danielray Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 Well, the fact remains that national advertisers ( AJ Wright, MacDonalds, Pizza Hut, etc ) and TV Comnunication Conpanies ( PBS, ESPN ) told DCI differently. You and I may agree that " there is really nothing wrong with the product ", but it really doesn't matter what you and I think, when the national preception from the people with the big bucks are telling us differently. Again, it is the packaging... the stuff that goes around the performance that needs the most tweaking. About perception of potential sponsors... this is based on personal interaction. Not guessing here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ranintothedoor Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) ...sticking with the 'sport' idea..... DCI would need to have a spring tryout. Rate the participants. Do a reverse order of the Finals finish of DCI corps and hold a weekend 'music draft'. Pioneer would be up there to threaten Blue Devils tallent in just a few years! THAT should raise some interest, participation and anticipation around DCI! I think this would work, actually! It would really spice things up and that "slotting" thing would become much less of a bear. But then, you forever lose the "local" and "youth" aspects of the activity, at least where DCI World Class is concerned. You'd have to have a corresponding "Minor League" (Open Class?), wouldn't you? I think the only real way you could do the "draft" thing in the existing structure is with money or staff and other resources, not the kids/performers. The few lowest placing corps get a large share of the profits, pick from a staff pool for that year to help pump them up, etc. Edited April 13, 2011 by ranintothedoor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRASSO Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) Again, it is the packaging... the stuff that goes around the performance that needs the most tweaking. About perception of potential sponsors... this is based on personal interaction. Not guessing here. National advertisers are very adept at counting eyeballs on a TV screen, and fannies in a stadium. I agree with you that DCI could probably do better in outreach marketing, particularly at the local level. But they've had their shot at the big national marketing stage via national TV broadcasts of it's product. Unfortunately, that ship left port awhile ago, and it's not coming back any time soon. But sure, DCI could do better by tweaking the marketing of their current product. I couldn't disagree with you on this. Edited April 13, 2011 by BRASSO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 National advertisers are very adept at counting eyeballs on a TV screen, and fannies in a stadium. I agree with you that DCI could probably do better in outreach marketing, particularly at the local level. But they've had their shot at the big national marketing stage via national TV broadcasts of it's product. Unfortunately, that ship left port awhile ago, and it's not coming back any time soon. But sure, DCI could do better by tweaking the marketing of their current product. I couldn't disagree with you on this. Raw numbers are not necessarily what potential sponsors are after, there is a bit more to it. Not sure that I follow you on the point of had a shot before and not coming back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 Daniel, Have you thought about packaging this research (and your supporting arguments to much of the push-back here) together to send to Dan Acheson or some of the other DCI board members? Perhaps even doing an end-around and sending this to Gibbs, Hop, Fiedler, etc. Not much will change unless your ideas make it to the appropriate venue. Well, I have in the past. Not much came of it. Been pushing on basic things like unified tour branding and larger shows for nearly 10 years. About other guys... the TOC split is probably the only thing that will cause DCI to make any major adjustments to their approach within any sense of urgency. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glory Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 (edited) It's a great idea. It's so great that you have to wonder why it hasn't been done already. A more consistent identity as well as a more coordinated and perhaps more aggregated marketing opportunity makes sense. Lots of upside here are little or no additional cost. The only possible negative I can see has nothing to do with slotting, drafts, national advertisers, amps or any of the rest of the usual DCP malarky. Rather, it might be that certain corps/directors might fear diminished attention/revenue in the change. They shouldn't take so short-sighted a view. A strong DCI identity is good for drum corps and for them. Even the Yankees and Man U have to rely on a league to leverage their brands to some extent. The same would be true with drum corps. Bigger question is whether the "DCI" label is appropriate for this task. As an abbreviation, it's not NFL or even MLB where brand recognition is concerned. We might need a label that actually describes the activity. It might have to be Drum Corps International in all applications just so people understand what we're doing. HH Edited April 13, 2011 by glory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 ...sticking with the 'sport' idea..... DCI would need to have a spring tryout. Rate the participants. Do a reverse order of the Finals finish of DCI corps and hold a weekend 'music draft'. Pioneer would be up there to threaten Blue Devils tallent in just a few years! THAT should raise some interest, participation and anticipation around DCI! I would agree with this draft idea "if" corps