What TNA Really Needs

[Turd Ferguson]

Is marketing. I read that a TNA house show drew 200 fans the other night, which is pretty bad. Most regional shows will pull in close to that much. ROH shows usually get around 300-500 attendees. I think one of TNA's main problems is that their marketing department is pretty lackluster. As far as the Hogan announcement goes, I haven't seen much promotion at all about him joining the company. I also had no idea Lockdown was in Massachusetts last year until a week before the event. If I had known that it was going to be in the area when tickets went on sale, I would have tried to make plans to go.

TNA also is not promoting its homegrown stars they way they should. When they promote TNA coming to cities, they usually use lower tier guys that are WWE washouts to promote the product, because they have more name value to the average fan than AJ Styles. The company should be buying up as much local advertising time as possible (on television, radio, and newspapers) when they come to cities where there isn't enough penetration for the product. They should be getting guys like AJ, Joe, and Hogan out doing local radio and television interviews. They should also do ticket giveaways at places like Dave and Busters, Buffalo Wild Wings, and Hooters. Instead of doing generic ads that promote matches on Impact and PPVs, make them exciting, and give the fans a reason to tune in. They should be advertising during shows that have similar demographics on cable. They also should be using social networking like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to their advantage... as well as advertising on other sites.

I think there's a lot more they can and should do to get the name of the company out there. The fact that they're spending less time on pointless storylines and giving the younger stars a chance to shine is a step in the right direction. Now they need to start promoting the hell out of their product if they're serious about making a run.

 

[johnbragg]

A crazy idea I have for TNA is to co-promote with local independent groups, putting together say a 4-hour joint show. Groups like Jersey All Pro Wrestling, say, already have the local infrastructure and know local arenas, local media, local suppliers, etc, not to mention local talent. TNA's roster knows the independent scene, since they still work there, so they could get a read from their own talent on which groups are well-run and which aren't.

They did this once, sort of, with Border City Wrestling when they were off TV. Would it make sense to do it more often?

I had this idea when reading recaps of Bound For Glory, and someone said that a third of the crowd were clearly Pro Wrestling Guerrilla fans.

If PWG can guarantee 400 butts in seats in LA, why not partner with them in one of their venues that holds, say, 1200, and build on that? I think a PWG show, followed by a TNA show, would sell better than just a TNA show. TNA would get less revenue by including PWG, but it's not like they're making any money on house shows now anyway, right?

 

[Saritafan]

yeah this has been discussed on many threads already, TNA just sucks with there marketing, they have absolutely no commerials out there advertizing for them,it's really a disgrace that TNA has not realized this

if TNA is just sitting there hoping that one day,there ratings will boost out of no where,they better wake up,it's not going to happen,they need to ADVERTIZE ADVERTIZE ADVERTIZE.This whole Hogan thing is going to be a huge flop if no one knows he's even there,they need commerials advertizing hogans coming to TNA

 

[Greenlight13]

I agree their marketing isn't the greatest. I'm personally annoyed by their god damn voice over guys. The visual side of their promo packages has improved a great deal but everytime I hear "He is a 12 time world champion and wrestling's only Olympic Gold medalist" or whatever it just feels so damn amateur... am I the only one who thinks this?

They have the most important name in the history of wrestling and I'm willing to bet that their ratings won't improve because people won't know about it. That's the biggest issue they have, communicating to people what they have to offer.

They have Hulk freaking Hogan. They have the best wrestler on the planet, Kurt Angle. They have the best womens wrestling you will see anywhere, they somehow manage to dress hotter than WWE's girls and still wrestle circles around them. Sting is still in the company. They've got a budding tag team division and they've got phenomenal workers in AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Daniels, Homicide and others. They don't really need to do much else in terms of their talent, that roster is better in-ring than WWE's.

But WWE draws more money because everyone knows exactly who they are. They have more money, granted, but with the right promotion people might realise TNA exists and start watching it.

 

[Pedro08]

I've never been to a TNA house show because they haven't been to my area. However, I'm curious to hear from those that have gone to a house show on what kind of marketing they did in your area. Was there any ads on tv, radio, on in the newspapers or do people only hear about the show through Impact or the website.

I agree that overall their marketing is terrible. Hopefully Hogan and Bischoff can change that.

 

[MVs Prodigy]

Wat i believe is that TNA needs 3 changes. Leave Monday night, yeah Raw dropped but not for long, because the WWE is the WWE, you think about pro wrestlingm you think WWE. So go to Tuesday were they will obiously beat ECW or stay on Thursday were they were beating Superstars, but Friday night wars would be something. I could see a TNA/SD war. 2nd, instead of bishoff, they should get Paul Heyman, Bishoff helped WCW, but when they were already on the merge of becoming a great program to watch. Heyman built ECW alone. He started w/ nothing then became a wresling genious by creating ECW. Last, if they need someone, stop trying to bring the washup WWE legends. their legacy is wat it it, but they r to old to stick around as wrestlers, they need to pick up someone, who can still do it. If they want a WWE legend that can still go all out. They need one of the 2 listed: the rattlesnake Stone Cold Steve Austion, or the most electrifying man in sports entertainmaint the Rock. Those are the only guys i can honestly say that help TNA outbeat WWE.

