Good Advertising, TNA But...

[akrassikauda]

Good advertising TNA but you need to diversify your demographics.

Ok for the past 48 hours I've seen and heard Impact Wrestling advertised on ESPN and ESPN Radio about 30 times. That goes right into their current demographic of 18-35 year old men. Here's the kicker, if only 18-35 year olds are the only ones watching how could you actually compete. It's the same problem ECW had had could you take the family to a show and make real money. All you'll get is foul language like Bubba Ray Heatwave 98 "what your gonna do lady teach your girl how to suck dick" wtf seriously that was a big problem because the atmosphere told you don't bring the wife and kids this product is for the men.

WWE and WCW knew this. You could be edgy but you have to appeal to a much larger audience which will always mean the family. It's the family of four or more that makes the money, you could be Where Wrestling Matters but you have to advertise to the audience that always drove this business if you want to compete which is what wrestling ( yeah that's right Vince I keep saying it ) fans keep asking for.

In my opinion if TNA started to do this Impact ratings would really go up because it would be the mother father brother sisiter watching instead of it being just daddy.

So my question to you is, If you were in charge of TNA advertising and public relations what would you do to make your demographic 8-50 year olds ?

****THIS IS NOT A KNOCK TNA THREAD****

 

[Odisho]

tna is on spike tv, which most older adults watch. and they have been on the same network form the start, so all the people that watched spike and tna before, are gonna watch tna now. i think they need to change networks, so that network will make ads of tna, so the fans that watch the new network, are gonna start watching tna, and all the old tna fans from spike will watch that new network and still watch tna, so tna are making more fans, by changing networks, or at least a network and spike both. this is something wwe has done alot, like raw for instance, they had fans when they were on spike, when they went to USA network, the fans from spike joined usa network to watch raw, and fans from usa network who have never seen raw before, now get the chance to on usa which creates a bigger fan base.

so i think tna should make a network change

 

[JaymacTG]

Trying to diversify in wrestling can lead to very bad things just look at the WWE's current tv product.

Now ... moving to Fridays is a terrible idea. Not only do far less people watch TV on Fridays than Thursday, but people take TNA seriously when it gets near 2 million viewers on Thursday. Not people around here, but in the forums of zap2it.com (non-wrestling, but huge tv site) people are impressed every week when the Impact numbers come out.

TNA just needs to stick with what they are doing and announce Hogans return match already. When TNA makes that announcement and Hogan starts having a real feud with Sting or Anderson, that will mean big money. People (including myself) may not like him but Hogan wrestling (or trying to wrestle) will be the best thing to happen to TNA since the Carters rescued the sinking ship in 2002.

TNA changing channels is another thing they should avoid. I dont think it would happen any time soon, but if Spike got cold feet I know that Easy E has contacts at VH1, FX, TruTV, and others. A TV deal wouldnt take long with Impact getting a consistent 1.2 in the coveted Adults 18-49 category.
But they are good where they are at for the time.

They do need to advertise on different networks. Not just ESPN and Spike. Spike is owned by Viacom for gods sake. We shouldnt be able to turn on TV without seeing an Impact commercial. They cant do anything to make their Audience 8+ if they do the fans they already have probably wont like it.

 

[Grishnak]

My response to the OP is.... You're pretty much right. Wrestling, (old WWF from the 80's and 90's, and WCW) was 50/50. They had adult oriented themes, but they also cater to the kids, but the kids want to be the wrestlers and buy the tickets and merchandise. The 40-50 year old dad's don't want a John Cena shirt.

So it's like a catch 22 thing. Impact Wrestling (TNA) wants to be different than WWE by doing TV-MA stuff and foul language and also to focus on the wrestling for the pro wrestling people rather than what WWE is doing. But TNA also needs to cater to the kids, like WWE is doing, because the kids want to buy the products and the parents have to shell out the money. I don't know of any 30+ adult guy wanting to buy an RVD foam finger.

So sure, make the programming surrounding your core fan base, but also get out there and cater to the kids with kid friendly things.

As much as I hate the current "entertainment" crap WWE is doing, I'm still going to watch and be a fan. I've been a fan since I was 12 and I'm now 28.

 

[jgm_2011]

I really like this thread because most people bash the fact that WWE caters to kids, but that's where the money is! If I ran the company John Cena would be the top guy too because of the ways the kids eat it up. Impact does need to focus on other directions as well to be a success. They have the tools, they just need to let them all come into play. I know a bunch of 30 year old marks want their blood and cussing but maybe it's just time for them to realize how ridiculous pro wrestling really is. I mean come on... it's not exactly the cool thing to do as an adult and most adult fans that care that much still have their virginity. I mean I'm a grown man that loves it, but I will never say I can run a successful company. I just sit back and enjoy. Props to the people in charge and the people that understand how hard it is to run such a show.

