Category Archives: powersports

goodbye, occ – good riddance

tlc ends the grotesque run of occ – sort of

In 2010, February 11th came four days after Cincinnati’s V-Twin Expo and fell on the eve of Dealernews Dealer Expo. It’s appropriate that we remember the airing on that date of The Learning Channel’s final episode of American Chopper, a Frankenstein-esque money-maker for cable “reality” whose success in years to come will be impossible to explain.

In 2002, only eight years earlier, the clan from Orange County, New York wheeled a trailer load of rollers and a few customer bikes into Indy and onto a 40×40 island off the main floor of a then still growing Dealer Expo. My recollection, from an advertising perspective, was of feeling faintly woozy at the woefully amateurish marketing, even by powersports’ minimal standards, of a nondescript collection of clones. Continue reading →

taking a break from dealer expo

dealer expo: the early years It’s been 15 years since I took a time out from the annual powersports trade show pilgrammage. Fifteen years of slogging north (why?) into the snow, sleet and slush, usually followed by a bike week encore, first in the mid ’60s but later abandoned as full on lifestyle turned 100-percent commercial. This year, I’m giving it a rest and using the time to concentrate instead on overdue hardware and software upgrades while dedicating a serious investment in time to integrate the latest high tech applications into a leaner, more efficient production and marketing workflow.

What’s changed? Plenty. Before the web, annual trade shows were the only opportunity for new product, catalogs, trends and personalities to converge. Schedules were built around catalog production deadlines. Business publications targeted show issues to preview a limited number of the latest products selected months in advance, and dealers learned about what they’d be selling during the coming year only after they got to the show. Life was orderly and well behaved. Marketplace control was top down and ironfisted in a traditional analog way. That was then. Continue reading →

toyota’s new brand – too soon to discuss?

There’s talk over in LinkedIn’s public relations groups about Toyota’s handling – or mishandling – of their disasterous recall performance. I posted the following comment earlier in the week on the subject, surprised that nearly two weeks after first announcing a recall there’d been so little actual hard reporting on the massive problem.

As of today, I don’t think it’s too soon to begin speculating on their eventual rebranding. That’s if they survive the other shoes waiting to drop. But first, time to rethink the rush to dismiss the importance of brand in the oceanic swell of social media first. If you’re a marketeer, it will always be about brand.

After the surprising – from a Western perspective – initial non-response, followed by the tepid release announcing Sunday’s ad that was itself the sound of one hand clapping, I’m wondering if… Continue reading →

don’t count email out yet

Yesterday’s anticipated iPad intro was a major step towards a future imagined by Ben Parr over at Mashable, a world where we stay in touch by bypassing typing in favor of voice-to-text, where we’re surrounded by web connectivity via t.v., cars, and uncomputer like computers, where content evolves from text-driven to video-viewed and where social media becomes the driving force, not the passive voice.

Well. That’s quite a list, and will probably arrive sooner rather than later. In a disapointing Harris poll, two out of five adults no longer read a newspaper. Forty percent, if you’re keeping score. Worse, fewer than 25 percent of 18-34 year olds read a paper. And most readers say they won’t pay for online content.

According to Folio, magazines lost nearly $20 billion with a B in ad revenue last year. Yet despite dismal numbers for traditional mass media, teens and tweens are spending what many see as an unhealthy amount of hours online – by one study, over seven and a half daily spent surfing, gaming, texting and in general being connected.

How’s the mundane notion of email fit into the web world just around the corner? It’s not going away, it’ll just be interpreted differently. Professionally, you’ll still need an address that communicates authority. That’s the topic I tackled in my January newsletter. Read how to build a better trust score with an individualized account of your own.

the gorgeousness of dakar/argentina

down a dusty road - with rocks, boulders and bridge trolls Thanks to Robin Hartfiel’s forward of powersports photog Joe Bonello’s link to some stunning images at the Getty collection of this year’s Dakar coverage posted at Boston.com’s sports section. Big thumbs up for their rally listing, as well as other magnificent sports photography under the Big Shots general heading. Big indeed. Check them out.

Photo info: Manuel Jamett of Chile rides his Yamaha motorcycle during the sixth stage of the 2nd South American edition of the Dakar Rally 2010 from Antofagasta to Iquique January 7, 2010. REUTERS/Jacky Naegelen (CHILE – Tags: SPORT MOTOR RACING)

an unsustainable trend

sooner or later there's nothing left to shrink In today’s digital world there’s more time spent on measuring than creating. The word used is metrics, and it refers to how the bean counters parse a grasshopper’s head hair into a thousand different points of occasionally interesting reference.

Here’s one metric that doesn’t require an introducton or a powerpoint full of pie charts. I call it “fatness”.

The 2010 Motorcycle Product News Buyer’s Guide arrived in today’s mail – and it didn’t take Spidey Sense to figure out PDQ that the gas tank’s nearly empty.

My “fatness” index clearly proves that MPN’s Buyer’s Guide lost 3/16″ over the past 12 months, going from a still respectable 1/2″ in December, 2008, to an anemic 5/16″ in December, 2009. At one time this annual issue required a small burro to transport.

It’s no secret that A) advertisers are fleeing print and that B) powersports is leaking market like the Titanic took on ice water. This isn’t about any particular brand or channel. It’s just an honest take on a distressing trend that shows no signs of improvement.

