A blimp is a BAD IDEA - here is why

[Matt Collins]

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!




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[cien750hp]

you have some valid points. however, i'd say alot of those people might go research who ron paul is, and if they havn't missed the deadline (it would make sense to only fly this over big cities that havnt reached the party change cutoff date) and then assuming most fall in love with Paul's message, well they'd see they have to switch. Also, those who do not switch might become like us, devoting so much energy into spreading the message to others who can switch too.

[Jordan]

I think getting the message out to 1Million people for $300k who might be 10% willing to vote for us is better than spending $300K to get 100,000 people who will vote for us.

We need to get his name out there more than anything.

[Chester Copperpot]

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!




.

I think having a Ron Paul blimp is cool.. BUT I agree that it is a bad idea.. not much bang for the buck.. definitely not a good return on the investment.

[happyphilter]

I have a major in marketing and this is a good idea.

[Midnight77]

We should also take into consideration there being Media Attention covering this blimp that will reach millions of viewers. How many other candidates are doing the same thing?

This idea is unique.

[Matt Collins]

I have a major in marketing and this is a good idea.

Explain...

[Matt Collins]

We should also take into consideration there being Media Attention covering this blimp that will reach millions of viewers.

I think you would be able to buy time on targeted media which would be more effective and less expensive. It's all about frequency. People only see a blimp once. But if you spend the money to run dozens of ads, you get frequency. TARGETED FREQUENCY is the key to winning this.

[LibertyEagle]

I think getting the message out to 1Million people for $300k who might be 10% willing to vote for us is better than spending $300K to get 100,000 people who will vote for us.

We need to get his name out there more than anything.

Are you serious? Three hundred thousand dollars?

Geez, for me, I'd rather support having some well-placed billboards, targeted magazine ads (guns, homeschooling, small business, etc), radio ads, .......

To each their own, I guess.

[Matt Collins]

I think getting the message out to 1Million people for $300k who might be 10% willing to vote for us is better than spending $300K to get 100,000 people who will vote for us.

How much does a blimp cost? What city will it operate in? What day and time will it fly?

We need to get his name out there more than anything.

I agree. But we need to get it out there to people who are likely to vote, and of that group it needs to be people who are able and likely to vote for someone like Ron Paul.

[literatim]

I think $300k would be better off going towards advertising in magazines of a specific target audience, specifically firearm and hunting magazines.

[AlexMerced]

I am also a marketing student, do what you want,but I don't think it's good investment, very few people will really give the blimp any attention, afterwards how many of them are voters, then of those voters how many will do research, then how many of them will in then turn vote our way, you'll be lucky to get 1%

I like the super packets Idea, it's directed, no hoping they do research or can vote, and if it's attracted enough a package which can be done $10 they will definetley give it some attention.

so at $10 a package it may seema lot more per person, but the chances of getting actual votes are a LOT higher

[happyphilter]

Blimps are awesome is probably one of the most valid points.
Everyone loves to see these things fly, kids will grab their parents and mom will want to run out side and take pictures and although it may not make people vote for him it should definantly help with name recognition with the help local media will provide.

All the other ideas you listed are really good as well, but when it comes down to it nobody is going to change their mind about who they are going to vote for unless something interests them enough to care.

When was the last time you really listened to a TV ad or radio ad and cared? Being different is good, this is unique, it will get attention. and like I mentioned before we will get a lot of free advertising on local news.

[RonPaulFanInGA]

I like the blimp only if the month it's being leased encompasses a time before, during and after the early primaries. The Iowa caucus is January 3, 2008 and the New Hampshire primary is January 8. So I like getting the blimp for December 15-January 15...or something like that.

[AlexMerced]

a blimp would build some very minor buzz... when was the last time you saw a blimp, do you remember what is was for?

[Matt Collins]

i'd say alot of those people might go research who ron paul is, and if they havn't missed the deadline (it would make sense to only fly this over big cities that havnt reached the party change cutoff date) and then assuming most fall in love with Paul's message, well they'd see they have to switch. Also, those who do not switch might become like us, devoting so much energy into spreading the message to others who can switch too.

