Marketing ideas to jump start hobby?

[BBCgalaxee]

Not talking about ways to make the hobby better (like ending redemptions, no monopoly, etc), looking for cool or ingenious promotions.

Free card day would seem like a good start but it's been tried a few times with minimal success.

I would love for there to be some wrapper redemption for free tickets to an mlb game.

Obviously, there would have to be cooperation from the teams and I've heard that's nearly impossible.

But In my fantasy world, a customer could get a free ticket (date/ seat up to the team) for every "x" amount of wrappers redeemed through a hobby store.

Of course, minds have to get together and iron everything out but except for a small amount of teams, I would guess most would love to get fans into seats on typically low drawing nights.

Any other ideas?

 

[Kevbo]

Commercials or something.

Everyone I talk to, everyone, has no idea what the card hobby has nowadays. I'm 39, so many people who collected when they were younger that are in my age group went through the late 80s and early 90s era and pretty much still assume it's like that. They have no idea about bat barrels, autographs, parallels, patch cards, $100 packs, booklets, none of that.

There should be a commercial campaign advertising towards adults, because so many people have no idea. They don't see any sell sheets that are sent to card shops or posted on card forums... why would they know about cards?

 

[IndiansFan]

The card companies could say that if you redeem so many wrappers you would automatically receive a promotional pack with an autograph guaranteed in the pack and parallels and that type of thing like Panini Black Friday and Fathers Day.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Commercials or something.

Everyone I talk to, everyone, has no idea what the card hobby has nowadays. I'm 39, so many people who collected when they were younger that are in my age group went through the late 80s and early 90s era and pretty much still assume it's like that. They have no idea about bat barrels, autographs, parallels, patch cards, $100 packs, booklets, none of that.

There should be a commercial campaign advertising towards adults, because so many people have no idea. They don't see any sell sheets that are sent to card shops or posted on card forums... why would they know about cards?

I agree. Topps runs commercials on MLB Network pretty often but they're terrible and only show base cards.

 

[jcmint]

More advertising and marketing but show the good stuff like ruth gehrig cobb autos

 

[BBCgalaxee]

For years I've been saying mlb should promote Gu, autos and cool looking inserts in commercials.

Nearly every year I attended the Hawaii trade conference, I suggested it and obviously, nothing came out of it.

The commercials topps runs now promote cards like it's the early 90s.

 

[f2tornado]

Cards for trick-or-treat kids and community parade handouts, better run card shops (a lot of them are still run by the inept old guard and people wonder why they close), maybe some big promotions by the manufacturer's.

 

[zach]

A 1/1 auto card delivered in person by the player himself!

 

[LazerShow15]

A reality show. I'm in

Sent from my XT901 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[jbmm161]

I think companies don't advertise or market enough at sporting events that their cards represent.
Stadium giveaways, team sets, marketing booths, billboards/banners sponsoring events and activities during halftime/between innings etc.
Most stadiums probably carry retail packs just like Wal-Mart/Target but they are more shelf filler than targeted at consumers.
Commercials would also be great if they highlighted the high end cards. I think Topps does a great job with social media sites. Panini I think focuses on their blog but twitter/Facebook are lacking.

 

[youseekyoda421]

A wrapper redemption for tickets would be good. Or why not insert a few redemption cards for really good seats (e.g. in a Topps suite)? [MENTION=5556]jbmm161[/MENTION] I miss the days of good stadium giveaway cards. It would also be nice for Topps to put out an exclusive team set available only at the ballpark that covered the 40-man roster (a la Topps Total). This sort of set would be ideal for autographs.

 

[ASTROBURN]

I dont remember card companies advertising at all in the 90s.

I say lower the price point of packs, yet still give the consumer the shot of pulling a high dollar insert. End the high dollar cases with little to no return on hits, or of even holding its value once opened.

 

[gt2590]

I think promoting Hobby shops would be a BIG help 'cuz most of those Owners would promote the hobby better than any marketing idea or plan.

