[Dragon] What's up with the old ads?

[Shadowdancer]

What's up with the old ads in issue No. 311 of Dragon?

On page 31, there's a Crystal Caste ad promoting Gen Con, which as we all know was last month.

On page 70 there's an ad for "Scourge of Worlds" that contains the line "Available June 10 wherever DVDs are sold."

On page 95 there is an ad for Do or Dice.com with a coupon for 10 percent off. Unfortunately, it expired on July 1. This is the second issue in a row in which the Do or Dice.com ad contained a coupon which expired before the magazine came out.

I know they prepare the issues and the ads in advance, but someone should really catch things like this, and double check to make sure it is the correct ad for that month's issue, or if the advertiser really wanted that ad to run in that particular issue.

 

[Bagpuss]

On page 70 there's an ad for "Scourge of Worlds" that contains the line "Available June 10 wherever DVDs are sold."

Its actually only available on 29/09/03 in the UK.

 

[WizarDru]

What's up with the old ads in issue No. 311 of Dragon?

On page 31, there's a Crystal Caste ad promoting Gen Con, which as we all know was last month.

On page 70 there's an ad for "Scourge of Worlds" that contains the line "Available June 10 wherever DVDs are sold."

On page 95 there is an ad for Do or Dice.com with a coupon for 10 percent off. Unfortunately, it expired on July 1. This is the second issue in a row in which the Do or Dice.com ad contained a coupon which expired before the magazine came out.

Presumably it has something to do with expense. It's cheaper to reuse the camera art/artwork from a completed ad than it is to do a new one. I would assume that it has more to do with those particular advertisers not feeling it was worth the effort or redoing a full-page ad. Especially with such small companies and the task of preparing for Gencon looming...many of them probably just decided to rerun their ads rather thanmake a slight change to the ad and then resubmit it, and so on.

Either that, or someone screwed up big.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Yeah, but the Do or Dice ad has had an expired coupon in for two months straight! That can't be on purpose, no matter what the cost of changing the ad.

 

[TalonComics]

I personally thought it was pretty silly to see the full 3 page ads for the 3.5 books as to me that's along the lines of a 3 page ad to buy Dragon magazine.

Who are those ads geared to? What are the chances of someone who's never played D&D to pick up Dragon magazine and not know anything about the actual game at all? I know it happens but it has to be very, very low and probably not worth paying the thousands for a 3 full page color ad deal. How about putting those ads in Electronic Gaming Monthly instead?

~D

 

[orbitalfreak]

I personally thought it was pretty silly to see the full 3 page ads for the 3.5 books as to me that's along the lines of a 3 page ad to buy Dragon magazine.
~D

Well, that could be for casual players who know of D&D 3e, but who don't follow the game closely enough to know about 3.5e. That person might be browsing in B.Dalton's one day and see a "Dragon" mag, think "Hey, it's been a while since I bought one of these," and buy it. Then, he sees an advertiesment for an updated rule set, decides to buy it, and spends $30 - $90 for new books. WotC smiles.

 

[Zogg]

Talon-

I think the 3.5 ads were also meant to sway the people that were sitting on the fence about updating to the newest version. Essentially Dragon is saying, "update to 3.5 or else". The "or else" being that if you don't update, Dragon will become useless (or irrelevant) to you.

 

[der_kluge]

The 3.5 ads in the Dragon Mag are essentially worthless to those "on the fence" people. That may be the theory, and I'm no marketing guru, but it seems to me that if you're going to try to convince the fencers, then you need to give them a _reason_ why they need to switch. List out the benefits, describe the additional page counts, the inclusion of errata, the extra PrCs, spells, monsters, etc. Those are reasons to upgrade, not because you are impressed with the k3wl artwork.