Back in mid-January 2012, Bow River Shuttles sponsored the Canadian Premiere of CONNECT.
Connect: What do you know. A video with a message.
Are you getting what you need with your ad dollars in video? In Connect you do.
Posted on February 8, 2012 by Greg Thomas
There are a lot of dollars being sprinkled around fly fishing today, mostly to support video projects that may or may not give a company some air time at one or more of the film tours that roll across the country each year. Their presence on the tour, of course, depends on whether they are even good enough to make the cut. And many of them aren’t.
This support of video isn’t bad news because the potential for that market—and more importantly the potential to reach outside our core people and draw newcomers into the sport—is huge. I’m just waiting for some consistently good material to rise to the top, if it hasn’t already. What I’m getting at is this: fish porn is ok—and some people don’t need anything more than that—but just showing a guy or gal catching fish doesn’t make the cut with me, unless your showing it around a group of guys, fueled by some hard stuff, with music pumping out of high-decibal speakers. Don’t get me wrong. I’m down with that crowd and I’ve attended enough of these things to know that watching jumping fish vids can be fun. I’m just asking, what are you going to do the rest of the time? Rest on the couch by yourself or invite a new girlfriend to sit down and watch? Can you say death sentence. Going to whip up some popcorn for the kids and let them listen to a procession of f-bombs and watch a bevy of scenes where anglers are throwing back the whiskey shots after landing an 11 inch trout, celebrating as if it’s the birth of their first child?
I’m a print media guy and I believe in it to the core. I’m not really enjoying this paring down of ad support for magazines that have carried this industry for decades and continues to do so today. Old, tired? I buy that argument, but myself and others are trying to fuel our pages with content that hasn’t been seen before. And we’re still the best vehicle for manufacturers and service-oriented operations to reach fly fishing’s buying crowd—how else are you going to reach 80,000 really hard-core anglers on a regular basis? With articulate words and sweet imagery? You want to sell product? Go to the trade and consumer shows and peddle your wares and buy advertising in print magazines. And don’t base your decision on whether you are or are not included in the actual text. If that’s a prerequisite and a magazine acquiesces (can you say Fly Fish America) you just flushed your credibility, and any merit of that text for the reader, right down the toilet.
