How can we make sure July 12th isn't another April 15th?

[Jeremy]

There was a lot of excitement for the march when it was first announced, but that has died down a bit. How do we make sure this is still a huge event?

[newyearsrevolution08]

Have an actual marketing team for the event. If we do not have professional marketers then it will 100% be a flop. Our grassroots efforts are one thing but a mass 100k+ person event is a whole different thing all together.

[MelissaWV]

There are 14,000+ pledges to march thusfar. While I admire the zeal being put into this, I don't believe it's going to suddenly leap to 100,000 people marching. There are already several things that make this "not another April 15th".

1) July 12th is a Saturday, April 15th was a Tuesday without a holiday butting against it. This greatly reduced the ability of people to simply take off and fly or drive to DC. For most it is simply not doable without having taken off 2-3 days from work or school, and having to make arrangements for children.

2) July is smack in the middle of summer break for children. Bringing kids with you to this historic event, and then taking in some sights locally, is a nice way to spend "summer vacation".

3) Volunteers are being requested for the appropriate positions needed for any large-scale gathering, including people to make sure no one falls behind, people with medical experience, etc.

4) This is the main march that has been planned for months, despite only recently getting a date. There are cross-country caravans being planned so that transportation costs can be shared. There is a centralized website for all the efforts involved.

Maybe 10,000 people will show. Maybe 20,000. Maybe even more, maybe even less. I don't see the planning of the two events as following a similar path, though, so there is no reason to think that the two events will share attendance trends. The April 15th effort was not a "flop" to me, either. All things considered, I think the people who did go had a good time and made an impression, and any event at which Dr. Paul speaks is a damned worthy one :)

[BFranklin]

I think the confusion for the date and waiting for the official date made us lose ALOT of momentum for the march.

[Deborah K]

I bet if we could get Dr. Paul to do a u-tube clip asking people to march, it would help. We're workin on it....

Plus, once the speaker/talent list is firmed up and published that will make a difference I think.

[justatrey]

The # of pledges on http://www.revolutionmarch.com has been "About 14,000" for a long time now. It has to be more than this by now, even if only by a thousand or two but I wonder why its no longer updated? Ever since ronpaulmarch.com was taken down I haven't seen an updated counter for pledges.

[RonPaulVolunteer]

By helping with the Freedom Tour that's going to 28 cities to stir the movement and tell them about the March.

Perhaps people are just jaded, because this tour is being met with a rather lukewarm response, and we can't pull it off without lots of help. It's going to be responsible for for bringing a lot of people to Washington.

Freedom Tour '08 USA (http://FreedomTour08.com)

[Sally08]

It appeared that many of the very dedicated RP supporters immediately made plans with hotels and travel arrangements for the June 21st date.

Presumably, there are nonrefundable issues and/or reservation change penalties.

Additionally, if formal vacation time was requested from employers for 6/21, that may not be easy to change to 7/12, since many people may take the 7/4-7/13 off for family get-togethers. Those people may have made those reservations months ago, as well.

Does anyone have any idea whether those "early adopters" are simply planning on meeting each other on the June 21st date or whether they have changed all of their arrangements for 7/12?

Has the number attending the 7/12 date effectively been "split" with 6/21, already?

Giving the deteriorating economy in addition to the rapidly increasing costs of gas/switchover to even more expensive "summer" gas mixtures, can people in nearby states even afford the drive?

The airlines are already adding new surcharges to tickets due to the increased cost of fuel, as well.

[newyearsrevolution08]

why doesn't the revolution march site update though?

pledge count is very important, is it due to NOT moving fast enough or it simply not being setup with a feedburner or aweber account?

I have an aweber account if needed and can setup as many lists as I need if you need to get something setup. I can also help get it setup with the sites OWN account as well if needed.

We need some real marketing done for this effort and to get a broad base of people there which would mean not pushing it so much as a ron paul event but rather an Americans stand against the current government and how it is being ran.

How can we get the most people there? Any thoughts on marketing style? we can't simply say "everyone who is a diehard needs to make it" because that is not enough.

