, made a little film called “28 Days“, in which she’s an alcoholic journalist whose life collapses around her in a substance abuse haze. She enters rehab for treatment, a role she researched at real life clinic Sierra Tucson in Arizona. The very same clinic where probably soon to be ex Jesse is reportedly receiving therapy right this minute. But that’s not the story. Continue reading →

online networking makes life easier for pr pros

Web-Based Social Networks

This article is in response to my local PRSA Tampa Bay chapter’s Independent Practitioners Group; specifically, how to leverage popular social network sites like LinkedIn to enhance and streamline intra-membership communications.

Once, not so long ago, business communications were handled by A) analog telephone and B) bipedal mail delivery. But like the ad said, this ain’t your Daddy’s Oldsmobile. And those days – like Olds – are gone.

In today’s web-based environment most businesses and organizations require internet strategy and digital familiarity; essentials for maintaining online visibility and communications. There’s basic e-mail, then comes a blog and/or a web site, usually running some flavor of C(ontent) M(anagement) S(ystem) software.

Horizontal expansion’s next and might include a professional LinkedIn (individuals and groups) account and/or a social Facebook page or fan page. Social networking sites are media heavy; MySpace was the dominant destination for years before being overtaken by Facebook. Professional sites seek to emulate an electronic Dayrunner. Continue reading →

but – what about print?

Today, thanks to desktop publishing, four color printing has never been cheaper, crisper, smarter or easier. It also finds itself nearly shipwrecked in channel after channel, helping to drag down the US Post Office along the way.

The June, 2007 issue of Motorcycle Product News ran 108 pages including covers. By March, 2010, the pages had shrunk – along with staff and editorial budget – to 56 and counting. This isn’t to pick on venerable MPN, long a staple in the powersports community – they’re just one among thousands of titles facing real issues of survival. It’s more an open question of what happens next to the communications infrastructure when fading advertising revenue can’t sustain the hard costs print publishing requires.

Continue reading →

why i do what i do

Tough to pick a favorite role model from this trailer for Art&Copy, an ad shop darling with an ’09 Sundance pedigree now making the rounds of art theaters and video conference rooms across the land. I’ll go with George Lois; predictably profane and absolutely dead-on in his assessment of what trips peoples’ triggers.

Next would have to be Lee Clow, unforgettable for his “1984” breakout for Apple which easily established the viral category long before there was one.

As the discretionary border between creative wow! and God-awful crap continues to erode, self absorbed ceos, lacky beancounters and DIY afficianados “who think they can” really should stop and think: if your creative skills really are that golden, why hasn’t anyone other than you paid you for them? Come to think of it, where the hell is that beef everyone once talked about?