willcail wrote:
Please it is 2012. Mobile devices are replacing desktop and laptops. Come and live in the present and not in the past.
How is this relevant? I'm not in any way, shape or form discounting the website and the forum - they're a great wealth of information for those of us who know about the event, to keep us involved and informed, and to point our friends to.
But that isn't the same thing as replacing advertising.
I'm willing to say that paper advertising is less useful than it once was - and that electronic devices (computers or mobile) are the wave of the future - but that doesn't change the fact that there should be advertisement for the event. If your argument is that paper ads (fliers/posters/ads in the paper) are useless, fine. But then where's the advertisements on websites? On other forums? On the web pages of related events like Cinefest, Horrorhound, Marcon, etc.?
And it isn't comparing apples to oranges to say that the event is probably less profitable now then it was when it was at the North. The North sat more bodies, and sold out. The East seats fewer bodies and doesn't. I'm not willing to say that the event is "in trouble" because I don't have access to the books (and neither does willcail or Jaws3dfan or Infra-kid or most of the others leaving comments). But we have all heard Bruce discuss the fiscal issues of getting guests, or bringing in bigger premieres that have come because of declining revenue.
We're all aware that because of the proliferation of home entertainment options, there is less draw for our beloved marathon than there once was. And attendance at some other local events is also dying down (you can see that Marcon's attendance has dropped for the past few years - and the move to Easter weekend this year was only part of that). Which is all the more reason for low-cost (if possible) advertising to be used.
People who go to comic shops or gaming shops or local sci-fi and horror cons are the kind of people we want at the Marathon. And some of them simply don't know about it. The website is great for them to check out - but they need to be told that the Marathon and the website exist.