Thrash

[Guest Four]

Because they cannot sell them any other way, they have made a little video to try and sell some tickets.. Interesting. Seemed to actually grab some attention..

http://video.thrashers.nhl.com/videocenter/console?catid=656&id=87526

Edited December 16, 2010 by Four

[evilzyme 769]

Besides being completely desperate looking... that is just silly.

[Guest Stolberg]

what kind of joke franchise uses marketing to try and sell tickets?

move em to canada

[Travis 576]

It's definitely working as far as a marketing ploy goes. It's on my Yahoo! homepage right now.

When my girlfriend and I relocated after I graduate, I sometimes quietly hope that we'll move to a major city with a budding sports team that no one supports so the tickets will be cheap, haha. I understand that it's got to be hard for them to immediately gain relevancy in a city where hockey is the last sport anyone cares about, but you would expect them to be doing pretty well in a large metropolitan area and an exciting young team.

[Din758 371]

well i think 2 things need to be remembered here

1. Its not like hes really in jail so who cares

2. Its an advertisement. The purpose of an advertisement is to get the attention of people in your market and once you have their attention you promote your product.

They have all of our attention and im sure they have the attention of people in ATL so its working. This is all hardly desperate. I'd say its more like a creative way to get everyone aware and talking about the thrashers, which should help sales.

[evilzyme 769]

No, its one thing to advertise like this, but its another the way they just did. How are you going to straight up say "noone is coming to our games and supporting us dispise how good we are doing" in your marketing campaign. I like the idea of getting this mainstream and looking for an audience but it rubs me the wrong way calling out their own city like that. You dont say " hey we're doing good but you guys aren't supporting us so we're calling you out on television " I'm not sure how the economy is in atlanta, but even if it was medicore like the nation i doubt people would want to spend their scarce money on tickets to see a sport they dont enjoy watching. Nothing against the thrashers but their location isnt very keen to hockey in the first place.

[Travis 576]

Evilzyme does make a good point, it's never a good idea to bash the consumers whose dollars you're trying to get. It doesn't come across as tongue-in-cheek as I think the Thrashers hoped it would, but I think one can see where they're coming from. Clever campaign, but it had legs without the whole, 'buy our tickets already!' aspect.

[Din758 371]

I didn't really take that as a bashing though. They did make sure to state that people weren't showing up but they weren't straight up calling them cheap asses or any other name. And I think their point is legit, they got a good team, why not go?

And lets get the whole marketing/advertising thing straight because its frustrating me. Marketing is defining your customer profiles so you know who you're trying to reach. Advertising is how you contact these customers (TV, Radio, Viral, etc).

[soultrain 43]

it is an embarrassing ad.

[Chelios57 31]

As a Thrashers fan this is one of the coolest ads I've seen them do! Very creative, very fun.

[dteowner 20]

Bah, nothing wrong with that. Pretty funny when you watch all 3 "episodes". It's certainly sad that they're having to do gimmicks to sell tickets for a team that's doing reasonably well, but that's not the fault of the team. Blame traditionally bored and fickle fans in ATL or blame Buttman for his evil Southern Expansion Campaign, but it's sorely misplaced to blame the team as they try to make some lemonade from the lemons.

A few of you need to get over your dignified selves, me thinks.

[HOCKEY MATTERS 167]

Evilzyme does make a good point, it's never a good idea to bash the consumers whose dollars you're trying to get. It doesn't come across as tongue-in-cheek as I think the Thrashers hoped it would, but I think one can see where they're coming from. Clever campaign, but it had legs without the whole, 'buy our tickets already!' aspect.

Not to call you out or dog you personally, but something's got to get those rednecks (see, i can say that, cuz i have serious redneck tendencies)to plant their butts in a seat and learn what the greatest game in the universe is about. They just made a cheesy commercial. It's not like they are reduced to giving cars away. It does seem quite a bit more creative than simply bombarding Wings fans with "Homer For the Holidays", Gordie and Stevie packages type banner ads.

Just sayin.

Edited December 16, 2010 by HOCKEY MATTERS

[Travis 576]

Not to call you out or dog you personally, but something's got to get those rednecks (see, i can say that, cuz i have serious redneck tendencies)to plant their butts in a seat and learn what the greatest game in the universe is about. They just made a cheesy commercial. It's not like they are reduced to giving cars away. It does seem quite a bit more creative than simply bombarding Wings fans with "Homer For the Holidays", Gordie and Stevie packages type banner ads.

Just sayin.

I couldn't imagine a scenario where I would have taken that personally, but cheers!

I'm not saying it's anything for the fans to get worked up about, but if I were a fan of a team that did that I'd feel a little put out. I understand where they're coming from, but it does come across a little desperate of them. Having said that, they aren't breaking a facade or dropping a bombshell. Everyone knows they aren't selling tickets. Personally, I think there are more creative ways of trying to nudge people into the seats than flat out saying 'SUPPORT US!'.

The reason the Red Wings offer packages by way of banner ads and don't shoot full on ad campaigns isn't for lack of creativity, it's simply because they don't need to. So, to that end, it's easy for us to look down at the Thrashers for this marketing strategy; but they also have to do whatever they feel works. Doesn't change how I feel about the ads, but I understand their point of view. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the mascot stealing the Zamboni and taking it in a low-speed chase, but does it need the 'COME TO OUR GAMES' [or whatever it said] banner on it? They could imply it throughout the course of the commercial(s) through 'news' commentary or something of the sort. I was also a little turned off when the SVP or whoever it was said that he 'didn't condone Thrash's actions, but agreed with his motive' or whatever.

All that said, it really doesn't matter what I - or we - think about the ads, because we aren't going anyway. Haha.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

Sportsnet.

[Lovin Jiri Fischer 147]

My boyfriend called me like a week ago to tell me about this because he saw it on NHL.com but he thought it was real and I had to really convince him that it wasn't. Maybe that's a compliment to the Thrashers marketing.

[Guest Stolberg]

Sportsnet.

that fan looks like what kovalchuck would if he hung out with keith tkachuk

[Travis 576]

that fan looks like what kovalchuck would if he hung out with keith tkachuk

Glad I'm not the only one that thought, 'fat Kovalchuk'.

[Din758 371]

Glad I'm not the only one that thought, 'fat Kovalchuk'.

ya me 2 lol

[kook_10 1,705]

Glad I'm not the only one that thought, 'fat Kovalchuk'.

"Kovalchunk"

[stevkrause 1,247]

Pretty cheesy, but they basically got to pull out all the stops and if it sells more tickets, more power to them...

I'm not gonna lie, I chuckled a little bit at the concept...

[Donaldjr2448 43]

When I use to live in Nashville (could be the worst city on the planet) they did the samething with their mascot Gnash (what kind of name is that anyway?). He stole the zamboni and got pulled over in front of the Arena! Kinda lame, but it really didn't work. Atlanta will not pack that place for one simple reason and that is if the fans didn't sell out Braves games during their run in the 90's, why in the hell would they pack that arena for the Thrashers. Atlanta is not a great sports town unless its for the Falcons.

[HankthaTank 1,100]

that fan looks like what kovalchuck would if he hung out with keith tkachuk

This. That's all that can be said.