Let’s say someone came up to you and gave you a duffle bag full of money. $20,000 in total.
They will give it to you, with one catch
You must use all of this money to make yo-yo more popular in the future.
How would you do that?
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It probably wouldn’t be enough money, since I’d want to get a pop/hip-hop star into yoyoing somehow and then convince them to do yoyo tricks in all their music videos.
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A million ways to skin this cat for sure.
(Well 20,000 ways)
I kinda like the idea of building a network of “certified” instructors throught the US. Similar to what Andre does at his A2Z yoyo school.
Then sponsor clubs across America with basic responsive and unresponsive yoyos to teach yoyo. “Yoyo Experts” all over could help expand the movement.
I think one of the biggest barriers is that so many people start and have nowhere to go. The internet doesn’t keep everyone fully engaged.
Social media campaigns and school events etc as well.
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True statement. Its gotta to get into pop culture.
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Take the most recently popular high school game (like Fortnight in its prime) and put the money into making a character who features a yoyo. Spend the rest of the money on an add that features yoyoing in a way that attracts middle/high school aged kids. Video needs to feature college aged kids at the oldest. Match it to music that is currently popular. 20k may not be enough to initiate a movement though.
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They have that in Terraria already. It is the most produced and sold One Drop. So sounds like a solid idea.
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If we had a high budget id say make a super hero movie with an MC (or cool villain) who uses a yoyo, but 20k couldn’t provide the budget for such a thing. For the popular effect to work, it needs to have widespread appeal via movie, game, and meme alike. The movie could provide the meme and exposure, while a game will provide further exposure and commonality.
Tbh, if someone designed a well performing Pokeball yoyo and advertised it appropriately, it has the potential to capture the millenials+ crowd strongly, and younger kids marginally by association with the franchise. Pokemon resonates strongly with people who are ~30 y/o right now. By capturing a subsection of the population of parents with young children, some kids may see yoyo in the household and feel the need to get into it eventually. This would be the current long-con approach for current youth, but there would have to be an eventual trigger for them in pop culture as well.
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I would also use some to commision @DocPop to create a comic book trick guide with everything taught in those clubs both in digital and print. Everyone in the clubs would have access to it etc.
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I would lime to see more yoyos in movies. Like @unklesteve in Zoolander.
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Wait he was in Zoolander?
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The Owen Wilson (Hansel) yoyo scenes were Steve. At least thats what I read before.
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Make a bunch and have players play that one yo-yo
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Haha I can’t find the scene though
WILSON HAD A YO-YO STUNT DOUBLE
Owen Wilson might be a great actor, but he’s no yoyo pro — unlike his character Hansel.
To help him out, producers hired a yoyo stunt double named Steve Brown to handle all the crazy tricks.
In 2001, the same year the movie was released, Brown was named a National Yo-Yo Master.
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I can’t find them either. It’s been a while so I can’t remember exactly where the scenes were.
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Here’s a clip, it’s not the actual scene but a dubbed one, but you can see that boingy boing goin on.
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Ah it is at the beginning on the fashion runway in the fuzzy coat!
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Repeat what the Terrian was. Video game/yoyo combo. This is still working wonders for the Balisong community because of CS:GO.
Send a bunch of Amateurs to middle schools for demo’s, around the country (use locals in the areas, they don’t have to be amazing, just hit some flashy stuff and a decent length routine).
Get some into the hands of “it” people. Many companies put their products in the hands of popular/attractive people because it tricks others into wanting in on it (essentially walking billboards).
Strategically give out replay pros (or similar) with the rest of the money around the world.
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Oh, and commercial advertising, visual ads only. Youtube, tv, facebook. Short 15 second video ads.
I believe that if people knew what yoyos are like now, as opposed to just throwing it down and catching it over and over, that there would be a much larger number of throwers from that alone.
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I don’t actually think 20,000 would make a dent in the popularity of yoyo with any application. At all.
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Yeah I was wondering just how far that stretches these days. I mentioned a bunch of cheap ideas except for the advertising. That has become extremely expensive from what I hear these days.
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