A blimp is a BAD IDEA - here is why

[Matt Collins]

I would agree with the naysers if this was a conventional campaign.

However, this is not a conventional campaign, so..

A Blimp? Why not?

Because the principles of marketing STILL APPLY!

 

[Tenbatsu]

Because the principles of marketing STILL APPLY!

Yes, they do. Product differentiation, innovation, and, setting yourself apart from the crowd. These are all marketing techniques not being applied by the other candidates, but by the Ron Paul campaign and its grassroots.

A Blimp can fly over every major town in NH in a day and do it every day for a month. We get a two weeks of T.V. and Radio ads for the same price. The difference between these two "products" is that the conventional advertising route is completely swamped and inundated with ads from other candidates making it difficult to set yourself apart from the rest.

Our strength lies in our ability to break known campaign practices by taking risks other campaigns are not willing to take.

If we pit our strength against our competitors, who have more money and more brute force than we do, we will lose. We must circumvent their strength by utilizing alternate means of getting Ron Paul's message out.

I understand where you are coming from, but you must also realize there is another, valid, side to this argument.

 

[Man from La Mancha]

can 35,000 do $10 a month?

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[PeacePlan]

Instead use the money to hire Chris Angel to turn a copy of the Constitution into Ron Paul and then back into the Constitution again.. Most likely a simple trick for him but it would be seen all over the world and youtubed to the top of the charts.. Maybe when he reappears have him dressed in garb like the founders I think people would donate to see this happen!

 

[llamabread]

- Its not going to get media attention. Point Blank! they don't care. When has the MSM ever done anything for Ron Paul. It will go unoticed. Nice originl idea though, keep going.

Its not the MSM that we are trying to reach. It is all of the local news stations that will cover it. And people who watch the local news every night probably don't use the internet much, and haven't heard of Ron Paul. I'm not a marketing major, but it seems like introducing millions of new people to Ron Paul is a good idea.

Like I said, I don't have a degree in marketing, but I do drive down the highway everyday. I pass over 100 billboards, EVERY DAY. The only one I can recall is the coke one, and thats because I pass about 20 coke billboards. The last time I saw a blimp was the Goodyear blimp about 2 years ago. You talk about targeted advertising, but it seems to me that one blimp that everyone remembers is alot better than 300 billboards that everyone forgets.

 

[speciallyblend]

kill thread geez beating a dead horse,if you dont want to help the blimp dont,if you dothen do its plain and simple,enuff said now kiss and make up ,or ill tazer you all and throw flowers at you

 

[PaulNation2008]

Name recognition is still a big issue though, and big advertising guestures like blimps can help change that. It creates buzz.

 

[LFOD]

The main selling point for me is what people are going to *think* when they see a Ron Paul blimp. First of all, this has never been done in politics. So it has a huge originality factor. Second, blimps are something for MAJOR corporations. You don't see blimps - meaning REAL, giant manned blimps - for your local car dealership. So when you see it, you'd think "whoa - these guys are BIG TIME, maybe they are a real force"

A conventional marketing analysis on the effectiveness of blimp advertising versus others, I think is not accurate in this case. For the *next* guy who tries it, probably. But for the *first* one who does, especially if it's Ron Paul, totally different dynamic. How can you *not* talk about a Ron Paul freaking BLIMP? Its not like it's some insurance company. It's for a supposed "third tier" candidate. It says, like the money bombs "WE ARE FOR REAL, WE HAVE POWER, WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED, WE CAN BUY A BLIMP"

 

[literatim]

TV ads in Iowa or hunting and firearm magazine advertisements would be a much better use of money.

Is a 15 second blurb on the local news really worth $300,000? It would be cheaper to advertise during the news. At least that way there would be no chance of the message being spinned.

 

[Liberty Star]

I have a minor in marketing. I work in advertising (among other things).

A blimp for Ron Paul is a bad idea and the reason is because it is not very targeted.

If you fly a blimp over a city and 1,000,000 people see the blimp, only x% of those people will be registered voters, and only about 10-20% of those registered voters will vote in the primary, and if it's a major city I would venture to say most of them will be Democrats (urban areas are almost always Democratic - in closed primary states this is a waste).


This means that out of 1 million people that see the blimp, you might only reach a few thousand people that might possibly vote for Ron. This seems like a colossal waste of money for the result.

THE KEY IS TARGETED ADVERTISING!​

This means instead of buying a blimp spend money on the following things (in this order):

• Assemble and deliver packets to SuperVoters in your region. Supervoters are people who have voted in the last few elections and are likely to vote in the primary. Your state coordinator should have a list of these people.
• Buy air time on your local conservative talk radio stations including any commercial Christian stations in town
• Buy TV ads on your local nightly and morning news programs, buy ads locally via your cable company on FOX, CNN, and MSNBC
• Buy ads in local papers close to the editoral pages, in the business section, and in the local section
• Purchase billboards in geographically strategic areas

I am sorry if I am raining on anyone's parade (or deflating their baloon - pun intended ) but if we want Ron Paul to win the primary, then we need to market him professionally with the best intelligence we can!