Can we learn from previous million man marches and see what all they had to do for that size of an event to come together?

We need to make sure to market it 1k times better then the previous one and with that would come some real organization.

Once I get the Revolution By Mail setup we could always toss a Revolution March flyer at the end of each book as well.

Each grassroots effort needs to support each other as well as the grassroots themselves. Without a real marketing team it will take what we did to create the first 2 money bombs BUT even harder since we are not simply asking for money, we are asking for them to come across the states and bring the family for the event. This is a LARGE thing to ask of people and even to some diehards SO we need to strategize the best method to get people there.

Use an Oprah figure to get people to go
Use famous bands or acts and market the event that way as well
Something BIG needs to happen to get "general audience" to pack up and go.

The freedom Tour sounds like a great idea, maybe it could be marketed professionally as a great tour just like a cruise and maybe drum up more people.

Offer packages or something with travel agencies to get people INTO d.c. on that weekend and offer free passes to go. Odds are there could be packages setup with travel agencies across the states and urge them to push this package. Give them a commission or whatever, but get it to be more general audience and then when they get there we can scream "WAKE UP YOU IDIOT" lol...

We need the sheeple to line up for this thing and a marketing plan that can actually create it. We need help.

[RonPaulVolunteer]

The freedom Tour sounds like a great idea, maybe it could be marketed professionally as a great tour just like a cruise and maybe drum up more people.

If we had the time and $$.

We have purposefully NOT started a chipin even though we need $$ ASAP, because people have just been asked to give to so much already. We're trying to get corporate sponsorship instead.

If anyone here can help us in that regard, email freedomrocks08@gmail.com

[newyearsrevolution08]

There needs to be professional marketers onboard for this to happen. I would suggest locating people LIKE trevor who will donate their time and effort in making this event into something larger.

Also the travel agency idea could work wonders because they odds are would try and push the event and travel package anyways as they could get a commission from it.

If there is no real marketing then no matter how great the idea is, it won't go anywhere.

So the question is, where do marketers hang out and how the hell do we get them here to help?

[RonPaulVolunteer]

There needs to be professional marketers onboard for this to happen. I would suggest locating people LIKE trevor who will donate their time and effort in making this event into something larger.

Also the travel agency idea could work wonders because they odds are would try and push the event and travel package anyways as they could get a commission from it.

If there is no real marketing then no matter how great the idea is, it won't go anywhere.

So the question is, where do marketers hang out and how the hell do we get them here to help?

Thanks, Trevor has contacted me and we will be talking today.

[westmich4paul]

I believe Ron himself needs to step this event up himself. Mention it in his many interviews his book is going to garner. Get a you tube video out there expressing his commitment to this date and to get the R3volution fired back up. Ron himself is what is needed to get everyone talking and this thing to start buzzing. It has been a shame that since he announced it he really hasn't brought this to the forefront. Come on Ron we need you to make this big!

[VTV]

It was on the campaign website for a while. They had to take it down. Part of the problem with Ron Paul being directly involved in that way is that you are apparently not permitted to campaign in DC. The Granny Warrior people found this out when they were not allowed to have Ron Paul Rally signs.

[intelliot]

People need to hear the date come out of Ron's mouth.

[newyearsrevolution08]

If the march is not centered around him but he is simply speaking there then what would the problem be? He could talk about an upcoming speaking engagement he was invited to.

[ItsTime]

marketers may help, I doubt it though. It has always been the passion of the message that has made everything huge. The 5th, the 16th all had passion around it thus had the movement behind it. It took tens of thousands of people working hard to get the successful outcome. It wasnt some brain storm marketing ploy. It was a good idea and the passion of the message that made those events successful.

I have only seen a few youtubes or messages in my inbox about the march. where I would see a ton a day during the other events. (not spam real messages)

I forgot to mention gas prices will be over $4.00 by then as well.