 

[George Steele's Barber]

My first experience with wrestling as a kid was on Saturday mornings. This is the time that parents are lazy and sleeping in or getting caught up on their personal stuff/hangover.

They let their kids sit in front of the TV so they can have their personal time. They don't pay attention to the shows their kids are watching since they expect Saturday morning is cartoon time or other kid friendly entertainment. They aren't paying attention so they can't say, "I don't want you watching violence" or "That stuff is so stupid" or "that is not a real sport" or "Wrestling is fake.". Once a child is really in to it and starts asking to go to house shows and buy action figures, parents are less likely to be so negative since they see how much a child must like something.

What I found was that my friends were also flipping channels and getting in to wrestling on Saturday morning.

Impact can scale down the adult content of their prime time shows on Saturday mornings and make new young fans that are going to go to house shows and buy merchandise. Are house shows adult oriented? I think subconciously my unending loyalty to WWE and football and stems from those are events that my dad took me to.

Not many age 18 - 35 are going to give TNA a chance at this point in their lives, they already have porn and Saw movies to keep their attention.

I don't watch TNA/Impact anymore since I don't enjoy their product enough but I would like to see them succeed. I think their only chance in the US is to build their young demographic.

This has been a lot of rambling and I have no expertise in marketing just some personal experience that I think makes sense.

 

[bigbootydaddyV]

I think you can still make a lot of money catering to the 18-35 year olds... despite what WWE feels that is a group with a certain amount of disposable income that can help make TNA profitable so long as TNA is selling the right stuff. If they have truly entertaining and captivating storylines they will get the viewers for both their shows and ppvs. If they have a decent video game that can compete with smackdown vs raw they'd still sell a good amount of games, if they have merchandise that an 18-35 year old can wear and not feel like a kid doing so they can sell a ton of merchandise. Look at the NWO, DX, and Stone Cold, despite their adult themes their merchandise sold VERY well because it was something casual that an adult could wear without looking like a total tool... a grown man with another grown man's picture on his shirt for instance will never be profitable, but a grown man with a shirt that says Suck It or I'm an Asshole (or whatever Kennedy's thing is) would probably do ok.

 

[Dizzy]

I'd agree but Spike TV is a male only channel. Therefore, TNA has to stay within that restriction.

You never see an adult male show on Disney Channel right? Samething goes for adult channels. You will never see anything outside of that demographic.

Impact Wrestling has been advertise on ESPN Radio, USA, Syfy, MTV. So, I think that will help generate viewers if they advertise consistently.

TNA did draw alot of ratings within a teenage demographic once. But again, that's not something they are aiming to do.

WWE was successful at it. Ever since aiming to kids they have lowered their PPV buyrates because no parent is gonna buy 2 week PPVs that cost nearly 50 bucks.

Therefore, It's a mixed bag.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

You can'T really please everyone, some will want wrestling, some will want entertainment, some will want pg-style stuff. The main problem is that no matters what you promote, your not going to please everyone. TNA for the longest time has been a company that's trying to get the IWC to watch their show. They also try to get the old WCW fans that stop watching wrestling after WCW dies. That'S a good plan in a way because WWE has pretty much the family market cornered right now and TNA or IMPACT Wrestling are not going to be able to convince little Johnny that Sting is a bigger Hero then John Cena at this point. The kids love the WWE guys like Cena, Orton and Mysterio so try to convince them to like guys like Sting, A.J styles and RVD is going to be tough.

Having said that, TNA as their work cut out for them because Wrestling as a whole isn'T as popular as it once was. The 2 main group of peoples that they are trying to get interested in their product aren't buying. THe IWC for the most part is watching ROH and a small fraction of it is Watching TNA because they'Ve been watching TNA since the very beginning and the are loyal to the brand just like most of the long time WWE fans. The other group, the former WCW fans all pretty stop watching wrestling all together and for the most part started watching MMA. So again, you have to prove to these peoples that the wrestling product as change and that know it'S more about the matches itself and less about the backstage drama.

So TNA as the right idea with the WRestling matters slogan, the only problem is that know they need to apply it. Stop all thoses soap opera type angle and return to the glory days of wrestling when wrestling was more about the sport then the entertainment. If they want to succeed in getting more people to watch on Spike TV, they have to give the peoples that stop watching wrestling a long time ago what they want and what they want is watching 2 guys beat each other. They want to see competition and even if they know that the result are fix, if you give them a good wrestling match without swerve or overbooking, fans will stick around and then you can promote your product as and alternative to anything else in the wrestling world.