.

Well said.

 

[Margo37]

BIG blimp flying over a few weeks ago, seemed very low in actuality, leaving the county airport less than a mile away. MetLife, would it be readable?

 

[Matt Collins]

A Blimp can fly over every major town in NH in a day and do it every day for a month. We get a two weeks of T.V. and Radio ads for the same price. The difference between these two "products" is that the conventional advertising route is completely swamped and inundated with ads from other candidates making it difficult to set yourself apart from the rest.

NH has "major towns" ? That's news to me!

But in all seriousness, if it is JUST going over NH I think it might could work if the cost was maybe half or 1/3rd of the proposed prices.

The reason I say that is because in NH the uniqueness factor WILL play a part in that State.

Now - overall, I don't think winning NH is going to be THAT big of an indicator for us. After all Pat Buchanan won NH and look where he is. Pat Robertson won Iowa, and look where he is too.

 

[Matt Collins]

The main selling point for me is what people are going to *think* when they see a Ron Paul blimp. First of all, this has never been done in politics. So it has a huge originality factor. Second, blimps are something for MAJOR corporations. You don't see blimps - meaning REAL, giant manned blimps - for your local car dealership. So when you see it, you'd think "whoa - these guys are BIG TIME, maybe they are a real force"

Good point. As mentioned in my previous post, if it were only in NH for a day and were 1/2 or 1/3rd of the cost, then it might could maybe be effective for winning that state.

NH is such a small area to cover, and it is largely rural/small towns so people do talk to one another. And since so much political effort is focused on that state at the moment, this is one way to get above the noise floor because you are correct, it IS unique.

Outside of that, it is a patently bad idea. Any freshman marketing major can tell you why.

How can you *not* talk about a Ron Paul freaking BLIMP?

Your emotions/ego are getting the best of you as well as many others. Emotions are important because they provide the drive, but we should be using our brains to formulate a strategy for success.

 

[Man from La Mancha]

Good point. As mentioned in my previous post, if it were only in NH for a day and were 1/2 or 1/3rd of the cost, then it might could maybe be effective for winning that state.

NH is such a small area to cover, and it is largely rural/small towns so people do talk to one another. And since so much political effort is focused on that state at the moment, this is one way to get above the noise floor because you are correct, it IS unique.

Outside of that, it is a patently bad idea. Any freshman marketing major can tell you why.

Your emotions/ego are getting the best of you as well as many others. Emotions are important because they provide the drive, but we should be using our brains to formulate a strategy for success.

Why does this bother you so much, You seem to be the emotional one and pissing on someone else's parade. If people want to do it so what. What projects are you starting and why aren't you promoting them instead of bad talking some one else's attempts? It's easy to criticize but hard to find solutions evidently. If you could find a way for 35,000 people to give $10 a month to this, it wouldn't drain any funds from anything else, but for you to think of a way to do that is too hard, so just complain instead.


.

 

[BrianH]

First time I ever looked in one of the blimp threads! If this idea gets funded I think it'd be great --- guerilla marketing a-la Greenpeace. You need a gimmick to get media attention and that should be the focus.

 

[EotS]

People with advanced degrees in marketing are the ones still trying to figure out how Ron Paul is "using" the Internet.

I say go, go, go hard! (what movies has he been in?) to all of you with these wild ideas.

The Revolution is amazing.

 

[Midnight77]

Like I said, I support the Blimp whole heartedly. People want change. And we've done a lot of novelty with this campaign so far.

This would be the first time any Candidate has used a Blimp. Combined with the event on the 16th and the money we'll raise, we are looking at a ton of Media Coverage.

 

[Eric21ND]

$350,000 for 1 month of service?

I kinda like the blimp idea on theory, especially for the general election, but can you imagine the impact you would have if you pumped $350,000 into one key state! I bet you could win that state for Dr. Paul with a targeted media blitz....Iowa....South Carolina anyone? You could blanket every billboard, tv show, and radio.

Think of all the possible things we could do with that kind of money. I understand the blimp would get local attention but this is going to be in the dead winter of Iowa and New Hampshire...the summer would be so much better for a blimp ride.

We could come up with our own 30min Ron Paul documentary and run it every damn night in a certain state! Isn't that what got all of use here in the first place? Seeing Dr. Paul speak on youtube videos.

You could probably have better voter turnout at the primary if you went to the local mall and paid people $1 for every Ron Paul video they were willing to watch.

 

[max]

the sheer numbers of people who see the blimp compenstae for the lack of targetting.......

please dont piss in peoples lemonade

 

[Midnight77]

And besides ... it's not like only pedestrians will "see" the blimp. It will be on TV, in the magazines, in the papers, etc.

The message will be getting out. Bigger is better and this is something that can be used to make the Tea Party a smashing success.