Model launches on YouTube

[Harlequin]

@Steamport Southport It's very simple, let me try to explain it again:

 

Various model railway brands pre-announce their launches by posting links to the Hornby Magazine YouTube channel across social media, including RMWeb. The Hornby Magazine channel has very strong Hornby branding, although not directly connected. So, regardless of simultaneous announcements in other channels, the pre-announcements of these manufacturers are pushing viewers towards a competing brand in their launches.

 

That seems odd to me and I wondered why. That's all.

 

[woodenhead]

7 minutes ago, Harlequin said:

@Steamport Southport It's very simple, let me try to explain it again:

 

Various model railway brands pre-announce their launches by posting links to the Hornby Magazine YouTube channel across social media, including RMWeb. The Hornby Magazine channel has very strong Hornby branding, although not directly connected. So, regardless of simultaneous announcements in other channels, the pre-announcements of these manufacturers are pushing viewers towards a competing brand in their launches.

 

That seems odd to me and I wondered why. That's all.

 

Or Hornby magazine by supporting Rails, Accurascale and Sonic in their launches are putting clear air between people who think that the magazine is operated by Hornby and the actual reality that it is just another model railway magazine whose name bears the word Hornby in it's title.

[e30ftw]

It seems as they can justify it with the extra exposure they gain from the advertising. Hornby magazine is probably the most consistant with new content and product anouncments. As has been mentioned that seems to be their marketing strategy. They must be easier to work with than the other magazine channels. Have they fostered a better working relation ship between them or are they the easiest, most cost affective channel to work with or both? There is obviously a reason why Accurascale and rails of shefield use them.

 

I doubt you will get commercially sensitive info from them though regarding this.

[Matt C]

22 hours ago, Phil Parker said:

 

Well, if we switched off RMweb, we'd have more time to make videos! 

 

 

And Andy would have more hair ??  Well ok no  that miracle would probably need somewhat higher intervention 

 

 

[MarkSG]

There's another aspect to this, too. There can't be anyone in the UK who's into model railways, at any level, who hasn't already heard of Hornby. So the manufacturers aren't giving the Hornby name any more exposure than it already has by working with Hornby Magazine. But there are people with Hornby train sets who haven't heard of some of the other manufacturers. And these are the people who are likely to be attracted to videos from Hornby Magazine, because they recognise the name. When they watch them, though, they will learn about manufacturers other than Hornby. Which benefits those manufacturers.

[AY Mod]

3 hours ago, e30ftw said:

I doubt you will get commercially sensitive info from them though regarding this.

 

It hasn't stopped you making things up in the rest of your post though. 

[e30ftw]

I never stated my opinion as fact, just my take on it.

 

You Andy would be more in the know than most of us, what are your opinions on it? Why do companies seem to go to Hornby Mag for youtube but not world of railways channel?

 

They both have similar number subscribers so its not that one has more reach so to speak, yet Hornby mag still seems the manufactures perfered platform for new product announcements. Why is this?

 

I do like BRM/World of railways longer interviews with reps from different companies though.

[MarkSG]

15 hours ago, e30ftw said:

It seems as they can justify it with the extra exposure they gain from the advertising. Hornby magazine is probably the most consistant with new content and product anouncments. As has been mentioned that seems to be their marketing strategy. They must be easier to work with than the other magazine channels. Have they fostered a better working relation ship between them or are they the easiest, most cost affective channel to work with or both? There is obviously a reason why Accurascale and rails of shefield use them.

 

I think you're making the same mistake as the OP, by assuming that the connection is initiated by the manufacturers. In reality, it's more likely to be the other way round. HM have made a point of focussing on product announcements in their YouTube videos. As part of that, I would expect that their marketing department regularly contacts manufacturers and tells them "we're going to feature your new product in a video to be released on [whenever]", and uses that as a hook to try and sell them advertising or, at least, get a mention from the manufacturer on their own social media presence. That's a win-win for both parties, it gets HM more exposure for their videos and it gets the manufacturer more exposure for their product.

But that doesn't mean that the same products aren't also being featured elsewhere. Pretty much every new announcement gets its own thread on RMweb, in the products section. So you might equally ask why the manufacturers use RMweb. Well, the answer is because that's what RMweb does. The manufacturers didn't set that up, either. But, since it's here, it's valuable for them to engage with the forum and make sure that the information is published here.

[AY Mod]

1 hour ago, e30ftw said:

Why is this?

 

I've had to pass up on opportunities offered before now if we haven't got resources available if we're busy or cannot justify the time involved against a benefit; you said there are commercial reasons and, yes, there are. I know just how much resource is involved and we happen to be busy with lots of stuff as I've already explained. We'll head off and choose to do different things for different reasons.

[JohnR]

I think we miss the impact of the Hornby name. YouTube is (amongst other things) a sophisticated search engine. When people search for model railway related videos, then it will offer things connected to Hornby because of the strong connection. 

 

Having a Hornby Magazine video doing an announcement will have more visibility in search, in recommended (the sidebar of videos at the end) or in browse. 

[Harlequin]

9 minutes ago, JohnR said:

I think we miss the impact of the Hornby name. YouTube is (amongst other things) a sophisticated search engine. When people search for model railway related videos, then it will offer things connected to Hornby because of the strong connection. 

 

Having a Hornby Magazine video doing an announcement will have more visibility in search, in recommended (the sidebar of videos at the end) or in browse. 

 

That's a good point.

 

Simply visiting the HM channel will also affect what adverts you see the next time a banner ad gets served up to you.

 

[Miss Prism]

One of the virtues of RMweb is the ease (usually) of finding news/views on a product. Deciding whether to wade through a 57-page thread is another matter of course.

 

[The Johnster]

I think the root of the problem, if it is a problem that is, is in HM's use of the Hornby name.  While we all know that there is in fact no conncetion between Hornby and Hornby Magazine, the title sort of suggests that it is a magazine, ableit independent, devoted to Hornby.  It isn't, it's a general purpose broad church devoted to RTR/RTP UK modelling, that announces new models and reviews them when they come out (along with general model railway interest and layout articles), but it is sometimes difficult to shake the Hornby connection perception even when you know there isn't one.

 

I wonder if the readership would fall if the name was changed away from Hornby.