Metro 'Marketing' - More retarded now than in the Stillitano era?

Discussion in 'New York Red Bulls' started by Michael K., Oct 29, 2003.

  1. Michael K.

    Michael K. Member

    Mar 3, 1999
    There or Thereabouts
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Sadly, the "Classic MFO marketing screwups" thread seems to have disappeared during one of the Bigsoccer meltdowns in the past year.

    But even without seeing it - and laughing sadly at the incompetence that has defined Metro 'marketing' efforts over the years - does anyone else agree with me that as atrocious as the marketing and public relations efforts (and broken promises) of the Stillitano era could be (the rampant ethnic pandering, the parking lot beerfest that never occured, and a million other things that those who were there will be only too happy to recount), MFO has now sunk below that level (as if it were possible!)

    I look and see...those idiotic commercials a couple years ago featuring some spaz screaming in the Giants Stadium parking lot...'MPF'...Metal Mike on the front page of Metrostars.com (and that song!)...'Marilyn Monroe has the fever'(wha?) in the playoff primer...the fact that a few years ago they somehow managed to screw up a Copa Merconorte match against Millionarios IN NEW JERSEY, drawing about 1000 people, total...the fact that they threw all their eggs in the 'exhibition game' basket last season and failed utterly, instead of concentrating on pushing OUR team....the fact that attendence has flatlined at best....the fact that they didn't even bother trying to seriously market the first cup final in team history...it goes on.


    We've disappeared down the rabbit hole, people, and come out in the Land of Soccer Smiles For Brain Trauma Victims (no offense to brain trauma victims - with just a little therapy even they would find this crap beneath them). At least when Stillitano was in charge, the team was often so bad that no self-respecting soccer fan in the NYC area who wasn't already a Metro fan would bother with them; the damage that *#*#*#*#*#*# PR could do was limited. But now...we're actually not that bad. We've made a final this year and who knows, stranger things have happened than us making it to Los Angeles.

    And yet this team, marketing-wise, is an absolute joke and that's killing us now. I've never been one of those people who bitch and moan about getting 'soccer people' at the head of everything in this league, as if that's the panacea. But as long as they don't cut out the people who are coming up with this shit (and why should they - they're RUNNING THE TEAM) - clueless people who are just biding time and getting a few years of Sports Management experience before moving on to an AA baseball team or an AHL hockey team somewhere - and get someone with the least little bit of seriousness about marketing the Metros as a soccer team - this team is going to be a laughingstock. I'll laugh too (how can you blame people from DC from having fun with MPF or a freaking turkey in a Metros jersey?). I can't not laugh at us. And that sucks.
     
  2. Kevin

    Kevin New Member

    I am astounded at how bad it is. Even as the team puts together a string of decent, albeit not knock your socks off, years, the marketing effort seems to be sinking into some bizarro world. It's very sad to see this going on in a league that touts itself as the fifth major sports league in the country. This is more like single A baseball. Next thing you know, the Metro Dog (Ha!) will be shooting MPF t-shirts and complimentary turkeys into the crowd from one of those t-shirt guns.

    M etro
    T urkey
    F ever

    CATCH IT! THIS STUFF KICKS!!!!
     
  3. Kevin

    Kevin New Member

  4. MetroFever

    MetroFever Member+

    Jun 3, 2001
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    Croatia
    Apparently they're trying to draw the wrestling crowd since he looks like The Undertaker.

    Poor marketing, in two years Chivas is joining MLS and in three years MLS will join the NASL as another soccer league that couldn't cut it.
     
  5. Haig

    Haig Member+

    May 14, 2000
    METROSTARS
    Club:
    --other--
    It's just stupid all the way down.

    The "MPF" slogan, which hardly means anything at all, just shorthand for "we're in the playoffs, PLEASE get excited," but doesn't give any sort of compelling reason to actually be excited.

    The road sign graphic. Not only does it look amateurish, but when you see some sort of iconic thing like a road sign, on some level your mind is looking for the extra significance beyond just the fact that the Metros are in the playoffs. In this case: keep looking, brain. Totally empty idea that takes banality to new depths.

    The clumsy guerilla marketing: "oh, that's just the local soccer team"?

    I'll give them a pass on Metal Mike, though you've got to wonder who they're trying to appeal to.

    There has to be some reason the folks who come up with this stuff do such a bad job. Is the pay so low that no one with an ounce of wit will take the job? Is some imbecile high in the organization throttling more creative ideas? Is that imbecile also doing the hiring?

    I'm baffled.
     
  6. Pyro

    Pyro Member

    Apr 18, 2000
    Fulton River District
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Take a look around the league, MLS isn't going anywhere in three years. Not every teams marketing is as bad as the Metros.
     
  7. Northside Rovers

    Jan 28, 2000
    Austin TX
    Club:
    FC Dallas
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  8. Len

    Len Member+

    Club: Dallas Tornado
    Jan 18, 1999
    Everywhere and Nowhere.....I'm the wind, baby.
  9. bourque312

    bourque312 Red Card

    Oct 16, 2003
    If youre so friggin smart, why dont you email the Metrostars publicity dept. an alternative??

    & excuse me for playing the realist, but considering that the playoffs are probably gonna end as quickly as they start for the Metros, it wouldnt be good financial sense to bend over backwards creating playoffs specific merchandise
     
  10. Ellison

    Ellison Member

    Jan 11, 2000
    New Jersey
    When I was 8, I was on the best little league baseball team around, the Cubs, we stormed the league and we got t-shirts with felt lettering for being so far above the rest... they read Cub Fever, Catch It. To summarize, this is more like Little League Baseball.

    Oh and Metal Mike ... WTF ... one could do better buying Acid Pro or even MTV Generator 2.

    MPF needs to go away.
     
