Why do advertisements in ski magazines suck so bad?

H

hottate

Member
Seriously, they're boring, unoriginal, and sometimes just plain shitty. It's usually a pro with a crusty ass beard screaming with some b grade action shot and some dumb as fuck tagline that says. "life is better when our product is being used" or some other dumb shit that compares skiing to some other slightly more mainstream crap that might help people relate to skiing better, but probably won't.
 
Did anyone see the Spy ad in the new Powder? Adam Delorme doing some random shit on a a keg looking like a doofus with the worst steeze and a tagline that says "Beware Stand and Deliver" Fuck boys...it's starting to feel a lot like roller blading!
 
Or that shit ball Volkl ad with some highschool yearbook photo of the team looking like they're spreading a vagina and the word "BELIEVE" across it.
 
Helly Hansen's "CATWALK" two page spread for their contest...Do they really think that any skier wants to compare skiing to a fashion show? Please tell me I'm wrong and that somewhere along the line the word "approach" got replaced by "catwalk", otherwise, you've got to be fucking kidding me.
 
I understand advertising, but why are all of the core brands starting to create crap that looks like mainstream bullshit? It looks like the marketing department couldn't agree on anything so they just threw every random idea on the page. "Get the Facebook page on there!!"

"Throw a QR code on there !!"

"Can someone write a paragraph of nonsensical jargon about the product in there that no one will ever read??"
 
This is what happens when ski brands (which are mostly European remember) try to act cool in language and culture that is not their own. Volkl and Fischer have some of the worst ads I have ever seen
 
Smith's ad with Hoji is terrible... "We make great days better. The experience is better with Smith." uuugghhh, better better better.....Photo looks like "Hairy and the Henderson's" and why the fuck is he yelling at me? Two page spread and you barely squeezed in the product... nice work.

Marmot....why the fuck is your ad sideways? Don't you understand how people look at magazines?
 
I think a lot of companies lose WHY they make their product and simply push WHAT they make at you to spend your money on. In my opinion, shorter more thoughtful copy with strong imagery goes a longer way than explaining why the Volkl Shiro, and all it's groundbreaking proprietary rocker technology is perfect for Dash Long.

Example. Which sounds better?

With a 26m turning radius and 119mm waist with,The Volkl Shiro is yet another pinnacle in Völkl's long history of building big mountain

skis that offer incredible float combined with surprising groomed snow

performance.

Deeper pow. Longer days. A better tasting beer at aprés. Volkl Shiro.
 
the problem is how much everyone cares what the exact waist width is and the exact length and exactly how much rocker there is
 
"119mm waist is FAT... like YER MOM, OOHHHHH"

would probably hit the target demographic a little better. spare me the jargon.
 
agreed, that's valid info and should still be somewhere on the ad. just not as in your face, look at our product, it's the best kinda way.
 
some people get so caught up in it like the rocker doesn't make any sense hurr durr thread. i know that when i look at gear i'm looking at performance and the qualities to how it skis instead of specs and whether or not it has something
 
the arcteryx ad amuses me. are they worried about how it looks as theyve only shown about 10% of it and ive heard of "white" space but 90% of their ad is blank. its striking but its not really getting me interested to buy the product.skis.com ad "one ski cant do it all" err, what are all these all-mountain skis that people have been selling for years. would be better something like "one ski cant be best everywhere"

 
I think that's a smart ad for Arcteryx. They're leaving a little to the imagination and not overloading the page with a bunch of words that I don't care about. Maybe they don't have an epic ski shot? That's fine, thanks for not throwing up some bullshit garbage and trying to tell me it's dope as fuck! Nice jacket, like the color... *clip to the next page*
 
This is an area where Web ads have a huge advantage over print. Companies publish these ads, often made by big out of touch marketing departments or outside firms, these think they are amazing, but there is no way to get feedback. How many people saw this, how many liked it and how many were inspired to buy our product are things that print just cannot answer. On the flip side, web advertising gives you cold hard numbers to back up your campaigns effectiveness. We can tell how many people saw, clicked and for web stores, you can even find out how much people spent based on the banners they saw. You can find out something doesn't work, and change it up for something that does and reevaluate.

