UP FRONT
Separating the Bulls
from the Chips
The June 15, 1985 issue of Play Meter has very few
pages of advertising in it. But that's not because there's still an
advertising boycott against the magazine by certain
manufacturers. Far from it.
The lack of advertising at this time of the year reflects a
lack of confidence by many in business for the immediate
future . Many equipment manufacturers and suppliers say they
can't afford to advertise their products at this time of the year.
Business is bad, they say.
You'd think advertisement in Play Meter cost millions and
millions of dollars, rather than roughly what they're asking an
operator to spend for one machine.
Some manufacturers and suppliers have even suggested
we run their advertisements for them free of charge, or at least
at great discounts. But it is not the practice of this magazine to
give away free advertisements to manufacturers just to make
the magazine look fat and the industry to look healthy and
bullish.
If certain manufacturers and suppliers have a crisis of
confidence in the future of this industry, we feel such shill
advertisements would be a disservice to those who, like us,
believe in the future of the coin-operated amusement industry.
So we are not going to pretend they're bullish on the industry
when, in fact, they're afraid to re-invest in the industry at this
time. Play Meter's goal is not to deceive the industry, but
rather to act as a mirror reflecting exactly what the industry
feels about itself. And, today, many in the industry apparently
don't have much faith in the future .
When solicited for advertising in this issue , one
manufacturer with current product on the market even went
so far as to say, "I'm not doing any advertising at this time. I'm
not doing anything at all. I'd sooner put my money in the bank
and draw interest, than put it back in the industry at this time.
I'll get aggressive again in September."
The industry is filled right now with a lot of these self-
fulfilling prophets. Business has always been bad in the
summertime, they say; so business this summer will also be
bad. Yet still they want operators to demonstrate confidence
in the market by buying anyway.
It's a seasonal thing, they say. Things will pick up in the
fall , and they'll be ready to introduce new equipment and
advertise again. That's not bullish. It's just plain bull. You don't
turn aggressive salesmanship and marketing on and off like a
faucet. What we're faced with here is excuse-making. We're
making excuses why we can't do things, instead of doing what
has to be done.
Nothing comes to he who waits.
Few people realize that Steven Spielberg's greatest
contribution to the motion picture industry wasn't E. T. It was
his discovery that millions of people didn't leave the planet
Earth during the summer months. Obviously, he must have
noted that the only movie that had been able to outgross Gone
With the Wind, up until that time, was a made-for-summer
movie called Jaws . So, while those dummies at MGM and
Columbia Pictures were still thinking that the only time to
introduce new monon pictures was in the fall and at
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Christmastime, Spielberg started releasing movies in June!
Spielberg knew there were roughly as many people on the
face of the earth during the summertime as there were during
the other times of the year, and those people still had a desire
to be entertained. So he started a motion picture revolution,
summer releases, and presto! Box office smashes.
This summer more than 80 motion pictures will be
released. In fact, the motion picture industry now has three
different seasons-the summer movies, the fall movies, and
the winter movies.
Why won't such pioneering instincts work for the coin-
operated entertainment industry? Simply because there still
exists, among the industry's manufacturers, a pervasive
feeling of defeatism. Instead of trying to make things happen,
too many manufacturers have adopted the motto "Don't just
do something! Stand there!"
Are we to believe that months with four or six letters, by
nature , spell doom and defeat for the coin-operated
entertainment industry? After slowly building a new product
momentum, with new, exciting releases, the enthusiasm has
suddenly died at the factory level. Manufacturers are
apparently waiting around for operators to make the first
move. And operators are waiting for manufacturers to do
something. It's a stalemate where the industry keeps getting
staler and staler all the time because everyone is afraid to do
something out of the ordinary, to take that Spielberg risk.
So the next time a game supplier talks to you about the
need to be bullish on the industry, on the need for an industry
optimism, just pick up your most recent summer issue of Play
Meter magazine and see if he's bullish or just full of bull . That
way you'll see if the person is just blowing smoke or if he really
believes what he's telling you. Talk, after all, is cheap. The only
way you can tell the man is by where he puts his money. Those
who are afraid to re-invest in the industry and who are trying to
alibi their ways around it may blame the stars in the sky or the
seasons of the year for their lack of success. But the true
winners will be those who didn't look for excuses.
We'd like to mouth empty words of optimism at this time ,
but we feel it's much more honest that we reflect the apparent
defeatist, grim attitude shared by most equipment suppliers.
Operators, looking to invest in the future, should be aware of
what manufacturers are bullish on this industry. They're still
advertising at this slack time. And opertors can also tell which
manufacturers lack confidence in the future; they're the ones
who can't even afford to invest as much on an advertisement
as they're asking an operator to invest for the purchase of a
single machine.
David Pierson
Editor
PLAY METER. June 15. 1985
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