MBM Westline review

Hang on a mo, Westline are probably MBM's newest advertising customer, they are hardly going to say anything other than heap plaudits on this boat whether or not it has flaws..
 
Well, I think you'd have to be pretty naive to think that you'll get an honest review of any product, especially one that has jsut started advertising with a magazine that relys almost totally on advertising for its real revenues as has been admitted in the past by the ed's on here.
 
I can feel myself regretting this as I type but here goes anyway...

...I really spend very little with IPC - flick through this months magazine and you wont find any advertising by us. Nor will you last month. We have run a couple of low volume banner ads on YBW and we placed a Magazine advert in the boat show edition (who didn't?) but even then it was the smallest add we could take.

I dont really have any contact with the editorial team, and the advertising bods stress that they have no influence over copy (I had to wait for the Mag to be published - didn;t even get a sneal peek /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif).

You are right to say that they don't want to upset me, I am a customer of theirs. However, Tim has always said that the only thing they will do in the event of a really bad report they will hold publication and give the dealer or the manufacturer an opportunity to rectify or justify the fault. The most recent instance of this I think was a pretty damming Trader 42 review, where they even put the 'wet' pictures on the front cover.

I don't expect you to accept a word of this really - now that I am a member of the damned.
 
Kind of agree, but...

I think it's abit like cars - when I was a lad there were some good cars, some half decent ones and a few that were just crap, dangerous, slow and uncomfortable. Nowadays pretty much all new cars will get you comfortably from a-b with reasonable fuel economy and pretty good safety built in. The only real debate is over what you get for your money.

Likewise with boats - as far as I can see every boat they review does what it says on the tin, only question is - does it meet your requirements and is it worth it? Hard pushed to think of a new boat that's totally crummy in every way, which is what some people seem to want to hear.
 
Jez, don't mean to single you or your product out, just wanted to have a little perspective here. I often buy advertising space in trade mags and always end up doing deals on product reviews and favourable coverage to get maximum bang per buck and the ed and ad teams are always willing to committ to do stuff like this if I sign up now for a 3 month ad run. It is and has been the same in every industry i've been involved with and the boat industry in no dount the same as it is not that far removed from a cotttage industry in the UK.

So there is nothing wrong with this just people shoudl be careful about a lot of back slapping when in reality it means little or nothing. We all have to read the articles and from our own oppinions based on these reviews, these are not Which reviews at the end of the day.
 
Jez I'm sure you have broad shoulders. I do not want to buy your boat however the review seemed pretty fair to me. I would not take a lot of notice of the minor criticism, water off a ducks back /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
I am sure it does happen to some extent, but I was suprised to find that it didn't seem to be the case with MBM. Any negotiation on advert rates were done on that basis, and at no point was I promised a test, favourable or otherwise.

I would hope however that if they felt there was a horrific issue with my boat (or any boat for that matter) that they would let the company and manufacturer concerned know and give them an opportunity to rectify it. of course, they should still be allowed to note the fault in any article, but with a suitabe response/change from the builder.

if they do this, we will all benefit from better boats.
 
It does vary from publisher to publisher. Some magazines are so blantant that they put product/company adverts right opposite their "independent" review - which is quite often written by the company's marketing department anyway. IPC's boating mags DO NOT fall into this category.
One of the reasons Westline got some coverage is down to this forum I'm convinced.
I've bought loads of adverts in the past and in the good mags there was no way I could "buy" some editorial.
 
Poor old Jez, just got over a blasting in the Sports Bat & Rib forum and now here. You'll be getting paranoid /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
oh don't worry, i am used to it on here. I am pretty thick skinned to be honest, and I give as good as I get /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Anyway, i don't think Wakeup was having a pop at me, more at IPC and questioning their ethics.
 
Many moons ago - decades even - I joined IPC to edit one of the Yachting mags - had better be nameless but World came into the title - naively thinking my job was to provide useful, objective, information, and entertainment, to readers. I was fairly rapidly disabused: in those days we used to joke sadly that the editorial was only there to stop the ads sliding into the middle of the page. The publisher paid a great deal more attention to the Ad Manager than the Editor. In many ways it was a great job - getting paid to go sailing two or three days a week - but in the end I was quite happy to move on to another mag, in another sector.

But maybe things have changed since the stone age: I hope so.

Nick
 
Jez, No not picking on you and Westline, more a dig at MBM and MBY, by the way i still buy both mags every month, but on the understanding of what I am buying. See Saskia's post which tells it as I thought.
 
Thats what i thought. From my point of view, if it does happen I haven't been offered any space. maybe I should ask - wonder how much for a cover shot and a 8 page article? /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

To be fair, Saskia did say it was many moons ago, so maybe things have changed. I can only speak of what I know...
 
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