paid their performers professional career type salaries; however, since DCI participants pay dues out of their own pocket, they should be able to chose which corps that would like to audition for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkfdPRphan Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 But then, you forever lose the "local" and "youth" aspects of the activity, at least where DCI World Class is concerned. You'd have to have a corresponding "Minor League" (Open Class?), wouldn't you? Sadly, for the largest corps, there are very few (if any) members that come from the corps 'home town'. I know over the years I have watched kids try out from dozens of foreign countries too! Dubuque Colts comes to mind when I think of a corps that has some local and/or at least 'in state' members. Otherwise kids travel for hundreds and even thousands of miles to tryout for a corps they want to be part of. Perhaps it is that dynamic that has most changed the support of drum corps locally. Few kids we know (grew up with or know relatives of) are in our home corps. We need more ways for drum corps fans to 'know' some of the corps members - like sports teams do. Maybe highlighting a good horn player or drumline......but even then some corps would feel left out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
audiodb Posted April 13, 2011 Share Posted April 13, 2011 Much of the shift in message of DCI over the past several years has been to that of DCI as essentially a league of teams - "Marching Music's Major League". What could help boost this perception as a league could be better integration of online properties and integration of the league into the marketing and promotion of the individual corps. Good examples of this would be NFL and NHL. From the perspective of online promotions... both highlight the teams at the top of their respective web sites. An adjustment like this could help increase the perception of DCI as a league. NFL takes the approach of kicking users out to independent team sites, while maintaining an NFL Network widget and navigation embedded in each site. NHL takes a much more integrated approach, where sites of all teams are integrated as sections of a single site with common structure, but unique design. Well, that's exactly what DCI has done with the Fan Network. While it would certainly be a challenge for individual corps to give up some autonomy in terms of their web promotions, the trade offs in terms of positioning the activity to media and sponsors could be significant. Good point. A few corps have been notably unwilling to give up that autonomy, even to the point of withdrawing from the Fan Network participation they had previously done to instead launch their own "all access", "mediabox" or other private video-driven efforts from their individual web domains. Now, here is where I think the idea would be going too far: Each corps would, of course, maintain a separate site for their respective parent organizations that they use to communicate with their respective local communities, sponsors, or stakeholders (ex: BD Performing Arts, YEA, Ascend Performing Arts, etc.).This consolidation would improve the perception of the organization as a league and reinforce the idea that the individual member organizations are part of what is the major league of their activity. While a lot of corps currently include the Fan Network badge into their messaging, this is a bit understated and ambiguous (you only know what it is if you already know what the Fan Network is). But these organizations are not just teams in the DCI league. The Blue Devils run six programs, three of which have nothing to do with drum corps or DCI. YEA! runs a marching band circuit. The Blue Knights have winter guard and percussion programs in addition to their drum corps. Other corps run choral programs, wind ensembles and other performance formats, as well as various clinics in brass, percussion and dance that are not necessarily drum corps specific. Are these organizations really just teams in the DCI league, running side programs to help fund their real raison d'etre? Or are they multi-program arts organizations in all shapes and sizes? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danielray Posted April 13, 2011 Author Share Posted April 13, 2011 Well, that's exactly what DCI has done with the Fan Network. Good point. A few corps have been notably unwilling to give up that autonomy, even to the point of withdrawing from the Fan Network participation they had previously done to instead launch their own "all access", "mediabox" or other private video-driven efforts from their individual web domains. Now, here is where I think the idea would be going too far: But these organizations are not just teams in the DCI league. The Blue Devils run six programs, three of which have nothing to do with drum corps or DCI. YEA! runs a marching band circuit. The Blue Knights have winter guard and percussion programs in addition to their drum corps. Other corps run choral programs, wind ensembles and other performance formats, as well as various clinics in brass, percussion and dance that are not necessarily drum corps specific. Are these organizations really just teams in the DCI league, running side programs to help fund their real raison d'etre? Or are they multi-program arts organizations in all shapes and sizes? Fan Network only means something to those that are already fans. It means absolutely nothing to potential corporate sponsors or local media in various cities that could potentially run stories on the shows before the event. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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