I don’t understand why a company who prides itself in being everywhere and with everyone wouldn’t be a huge part of this contest. I’ve never been to Worlds nor have I spent alot of time analyzing YYF’s sponsorship history aside from wrongly assuming that they sponsored darn near everything. What am I missing here?
This may be incorrect, but I believe I’ve read they feel the need to focus on growing yoyo to the non initiated masses as a primary goal. At least I think I remember reading something of the sort.
I don’t think they sponsored BAC or CalStates either. They may be putting this money into their players, who will proudly show the YYF brand and do all the “eyeball catching” they need.
YYF has also sponsored some rather non-conventional things recently. There was the east coast Birdhouse tour and now a West Coast one. I just hope they are selling B-grades and that I’ll have some cash to get a couple.
I’m sure YYF is spending the money in ways they feel best benefits them. There’s almost always ways to increase one’s presence. Even at Worlds 2011, with the “colored bar” T-shirts, everyone knew it was YYF.
I believe it has something to do with the 5a patent dispute with Duncan and they stopped sponsoring contests with 5a divisions. I may be wrong but idk. That’s why they made those bar Tshirts as well
This isn’t the first year they’ve not sponsored worlds. They didn’t last year either. It’s their perogative as to what they want to sponsor. They have the publicity they need. Now they want to produce more throwers rather than promote contests. Unless it’s outside of the U.S.
I think Chris may be on the right track with this. YYF has plenty of notoriety and wouldn’t really do anything besides help bolster their image. In a way the team is going to be a good amount of advertising in itself.
I thought YYF avoided sponsoring some high profile contests that have a 5A division cause of supposed legal issues with the Duncan patent.
I was talking to… I don’t remember who about this. I think it might have been yoshi.
Anyways, what I figure is that yyf is already well known enough, they don’t need to sponsor the contest and get their name out there. Everyone knows who they are already. So why pay the $1000 to get a booth, or however much they pay just to sponsor it? It’s a good business decision. You don’t really have to pay for as much advertisement if everyone already knows about you.
The 5a counterweight thing is I think their excuse, or just rumours.
@studio - They’re doing a west coast tour? 
This is what I said it was. Ever since the whole Patent debacle they stop sponsoring major contests in the US. They can sponsor overseas competitions because Duncans patent isn’t valid anywhere else but the US and Canada I believe.
US, Canada and German i think. I know they still sponsor our UK contest. Or YYF Europe does anyway
http://www.yoyofactory.com/2012/05/birdhouse-left-coast-tour/
They are landing “right in my backyard” on July 16th. They better bring some good stuff, I’m planning on doing some spending. Taking 2 kids with me, probably gonna meet up with theroybit and guessing some of the Yolex folks out there as well. Should be a blast. I’m not into skateboarding, but I’ll definately watch a a fair amount and enjoy it.
I remember reading somewhere that they don’t want to risk losing everything. I mean, I even read that some sponsors at Worlds don’t even support the contest by monetary means [Nathan, correct me on this one, thanks.]. Anyway, they may not sponsor one of the largest contests around, but they do a heck more than just that by bringing the brand somewhere else…like the Birdhouse Tour
[/speculation]
Until then, I’ll wait until Ben responds to this.
YFF not sponsoring Worlds?
Isn’t that like Chevy not showing up for Indy? I can understand missing a few contests, but Worlds?
I sure hope that it is not about some stupid 5A patent. How is not sponsoring Worlds punishing Duncan? Seems like YYF would be punishing the wrong party. I guess it makes some sort of sense to send your huge, well capitalized, already famous team to compete at a contest sponsored by the likes of RecRev and OneDrop.
…right?
YYF has so many sponsored players, it’s not necessary. There will be YYF shirts going across the stage in pretty much every category. Plus, all these walking/talking billboards(same is true for other companies) helps brands get their message, identity and brand awareness across.
A company like Chevy wants to catch the 100K+ pairs of eyes at the races, plus the 10-20-million+ pairs of eyes of the viewing audience, so try to sell products averaging over $30K. It’s not the same market.
They made a statement about it awhile back, and it is in fact because of Duncan.
I wont get into it because it is absolute horse *&@#% on Duncan’s end. But I’m sure the statement is floating around somewhere.
A lot of great guess work here. However, Ben is a member on the forum and if you want the truth, it’s that important to you, I’d just p.m. him. I’m sure he’d make it clear or send you to a site or thread that explains the situation.
Why not get the info straight from the man?
They were at BAC and those tables aren’t free, but hmmm… I don’t see them on the sponsors list.
Good eyes MattB
Contest sponsorship in the USA is still too grey for us to touch.
Flambeau issued a statement they called black and white but realistically didn’t offer an answer to our concerns. From our perspective it is like putting your head in a guillotine and giving the power to cut it off to the largest corporation in the industry who is threatened by your mere existence. We worked too hard to take that chance.
We supported the event without sponsoring one year and the organizers could not differentiate what we offered from sponsorship, thus putting us again at risk. So here we are.
We enjoyed sponsoring worlds. We put a lot of time and effort into enhancing the contest, promoting the lead up to the contest, we donated materials to Iron Mod, did fast challenge for $1000 one year, a car the next, flew in team from around the world, broadcast freestyles to millions, launch product, offered retail sales with excitement but for the time being I cannot see our position changing.
It has given us an interesting perspective. We certainly don’t hold any grudge against Flambeau, it’s business for them. I probably expected contest organizers to do more to protect their sponsors from potential legal action, but I guess the lack of action reflects the lack of actual threat to the ‘Duncan’ brand from the other sponsors.
Our problem. We aren’t complaining, just focusing on we can do and doing it to the best of our ability.
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I thank you for this answer. Although a bit cryptic, it pointed me in the right direction. I googled “flambeau 5a patent” and found the Sep 10 statement issued by Flambeau President Jeff Bush.
Given the substance of that statement, I can certainly understand some of the issues that a company like YYF might have with this. My initial reaction is the usual “huh? Duncan created 5A?..” to noticing that stupid, un-defendable patents like this are usually resolved by a consortium of marketplace competitors challenging the patent using communal resources that make the legal challenge financially justified.
I agree with your observation that this position and the statement itself from Flambeau, reflect “business”. One wonders about the “golden goose” being sacrificed for a marketplace power play. I feel sorry for sponsored 5A players. This is certainly going to limit its support in the market.
“As long as you have written permission from Duncan”… are you serious? How is that possibly a practical position to take? Is every company/contest-sponsor/retailer expected to have a Duncan,5A compliance department?
Hey lets all 5A under threat of legal action from a benevolent corporation! …You first. ???
Being a sponsor and being a vendor are two entirely different things. One can sponsor AND be a vendor, or one can be either a sponsor or a vendor. It just depends on how they want to approach things. Since I do(or rather did, I’m getting out of that market) a lot of conventions, I see LOTS of that kind of things. Many organizations just want to be vendors: buy a table and sell stuff. Some want to be sponsors: inject cash and/or resources into an event. Some want to double dip, provide money and/or resources and be able to have a table or booth to sell stuff from.
Honestly, all this stuff is about money anyways. If YYF feels their money is best spend being a vendor, then so be it. If YYF feels it’s best to spend the money on getting more players to contests, then hey, maybe that’s a good thing since YYF players regularly make finals and tend to do very well. There’s more than one way to get “attention”.