  11. Footix

    Footix Member

    Dec 11, 1998
    Left Of The Dial
    Every time I see that graphic I think "Baby On Board".
     
  12. Brownswan

    Brownswan New Member

    Jun 30, 1999
    Port St. Lucie, FL

    Check the stands behind Metal Mike.

    Totally empty.

    Obviously, this ad is aimed at our current fan base.
     
  13. Haig

    Haig Member+

    May 14, 2000
    METROSTARS
    Club:
    --other--
    Yeah, the turkey is an all-time classic.

    It doesn't matter that there's some sort of Pathmark tie-in, a discount on a Thanksgiving Butterball or something-- why would you make your product look so totally stupid and invite ridicule?
     
  14. Kevin

    Kevin New Member

    I'm glad you asked.

    Despite the fact that every supermarket chain within 75 miles or more of NYC offers some sort of a free turkey deal to their customers (some through those free customer rewards cards that you need to get for some sale items; others through a minimum purchase type arrangement), Metro are giving their season ticket holders a free turkey. That graphic file is the promotion (no kidding). It's what the Marketing literature refers to as synergy disconnect.

    M etro
    T urkey
    F ever


    CATCH IT! GOBBLE! GOBBLE!
     
  15. Blong

    Blong Member+

    Oct 29, 2002
    Midwest, the real one.
    Perhaps Decepticon Lazerbeak is finding new ways to make Nick look like a genious.
     
  16. Kevin

    Kevin New Member

    2 suggestions in response --

    1. The Metro Marketing Department is a professional outfit. People are actually paid to produce this stuff. Instead of suggesting that the fans have a responsibility to straighten this mess out, may I suggest that, perhaps, Metro should hire people who have just a tiny bit of experience marketing something. Anything. If that means paying people more that minimum wage, then it may be well worth the expense.

    2. No one is really clamoring for playoff specific merchandise, just a real marketing effort for the playoffs that will pass the sniff test.
     
  17. Brownswan

    Brownswan New Member

    Jun 30, 1999
    Port St. Lucie, FL
    I must admit I really like the New Soccer Nation ads,
    along with those great Nike ads that have been running of late.

    I just wish all those images of energy and power and finesse were playing on networks with bigger audiences. Thanks for preaching to the choir; now it's time to get evangelical, maybe convert a soul or two.
     
  18. Kevin

    Kevin New Member

    I thought that represented the number of people who are realistically going to come down with the ailment now known as Metro Playoff Fever.

    Gobble Gobble.
     
  19. Michael K.

    Michael K. Member

    Mar 3, 1999
    There or Thereabouts
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I know for a fact that there are a few people in Harmon Plaza, in various roles (not all Marketing) who absolutely live and die for the Metros. I mean, they're crazier than most of the people on these boards - and I mean that in a good way. People here who have dealt with the team before probably have a decent idea of some of the people I'm talking about - in my opinion, they're as good as gold.

    But even such people had the greatest ideas in the world (and I'm not saying they do, just providing an example), and all the energy they needed to make them happen on the sub-shoestring budget the Metros have, I just can't escape the feeling that, as Haig so aptly put it, they'd just get throttled from above. The problem isn't that there are NO good people in MFO. There's plenty of them, I'm sure; the problem is more like who they have running the show (and that goes beyond just Nicko).

    MFO = The Peter Principle at work.
     
  20. purojogo

    purojogo Member

    Sep 23, 2001
    US/Peru home
    Club:
    New York Red Bulls
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Amen!
     
  21. Frank Cunha

    Frank Cunha New Member

    Sep 17, 2001
    UNION TOWNSHIP, NJ
    its a disgrace,

    I knew from the first year when I call this clowns, when they told me a english radio station was not important.
     
  22. eric d

    eric d Member

    Sep 9, 1998

    Funny I think of this one ;)

    [​IMG]


    And Frank, English Radio is #156 on the things Metro needto fix.
     
  23. locolos

    locolos New Member

    Sep 17, 2001
    New York
    did you guys catch the Today Show this morning. You have to give it up to the MFO for getting out there and handing out those silly red MPF hats.... they had these ladies wearing them and when asked what MPF stood for.... they all looked at each other puzzled and said, "it's like some soccer league or something"

    Nice try. It just needed a good follow thru.

    Why didn't they spent the money and have some regular ballcaps made? man, it's your brand protect it!
     
  24. Revolt

    Revolt Member+

    Jun 16, 1999
    Davis, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is one of the funniest (and saddest) threads I have ever read.

    And I had thought the DCU dude who had the turkey as his avatar came up w/ a pretty funny dig at his Atl. Cup rival. But now knowing that he stole it from the Metros Front Office is hilarious beyond belief.

    Thanks guys.

    FWIW, I think the ad campaign is so bad, it is actually genius great. Like Ed Wood. Bad you can ignore, but incredibly obscure & dumb acronyms like MPF and a turkey w/ a Metros Crest is like a bad jingle you can't get out of your head. That's marketing folks.

    Now I would have come up with something like Whip the Wevs, but I don't get paid for this stuff.
     
  25. Revolt

    Revolt Member+

    Jun 16, 1999
    Davis, CA
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is one of the funniest (and saddest) threads I have ever read.

    And I had thought the DCU dude who had the turkey as his avatar came up w/ a pretty funny dig at his Atl. Cup rival. But now knowing that he stole it from the Metros Front Office is hilarious beyond belief.

    Thanks guys.

    FWIW, I think the ad campaign is so bad, it is actually genius great. Like Ed Wood. Bad you can ignore, but incredibly obscure & dumb acronyms like MPF and a turkey w/ a Metros Crest is like a bad jingle you can't get out of your head. That's marketing folks.

    Now I would have come up with something like Whip the Wevs, but I don't get paid for this stuff.
     

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