It only shows it worked indivdually.
The question is, does it work good enough globally, i.e. do you get enough subscribers to pay off the investment in advertising there?
I would be surprised if the answer (to a TV/Cable buy) was yes. First off determining return rates on Tv/Cable/newsprint/direct mail/handout flyers can be hard. The web says that it is better at counting, but not really. You
might get a good click through rate number, but what you really need is a good sales rate (and with a subscription product/service) length of use.
When we did a keyword purchase from Google a few years ago, it took us about a day to say "get me the hell out of here". Expensive, very poor leads.
The absolute best feed back all ways came from telemarketing. You could tell down to the second and the penny what level of effort you needed and what the pay back was. (variables: qualified leads, scripts, time of day call, region and oh yea product...)
For a TV buy you generally want a unique phone number or web address (
www.htc.com/tv_offer) to measure impact. (unless of course the phone isn't usually ringing at all..., unless you have two ad campaigns running at the same time, I,e, TV buy, radio buy). When you are selling products you should make sure that you have your phones staffed when you run the ads. Not as important for a service. I do not know what the rule of thumb is for on-line subscriptions. (Most TV adds during prime time are really more about Brand Name development - not direct sales. Very quickly, Brands are about developing an implied warranty to maintain market share from current competitors and to establish/maintain a barrier to market entry for want-to-bes. TV ads that sell, at least in the USA, usually run at night/low cost slots and they really are telemarketing firms getting you to call them as opposed to the other way around).
The old rule of thumb rule (old media) was that you need 5 impressions before you had a sale/no sale decision. I've read web guys challenge that. But I think that they are more interested in getting businesses to do web buys as opposed to old media. I think that what is really perhaps going on is that the definition of an impression needs to change.
Very quickly. Old rule: you need to make 5 impressions before a target becomes a customer. (Impressions over 5 have little to no impact.) Why 5? It is based on an analysis of personality types and how people make decisions. Most people need to be exposed to a sales pitch 5 times before they buy. Even people who say that they make decisions on the spot, need about 5 impressions. Very few people make a decision on less than 3 impressions. (If I remember correctly, it is somewhere in the 2% range.) Most ad campaigns only get to people 3 times. (The definition of an impression included leaving a voice mail messages. So if you called someone on the third call and it went to VM, it counted as an impression). So most ad campaigns end before they get to a point were a target might say yes. The problem, especially with TV, with getting to impression 4 and 5 is cost. Getting 1 impression is cheap. 2 not too bad. 3 still probably OK. 4 getting worried. 5 ouch. And you need to do this with enough viewers (targets) to cover your ad cost buy. It is hard.
As an example, think of it this way. You have $xxx to spend, but you need it back in 6 months. If you spent $xxx and got 10 new users at $14.95, that is (14.95 x 10) x 6 = $879. So $879 minus variable cost factors (assume just credit card costs at 2-3% for simplicity) you got around $852. Did your ad campaign cost more than $852?
It is hard.
For small businesses ad campaigns need to be very focused, almost what is termed gorilla in nature. I would find a complementary activity that users
might be interested in. I would think that interest in WWII planes, the War, etc would be a good fit. Call up one of those WWII Russian enthusiast plane sites and offer a fixed fee for a banner for a year. I'm sure that they would listen. (Could you guys agree on terms? I do not know).
You could do the same thing for tank museums etc.
When we (family) went to England I found "private" WWII museum after museum, usually run by volunteers all over the place. Talk to them. Web site banners maybe - but more importantly an agreement to place brochures and large format posters within their establishment. Custom posters that say something like "see what it is like to fly these machine at
www.htc ) (We went to Tangemere, close to Chichester.
http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/ They had simulators there one of which looked right out of an old version of Aces High
http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/flight-simulators. Maybe sponsor a simulator?!)
What about a small booth at air shows? (BTW, I know that Booths are expensive - you would think so but they are...)
How about posters at small regional airports? To be sure a lot of them might say no, but there is a whole world out there. If there was a downloadable PDF poster in different sizes and languages for players to grab, print out and pin up at their local regional airport how many people would do it? (BTW, on the posters, I would have a few printed out and ready to mail on request because posters with a printed boarder are far more "visible" than posters without them. Most people do not have access to a printer that can print right up to the paper's edge.)
How about Radio Controlled Vehicles? I would think that within an RC Airplane club you are going to have lots of people with a natural fit to Aces High. Here is one
http://www.dc-rc.org/ and they have an ad that takes you to
http://www.hobbyhangarva.com/. Maybe you could talk to Hobby Hangar and have a joint marketing campaign. I know that they used to (and still may do) sell a really nice model FU4-1D (~$16K with options). Offer their customers who make a purchase a 2 month free subscription.
Go to the manufacture of the F4U and offer the same "bonus coupons" for their customers.
These guys should see you not a competitor but as a compliment to their business.
You want to buy print ads (not a bad idea), go find the RC magazines and ask for rates.
Also, lastly, most business know that the most important customers are their regular ones. With a subscription model, in a sense HTC has to sell us every month. Why the hell do you guys not have a monthly (or quarterly) newsletter? It is nuts not to have one. You guys are about to release to the world a new version of the game and the only people who know about it are users who log on, at the right time, to your web page. Give me a BREAK!!!!
Newsletters can go to existing
as well as old users. They have to be interesting. So maybe instead of listing just the
Latest Tour Winners how about a short piece on what planes they got their kills in, made their bomb drops from, etc. You could also feature something about a plane you have just released, an explanation of the different type of Ords to load and why. A write up on KOTH, frames etc. (You guys have a lot of content on your site that is, well sort of hidden, that would make for great copy.)
With a newsletter you need to worry about subscription stuff - Text only user, HTLMx, mobile, large format etc. Purges etc. And there are companies that can help (do not know about cost/effectiveness).
But with a newsletter in our mailboxes, you get to old subscribers, infrequent users (who might just be a keystroke away from becoming an old subscriber), and potentially new customers who get newsletters forward to them.
But anyway, as I was saying - yea the HE-162 would be a fun addition.
