Advertising

[SeanTK]

Hello folks!

I'm just wondering if there is going to be more intense advertising for this project now that the release is right around the corner. (I can't wait! )
The reason I ask is due to the fact that the majority of other FS forums are getting excited over Orbx's offering (I think it's coming out around Christmas). Most people that I have chatted with elsewhere are completely unaware of VLC.
I can't see how it would hurt things for people to receive more exposure to VLC. If you focus on such things as.....

1. It's for the entire country. (and the related price)
2. It will support addon sceneries from numerous authors, and existing RealNZ scenery.
3. It's coming soon.
4. The fact that it is made "100% by Kiwis, for Kiwis (and those interested)", who know the little details of many areas that the OrbX team may not.

Also, if there is anything at all I can help with, particularly related to this post (i.e. Getting the new out about this), let me know. Although I'm an American, I'm sure I can do something productive related to this.

I'm really looking forward to this addon. I'm glad that the price is very reasonable (approx US$45 depending on the day), that it includes both islands, and that it will work seamlessly (in more ways than one! ) with the RealNZ stuff.


Best of luck as you move ever closer to release,

-Sean K.

P.S. I admit, I am still interested in seeing OrbX's effort, but knowing that it will only be the South Island....it will likely not work well with my existing scenery, and that it will likely be much more "generic" in terms of accuracy....means that VLC is a guaranteed buy for me. I'm sick of the default NZ...which is pretty much Egypt. (Plus, once OrbX catches up with both islands, and multiple scenery additions for airports, etc....it'll probably be two years later.)

[toprob]

No doubt Tim will answer this better, but just a couple of points.

Orbx have a lot of support, mainly because they have delivered some great products. They also have a great marketing team.

I do think that once VLC is released it'll sell itself, and the way the community works means that word will get out very quickly. Frankly I see those who buy it on release doing most of the promotional work:)

Plus I do hope for a 'managed' release. I don't want everyone in the world descending on the store on day one, there are plenty of VLCs to go around, and first I'd like to make sure that the locals are well catered for.

[creator2003]

I would be looking a bombarding the world with it ,not holding anything back to sale as many copys as possible to as many users that want it anyday of the week ,trying to mould the big day/weekend to your servers will be bad business,,
get a high high speed server and dont hold back, ppls downloading at mine at 300kb -1mb/s were very happy but as soon as my server got bogged down i had to move my stuff to other for those high speed downloads ,,all of 14min for 800mb ,
but 8hours at 32kb/s i got a heap of complaints within minutes ,
screenshots everywhere ,good movies to post all over and push in the overseas market is where the money and big users of FS are ,New Zealand has a very small amount of paying users ,though you wouldnt think so with the amount of payware around the screenshots section of the forums
opinion

just dont hold back and go large ,it cant do any harm to you but holding back can very much so

[Timmo]

Hi Sean-


Through the early stages of this project, lack of 'real' advertising has come down to a number of factors, but those factors can be mitigated somewhat by people like you simply posting links or screenshots of VLC on other forums that you frequent (if it fits within their rules and you want to of course!)- It would certainly be a great help in spreading the word!

I have bitten myself in the bum a bit as this project has evolved..looking back I think I originally indicated it would be out before Christmas 2009! That has made me a little bit wary of saying 'this is VLC and it will be ready at xxx time and will have this and this and this' via advertising. In saying that, we are literally around the corner from release now- We know exactly what VLC is, when it will be done, what it looks like etc etc so feel more comfortable advertising it a bit more.

Second, the larger FS design teams/companies have people and money and experience to throw at the problem of development and so have a fairly solid idea of how long things will take. VLC has been created from a small 'working from their garage' team. This isn't my full time job and there simply aren't enough hours in the day to create/advertise/do the website/keep the girlfriend happy/keep sane! (i.e. the last few weeks have literally been- Get up, test some stuff before work, go to 'real' work (which is spent sitting in front of a computer), get home and sit infront of the computer until 10-11pm....80-ish hours a week in front of a computer can get draining! )

So, you are right- The time is now!

[toprob]

QUOTE (creator2003 @ Aug 19 2010, 06:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

just dont hold back and go large ,it cant do any harm to you but holding back can very much so

I didn't mean to give the impression that it won't be promoted -- sure, I'll be doing what I can to get the word out everywhere, but it is really a completely different product that Orbx -- Orbx in a world-wide project, released a chunk at a time, whereas VLC is NZ only. I don't think Tim has any plans to take on the rest of the world.

Many people worldwide would buy Orbx NZ because it is Orbx, whereas initially the people who buy VLC will buy it because it is New Zealand. So it makes sense to market to NZ first, then the rest of the world.

[creator2003]

95% of my donations have come from euro Germany/Japan/UK/USA and they are still lapping up the small areas i have to offer ,were,s i only get 1 from NZ per week maybe after the first release ,my data supports that overseas will be the main $$ for VLC ,from memory you have the same data in your sales that supports overseas customers are the market
it would only take 2 days to cover the nz market after that you will need the overseas users to make the work worth the 80 hour weeks timmo has been having .
hey its only advice ,im sure you have it covered just dont under esitmate the demand of VLC or any NZ product advertised properly to the world ,the support for my simple photoreal scenerys has been Huge ..
over and out