And to help the LCS, dropping the SRP of the Factory sets and eliminating the retail versions would be a nice idea IMO.

Better .99 cents packs would also be good.

When I ran a store, we did great with the program Topps had to reward good report cards.

And as said, so would better commercials featuring some of the better high-end hits...

 

[DaClyde]

I think one of the biggest losses of visibility was the move of all sports cards off the checkout impulse racks in retail stores to their own, isolated section that no one sees by accident. In the 80s and early 90s, you'd see a box of baseball cards by the register in convenience stores (when was the last time you saw sports cards in a convenience stores)? Now the only people who see them are those who are the least in need of marketing.

 

[fordman]

Im sure there are many little league baseball/football/basketball/soccer organizations in your area, buy an advertising board in the outfield to promote your LCS.

Ask the leagues to place flyers in the park on bulletin boards and at concessions stands.

Have a deal setup with the concession stand to give away packs/bring to the store with a sticker with your LCS logo on the bottom of the random fountain drink cup.

Setup a small table at the little league park during a tournament with affordable merchandise and a few high dollar items.

Do you have Facebook? If so, run a small contest on there, place everyone who participated in random.org and show who the winner was.

Im not the biggest facebook pro-ponent/user but it seems a lot use it and if they see your promotions, they'll want to participate in the shop.

Daily blog with blogger or wordpress, link it to facebook and you can get in depth with new releases or whats hot/not and big hits bought at your LCS.

Simple business card with all your LCS info passed out at local softball complex with one of the cards with a special marking/sticker for a prize.

I understand that you can give away stuff to kids all you want, just don't make it all junk wax era stuff with players from 25 years ago that kids today have never heard of.

Once the parents/kids get into the store, offer free pretzel rods to the kids, yes pretzel rods. My brother owns a drive-thru and offers all the kids in the car pretzel rods no matter what the parents buy and you wouldn't believe how many repeat customers come through the drive-thru to buy because the kids can get a free pretzel rod.

Once in the store, offer a table to sit at for the kids/parents to open their purchases, chat with other collectors, keep the customer in, buy-open-buy more.

A lot more you can do. If I would have had the internet when I had my LCS, I'd probably still have it.

Fordman

 

[smapdi]

Going back to inserting them into products people buy habitually might help. Cards started as ways to sell candy, gum, and tobacco (as if tobacco needed help becoming addicting), and only in the last 30-40 years did they really start to stand on their own. Talk to people who grew up before the 90s and you won't go too long before hearing someone say,"I just bought the packs for the gum." And maybe even,"I threw the cards away." What do people buy now, regularly, and in significant quantities? Can a baseball card be inserted into the package? My initial response to the first question is "MP3s" which sort of makes it difficult to accommodate question #2 .

But I think it's difficult. With the game cards like Magic, Pokemon and Yugioh, you can actually do something with the cards. To spend money on cards you don't really do anything with but sort and store, and definitely not play with and shuffle, takes a special kind of kid. And adults, if they have the collecting gene, seem to be more and more interested in other things that don't just sit there. It's rare these days to encounter an adult who is just now diving into the hobby. Even ones coming back to it after doing it as a kid are hard to find.

I wonder if stamp collecting has the same problems.

 

[BenG76]

In Japan packs of cards are attached to bags of potato chips and other products. I wouldnt mind seeing stuff like that again. Packs in boxes of cereal would be great as well.

Sent from my SCH-R760 using Freedom Card Board mobile app

 

[jbhofmann]

Cards that were designed and MEANT to be put into bicycle spokes. They could come with a built it clip of some sort and reflectors.

 

[DaClyde]

In Japan packs of cards are attached to bags of potato chips and other products. I wouldnt mind seeing stuff like that again. Packs in boxes of cereal would be great as well.

A-men. There should be some sort of federal law that requires baseball cards be include in boxes of Cracker Jack and Bazooka. Calbee has been doing the cards with potato chips and popcorn for 40 years now. What is Topps' excuse for the lack of cards in Bazooka?

 

[Exposfan]

FREE STUFF.