Too bad one(or all) of the Manufacturers couldn't get a spot on Speed Channel and have a weekly show(or even an hour Special) with slot car info and
races on different layouts featuring 1 or 2 "Guests" from Motorsports. These guys are always talking about how they're playing NASCAR games on
their XBOX360s and PS3s. They do RCs too. Hey something has to be done to get rid of those old Unique Whips shows!!! LOL
Promoting the Hobby
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 MGS 75thMEU |
Promoting the Hobby |
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Posts: 876 (06/23/08 06:03 PM) Home Racing Guru! |
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ddyke |
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Posts: 3319 (06/23/08 06:51 PM) |
Excellent Idea!
I nominate Mopar Jenny as the hostess! Dan
Scrappy Dan
panem et circenses = the next election's motto |
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moparjenny |
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Posts: 1660 (06/23/08 07:03 PM) Home Racing Guru! |
ddyke wrote: That'll definitely get people's attention... 
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 HomeRacingWorld |
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Posts: 11115 (06/23/08 07:31 PM) The Lazy Administrator |
Indeed...perhaps Kurt as her sidekick?
"They Didn't Say You Couldn't" - Smokey Yunick
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dreinecke |
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Posts: 2133 (06/23/08 08:16 PM) Resin Body Master |
El-kabong? Nope. Too much cowbell.
I'm thinking Harry doing his "Wilson" thing...hiding behind various things onset while speaking great words of wisdom. |
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moparjenny |
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Posts: 1661 (06/23/08 09:00 PM) Home Racing Guru! |
dreinecke wrote: And he'd keep wanting more cowbell, even after it's considered too much. I'm thinking Harry doing his "Wilson" thing...hiding behind various things onset while speaking great words of wisdom. 
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ElSecundo |
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Posts: 6127 (06/24/08 08:17 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
I just want you guys to know -- I could have bought a 'More Cowbell' t-shirt yesterday, and didn't. *grin*
HomeRacingWorld wrote: Indeed...perhaps Kurt as her sidekick? That sounds about right -- she kicks me in the side every chance she gets! 
I'll tell ya...fellas......you're gonna want more cowbell!
Rock legend Bruce Dickinson |
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SJSlots |
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Posts: 2091 (06/24/08 09:10 AM) HRW Feature Editor! |
We'd all like to Kurt...
It's affection... I promise! 
"It's better to have raced one day than to have been a spectator your entire life!"
Shawn J. Smith Shawn@HomeRacingWorld.com Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A -------------
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moparjenny |
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Posts: 1664 (06/24/08 09:21 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
ElSecundo wrote: Now you know I would never do such a thing to you... 
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Cjent |
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Posts: 5805 (06/24/08 09:48 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
Gunny, ya feel like this thread went in a whole different direction?
I'm with your idea, except if we don't have a NASCAR sanction I'm not sure we can get on Speed. 
Cjent
"Speed Thrills" |
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MGS 75thMEU |
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Posts: 877 (06/24/08 10:08 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
Yes it did. I was hoping maybe someone(maybe a Sponsor/dealer) might take my idea seriously. Before I even posted this I emailed the Speed Channel a suggestion
about a Slot Car show or Special. I told them how strong the hobby was in Europe and how some groups and Distributors were trying to rekindle the interest
there was back in the 60s. It's very easy to search Speed Channel, go there and leave a message. We can just sit back and watch, what do we have in these
forums this week alone? 2 dealers going out of business and 2 or 3 guys getting out of the Hobby, selling all their stuff? I guess it's no great loss? Lets
joke about that.
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Cjent |
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Posts: 5808 (06/24/08 11:39 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
Some businesses die out in every industry every day. We just notice the ones in our "world".
I think we should push Carrera or SCX or.......................... to take up the gauntlet. Money has clout where as a few emails are considered "those slot racing guys".
Cjent
"Speed Thrills" |
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sixtiesracer.northeastslotcars |
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Posts: 23 (06/24/08 10:43 PM) |
There's one show on Speed that more than likely do a program,that would be Car Crazy.They'er always looking for different stuff.
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ElSecundo |
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Posts: 6131 (06/25/08 07:50 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
What I'd strongly advocate is getting the manufacturers on board with a few advertising dollars, so they can advertise slot racing in general -- not
brand-specific. If you get SCX, NINCO, Carrera and Scalextric to each pay 1/4 of the advertising costs for a few commercial spots, we could see general
awareness increase. Get people looking for slot cars again, THEN slug it out for market share.
I'll tell ya...fellas......you're gonna want more cowbell!
Rock legend Bruce Dickinson |
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SJSlots |
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Posts: 2092 (06/25/08 09:59 AM) HRW Feature Editor! |
Call me a pessimist but I can never see that happening. I think SCX is on the right track getting their products in main stream retailers such as Target but if
slot cars stay a product of mainly the 'niche' stores it will always remain a 'niche' interest.
