BMX News Editorial: What Does It Mean To Be Sponsored? Options

[reedhamilton]

http://vimeo.com/28561688

The guy loves his "cigarettes". Five minutes of smoking - one minute of riding.

[Brett Middaugh]

Since Mike enlightened me on plus (not anything bad just facts I never knew about over on Action), I'm even less of a fan than I was as a kid.

Sponsorship in BMX racing today is pretty watered down...I'm seeing Mike's model coming down the pike in the not too distant future.

Mike, why not do a quarterly BMX Now (no exclamation point please, LOL!...oh dang I exclamated...) mag on the magcloud thing.

Well why not barring...time, money, people to get to help, etc, lol...again.
Would be cool to see some editorials in print that can get the blood boiling like the 'ol Oz days....

Ah I remember when....

Brett...shut up.

[bystickel]

Has there ever been a successful brand without a team (racing) or sponsored riders (freestyle)?

Has there been a successful brand that didn't also have regular print/web advertising?

Although it proves little, the team seems to be the main indicator of the product's legitimacy, equal parts Barnum and Cronkite.

[BS]

Good article, Mike.

I actually think that sponsorship, for the most part, is bollocks in BMX and try to promote the value of NOT being sponsored in my activities but this is a good topic and a good one to have in the hands of someone who aspires to be a real journalist. Nice work.

[BS]

Has there ever been a successful brand without a team (racing) or sponsored riders (freestyle)?

Phil Wood

Chris King

True Precision (Stealth) - had a team but no more I believe.

Honestly, in many areas of industry, brands that don't advertise also happen to be the brands of the highest quality. How often do you see Rolls Royce TV commercials? If a high quality brand has to start advertising that's usually a sign of trouble. Could even be an indicator that quality has gone down hill and they need to do something to cover their backside quick.

[nickdawghaters]

Meredith,

Ill try to keep this civil but I can definitely see it turning into the same old battle on what is "BMX"... BMX Plus covers BMX across the board. Unfortunately the part of BMX your passionate about is a small minority in the grand scheme of things. So when Plus covers a race and goes through the expense of sending out Ben and all that stuff Im grateful. BMX Plus whether you like it or not is a publication that somehow withstood the test of time and the internet age. When the racing aspect is a bigger portion of the overall bmx ridership I think you could see an increase in coverage, also think of the nationals on a calendar year... Same circus weekend after weekend again and again with the same song and dance. Coverage of any kind is good so if you dont want to subscribe then thats your choice, but Ive seen Plus feature race covers in the past and thats enough for me to keep supporting them, they support the riders in all aspects and Ben Crocket even races a national here and there.

[MikeCarruth]

Since Mike enlightened me on plus (not anything bad just facts I never knew about over on Action), I'm even less of a fan than I was as a kid.

Sponsorship in BMX racing today is pretty watered down...I'm seeing Mike's model coming down the pike in the not too distant future.

Mike, why not do a quarterly BMX Now (no exclamation point please, LOL!...oh dang I exclamated...) mag on the magcloud thing.

Well why not barring...time, money, people to get to help, etc, lol...again.
Would be cool to see some editorials in print that can get the blood boiling like the 'ol Oz days....

Ah I remember when....

Brett...shut up.

I like your thinking there, Brett, and as I mentioned on the BMXA thread, I am working on some things vis a vis a print component to my offerings. Lots of "ifs" at this stage, so I have not really been talking about it openly (LOL, well, I guess I am now).

Lots of things have to come together to make it a reality, though I have been working on the planning for about two months. I don't want to be one of those guys who talks up an idea that never happens. But we're family here, so...

MagCloud is a good option for some toe-in-the-water stuff, and I will probably put up some advance content to see how it "feels" in print. The only downside is that the single copy price is really high for MagCloud ($8 for a 40-pager, base cost), so it makes it tough to charge anything beyond production cost for the product. And because the circ numbers are likely going to be very, very low, you could not really sell ads with a straight face (not to mention that the reader would have to effectively PAY for the ads to be printed as part of their purchase).

Stay tuned, though, there may be some things coming down the pike in the coming 45 days.

Best,

M

[gabsphatgmc]

I wish my son would read that article thoroughly and take it seriously (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) He seems to have lost that whole concept of thinking before you speak or post because of what affect it might have on someone whether its a sponsor, a potential sponsor, co sponsor or even the ones that look up to him.......

[obsessive]

Watch your mouth buddy... Ben @ BMX Plus! Doesnt need to attend races to get coverage so be thankful that the one real magazine that does come out, even really does come out.

i'm not biting on this. First off, I'm the consumer. Some people in BMX are so concerned with being name droppers and brosephs that they can't see the forest through the trees.

Again, I'm the consumer. Grateful? for what? that they offer minimal coverage of a sport they should be covering in the first place? That they claim to be a BMX magazine that barely covers BMX? When people buy products from me I'm grateful, I don't expect them to be grateful although sometimes they are...and thats cool.

Think about the following:

I walked into Starbucks today and ordered a Mocha Latte......the barista told me I should be grateful she's there to make the drink

My lawncare guy came over for treatment number 6 today......he told me I should be grateful that he takes care of my lawn

I bought a book at Barnes and Nobles the other day and the bookseller told me I should be thankful that she could sell me the book


Sound backwards to anyone?

Maybe your buddy Ben needs to start having a new attitude toward BMX Racing, maybe even adopt an attitude of gratefulness....then he can sell more mags.

Until then, I'll save my money cause I don't care about Freestyle biking.

OB

[MeredithJL]

It won't become "uncivil" unless you take it there. We have different opinions on the relevance of Plus! as a source of race reporting, that's all. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Meredith,

Ill try to keep this civil but I can definitely see it turning into the same old battle on what is "BMX"... BMX Plus covers BMX across the board. Unfortunately the part of BMX your passionate about is a small minority in the grand scheme of things. So when Plus covers a race and goes through the expense of sending out Ben and all that stuff Im grateful. BMX Plus whether you like it or not is a publication that somehow withstood the test of time and the internet age. When the racing aspect is a bigger portion of the overall bmx ridership I think you could see an increase in coverage, also think of the nationals on a calendar year... Same circus weekend after weekend again and again with the same song and dance. Coverage of any kind is good so if you dont want to subscribe then thats your choice, but Ive seen Plus feature race covers in the past and thats enough for me to keep supporting them, they support the riders in all aspects and Ben Crocket even races a national here and there.

This post has been edited by MeredithJL: Sep 8 2011, 03:46 PM