This is what happens when you break off an engagement and 3 year relationship. You get time back to do the things you really want to do… like talk to telemarketers because your lonely and…
COUNT CAR VS. BIKE AD’S IN BICYCLING MAGIZINE:
Car Ad’s:________________Bicycle Ad’s:
Land Rover____________1. Electra
Honda________________2. Trek
Suzuki________________3. Felt
Jeep__________________4. Kuota
VW___________________5. Pinarello
Dodge (fold out)________6. Cervelo
Saab (fold out)_________7. Jamis
Subaru
Saturn
Acura
Saab (back cover)
Not sure what to make of that. What does that say about us, the cyclist? Is this just a reflection of who has the $ to advertise or is it because car companies have a better grasp on marketing their products? I imagine the marketing department doing the ads for jeep have a little more $ money invested than Cervelo in market research.
(NOTE: Only Trek, Electra and Pinarello (who was featured on the cover and reviewed inside) used two page ad’s where Land Rover, Suzuki, Jeep, Dodge, Saab, Saturn, and Acura used at least two pages.)
I cancelled my subscription to Bicycling partly because of this and because I was tired of seeing that every other issue had 10 new tips to make me a faster cyclist.
I do miss their unbiased and in depth bike reviews though - funny how every bike was “Amazing”, or “the best handling bike ever…” blah blah blah…
AS pretty much noted above, you have to count the reviews as ads. This magazine appears in my mailbox each month although I have never subscribed, it comes in useful if I run out of reading material on the can.
I got a suscription as a Christmas present, but prefer Road, Velonews, and Cycle-Sport America…
I actually caught Bicycling doctoring a photo (How can a TdF peleton have two yellow jersey’s?) by basically making the peleton stretched out over a great distance. I emailed them a letter and the response I got back was, “yeah, so?”
Is this just a reflection of who has the $ to advertise or is it because car companies have a better grasp on marketing their products?
I remember taking a Sociology of Sport course in university, and one of the topics was advertising in magazines. We chose 5 different sport magazines and first guessed at what demographic they targeted. We then analyzed the types of ads, and their size, to look at demographics from that point of view.
I looked at Sports Illustrated, Triathlete, Bicycling, Mountain Bike Action and Climbing. The first three had multiple ads for expensive vehicles, colognes, pricey clothing, expensive nutritional products, etc while the last two were mostly shop ads…not much in the way of expensive national product advertising.
The point was that the magazine know who their readers are, and what level of disposable income they have. The typed of ads reflect that. There are more potential Acura owners reading Sports Illustrated, Triathlete or Bicycling than there are reading Mountain Bike Action or Climbing. The disposale income in the climbing and MTB consumer groups is quite a bit lower. You’ll also notice that you don’t see a lot of ads for Ford, GM or Chrysler in these magazines…the reader population has money to spend, and wants to spend it on perceived high end products.
They probably figure the rest of the magazine is bogus why should they care about one photo? As long as it sells SUVs. That’s the part I love.
Hey let’s sponsor Bike Town USA to promote cycling and healthy living, but then lets pack the pages of our magazine with gas guzzling SUV advertisements.
I know they need the ads to stay in business, but I honestly think they could be a little more selective and a little truer to themselves.
The average page in Bicycling Mag costs about $15,000 to $20,000 depending on number of insertions. Not too many bicycle companies can afford that.
Herbert,
Bingo! Many people don’t understand how small many of the companies in this business are. Yes there are some big ones, but few can afford $150,000 for a year( because it’s only worth it from an impact point to look at a year) of full page ads in a magazine like Bicycling.
The good news is that obviously some big non-endemic companies like the demographic of cycling. That should be something that someone is taking notice of!