 

[Dizzy]

You can'T really please everyone, some will want wrestling, some will want entertainment, some will want pg-style stuff. The main problem is that no matters what you promote, your not going to please everyone. TNA for the longest time has been a company that's trying to get the IWC to watch their show. They also try to get the old WCW fans that stop watching wrestling after WCW dies. That'S a good plan in a way because WWE has pretty much the family market cornered right now and TNA or IMPACT Wrestling are not going to be able to convince little Johnny that Sting is a bigger Hero then John Cena at this point. The kids love the WWE guys like Cena, Orton and Mysterio so try to convince them to like guys like Sting, A.J styles and RVD is going to be tough.

It really doesn't have to be that way. The problem is WWE has brainwashed people into thinking watching WWE makes them loyal and watching TNA makes you an unloyal fan.

Like most people would watch WWE and TNA both. Kids want to stick to WWE. Certain kids want to stick to TNA. It's stupid quite honestly.

Having said that, TNA as their work cut out for them because Wrestling as a whole isn'T as popular as it once was. The 2 main group of peoples that they are trying to get interested in their product aren't buying. THe IWC for the most part is watching ROH and a small fraction of it is Watching TNA because they'Ve been watching TNA since the very beginning and the are loyal to the brand just like most of the long time WWE fans. The other group, the former WCW fans all pretty stop watching wrestling all together and for the most part started watching MMA. So again, you have to prove to these peoples that the wrestling product as change and that know it'S more about the matches itself and less about the backstage drama.

Umm It hasn't changed. If they want to watch pound for pound wrestling, ROH would be popular but once again, they just lost their TV deal. Hardly nobody knows who the fuck they are.

So TNA as the right idea with the WRestling matters slogan, the only problem is that know they need to apply it. Stop all thoses soap opera type angle and return to the glory days of wrestling when wrestling was more about the sport then the entertainment.

Nobody will ever believe Wrestling is a sport. Nobody. WWE is still alive. WWE is who everyone associates wrestling with. Nobody will ever take "wrestling" as a "sport" rather than "entertainment" ever again.

If they want to succeed in getting more people to watch on Spike TV

No. They need to get off Spike TV.

they have to give the peoples that stop watching wrestling a long time ago what they want and what they want is watching 2 guys beat each other.

MMA is the same. Why would people not watch MMA for that?

They want to see competition and even if they know that the result are fix, if you give them a good wrestling match without swerve or overbooking, fans will stick around and then you can promote your product as and alternative to anything else in the wrestling world.

I bet. It certainly works for ROH right? Even Dragon Gate right?

Fact is WWE ruined wrestling. They are gonna continue to make it a watered down pile of "entertainment" and nobody will ever take it seriously.

Wrestling = Entertainment.

MMA = Serious sport.

That's how it is now. Nobody can ever look at wrestling with a straight face and expect it to be as serious as MMA.

We live in the AMERICA. The dumbest group of people in the World.

The UK, Germany accept TNA and WWE at the sametime. America doesn't. Everyone accepts WWE for Entertainment wrestling. If TNA did that, people would call them a "knock off"

See how ******ed it looks? That's America for ya.

 

[Dr.Metalhead]

If TNA wants to be taken seriously they really need to get away from Spike TV. The main reason is, as others stated, is that Spike caters to males usually 18-40. I can't see many families gather around and watch Spike TV when there are shows that are too cutting-edge. If it weren't for TNA and UFC, Spike TV arguably wouldn't be on air. With Spike being available in just as many American TVs as USA network shows that, Spike does a horrible job at gaining an audience. USA has a lot of its own Television shows that get fair ratings, Spike on the other hand doesn't really have any popular TV sitcoms/shows. TNA should move to a network that has demographics all over the place.

However, Spike TV isn't the only problem. TNA constantly changes their scope on things because they are paranoid that the ratings would tank. If TNA would stick to one direction (pushing younger talent), then their booking might look less clustered and make more sense. Also, they should cut back on the adult content, TNA should be like WWE in 2002-2006, which had some content for adults and others for kids. If TNA were to do this they might get higher ratings and more children to watch. How many kids do you see wear a Mr. Anderson and AJ Styles t-shirt vs a John Cena and Rey Mysterio shirt? none. I'm not saying they should go PG, because they shouldn't, they just need to build wrestlers to be heros to kids.

As far as advertising is concerned, instead of just focusing on ESPN and other male oriented networks, they should advertise on networks like TNT, CBS, History Channel, A&E, and TBS.