[nickf]

I'd like to encourage you go to:

Bridge is Cool video

Am i just an uncool 41-year old or does everyone else cringe as well?

But more importantly, will this video be a successful vehicle for encouraging its target market (15-25 year old wannabe gangsta rappers I guess) to spend hours on end holding little bits of cardboard with people who remind them of their grandma in Plains, Georgia?

nickf
sydney

[pbleighton]

Caveat: I'm 50, so it's been a LONG time since I've had any idea what's cool.

But I do know campy.

THIS IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY CAMPY!!!

Unfortunately, I'm sure it's quite unintentional, unless it was done by a mole from the Chess Youth Outreach.

The fight for market share is eternal.

Peter

[cf_John0]

A good ad video for both bridge and cellphone.

Even a good site!

This post has been edited by cf_John0: 2005-September-22, 21:33

[kenrexford]

Yo, man. I was just playin a game, you know, and, you know, the Ho on lead was all in my ***** about Dude's bidding and all. She was all in my face. I was back at her after sittin quiet for a minute. She was all blasay-blasay and called the D-rector. Dude was off the wall. No rulizzle, no adjustizzle. Peace out.

[mike777]

1) young blond chicks cannot be bad marketing
2) cellphones cannot be bad marketing for under 30.
3) over 50 here but I think most will underestimate this approach compared to others.
4) I note...membership grew...average age fell.....
5) For those who have better idea, please send money with idea..not just idea thanks.
6) Of course all of this may fail and bridge may fail and go poof...prefer to hope and dream and send in my check that goes to youth bridge. Will explain what a check is to these young superstars when they teach me Winkle and Adv in Bridge book stuff .

[Blofeld]

Agree with Justin. If intended to persuade people to play bridge, that video is an insult to the viewers' intelligence. On the other hand, as a tongue-in-cheek take on modern marketing styles while poking slight fun at the desire of the game to appear 'cool', it's wonderful. I started off watching it in horror, and then slowly cracked up.

The best line, though, has to be "And ... get the children off the street!" I'm surprised they didn't start touting the medicinal properties of bridge [which do at least exist] or portraying it as the way to world peace.

What was with the phones, assuming that they weren't inserted as a joke? It's hard to think of activities which have less use for mobile phones than does bridge.

[Gerben42]

So let me get this straight. This clip was made to actually show someone and then possibly get younger players involved in bridge? Seriously?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
(yes I know multiple exclamation marks are the sure sign of - well read Pterry to know of what)

I didn't recognize any of the "players" in the video.

If you want to promote bridge, show them junior tournaments, junior camps. Interviews with young players. I dunno. But not this. Please. Thank you.

This reminds me of where the Addams family kids are forced to watch Disney videos.

[Free]

Lol, my girlfriend is about to start with bridge, I've shown her the video now, and she said "ok, if I didn't know this much about bridge like I do at this moment, I'd NEVER want to even try to learn it". She's 19, isn't that a piece of the target market? The video just kills any interest in the game!!! Who creates such evil?? Is it the same people who are banning COOL systems??

[Rain]

It looks like a cell phone ad.

But its nice to see attractive people play bridge, if those are real people!

[Gerben42]

Probably these are real people, hired actors who don't know bridge. But there are attractive people playing bridge. Try scanning through Riccione bulletins you'll be sure to find some there.

[hrothgar]

Blofeld, on Sep 23 2005, 02:39 PM, said:

The best line, though, has to be "And ... get the children off the street!"

Agree COMPLETELY. When that came up, I started thinking about the Simpsons episode where reverend Lovejoy's wife keeps yelling

"Won't somebody PLEASE think of the children"

I'm trying to figure out where this campaign went so terribly wrong:

1. The assumption that the ACBL is capable of designing a marketing campaign to attract youth players. Can you imagine an organization the less in touch with its target audience?
2. The belief within the ACBL that the organization would tolerate a bunch of cellphone toting gangsta "wanna be's" at its events. Admitted, all the youth players in the video proper are white, but I just imagine the interactions between these idiots and the geriatric set.

I went through a phase about 10-12 years ago where I was interested seeing the ACBL reform its ways. Today, I'm older and wiser. I believe that the continued existence of the ACBL is actively detrimental to the long term survival of bridge in North America. The soon that it fails, the sooner people can try to start over. With luck, there will still be some people who survive the great collapse.

