"Millennium 2007"??????????

[Robbo]

Nick, if you think the adoption of a unified format within the league is gonna begin opening doors to outside sponsors in 2008 then I'm afraid you and anybody holding similar beliefs is gonna be hugely disappointed mate.


The timing may well be right as you say but I'm afraid we ain't got the product they want, and even if we do get it, we gotta package it right and once again this is not really an area in which we have excelled.

I am becoming more and more skeptical as to the potential of Paintball making it on TV after what I have seen going on in the US.
What worries me is this, even tho ESPN had what for all intents and purposes was a successful TV production (the NPPL / IMG show), they still declined to commission a further series....that set my personal alarm bells ringing.

And I think any thoughts we might have of outside sponsors is only gonnan be possible if we tie in TV somehow because if the present demographic and set up was attractive enough to get outside companies involved then it would have happened already.

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

Nick, if you think the adoption of a unified format within the league is gonna begin opening doors to outside sponsors in 2008 then I'm afraid you and anybody holding similar beliefs is gonna be hugely disappointed mate.

You completely misunderstand the point of my post

It doesn't really matter what the format is or if it is "unified"..... but in order to have serious negotiations with any company outside paintball about sponsorship, you obviously need to know what your product is.... and at the moment the MS does not know what format it is playing next year, and as such is unable to sell it to anyone.

I am not talking about TV either.... my post was purely a marketing related one - i.e. marketing the MS to corporations outside paintball, for them to sponsor the series in any way.

So, when I say "timing" - it is in reference to when in the year major corporations plan their marketing activities for the coming year - and for most that process starts in August, and ends latest in the start of October, which is why the MS will have no chance of attracting major outside sponsors for next season, barring ofcourse the sponsorship is diminutive - or someone has personal relation to utilise.

Nick

 

[Thuor]

we're sure that the millenium will sell the way european players will play. Teams also need to prepare the format they will play.
Even if I know that it's easier for pro team to play m7 with a lot of player who have a lot of talent. I think the preparation will be harder for div1 team.
the m7 game is quicker and a lot more physical. it need more players during the season and some staff around the team.
Some league ligue like german x5 league already play m7 but other are waiting to know what decision will be taken to launch their format as soon as possible.

patrice

 

[TalieBun]

Some league ligue like german x5 league already play m7
patrice

xball lite. but it's pretty similar

 

[Chicago]

It doesn't really matter what the format is or if it is "unified"..... but in order to have serious negotiations with any company outside paintball about sponsorship, you obviously need to know what your product is.... and at the moment the MS does not know what format it is playing next year, and as such is unable to sell it to anyone.

You seem to have confused 'product' and 'format'. The product is NOT the format, and anyone who is trying to sell their format to potential out of industry sponsors is doomed to failure. Sponsors are not interested in paintball formats. They just plain absolutely do not care.

They want to know how many people care about who wins, how old they are, how many of them will be at the event, how much press you get, etc. Format doesn't matter at all, and thinking it does is just another example of why paintball does not have out-of-industry money - the people trying to get it don't have a clue what the out-of-industry money wants.

 

[Chicago]

NI am becoming more and more skeptical as to the potential of Paintball making it on TV after what I have seen going on in the US.
What worries me is this, even tho ESPN had what for all intents and purposes was a successful TV production (the NPPL / IMG show), they still declined to commission a further series....that set my personal alarm bells ringing.

And I think any thoughts we might have of outside sponsors is only gonnan be possible if we tie in TV somehow because if the present demographic and set up was attractive enough to get outside companies involved then it would have happened already.

I think this is a bit premature. Nobody has marketed paintball correctly - they've been too blinded by the 'if we get on TV all our problems will be solved!' mentality.

For all intents and purposes, the NPPL show was NOT a successful production. It looked better than anything else we've ever put on TV, and to us that is successful, but to anybody else that's not the definition of success.

Success is ability to attract money to finance continued production. It blows my mind that paintball people continue to royally screw up basic concepts in television production.

A big one is, get your sponsors lined up first, *THEN* film the show. This process of filming the show and then trying to get sponsors for it is bass-ackwards; you've given up your most valuable assets: Integrated program presence (on the bunkers and field and on-site filmed promotions) and participation in the on-site activities. When you do it the bass-ackwards paintball way, you end up with things like one energy drink sponsor for your program with the logos for another energy drink sponsor on the bunkers on your field. Sponsors hate that kinda stuff.

And you've basically limited yourself to selling billboards (segments in the program with a logo and voiceover) and commercial time. Sponsors who are looking to get into something innovative want to get IN to it. If they just want to buy commercial time they've already bought it from the network.


Paintball is just now figuring out how to market itself. We've been trying to take this huge leap from no sponsors to corporately funded programs and it's just not going to happen - that's too much risk for the sponsor. First we need to have a good number of sponsors who are sponsoring the events on a no-TV basis and who have a positive experience from that sponsorship. When you have that in the bag, the jump to TV will be much easier.

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

You seem to have confused 'product' and 'format'. The product is NOT the format, and anyone who is trying to sell their format to potential out of industry sponsors is doomed to failure. Sponsors are not interested in paintball formats. They just plain absolutely do not care.

And you seem not to be reading posts before answering them

I just wrote - quite plainly, that the format is irrespective - but you need to know what it is.

What that means is, that it doesn't matter what format you play in terms of outside sponsors - but you need to be able to tell them what the hell you are doing at your events - to be able to sell them the idea of being sponsors.

Just saying "we play paintball - it's cool" hardly works.

Nick

 

[Chicago]

And you seem not to be reading posts before answering them

I just wrote - quite plainly, that the format is irrespective - but you need to know what it is.

What that means is, that it doesn't matter what format you play in terms of outside sponsors - but you need to be able to tell them what the hell you are doing at your events - to be able to sell them the idea of being sponsors.

Just saying "we play paintball - it's cool" hardly works.

But 'what you are doing at events' doesn't need to include what the game rules are. Just tell them what you do now. If you change it later, they really are not going to care as long as you're delivering on your sponsor commitments (Attendence, publicity, exposure, etc.) Possibly changing your format next season has no bearing on obtaining sponsorship for next season.

 

[Nick Brockdorff]

Whatever Chicago

 

[frenchie]

I think the idea of an Iberian event is quite popular among the teams and players but....and there is a huge but here....as long as you know who doesn't get to run it.
Certainly the Malaga event was pretty cool but if holding a 2007 Iberian event means Pedro having to organise it then I'm afraid it will not be approved by the Board, I don't wanna put words in the Board's mouth but I would be HUGELY surprised if Pedro was let anywhere near tournament promoting ever again under the umbrella of the Millennium Series....and rightly so !!!!!!!!!

Most people would agree all round with this statement(spesh the Pedro bit,remember portugal 2003? WTF??) but who actually ran the malaga event as have been told it was pedro as its his 'patch' but other people have told me it was the campaign guys,if it was the campaign guys,bring ,em back to do it again it was quality and not bothered when it is as long as its on the calender....i,ll be qiuet now.