Secret Car Club Lives

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James Wiley

Well-known member
I recently started receiving 3 free issues of Racer magazine, courtesy of my SCCA membership, I'm guessing. It's really a pretty interesting magazine, although expensive. As I turned the pages, I came across a full page ad showing what were certainly SRF's, shot from one driver's perspective. There was some very small copy about how exciting it all was, something about spec racing, and
finally, tucked away where it was almost unnoticeable, a reference to SCCA. I don't know how much this ad cost, but that amount should be docked from the salary of whatever genius at SCCA approved it as a way of bringing more members to the Club.

James Wiley
#72 HP Midget
Atlanta
 
I don't care if it is spec racer, H sprite, SM or whatever....and why should you? More SCCA cars of any kind ensures SCCA's viability and reduces (in theory anyway) individual costs.

Don't hate us....we are people too....we just like to rub panels a lot more and we have WAY more free time on our hands! I've been both places.......I choose spec even though I'm a far better engineer than driver.
 
Pretty sure the bitch was about the fact that SCCA is in fine print.
Not the car pictured Very poor ad.. not poor car...
MM.
 
And when there is no ad in Racer the complaints are there, too. If there is a picture of a car and a description of what, why and where, I think that the average Joe (or Jane) will find the web address and click to find out more.

Just my opinion.
 
No idea what issue you are looking at, the current issue has a full page Solo ad. Sounds like you are talking about an Enterprises ad, and if they (Enterprises) paid for the space they should be able to run whatever they want.
 
Jason,
Your response is a classic, perhaps you should run for the BOD!

SCCA needs to take advantage of every opportunity to promote itself--if this is an Enterprises ad, remember how they got started, and how they stayed afloat when their bills could not be met.

There have been many racers who have left SCCA for good reasons, replacing them should be not only a high priority, the actions of the club should reflect this goal.

LD71 :D
 
LD71":6sod12f1 said:
Jason,
Your response is a classic, perhaps you should run for the BOD!

SCCA needs to take advantage of every opportunity to promote itself--if this is an Enterprises ad, remember how they got started, and how they stayed afloat when their bills could not be met.

There have been many racers who have left SCCA for good reasons, replacing them should be not only a high priority, the actions of the club should reflect this goal.

LD71 :D
Click to expand...
From the description in the first post it sounds like what you want to see is exactly what took place... A company placed an ad for its product, and included the Club. Seems like a win win to me.
 
It's not really that simple Jason. More like company that was started by club, and funded by club, and invested in by club, and got club sued, when money could have been spent on traditional club interest like ClubRacing promotion or TransAm, or club marketing, or ? instead, and now can only be said to be succeeding if defined only as making it's payments, placed an ad promoting their product instead of paying club back at an accelerated rate because...when said company was offered for sale it had no value and so now it has to succeed no matter what the cost to other programs. IMHO nowhere near as simple as just an independent company placing an ad.

I understand it's ours, it has to succeed, and that now many SCCA members race it's products, but just think you have to understand that eyes will justifiably roll whenever "SCCA money" (which really is all the same) is spent on Enterprises Advertising. Even though I understand the need for Enterprises to advertise and the clubs need for Enterprises at this point in time, my eyes roll and I shake my head whenever I see those ads.

On a related note I regularly see Enterprises ads in Vintage racing magazines. Crazy that we pay vintage mags covering groups that use SCCA rules, procedures, and workers, and that are largely made up of ex SCCA members racing ex SCCA or ex SCCA type cars good money to promote SPEC racing. I understand and support this as well, but please let me roll my eyes and be a little cynical.
 
Curtis":xx4ldjn7 said:
It's not really that simple Jason. More like company that was started by club, and funded by club, and invested in by club, and got club sued, when money could have been spent on traditional club interest like ClubRacing promotion or TransAm, or club marketing, or ? instead, and now can only be said to be succeeding if defined only as making it's payments, placed an ad promoting their product instead of paying club back at an accelerated rate because...when said company was offered for sale it had no value and so now it has to succeed no matter what the cost to other programs. IMHO nowhere near as simple as just an independent company placing an ad.

I understand it's ours, it has to succeed, and that now many SCCA members race it's products, but just think you have to understand that eyes will justifiably roll whenever "SCCA money" (which really is all the same) is spent on Enterprises Advertising. Even though I understand the need for Enterprises to advertise and the clubs need for Enterprises at this point in time, my eyes roll and I shake my head whenever I see those ads.

On a related note I regularly see Enterprises ads in Vintage racing magazines. Crazy that we pay vintage mags covering groups that use SCCA rules, procedures, and workers, and that are largely made up of ex SCCA members racing ex SCCA or ex SCCA type cars good money to promote SPEC racing. I understand and support this as well, but please let me roll my eyes and be a little cynical.
Click to expand...

I am happy to see them looking outside of the Club for new drivers. Rather than trying to grab the ones we already have they are looking for racing enthusiasts (in mags like RACER and others), and active racers from other areas like Vintage. They get those people in an SRF seat and that helps all of us - how they get them there is irrelevant to me, and based on SRF numbers year after year I think they know what they are doing.

