Re: Good Publicity

[Simon Waddell]

The glider is an ASW 20 and the picture is a cut and paste job that first
appeared on the cover of Sailplane & Gliding in the UK. Until a year ago,
the glider was based at Booker in the UK; it may still be for all I know.


"303pilot" <brentUNDERSCOREsullivanATbmcDOTcom> wrote in message
...
> Health and Fitness Magazine (available in Houston, Dallas & San Diego) did
> an article on Soaring and gave it the cover as well. Sorry Soaring mag,
but
> the cover is better than anything I've seen on soaring. It's a quartering
> tail shot of a very sexy looking ship w/contest ID FUN. The ship is
flying
> away into a colorful sunset. The article describes the writer's
experience
> on a demo flight at the Soaring Club of Houston and has a number of color
> shots--climbing in the cockpit, take off roll, air to air. They did a
neat
> photoshop job on a shot they took of my ship, SAM. They took the shot as
I
> was readying for tow, but they cropped all the backgroud and replaced it
> with nice puffy cu's. Contact info on both the Soaring Club of Houston
and
> Greater Houston Soaring Assoc. was included.
> We (SCOH) had contacted the magazine a couple times in the past about
doing
> an article on soaring. Our selling points were a photogenic sport and a
> good match with their claimed demographics. What made the demographics a
> good match was that their readers have high disposable income and more
> importantly, a demonstrated willingness to commit themselves to a time
> consuming sport. (not sure how that maps to all the ads for plastic
surgery
> and cosmetic dentistry.....)
> The last time we contacted the magazine was over a year ago, so keep in
> touch with local media. You never know when it will pay off.
> I'll post back in a few weeks to let RAS know if the publicity paid off.
>
> Brent
>
>

[nafod40]

303pilot wrote:

> Our selling points were a photogenic
> sport and a good match with their claimed demographics. What made the
> demographics a good match was that their readers have high disposable
> income and more importantly, a demonstrated willingness to commit
> themselves to a time consuming sport.

I just got back from Oshkosh, and saw a sum total of two gliders there, an
Apis and a Stemme motorglider (gorgeous). The SSA booth occupied the
smallest booth space possible and still have a booth. I saw no gliders in
the air. And this at a show where people who actually spend $$huge$$
dollars on flying go. Amazing.

[Eric Greenwell]

In article >, "303pilot"
<brentUNDERSCOREsullivanATbmcDOTcom> says...
> Health and Fitness Magazine (available in Houston, Dallas & San Diego) did
> an article on Soaring and gave it the cover as well. Sorry Soaring mag, but
> the cover is better than anything I've seen on soaring. It's a quartering
> tail shot of a very sexy looking ship w/contest ID FUN. The ship is flying
> away into a colorful sunset.

It's a nice picture which first appeared on the cover Sailplane &
Gliding about five or so years ago. It's not a photograph, but a
montage of the glider and the sunset.

The cover shot can be seen at

http://www.healthandfitnessmag.com/index.html

but frankly, the glider looks like just about every other fiberglass
glider, so that limits it's appeal to "sexy" instead of "very sexy".
The intended audience should be blown away, however.
--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)

[Nolaminar]

Oshkosh has a large following and SSA has been there, all thanks to Burt
Compton. For this effort, he is applauded. He also promotes at Sun 'n Fun.
I'll bet he could use some help...
Bob Gaines
Marietta, GA

[303pilot]

"Eric Greenwell" > wrote in message
.. .
> In article >, "303pilot"
>
> It's a nice picture which first appeared on the cover Sailplane &
> Gliding about five or so years ago. It's not a photograph, but a
> montage of the glider and the sunset.

Ya think?!?
Nah, I'm pretty sure they got that channel crossing rag jumper to sneak up
behind the glider at dawn with a disposable camera and take the shot from
6-8 feet back before he shot past it at 250 or so.
C'mon.....

>
> The cover shot can be seen at
>
> http://www.healthandfitnessmag.com/index.html
>
> but frankly, the glider looks like just about every other fiberglass
> glider, so that limits it's appeal to "sexy" instead of "very sexy".
> The intended audience should be blown away, however.

The point is what the intended audience thinks. It may be a 25+ yr old
design to us cognoscenti, but what matters is the impression it will make on
the audience.
In promoting our sport, it doesn't matter what we think--what matters is the
impression made on the target.
Too often our knowledge gets in the way of reaching new people. I've heard
conversations like below:
Newbie at the field - "Wow, that's a really cool looking ship!"
Old Glider Fart - "No it's not. That ship was new in '75 and hasn't been
produced since the early 80's. It's a hunk of junk compared to the newer
ships. There's an ASW 29.7ecgxt. Now that's a fine ship"

The Old Glider Fart may be technically correct, but why call a newbie
stupid? It's a big world, large enough even for folks who are blown away by
the idea of floating around the field in a 2-33.

<not an attack on you Eric, just using your words to illustrate a point
about how we as a group sometimes treat our visitors>

Brent

[303pilot]

"Eric Greenwell" > wrote in message
.. .
> In article >, "303pilot"
>
> It's a nice picture which first appeared on the cover Sailplane &
> Gliding about five or so years ago. It's not a photograph, but a
> montage of the glider and the sunset.

Ya think?!?
Nah, I'm pretty sure they got that channel crossing rag jumper to sneak up
behind the glider at dawn with a disposable camera and take the shot from
6-8 feet back before he shot past it at 250 or so.
C'mon.....

>
> The cover shot can be seen at
>
> http://www.healthandfitnessmag.com/index.html
>
> but frankly, the glider looks like just about every other fiberglass
> glider, so that limits it's appeal to "sexy" instead of "very sexy".
> The intended audience should be blown away, however.

The point is what the intended audience thinks. It may be a 25+ yr old
design to us cognoscenti, but what matters is the impression it will make on
the audience.
In promoting our sport, it doesn't matter what we think--what matters is the
impression made on the target.
Too often our knowledge gets in the way of reaching new people. I've heard
conversations like below:
Newbie at the field - "Wow, that's a really cool looking ship!"
Old Glider Fart - "No it's not. That ship was new in '75 and hasn't been
produced since the early 80's. It's a hunk of junk compared to the newer
ships. There's an ASW 29.7ecgxt. Now that's a fine ship"

The Old Glider Fart may be technically correct, but why call a newbie
stupid? It's a big world, large enough even for folks who are blown away by
the idea of floating around the field in a 2-33.

<not an attack on you Eric, just using your words to illustrate a point
about how we as a group sometimes treat our visitors>

Brent

[Nolaminar]

How did they get such a photo with the ASW-20 wings bending down?
Was it just starting to PIO?
GA

[303pilot]

"Nolaminar" > wrote in message
...
> How did they get such a photo with the ASW-20 wings bending down?
> Was it just starting to PIO?
> GA

photoshop gravity editor plug-in.

posting a lot today because they're laying off about 700 people here and
we're supposed to hang out in our offices -- so here I sit on RAS...
3:48 and all's well.....

[Eric Greenwell]

In article >,
says...
> How did they get such a photo with the ASW-20 wings bending down?
> Was it just starting to PIO?
> GA

The glider part of the picture was likely taken while the glider was
sitting on the ground.
--
!Replace DECIMAL.POINT in my e-mail address with just a . to reply
directly

Eric Greenwell
Richland, WA (USA)

[Robert Ehrlich]

Eric Greenwell wrote:
> ...
> but frankly, the glider looks like just about every other fiberglass
> glider, so that limits it's appeal to "sexy" instead of "very sexy".
> ...

What kind of glider in your mind would look "very sexy"?