There was a thread winding its way around regarding the effectiveness of the World’s Greatest Hobby campaign. Some thought it was effective, others of us did not for one reason or another.
My own feeling is the campaign preaches too much to the choir. While there is a presence at train shows and there is even a show bearing its name, that still is appealing to those who attend the show. I was not alone in that assessment. It seems like a campaign aimed at people who find us.
So the next question is how to adjust WGH to make it more effective or what to do next? Call me a dreamer, but I’m hoping two things happen:
A number of good ideas bubble up,
Somebody of sufficient pull with the WGH campaign is watching and can use some of the ideas to improve the effectiveness or redirect the efforts.
For starters, I think the idea behind WGH is workable. I’d like to see them strategically broaden the placement of their ads. That will mean rewriting them to appeal to a broader audience. I think the target is people who were exposed to model trains growing up and are now part of the retro movement in other areas. Retro is in, and let’s face it, we are retro with a twist. Many of this group have children, some grandchildren, so an emphasis on strengthening the father-son bond might appeal. It has been written that such bonds are weak in our current society. I’d venture to say that a lot of us remember activities with our dads, be it in model railroading or some other activity that involved us both. These folks are not currently subscribing to or buying model railroading magazines-we have to find them. My best guess is the most effective time to make such an appeal is as we approach the Christmas holiday season. That means time is of the essence.
Ultimately, what will work best is going to be at the personal level. We must be the ambassadors and mentors to the hobby. We have them-we see them out here. A campaign such as WGH can bring people
What I would like to see is a WGH train type show on TV. If you want to introduce kids or adults to the hobby of model railroading then this would be a powerful tool. What good is an ad in a train magazine if only people interested in trains buy it? I could never understand that, why waste money on ads that nobody out of the hobby is going to read.
I would also like to see FREE show listings in ALL the model railroading magazines, do you HEAR me Model Railroader? What better way to promote MRRing then listing shows for all the small clubs out there that just scrape by year after year. Maybe the money WASTED on WGH ads could be better used for that instead.
As I stated before, our club is growing and we have picked up 3 kids under 10 in the last 3-4 months. Now I know some of you old foggies think that your club layout is no place for kids, but even the most ***ity old-timers melt and help the kids even if they don’t get a chance to run.
Our club now has open huse on every third Weds. of the month. We’ve invited cub scout packs to come and run trains. The kids love it.
Adults love it too. All my friends want to come see my layout, as humble as it is. Most, I think, are envious.
It’s not what the proponents of the WGH do. It’s what we do. Show your work. Let others play with you.
Well, my screensaver at work is pictures of my layout. I have the June MR on my desk, and it’s started up a few conversations already.
I still think that the campaign has to get out of the train shows and into the malls if we want to attract new people. “Preaching to the choir” is exactly the right description of where WGH is focusing its efforts right now.
Thomas the Tank Engine is a magnet for small children. It’s made them very receptive to model trains in general. If WGH had a “road show” booth that could spend a week at a time in malls, then running both “serious” models and Thomas around a small layout would help move the kids beyond the Thomas stage.
I totally agree with the ‘preaching to the choir’ aspect of what has been tried before. It seems to me that our hobby needs to find a way to break into mainstream appeal.
One idea I’ve had is to put trains more into mainstream entertainment. I’m not talking about lame movies like ‘Under Siege II’ or any of those horrid made for TV train disaster movies (like trains always need to be associated with disasters), but something more intelligent and entertaining. I’m sure there are all sorts of compelling material that could be done that incorporates realistic railway operations.
Another idea is to incorporate model railroading into movies in a way that breaks the negative stereotyping we’ve been enduring for a while. For example, there was a movie starring Denzel Washington a while back where his character was into building civil war dioramas. Now that’s something you don’t see everyday, and it was handled in a respectful way that likely brought a lot interest to that hobby. Imagine if someone like Brad Pitt played a likeable character that liked building model railroad layouts (it could even be HO scale [;)]). It all may sound a little ridiculous, but I think that’s the type of positive spin this hobby needs if it’s going to break out of the niche market.
I too agree with the preaching to the choir aspect. Like others have said It’s time for clubs to do open houses or if your club has a portable layout talk to your local mall about setting up a display sometime. Maybe suggest as a project your kid’s scout troop build a model railroad. Who knows the scout troop may keep a few members that way if there’s something to do at meetings instead of sitting around jaw-jacking about what they did last week. I know I would have stayed in scouts longer if we had something like a train layout or did anything other than sit around on folding metal chairs in a musty old firehall basement still prattling on about stuff from 2 weeks ago. Lame-O-Rama.