WHERE'S WALDO: Without chickens, you have no eggs

Life is full of seemingly unanswerable questions. If you spend enough time on social media you’ve probably found at least one know-it-all philosopher, who’s clearly too lazy to do any research, show how "stupid" the world is by asking such mind-opening questions as “why do drive-up ATMs have braille?” (Answer: because the walk-up one must, and there’s no point in molding two different sets of buttons) and “why do we park on driveways and park on driveways?” (Answer: “parking” in the 1800s meant “planting trees, flowers, and other vegetation” - naturally, when cars became more popular and required roads to connect buildings once separated by such non-agricultural diversity, they started taking over these tree-filled “parking” areas. The term “driveway” has been around since the late 1800s as well, and has always been used to describe the path from someone’s private residence to a public road. It’s just that driveways have grown shorter over the last 100+ years.)

 

Perhaps the most common causality dilemma among English-speaking peoples is the question of what came first: the chicken or the egg?

 

 

As you learned in the very science-minded video above (assuming you made it all the way through), the egg probably came first - which is true in the RC world too, as the eggs (racers) started making their own RC cars and racing them, leading to the need for manufacturers (chickens) to sell equipment to them. If all of today's eggs suddenly disappeared (or stopped racing), the chickens would die, too - but new eggs would surely start racing again before we saw a second evolution of chickens. But in terms of how this question pertains to growing the world of RC racing, it’s up to the chickens to stop being so…well, chicken.

 

If you’ve been reading LiveRC for at least as long as I’ve been writing here, you’re familiar with the story of how RC racing turned from “just” a hobby into serious business. When Brian Kinwald won the IFMAR Worlds in 1993, and Team Losi offered him a salary to switch over from Team Associated, the upper echelon of RC racing changed forever. Companies have been paying racers ever since, justifying the marketing expense with the adage that “what wins on Sunday sells on Monday” - believing that if you’re an RC racer looking for the best equipment, you’re inclined to purchase the items that Joe Pro Racer used to win recent big races. Over the last few years we've seen yet another change, that of handing out 50% deals like business cards in order to secure paying representatives.

 

Nowadays, even the fringe teams that are lucky to break into the A-Main at the biggest races in the U.S. and around the world are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on salaries and travel expenses. This was a brilliant strategy when racing dominated the RC industry, as only those so moved by the thrill of competition would have the patience and dedication to build, modify, and tune the RC vehicles of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s.

 

It’s been quite a long time since that has been 100% true, however. Need proof? Even those brands that are afraid to admit it are chasing Traxxas in sales, which bailed out of pro-level racing decades ago yet are responsible for launching three of the biggest changes the RC world has seen since - the Ready-To-Run, the monster truck, and the short course truck. And now even the most diehard racing-minded companies - Associated, Durango, Kyosho, Serpent, Tamiya, Team Losi Racing, XRAY, and Yokomo all offer some form of drifter, mini or micro, monster truck, short course, or base-level Ready-To-Run.

 

And you wondered why Team Durango ditched their pro race team?

 

Rather than spending big money on RC racing, which immediately limits a brand’s marketing influence to within the realm of those who are already at least interested in racing RC cars, Traxxas went in the completely opposite direction. They sponsored a Monster Jam truck painted to look like a T-Maxx. They jumped head-first into the TORC and Stadium Super Truck series, the most accessible and popular forms of full-size “Slash” racing in the world. They even created a Funny Car platform to coincide with their John Force Racing partnership. Their message is less “this is the best RC race car available” and more “this is an RC race car!”

 

 

 

RC racers love to bag on Traxxas, their products, and what they do, but it has certainly worked - HPI Racing, Kyosho, Losi, Tamiya, and Team Associated have all at least dabbled in full-size racing as well. The marketing opportunities have been a great exercise in individual brand awareness, but the greater connection to the still-underground world of local RC racing is missing.

 

The question is how RC racing can best be sold to the general public, and whose responsibility is it to make that step? The answer comes back to the original argument about eggs and chickens.