 

[critty629]

In my opion i think tna should really get on spikes back and demand more commericals more promotions so they can push it more. If spike wants to move with tna and make it the #1 wrestling company in the world.Give it another show and wants to sign these big names.Well i think spike needs to do more for tna.If they dont this could go 2 ways. First off with spike not pushing them it will slowely go down and every1 is gunna get bored cause they are always in the same place, storylines get stale and all this big names never do anything they there gunna. Secondly i say this one strongly, someother channel or company and offer tna sumthing bigger and better.Someone else can step in and do something there not doing.With the signing of hogan and bischoff its for someone to push the button and go all the way. If there talking about bringing in more names big names then why not go even harder then ever.yea people say its wwe and they will always bounce back, but i really dont think so. The ratings are dropping and vince burn alot bridges with wrestlers and other type of people.So my theory is 4 tna to take a giant leap and hit the road hard.Go after vince hard , give edgier story lines, pact shows, and show the blood.Vince wont show blood cause of the kids but he wasnt thinking that when someone else is doing it.the road will pick up as long they promote with the help of spike and hogans and bischoff do their job

 

[BigAdz]

Totally agree, they need to market and put the word out. Having a Facebook page isn't doing you any good if you're not actively advertising it.

They also need to stop with trying to cash in on WWE wash-outs and also-rans and try to book their shows on the back of their own talent. AJ Styles and Samoa Joe are BY FAR better to watch in the ring than Angle or Jarrett these days, why aren't they getting their names put out there?

I'm skeptical of Hogan/Bischoff making a difference but I'll take any change over no change at all.

 

[Smackdown!]

The botton line is this TNA needs some serious help they need hle in amost every aspctof there company they need t do a lot more heavir advertising ifthey even want to compete on monday nights wit wwe. Basicly they need a fresh start and get a new creative team and keep hogan as the head of the team. They need to have moreintense matches and better ppv's and more interesting storylines. Becaue sooner or later wwe will drive TNA into the ground and TNA WILL R.I.P

 

[BigAdz]

The problem isn't so much with their product. The action's fast paced, spots are generally well placed and there are a lot of good promos being pushed.

But none of it means JACK when it's all been done before. TNA is like a less popular version of WWE with a 6-sided ring.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

This has been stated in many, many threads already and yeah, it's quite true. TNA's marketing is absolute shit. A perfect example was last week while I was flipping back and forth to Impact. During the commercials, Spike kept running the commercial for the WWE SD! vs. Raw video game and it just made me laugh. Everytime they went to break, they advertised that game. I couldn't help but think how ridiculous it was that Spike was spending more time advertising a product of TNA's competitor, thereby promoting the WWE itself, than it does promoting anything to do with TNA.

 

[Tastycles]

TNA absolutely needs better promotion, starting with their television channel. They are the second most watched programme on their British channel, second only to Danny Dyer's most deadly men or whatever it's called, which is obviously TV gold. This is directly caused by the fact that it is heavily pushed on the programme's advertising. In the US, the same isn't true, and TNA certainly suffers because of that. The company will never get anywhere without a bit of advertising, and I think it's high time that the company stuck it's neck out in this respect. WWE and WCW got where they did by huge cross promotion, and I hope that Hogan's signing is an indicator of them attempting to do this sort of thing.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Perfect example of this:

TNA is going to be holding a show at the Mullins Center on December 5. The Mullins Center is on the campus of UMass Amherst, which is nowhere close to Boston, or Lowell, where they sold out the Lockdown PPV. I went to UMass a few times back when I was in college visiting friends, and I'm sure I've seen tumbleweeds. Furthermore, the show is taking place on a Saturday night. Major mistake right there. Kids from UMass aren't going to spend their drinking/pot money (everyone who goes there binge-drinks and does recreational drugs) on a TNA ticket... especially on a Saturday night. I doubt they're going to get much of an audience.

What they should have done was schedule the card for Lowell, the same place Lockdown was held, and hold a Lockdown rematch between Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle, and proceed to promote the hell out of it. It would have done pretty well, at least more better off than they're going to do in the middle of nowhere, aka Amherst, MA.

 

[UFOcalling]

Couldn't agree more. I was about to bring up the same point that Jack-Hammer made, about seeing WWE commercials during Impact! WTF? Not only have I seen "Smackdown vs. Raw" advertised to death during TNA programming, but I see a lot of local advertising for WWE pay-per-views. During tonight's episode, I saw an ad featuring HHH & HBK promoting Survivor Series.

At least they've got JB on twitter, but they could be doing a hell of a lot more. Television advertising is NOT out of TNA's price range. Jesus, I can't believe they haven't started by now, considering they just acquired Hogan. They could also run an ad featuring the interview they're going to have with Sting next week.

TNA's PR department needs to pull their heads out of their asses.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

Here's another thing:

Would it kill them to have someone like The Beautiful People backstage for a segment to advertise upcoming house shows on when TNA is coming to the area? Not only does it keep the fans tuned in, because the three of them are on TV, it also gets the word out on when they're going to be in the area. Running 30 second ads in the area advertising house shows with them at the forefront would also keep the very casual fan (i.e. people who haven't really watched wrestling in a while, but know who Kurt Angle is from WWE) tuned in.

Giving away tickets like they have too is one reason why house show attendance is so low. Giving some tickets for promotional purposes like I stated at somewhere like Hooters or Dave and Buster's is one thing. But when TNA just gives tickets away, it does nothing to help out their bottom line, and it's a detriment for people who did actually pay for tickets to begin with. Rather than give away tickets for free... it would be a better idea to lower prices so at least they're getting some revenue for the seats that they're filling. The fans, once they get in, shouldn't be obligated to buy merchandise, so the most they're getting out of the people they let in for free is the small cut of concession money they get.