[speciallyblend]

the real problem is the perception and reality of the republican party. Ron Paul's message sells easily. The minute you mention the word republican most of my friends gag and give me the HELL NO LOOK, the word republican is the problem,MOST AMERICANS HAVE A DIRTY IMAGE OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY,WHO CAN BLAME THEM??? i cannot. I'm a Republican and i totally understand how they feel. I'm still busy trying to get the republican stinch off of me.

[garrettwombat]

yeah about 5 months ago i was planning on going... now... i prob wont unless i know everyone else is... and i see no enthusiasm

[Rhys]

There was a lot of excitement for the march when it was first announced, but that has died down a bit. How do we make sure this is still a huge event?

the solution for most people is to get off their ass and do something to promote it. To many haters about everything that happens, not enough workers.

[ItsTime]

to many false promises made by people with big email lists have left a lot of the movement skeptical of everything.


the solution for most people is to get off their ass and do something to promote it. To many haters about everything that happens, not enough workers.

[Rhys]

to many false promises made by people with big email lists have left a lot of the movement skeptical of everything.

that's what women say about men. don't be that girl. :D

[ItsTime]

Truth hurts :D


that's what women say about men. don't be that girl. :D

[rathskeller]

Have an actual marketing team for the event. If we do not have professional marketers then it will 100% be a flop. Our grassroots efforts are one thing but a mass 100k+ person event is a whole different thing all together.


If your expectatins are for 100,000+ people, then you have already doomed it to be a flop.

Setting unrealistically high goals is the surest way to guarantee failure.

[RonPaulVolunteer]

Setting unrealistically high goals is the surest way to guarantee failure.

No, that would be negativity...

[newyearsrevolution08]

Either way there needs to be research on previous full scale rallies and marches and find out how the hell they accomplished them. Whatever worked before can work now.

Also as far as my unrealistic 100k person event, if that is shooting for the stars then we need to revamp the event. Why assume 2k or 10k people at most already? It will be summer, it will be a better date then a tuesday during a school year + with the book going out daily and people waking up you just never know.

I do agree that without proper marketing that it will not be a huge event, that is not pessimism that is realism. We need some pro marketers from somewhere for large scale events like this.

[wowabunga]

A old time preacher once said about his sermons: "First I tell them what I'm a gonna tell them, then I tell them, then I remind them what I just told them."

Repetition and hammering the same message works. But... our tv viewing audience lives in a foggy haze and does't rightly know that the US is in super deep trouble. Job one is to educate and wake them up ( or at least that's what Jefferson said about an informed populace being our best insurance).

Want lots of people in DC then we must wake up lots of people around you. A flashy poster or an expensive television/radio spot won't convince Sally and Sam to cancel that trip to the Grand Canyon and do a 180 heading (with big smiles) to DC.

The "pro marketeers" will be the first to tell you that when you need to truely convince someone of something of importance the very best message is "word of mouth" Advertising hall of fame member William Bernbach tells us; "Word of mouth is the best medium of all." So there you have it, I've just saved you thousands of dollars in "pro marketer fees" and all we have to do is find 5 people today and wake them up, do it tomorrow, and for the rest of the summer. If you don't do the foundational work, the leg work, the blood and sweat dedication to publically educate... then be prepared for the same reality as was the last march totals.

Here's a tip.... with summer almost here many communities have many outdoor festivals... so rent a table and meet your neighbors. Become the media.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URTvgfnh1pM


.

[rathskeller]

No, that would be negativity...


But what you don't understand (and why I feel sorry for you) is the being REALISTIC is not negative.

That is the entire point of my comment. Setting REALISTIC goals is the way to go. Set them high, but realisticially high. Ones that can be achieved. And no matter how much your non-functioning brain wants to believe otherwise, 100,000+ people are NOT going to be marching in the middle of summer. Families are NOT going to take their kids on a "vacation to march for Ron Paul" It just it not going to happen.

Therefore, you can live in Shangri-La all you want and continue to think that that is going to happen, and be severly disappointed in 2 months, or you can act like an intelligent human being for the first time in over a year and be realistic about things. Shoot for 10,000. Then, you could be happy in two months.