As someone comfortable in either print or web I see a massive error in judgement in the stampeded abandonment of print advertising for the evolving medium of the internet. For a great take on how monster good advertising does work, and more importantly about how the entire retail conversation is interrelated, check the blog entry by Social Media guru Chris Brogan on his prediction about the future of retail.

what: lunch box tie-ins aren’t available?

Adweek’s post on The Motor Company’s latest hail Mary makes me seriously wonder if Anyone’s Got A Clue Up On Juneau Ave. This is a brand in total freefall.

According to the release, H-D “…hopes to ride onto screens large and small in coming months. The motorcycle brand announced last week that it is has teamed up with entertainment consulting agency Davie Brown Entertainment for a major product placement push in film, TV, music and video games.” Folks, hope is not a strategy.

Corporate ad director Dino Bernacchi explained that, “We want to use it to socialize Harley-Davidson motorcycling . . . Entertainment can sensationalize the excitement and thrill of riding to the point of moving people to check it out.” Did you get that? Socialize Harley-Davidson motorcycling? Sensationalize the excitement? I’m not even going to ask what that bafflement of babble-speak gibberish is supposed to mean, because I really don’t want to know. But if Grand Theft Auto’s the model for consideration, it’s worse than it looks.

Listen to Sr. V-P for Davie Brown Entertainment Rob Souriall make the case: “They (Harley-Davidson) do a great job (ummm, not so much) of speaking to the core male 35-plus, but we want to open up the sport of motorcycling riding to the younger guys, women, African Americans, Hispanics…really broaden the demo.” Pure genius. Wait for it. Meanwhile he’s drawing a paycheck.

Lets rewind. After all-too-recent placement laughingstocks like Wild Hogs and the Viva Viagra over-the-hill ads, it’s difficult to recall what it really took to connect testosterone to Harleys in a different time and space: the movie genre typified by Hells Angels On Wheels. The small screen quickly caught up in prime time with Then Came Bronson, allowing Michael Parks to catapult James Dean derivative mumbling into an art form. Like twin sons of different mothers, sorta’.

But seriously, how do you “…really broaden the demo,” without denying the modern era heritage once and for all? Sons of Anarchy notwithstanding.

take advantage of all that’s offered

the Public Relations Student Society of America put together a social media program in Tampa One of the great benefits of membership in a professional organization is the opportunity to enjoy the fruits of the unsung meeting committees’ hard work. Over the past four weeks I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to attend four functions by four different groups in two states, with three more events to participate in through the rest of November.

My business delivers public relations and advertising, nearly all of it conducted digitally and absolutely all of it in a state of flux. For instance, much of the buzz these days revolves around social media – what it is and how it works. Some experts are, some wish they were, but it’s all part of learning what works and what doesn’t and local events are a big part of keeping up to date in a social context.

Five weeks ago the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Tampa hosted a roundtable on social media trends. The following week I was in Baton Rouge for a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) chapter meet-up. Next, back home, where the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA) hosted a fascinating look at the metrics used to measure social media’s ROI by industry expert Josh Hallet. And last week PRSA Tampa Bay held their semi-annual Professional Development Day, featuring speakers from Disney PR and Media Relations, nationally syndicated columnist Chris Elliott and a state and local editorial and media relations panel discussing best practices for targeting niche markets.

Rounding out this fall’s mini-seminars next week are (so far) an Adobe User Group font management workshop, a PRSA Independent Practitioner’s meeting and an Ad Fed Tampa Bay luncheon featuring Nike’s digital agency R/GA’s creative director Jim Hord.

By taking advantage of the often thankless task born by the commmittee members who not only come up with themes but tirelessly pursue speakers, venues, sponsors and not least of all caterers who can work a budget without having the room turn ugly on them, I get the benefit of strategic thinking offered by peer vetted pros from a variety of disciplines.

major changes at cycle world

Publisher Larry Little yesterday (October 7, 2009) announced a number of sweeping changes to the category leader in consumer motorcycle enthusiast publications. Details here. Former Executive Editor Mark Hoyer, who I last saw in a half-frozen state at the 33rd Annual 2007 Cycle World Trek, replaces 25-year industry vet David Edwards as VP/Editor-In-Chief.

Other changes include significant upgrades in production content and a major design overhaul as the iconic title embarks on a repositioning mission that focuses on brand extension and definition.

scorpion sports stings big stinger

scorpion stuck it to eric with this press release In somewhat of a shocker, Scorpion Sports, Inc. prez Rick Miller did an about face arachnid takedown of Scorpion founder and former marketing vp Eric Anderson. In a tersely worded release dated September 1, 2009, Miller says that, “…the basic business paradigm has shifted,” leading to “the decision to terminate Anderson.”

Scorpion charged into the lid and rag trade just five years ago, led by Anderson’s vision and quickly making a mark in a very competitive field with popular dealer direct pricing and a tech-heavy approach to helmet design. Since then they’ve branched out to include an apparel line under the somewhat quirky exo brand, a reference to the venomous insect’s external armored skeleton.

This summer they announced their products would also be available through distributors in a controversial departure from their former policy of dealer only protected sales.

Anderson, formerly with Intersport Fashions West, is one of the original pioneering apparel marketeers in the powersports channel, and is also a familiar columnist writing on a variety of topics aimed at improving dealer selling practices.