[han]

hrothgar, on Sep 23 2005, 07:32 AM, said:

Today, I'm older and wiser.

I just wanted to add:

It was cold as ice, until she TOOK the HOOK!

[hrothgar]

nickf, on Sep 23 2005, 05:50 AM, said:

I'd like to encourage you go to:

Bridge is Cool video

Am i just an uncool 41-year old or does everyone else cringe as well?

But more importantly, will this video be a successful vehicle for encouraging its target market (15-25 year old wannabe gangsta rappers I guess) to spend hours on end holding little bits of cardboard with people who remind them of their grandma in Plains, Georgia?

nickf
sydney

I think that video is a pathetic waste of money.

Before going and spending money on advertising, its very useful to have some understanding different ways in which companies try to use advertising.

1. In the best of all world, advertising is used to demonstrate a compelling value proposition. You have something VERY good to sell. Advertising is a tool to increase the size of our market.

2. All too often, companies try to use advertising to substitute for a compelling value proposition. If you spend enough money, its possible to create significant buzz. On rare occasions, you might even be able to establish a “brand” which can substitute for product.

Personally, I'm a big fan of the first advertising model. I have a visceral distaste for the second. There were a lot of studies surround advertising expenditures by the Dot Coms. Many of these companies spent LOTS of money and generated enormous brand awareness, but never generated much in the way of sales. They wasted enormous amounts of capital on Superbowl ads that could have been used for engineering. In a similar vein, today Sony announced that it was laying off 10,000 employees. (A JAPANESE company is laying off 10,000 people) Sony's premium brand isn't protecting itself against low priced Korean and Chinese competitors.

The Bridge is Cool campaign reminds me of the second type of advertising model. The ACBL is trying to generate visibility, however, its unable to articulate why young people should bother to learn the game.

[Al_U_Card]

Are 14-19 yr. olds the target market? How will they be exposed to this video, on MTV? No one will ever see this on the ACBL web-site and who amongst us will distribute this inanity to anyone except as a joke?

Aren't they better off targeting the 35-50 demographic? Speak to the economic, mental exercise, etc. issues. This was your parent's game, NOT your kid's and interestingly your parents (as we come to realize with time) were not wrong about EVERYTHING.....

[Al_U_Card]

I can see it now.....2 attractive 40 something couples in a hot tub saying "No, no a rubber of BRIDGE...".....

[awm]

Everyone I've talked to about the video thinks it's a bad joke. But keep in mind, none of us are part of the target audience. The video isn't targeting people who already know something about bridge, and can therefore see how ridiculous it is.

I think it's also important to understand that getting young people to play bridge isn't really one of ACBL's main goals. The goal of this campaign is to:

(1) Change the image of bridge so it's not universally viewed as a game for old people.

(2) Make young people aware of the existence of bridge.

(3) Encourage young people to learn the very basics of the game, so that perhaps they will "rediscover bridge" when they are older and become serious bridge players then.

I'm not sure if this video will accomplish those goals or not, but it's important to recognize that it's not directed at people who already play bridge, at particularly smart people (i.e. "gamers" who might take up bridge in college), or at anyone older than 19.

On the other hand, ACBL has started maintaining a booth at Origins (the big convention for gamers) and it seems like this might be a reasonable way to market bridge

[G_R__E_G]

It has not been too long since I was in the target age range and it was not that long ago that I knew nothing about bridge (some might argue I still don't) so I think I can be pretty confident in my thoughts on this.

If a young person has any preconceptions on bridge it is that it is played by old people and "geeks". Watching this video will only reinforce this preconception.

Golly gee, after watching this video I'm beginning to think it might be true.

[Al_U_Card]

G_R__E_G, on Sep 23 2005, 12:33 PM, said:

If a young person has any preconceptions on bridge it is that it is played by old people and "geeks". Watching this video will only reinforce this preconception.

Worse yet, the general impression of people I know who play bridge think most "tournament" players are obnoxious, accusatory and socially inept individuals which leads them to not wanting to get involved with the ACBL or competitive play in general.

Online bridge is "exposing" a plethora of non-ACBL types to a more rigorous field of play. The ACBL should be actively promoting at ALL online sites the benefits of ACBL in particular and competitive bridge in general. The application of zero tolerance toward making the playing environment a socially benificent one is of paramount import.