Companies keep making shitty ads, often because they don't know they are shitty, plain and simple. Let brands know what you like or don't like about their ads and help them put together some awesome effective marketing.
 
EXACTLY!

The web has feedback. The biggest mistake that people make is to say "Oh man, there is so much shit talk on the internet. Its ridiculous, its ruining society."

However, in the past you just sat there thinking "Man is this ad fucking terrible. I now hate this company." You had nowhere to say it, just to have that in your head.

So there's a lot less immediate consequence to putting out a bad ad in a mag. On the internet, not only do you get stats - you get people that will VERY loudly proclaim how shitty your ad is.
 
I would say that there is definitely a big disconnect between the client, the ad agency and the target in general. I feel like ski companies do their little bit of marketing research, but it just doesn't cut it for the agency, who then has to (as in most cases) go out and do their own research and uh-oh if this agency is far out of the ski community not only in understanding but geographically as well they aren't going to be able to dig up enough information. I imagine they also look through ski magazines, (putting them in this generic frame of mind) which is probably why ads keep going the same route.

That and I feel like most ads are all grouped as "awareness" ads (or at least they all come off that way) which constricts the creative minds from trying to do something awesome. Although it is all about sales and in this industry if it isn't "new" no one really seems to want to hear about it.
 
how many people acctually scan these. im not in the market for new gear really so havent done it but if i was interested in the product i would just google it. search engines are pretty good so its not hard to find what you're looking for.
 
lange, on the other hand...

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knows what they're doing.
 
Real question is, who the fuck still buys ski magazines? But I definitely agree with OP. Its like ski companies cant decide who they are trying to market to, 'hardcore mountain dude', accountant, or freeski kid. so they just do some generic shit. I remember when I used to buy magazines that Oakley had the sickest adds, usually a really good action shot that made the product look sick at the same time. Armada had good adds too
 
I do.

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I have ski mag too which I get for free because of my seasons pass. Even that had a good article with J.Lev.

Ski magazines are smart. They don't try to compete with ski online media. They tell the stories that you don't see online. Everything from user submitted stories to the story behind film trips and everything in between. It's really a different experience that you miss if you don't read them. There were a lot of sick articles in all of the mags this month. The magazines aren't regurgitated online shit from the winter before.

 
Now Transworld, that is something I would buy! I like how you put Transworld on the top of the pile, definitely its proper place, but ski magazines just don't do it for me, too boring, photo's usually shitty, etc
 
a friend recently bought me a powder subscription, it covers me for on-toilet reading until the next edition comes. i cant really do long periods of focussed reading on computer screens so print is good for me. there is so much scope for getting things posted on the internet but getting things printed in a magazine is still special.
 
Most ski related companies are run by old people that don't even ski anymore. There are bad ADs in magazines because there are fat 55 year old women running marketing departments. The real question is why do you people buy their products???
 
whoa whoa whoa, they arent all un original and shitty. every other ad but ours is, but not ours.
 
thank you. a lot of people just arent creative and think the only way to sell product is to blatantly put it in your face with a shot of someone doing something extreme.
 
with the new powder being out i felt this thread needed bumped. I was surprised to see anon buying advertising space. does this mean they arent completely anti skiers anymore and acctually dont want to cut a chunk of their market out over a prejudice?
 
Yes, it does. I am pretty sure there was a thread about it a couple days back. They have signed on people like Eric Pollard and Karl Fostvedt. I feel like changing up their plan like that will bring up some hate in the community, but for most who have no idea about their past business "plan" will be super into them. Not only that but it is about time people realize that you can't market hate against half of your potential clients as it really isn't anyway to make a decent amount of money.
 
haha that would be pretty good. everyone who doesnt know who he is would be so confused and everyone who does would be laughing pretty hard.
 
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