I cant believe anyone can see a downside to an ad that generates a call to Enterprises. Where do you think they are going to tell them to race that car after they buy it?
 
The whole point of my initial post was to call attention to the fact that this ad (and it is an Enterprises ad) is a lousy, poorly-designed, and likely largely ineffective attempt at generating any sort of worthwhile response from it's target audience, people interested in racing. Who the heck is going to buy and race an SRF but a prospective SCCA member, and what does the ad do to steer anyone to the Club? What else does Enterprises do other than build cars that are intended for classes created by SCCA specifically to sell Enterprises race cars? Given the symbiotic relationship, there is no excuse for such an egregious waste of money and failure to promote the SCCA!

James Wiley
#72 HP Midget
 
James Wiley":2rhocuvp said:
The whole point of my initial post was to call attention to the fact that this ad (and it is an Enterprises ad) is a lousy, poorly-designed, and likely largely ineffective attempt at generating any sort of worthwhile response from it's target audience, people interested in racing. Who the heck is going to buy and race an SRF but a prospective SCCA member, and what does the ad do to steer anyone to the Club? What else does Enterprises do other than build cars that are intended for classes created by SCCA specifically to sell Enterprises race cars? Given the symbiotic relationship, there is no excuse for such an egregious waste of money and failure to promote the SCCA!

James Wiley
#72 HP Midget
Click to expand...

If this is the ad you are talking about we will just have to agree to disagree. This is the best ad I have ever seen from Enterprises. Way cooler than a static shot of a car. The racing is the centerpiece, the car is second. How can anyone that has raced look at that shot and not think that is exciting?

2012-08-30_10-24-24_914.jpg
 
I understand and agree with both your points.

Maybe the Production, GT, FV, RallyX, and other ads they use our money to run in future issues will be better :roll:

One advantage to picturing say the same shot from an FP Miata field is that in addition to explaining the limited prep concept you could legally include an actual link to SCCA.com Of course we don't have a separate for profit subsidiary manufacturing those. I agree the success of the subsidized and marketed Enterprise class, as compared to the "secret classes" is impressive of late.
 
The same add has been in SportsCar several times. Enterprise Inc. also does adds for their FE car with very small logos for Enterprise Inc. & the SCCA.

I presume CEO Skirmants has a plan each year which gets him a budget. As long as he makes the plan without over spending no one gets up tight.
 
Curtis":3efvi9v8 said:
I understand and agree with both your points.

Maybe the Production, GT, FV, RallyX, and other ads they use our money to run in future issues will be better :roll:
Click to expand...

Just about every issue of RACER has an SCCA (Club) ad, and they are almost always Club Racing/Solo/Rally based, Enterprises ads seem to run less frequently.

Maybe Prod and some other classes would benefit from a manufacturer running ads supporting particular classes? Unfortunately I think there are relatively few Prod car parts shared by all. Why don't you talk to your buddies at Alfa and see if they will buy a page about H Prod? :wink:

Toyota used an alternative method of getting the word out about one of its products (SCCA and HP hopefully get a little benefit from it), so far over 50k people have seen this one. New one should hit any day now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73_pRsBXoBY
 
Last time I checked we didn't own Toyota. Toyota dollars are not member dollars, although what you have done with them and them with you and so us is pretty cool.

Sincere thanks for the correction on club ads. I am glad to know they are run. I had only noticed the Enterprise ads in mags I receive (not Racer). Trust you are right and stand corrected.
 
Jason +1 on the ad. Very exciting graphic.

Jim, why don't you call Erik Skirmants directly and tell him your thoughts....he would love to hear another point of view. We are long time friends and I assure you that both of you would learn something from the exchange.

Moaning about it on this forum, particularly when you can easily talk directly to the man, is largely a waste of time. Tell him I sent you.

BTW- Erik loves prod cars as he raced an EP RX7 convertible for a few years, long before his enterprises job. His Dad is Vic who was an EP staple and national champ in his Porsche speedster
 
Jason, THAT WAS COOL!!! :lol:


When I built my new car I was going to ody it as a MX3. I called Tim at Mazda and he made the comment that he would like to see me build something "modern". He recommended the MX-5 and I got busy with my tape measure. He also said there was a lot more help for a current body car than something out of production for 10 years. I also like the Enterprises ad.
 
Enterprises ad is very good, but Jason's youtube is fantastic. I love magazines, but they are disappearing faster than hot dogs on Coney Island. Digital media is where we need to be. Producing videos like that, especially with the backing of a popular athlete is amazing. There must be more famous SCCA racers that are willing to do similar commercials.
 
Jason,

I've said it before, but please keep it up. Your efforts with HP, Toyota, and The Club have resulted in the best and most excitement generating media I've seen to date. And I'd bet that you do it on 1/100th of the club marketing budget. I'd love to see someone with your marketing relevance on the BOD. Not so subtle hint. The BOD badly needs some fresh thinking.

-Kyle
 
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