Marketing our Hobby

[Rokieboater]

Hello all,

My name is Robert Holland and I am the newly elected Vice President for NAMBA. I will be working closely with our President Al Waters on many issues and trying to help model boating as a whole.

A couple of things I wanted to work on when elected was to find a way to market model boating to the general public and to create an additional revenue stream to be able to purchase and afford new marketing ideas without using the general fund.

I hope that with whatever we can implement will help both NAMBA and IMPBA. I am a model boater first a NAMBA member second and a VP third.

So with that being said I am throwing this out to the masses.... I would like to get a brochure made that includes information about model boating, our organization(s), the types of engines (Nitro, Gas and Electric), kids r boaters, hall of fames and whatever else could go into this. I envision it as being a trifold brochure that we could display at many locations such as race sites, hobby stores as well as getting it into manufactures packaging. This brochure could also help in introducing boating to new possible site owners. This could be used as a template for both NAMBA and IMPBA.

I am not capable of handling this or designing this. If you are interested in designing this for a fee or free please e-mail or call me with your thoughts and possible cost to design this brochure.

I cannot authorize this on my own. Once I get a few ideas on cost I will present it to the NAMBA board for approval. Any ideas I get I will freely share with anyone from IMPBA if they are interested.

I have talked to both the NAMBA president and secretary via -e-mails about this idea and they are excited to see what you all have for us.

Please send ideas or call.

Roger Hooks... Now is your time to shine my friend

Kim Grim... This is right up your alley

Anyone else interested in giving this a shot??????? Please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robert Holland

[email protected]

303-918-4502

 

[Paul Traufler]

I can point you to the IMPBA tri-fold hand out we have used. On the Huntsville boaters site there is a PDF, may give you some ideas.

http://home.hiwaay.net/~wintrak/RC/2/index.html

The tri-fold PDF:

http://home.hiwaay.net/~wintrak/RC/2/Fliers/Tri-Fold%20John.pdf

Paul

 

[David Santistevan]

Paul,

That is a nice brochure! It contains all the pertinent information without being too overly glitzy? I have done quite a few of these tri-fold brochures. I would be willing to contribute.

D

 

[Rokieboater]

I can point you to the IMPBA tri-fold hand out we have used. On the Huntsville boaters site there is a PDF, may give you some ideas.

http://home.hiwaay.n...RC/2/index.html

The tri-fold PDF:

http://home.hiwaay.n...Fold%20John.pdf

Paul

Paul,

That is basically what I'm looking for. It would be nice if it showed our insurance coverage. Looks like a nice start for obtaining/contacting new sites. Does IMPBA produce this? Do you think it gets used much at race sites or hobby stores? Has IMPBA ever contacted manufactures about putting one in with each boat related packaged shipped?

Do you know who produced/designed this?

Robert Holland

 

[Rokieboater]

Paul,

That is a nice brochure! It contains all the pertinent information without being too overly glitzy? I have done quite a few of these tri-fold brochures. I would be willing to contribute.

D

Dave,

I might be taken you up on this.

Robert

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

Looks like we have more talent out there than just me and Kim. Maybe something just needed to be said to get people up and running again.

And... I like that you said you are an RC boater first. That is exactly the way I see it. We all love to doing the same thing. There is nothing wrong sharing ideas for the benefit of the entire community.

 

[Grimracer]

We sure do :lol:

Sorry I could not help myself..

grim

 

[Paul Traufler]

Robert, Not 100% sure who did the tri-fold, I got the info from:

Secretary: Office

John Equi

3116 Acklen Dr.

Huntsville, AL 35805

(256) 684-2986

​

[email protected]

Send John an email, I have always said that IMPBA and NAMBA need to join forces more and maybe get some bigger numbers of boaters involved. It is good to have members to draw skills from and share the work load.

Paul

​

 

[Hydro Junkie]

What about trying this, at the race sites have a boat on display that could be hands on for the people that have questions. It could even be set up with a nonfunctional engine and radio gear so the people could see what's inside. Having a "cutaway" hull might be something to consider as well so the interested people could see what's inside and how the boat is built rather than having someone try to explain what's involved. How far the boat is finished is up to the individuals in the club so sealing with epoxy might be as far as it gets done. Just a thought

 

[Andy Wood]

I sent our old Mayor a message about Hobart,IN and how there city gets behind there race. I was told to get with maybe the new mayor elect and see where that path takes. I hope this helps?

 

[Rokieboater]

Keep it coming guys. Any sample brochures that have been used in the past would be great as well.

Robert

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

I sent our old Mayor a message about Hobart,IN and how there city gets behind there race. I was told to get with maybe the new mayor elect and see where that path takes. I hope this helps?

Hobart is an excellent example of what every weekend event can be like for every community that an event is held. It can be a very attractive event for any community with a low barrier of entry for any member of the community that wanted to participate if we include RTR classes in them. Partnering up with charity groups looking for ways to create awareness for their cause may be helpful as well.

 

[SeanKewley]

Has anyone considered using Meetup.com to help market the hobby? Meetup looks like it has the potential to increase participation at a local level.