 

The easiest response is to put the responsibility on the shoulders of the small chickens, the local race tracks and hobby shops, as they’re the closest possible connection to potential eggs…I mean, racers. The sales pitch writes itself: “did you know that you can pick up one of these cars and race it at the track that’s X miles away?” I’ve been to dozens of racetracks across the U.S. over the last 20 years and can probably count on my hands the number of them that are actively recruiting new racers with “try-me” trucks, beginner clinics, and advertising outside of those that have already walked in the front door. Setting up a couple of ramps at the local street fair, inviting the local news crew to the annual big race, working with local schools on fundraisers and science clubs, and networking with nearby businesses (such as the local eateries frequented by racers) are all ways that local tracks and hobby shops could increase foot traffic - with little to no cost involved.

 

Racers love to point fingers, however, and point the blame elsewhere. It’s amazing to me how often ROAR gets torn apart for trying to curb the skyrocketing costs of competing (for better or for worse), and yet the non-profit organization is just as readily charged with the responsibility of growing the hobby so that everyone else can profit. How would you suppose they go about that? Get the manufacturers to work together on something much bigger than standardized dimensional rules? Even ROAR’s existing events - national and regional championships - require outside sponsorship money to be organized in facilities that already exist…often for profit as well. Sorry, but the catalyst for growth must be profit-driven.

 

Which leads to my favorite argument - the media. On-road racers in particular are great at this one, as it’s difficult to take a step back and realize that the segment - and therefore, its audience - died, and that the media finally stopped generating content that wasn’t being consumed. I can’t help but laugh at how often racers have told me that the media is to blame for the rise and fall of the RC racing world, and how it’s *our* job to grow RC racing, except that the nature of the business-to-consumer relationship of any media company pretty much nips this one in the bud. No one gets hooked on the news because the show itself is entertaining - they watch because they want to know what’s going on in the world. Tabloids like National Enquirer and TMZ don’t breed nosy audiences who are interested in the personal lives of celebrities, they serve the content that the audience already wants. The percentage of people who pick up Car and Driver and then become interested in cars is a sliver of those who were already enthusiastic about horsepower. I’ve worked for multiple magazine publishers who pay to put copies in bookstores and Wal-Marts, and now I write content for a company that broadcasts RC races, from the local level to international championships, over the Internet (for free). In fact, all of these entities have published content expressly intended to recruit new racers (I would know, because I wrote them). Media is only as captivating as the material it covers, though, and its audience is only as large as those who are already interested in the subject. If racers are eggs, and for-profit tracks and manufacturers are chickens, the RC media is an Earth mineral.

 

The answer then, I’m afraid, lies with the biggest "chickens" themselves - the manufacturers. Increasingly over the last couple of years, I hear frustration with the lack of reach of the big races we all attend, the way that the races are run, and what they're getting out of it. Of course, after the backlash so far from Team Durango's big decision, it would be even tougher for a more established company to risk bailing on "pro" racing and leaving their customers feel alienated, even with the best cars on the market. However, If each company that’s heavily entrenched in RC racing spent just 10% of their budget allotted for salary, travel, and placing banners at existing events working toward a common goal, they could come up with something that’s as impactful on the awareness of the brands involved as, well, this:

 

 

Ken Block’s Gymkhana videos are the best example of how today’s world consumes content, and how the audience identifies with the brands associated with that content. The video cost over $1 million to produce - shared by partners like Ford, the video game franchise Need for Speed, and Block’s Hoonigan apparel line - is a great example of brands working toward different goals allotted part of their budget that would’ve been spent elsewhere (TV spots, for example) to create something with a huge impact.

 

Could Associated, HPI, Kyosho, Losi, Tamiya, and everyone else work together to assemble a viral video series with the impact of the Gymkhana videos? Well, maybe. Could they form a centralized effort to turn individual kit sales and marketing efforts into a grassroots campaign that focuses on the relatively accessible fun of RC racing with box inserts, traditional and Internet advertising, existing motorsports avenues, and event promotion, all coordinated for their mutual benefit? Absolutely. More new faces means more seasoned veterans, both of which mean more entries at racetracks across the country, which means more kit and accessory sales, which means more money and a more stable future.

 

Heck, I know of a company that already has cross-industry reach and a network of local racing facilities across the country…