I don't know how many of you posting have actually worked in marketing, specifically for television or print (internet doesn't count
). Anyways, the last 5 yrs or so have seen a paradigm shift from focusing on media with broad mainstream appeal to extremely focus niche markets with a predictable demographic.
Why is this? Well, a popular sitcom might appeal to a very broad demographic, but what can you sell to a 45 year old woman and a 15 year old boy? Not much. This is why the value of mainstream marketing media continues to decline, the interest in cable programming continues to grow etc etc.
Pulling in a consistent and predictiable niche demo, even in relatively small numbers, makes a lot of financial sense. Lets take a real world example:
Selling Axe Deoderant/Body Sprays on a primetime sitcom or reality show. This is extremely expensive firstly with a relatively low probablity of hitting the companies target demo. Furthermore it restricts the content of the ad to be palletable to viewers outside their demo.
Advertise the same product on a cable show which focuses on a youth subculture or niche and you got yourself a cost effective media which reliably hits the demo over and over again. The content can be tailored more specifically to the auidence. Finally, by supporting niche programming, you say to that subculture that you actually care about their interests and that builds a strong positive association between the brand and lifestyle.
I worked for several years with the SCC (sport compact counsel) of SEMA and a number of automotive aftermarket companies. Its hard for relatively small businesses (the sport compact market at its peak was only 4 bil a year in revenue) to understand that their is value in their niche. RC could easily be reinvented to be a subculture sleeper.
To do this would involve marketing it alot more like action sports, import drag/drifting etc. Basically, shift the focus away from kids and families (they don't have the $$ to support the hobby) and go for the gold demo wise. 20 something single males. Disposable income galore, flexible lifestyle and poor judgement. If you look at the current crop of traveling racers they defy every stereo type and assumtion one would make about toy car racers. These guys need to be the new poster children of RC. All of a sudden RC looks alot more like skateboarding or some other subculture that is dripping with cool.