I'm not very familiar with Meetup so I am curious as well.

 

[BobGutsell]

I like the spirit of what you're trying to do.

However, might want to move the starting point for your thinking to a higher level and thing about what you're really trying to do?

I'd suggest that you're objective is to grow the membership.

Creating a brochure is one way of getting the message out there, and so are websites and facebook pages. There are so many comms channels available today you don't have to try that hard to get the message out there.

What you really want to do is engage potential Members and enthusiasts and hold them long enough for them to get hooked like the rest of us. I'd be putting my efforts into this aspect rather than creating brochures.

 

[Beau Parsons]

Any information to promote R/C model boating is always a great idea. As most people know Colorado District 20 is quite small in size compared to larger districts. We love new members and are always promoting to bring on as many new members that share the passion of model boating at its finest. Word of mouth seems to work as well as the use of Internet sources.

Beau

 

[Rokieboater]

I like the spirit of what you're trying to do.

However, might want to move the starting point for your thinking to a higher level and thing about what you're really trying to do?

I'd suggest that you're objective is to grow the membership.

Creating a brochure is one way of getting the message out there, and so are websites and facebook pages. There are so many comms channels available today you don't have to try that hard to get the message out there.

What you really want to do is engage potential Members and enthusiasts and hold them long enough for them to get hooked like the rest of us. I'd be putting my efforts into this aspect rather than creating brochures.

Please elaborate.... Im a crawl, walk, run type of guy. The only people I can think of reaching are the ones that show interest. If someone comes up to me at a race site I can tell them a web-site and hope they don't forget it or I can give them a professional brochure that has all types of info. At least it will keep til they get home and can start searching. Then I can get that brochure into the hands of manufactures that put it into kits and reaching someone already interested in boats. Then I can drop them off at the local hobby shop and get info into the hands of people that are already RC hobby enthusiast or looking to become one. That is my limited thinking......

I was at the NAMBA Nationals in July and had many interested people come up to me and ask questions of how, when where and how much. I had nothing to give them except ink on a paper towel. I saw this as a problem and this is my possible solution. I have limited thinking abilities and thats why I posted here. I then looked at the NAMBA and IMPBA websites. One doesn't even have links and the other only has nine links to additional boating info. Out of both web-sites I could only find 6 links to boating manufactures. We are missing the mark. I also got a call the other day where a potential new boater told me that we are very hard to find. Not good.

Please elaborate on how I move to a higher level of thinking and engage potential members. I don't want to put in a lot of effort and miss the mark. I appreciate any and all comments and suggestions here. I do not offend easily.

Robert Holland

 

[Roger Hooks Jr.]

A Brochure is a good start. It provides the language that describes any organization. That way it's always the same. If the membership reads it and uses it as a basis to present and describe the organization pretty soon everybody is speaking the same language in presenting the organization. It "IS" a good start. Perhaps Bob was thinking this was to be an end all solution. Bob I assure you this is only the beginning and your thoughts are welcome.

We might also think about a membership drive. Maybe do this organization wide. Perhaps make January or February the month to do so. This is when the entire organizatio goes into demonstration meet and greet mode. I know in my area there is a big boat show around January/February. Could be a good place to use that Non-Profit to get 10x20 area of floor space, get some buddies together, borrow a TV and buy a DVD from MeTime, polish up your boats and head on out for a day or two with brochures in hand.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

In D-8, we have a hobby expo in February where there are usually boating groups with tables set up. They usually have fliers available, videos playing, boats on display and people to talk to but, like any other activity, many people are driven away by the cost of getting into the activity or by the way it's presented by the people manning the booth. I'm not saying the people representing the organizations don't try hard because they do. A few years back, I was at the expo and heard two people talking about a crash at one of the regattas and how badly a boat was damaged while the video showed boats flipping during a race. It was easy to see the reaction of some that were nearby as they steared clear of that booth by a fairly large distance. As already stated, word of mouth and videos can be powerful tools, but they can also be a way to shoot ourselves in the foot if the information given, whether intensional or not, is of a negative variety

 

[SeanKewley]

In D-8, we have a hobby expo in February where there are usually boating groups with tables set up. They usually have fliers available, videos playing, boats on display and people to talk to but, like any other activity, many people are driven away by the cost of getting into the activity or by the way it's presented by the people manning the booth. I'm not saying the people representing the organizations don't try hard because they do. A few years back, I was at the expo and heard two people talking about a crash at one of the regattas and how badly a boat was damaged while the video showed boats flipping during a race. It was easy to see the reaction of some that were nearby as they steared clear of that booth by a fairly large distance. As already stated, word of mouth and videos can be powerful tools, but they can also be a way to shoot ourselves in the foot if the information given, whether intensional or not, is of a negative variety

The same could be said for model airplanes. They crash in big ways too. More public outreach can only benefit model boating, not hurt it.

 

[Hydro Junkie]

Can't argue with that either. Most expect airplanes to crash and be seriously damaged, not boats. People that don't know boats expect them to stay on the water, not flip. They also don't expect the speeds that boats are now capable of with todays latest engines, hulls and massaged props