My argument is that this money could be better spent on better more effective although less sexy, means of advertising.

Here is a hint: There is a reason why you don't see very many blimps advertising in the sky!

[austin356]

If blimps were an effective form of advertising other companies besides Goodyear would utilize the medium.


Basically this:

Blimps are gimmicks and police tools only. They serve no real widespread purpose outside of those two uses.

We dont need a gimmick. And by God we dont need a police tool.

[Korey Kaczynski]

My argument is that this money could be better spent on better more effective although less sexy, means of advertising.

Here is a hint: There is a reason why you don't see very many blimps advertising in the sky!

I'm in total agreement. This blimp thing is a dumb gimmick.

[AlexMerced]

yeah, i doubt a blimp can be arranged in time, you'd be better off getting flyover planes and hiring someone to paint their bodies with an RP theme and walk around times square.

[cien750hp]

a blimp would build some very minor buzz... when was the last time you saw a blimp, do you remember what is was for?

i saw a blimp a month or so ago, the direct TV at the world series. Exactly the point on why we should buy a blimp, when was the last time you saw one? people don't seem them often, and thats why it's so unique. No other candidate would have a blimp. It would be HUGE. people could not ignore it. and the headlines and tv anchors reporting on the ron paul blimp would be priceless.

[Matt Collins]

When was the last time you really listened to a TV ad or radio ad and cared? Being different is good, this is unique, it will get attention.

I agree that unique is good, to an extent. The reason companies keep spending millions of dollars on marketing via traditional media (print, radio, TV, outdoor, direct mail, etc) is because these methods of advertising ARE EFFECTIVE!

[happyphilter]

I think you would be able to buy time on targeted media which would be more effective and less expensive. It's all about frequency. People only see a blimp once. But if you spend the money to run dozens of ads, you get frequency. TARGETED FREQUENCY is the key to winning this.

true frequency is very important, but if we were to run ADs we would just be better off donating to the campaign, thats no fun.

[Matt Collins]

you'd be better off getting ... someone to paint their bodies with an RP theme and walk around times square.

This hasn't been done yet? I am surprised!

[Matt Collins]

true frequency is very important, but if we were to run ADs we would just be better off donating to the campaign, thats no fun.

What does HQ have to do with anything? Run your own ads through a PAC locally and get local meetup supporters to pool their money together.

[AlexMerced]

it'll be much more directr an easier to read, plus people can ask the person about RP, I wonder what the Naked Cowboy is up to these days

[hddn-agnda]

this is 3000 dollars, right?

start a chipin, if people want to throw down the cash, they will... I personally agree that this probably might not be worth it, but I'm still going to donate... I'll do anything to get this man elected.

[happyphilter]

I agree that unique is good, to an extent. The reason companies keep spending millions of dollars on marketing via traditional media (print, radio, TV, outdoor, direct mail, etc) is because these methods of advertising ARE EFFECTIVE!

They are effective when millions of dollars are pumped into the advertising. Its hard to measure what would give us more value, the blimp or TV/radio/billboard etc , if we spend the same amount of money.

[austin356]

When was the last time you really listened to a TV ad or radio ad and cared? Being different is good, this is unique, it will get attention. and like I mentioned before we will get a lot of free advertising on local news.

Unique is only important to the extent that it improve effectiveness.

If a blimp's uniqueness was soo unique that it improved effectiveness for advertising dollars dont you think in the free market that companies would have already saturated the blimp market?

Blimps are cool.

Paying for blimps to win an election is not cool.

[happyphilter]

What does HQ have to do with anything? Run your own ads through a PAC locally and get local meetup supporters to pool their money together.

I was just saying HQ knows where it needs advertising and it might be better to trust them to make the decision on what to do with our money. I can tell you one thing though, they would never buy a blimp haha, maybe they just haven't thought of it yet/

[austin356]

this is 3000 dollars, right?

start a chipin, if people want to throw down the cash, they will... I personally agree that this probably might not be worth it, but I'm still going to donate... I'll do anything to get this man elected.

$200,000 for the blimp, biggest waste of Money since FEMA started the "government laboratory" in New Orleans.