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

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!!!!

 

Just get a load of this stuff. Keep in mind that the Metro site was not hacked - this is for real:

http://www.metrostars.com/images/splash_mpf.jpg

and the laughs keep coming:

http://metrostars.ignitesports.com/photos/newsletter_image/metro_turkey.gif

This is classic stuff. What a case study for a Marketing class in some MBA program....

 

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.

 

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.

 

Take a look around the league, MLS isn't going anywhere in three years. Not every teams marketing is as bad as the Metros.

 

Good Lord.

Is that chicken for real?

That is some really horrible stuff. How does Garber let Nick S. sign off on this stuff when its right in the MLS HQ back yard?

Its a shame.

 

So. Uhhhh, what's with the turkey?

 

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

 

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.

 

Every time I see that graphic I think "Baby On Board".

 

Check the stands behind Metal Mike.

Totally empty.

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

 

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?

 

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!

 

Perhaps Decepticon Lazerbeak is finding new ways to make Nick look like a genious.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

Amen!

 

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.

 

Funny I think of this one




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

 

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!

 

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.

 

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.