If the intent is to truly boost participation in the hobby the original idea is good however won't have a widespread long term effect. A weekly show will never happen on something like the Speed Channel... those losers only show a tiny fraction of real auto racing that happens around the world, let alone race coverage of a 'comparitively tiny niche hobby interest' although I too am annoyed that I turn on a channel dedicated to 'racing' and see garage monkey's arguing over what color spray paint to use on the dash of a lambo. To Bill's point about people leaving the hobby the reasons are far wider and deeper than a lack of general public interest. There are personal reasons, economic reasons, legal reasons and basic loss of interest reasons etc... For those of us who have been doing this a while how many cottage industry people have we seen come and go? How many stores have we seen come and go? Manufacturers come and go... Stick around and you'll see the cycles over and over again. Some of you who have been a round a couple years might remember the episode of I think it was 'My Classic Car' (?) that had on a show which featured a slot car track and classic american cars. I wish I could recall the brand (Scaley/Carrera) that was used but that episode didn't drive masses of people back to the hobby, or if it did I don't think any of us could quantify the results seen via the message forums. Yes TV can create awareness, and it might have a small residual effect... but has watching 'Living the Low Life' prompted any of you to go out and buy an Impala, gut and chop the chassis and spend thousands on hydrolics so you can three-wheel through the streets of your hood? I see car insurance commercials literally 10 times a day and not once has it made me call up that stupid little talking lizzard to change my coverage provider.
"It's better to have raced one day than to have been a spectator your entire life!"
Shawn J. Smith Shawn@HomeRacingWorld.com Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A -------------
Last Edited By: SJSlots
06/25/08 10:06 AM.
Edited 1 times.
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ElSecundo |
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Posts: 6135 (06/25/08 10:50 AM) Home Racing Guru! |
Shawn, the big difference is that there are a lot of people who badly want slot car racing, and simply don't know that it's available in this 1:32 highly-detailed form. Everybody knows that car insurance is available, and they probably have a solution/carrier that's working for them already. A combined effort to advertise will keep advertising costs down, and allow the manufacturers to present their stuff on nationally televised coverage of ALMS, for example. How many ALMS viewers do you think would jump at the opportunity to drive their own Porsche RS Spyder or Flying Lizard car? Advertising during ALMS coverage can't be THAT expensive, can it? Especially if it's split four ways...
I'll tell ya...fellas......you're gonna want more cowbell!
Rock legend Bruce Dickinson |
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Cjent |
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Posts: 5817 (06/25/08 12:18 PM) Home Racing Guru! |
The Flying Lizard Team will have an SCX race pitting spectators against team drivers at Lime Rock July 11-13 ALMS race weekend. That's a start.
"Beat Bergmeister"!
Cjent
"Speed Thrills" |
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MGS 75thMEU |
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Posts: 882 (06/25/08 12:38 PM) Home Racing Guru! |
Don't you think some people will be looking for places to buy an SCX slot car set after watching the guys race the slots at Lime Rock? Any idea if they do
that at all the races?
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sixtiesracer.northeastslotcars |
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Posts: 24 (06/25/08 01:28 PM) |
They used slot cars on that ad for NASCAR on ESPN.That speedway is now in someone's basement or warehouse somewhere in N.J..I someone would grab that up
with a manufacturers' sponsorship.That might be a boost to the hobby.
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SJSlots |
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Posts: 2094 (06/25/08 02:07 PM) HRW Feature Editor! |
Ok the car insurance comparison was 'sort of' off the mark... even so I still don't think a slot car commercial will have that dramatic of an
impact overall which was really my point.
There may be a quick surge of interested people within a short window of seeing the ad but the ad better not only inform slot car racing is alive and well it also better inform people how to find it. It's not like they can run down to their local Toys-R-Us and grab a Scalextric race set. Tied to that not all stores carry all brands so a collaboration marketing campaign still doesn't seem reasonable. Carrera isn't going to pay for an ad that says 'You can find SCX Racing sets at Target' for obvious reasons. A generic 'Please search for your local hobby store' won't work either as very few toy and hobby stores actually sell slot cars. Drive by Green Sales in Cincinnati and you will have NO indication that CincySlots is operated from inside. Places like HRW, Ebay etc are Bruce's 'walk-by traffic' which is why offering a review car now and then is a good idea so people can see the CincySlots link and banner. It's targeted marketing. Saying there are people out there that 'badly want' something they don't know about is sort of funny. I didn't 'badly need' slot cars at all when I re-found them. I was actually in an out of town hobby store looking for model railroading stuff when I first saw 1/32 and it wasn't till I went online and found places like HRW that I decided to go buy a set.
"It's better to have raced one day than to have been a spectator your entire life!"
Shawn J. Smith Shawn@HomeRacingWorld.com Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A -------------
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ElSecundo |
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Posts: 6139 (06/25/08 02:29 PM) Home Racing Guru! |
Well, if it's done intelligently, it would work pretty well, I think. There are several things that would need to be done -- not just the TV spots.
1) Have a series of TV ads promoting slot car racing. 2) The ads reference a joint web page with contact information for finding vendors (online and brick and mortar) of SCX, Carrera, Scalextric, NINCO. 3) Include online demos highlighting the similarities and differences between the manufacturers. The website is the key element, because this is where new guys can spend time browsing and figuring out what direction they want to go. This would all be part of the advertising dollars pooled by the manufacturers. As far as 'wanting a product they don't know about'...so many guys have said "I didn't even know this was still out there!" The implication is that they've had an interest, but were unaware that the products existed. I didn't know about 1:32 slots either, but when I found out, it was a done deal.
I'll tell ya...fellas......you're gonna want more cowbell!
Rock legend Bruce Dickinson |
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