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+--- Thread: how to kickstart a community? (/Thread-how-to-kickstart-a-community)
how to kickstart a community? - exodia0 - Jun. 26, 2017
Hi there, Any suggestions on how to kickstart a bey-community in Madrid, Spain?
I have been blading since I was a kid with the plastics and I don´t remember any of my friends interested in beyblade, not in the anime either.
now I´m quite excited with burst but again I don´t see any hype or interest (when the bey map was available I remember seeing 2 other persons in the whole country and off line for the las 2 years or so)
I think one of the main reasons is the zero availability of beyblade in spain, it´s difficult to hook up kids when they cannot go to the store and pick up their toys (and they have to go to ebay, and wait several days-weeks por a taiwan post)
I would appreciate any suggestions or tips you have to build up and strengthen your community and see if we can do something here in spain.
Thank you very much.
RE: how to kickstart a community? - Kai-V - Jun. 26, 2017
Is Beyblade really not sold at all in Spain? Not even Hasbro's version?
If you have to basically market the toy from the ground up, then that will definitely be a big task, as you will have to make sure to order enough stock to sell or at least lend to interested people.
Depending on really how much Spain is exposed or not to Beyblade, you may want to try to get a booth or a table at a big anime convention in Spain, and get at least one or two other people with you to do exhibition matches. You could then hand out pamphlets or Promo Cards and let them know when you plan on holding a tournament in the next few months. If possible, collect their email addresses or even phone numbers so you can actually remind them closer to the date hah. Con-goers usually have a lot on their mind.
Does Spain have an equivalent to Kijiji or Craigslist? Or try to advertise on YouTube or even find a local parents group on Facebook to whom you could pitch the idea of introducing their kids to a new game.
As a last resort, you may want to look into tagging along to a community that is currently interested in another, "similar" hobby. I cannot even name you one from the top of my head, but basically it is what I and others are trying to do with beigoma: bring it to a few Beyblade tournaments, and let people try that different game.
Those are the usual pieces of advice that we give. I really hope you can get something going in Spain, and I hope that there is actually some small coverage of Beyblade there, either right now with Burst or at minimum previously with Metal Fight Beyblade or even Plastics and HMS.
RE: how to kickstart a community? - exodia0 - Jun. 26, 2017
(Jun. 26, 2017 4:35 PM)Kai-V Wrote: Is Beyblade really not sold at all in Spain? Not even Hasbro's version?
If you have to basically market the toy from the ground up, then that will definitely be a big task, as you will have to make sure to order enough stock to sell or at least lend to interested people.
Depending on really how much Spain is exposed or not to Beyblade, you may want to try to get a booth or a table at a big anime convention in Spain, and get at least one or two other people with you to do exhibition matches. You could then hand out pamphlets or Promo Cards and let them know when you plan on holding a tournament in the next few months. If possible, collect their email addresses or even phone numbers so you can actually remind them closer to the date hah. Con-goers usually have a lot on their mind.
Does Spain have an equivalent to Kijiji or Craigslist? Or try to advertise on YouTube or even find a local parents group on Facebook to whom you could pitch the idea of introducing their kids to a new game.
As a last resort, you may want to look into tagging along to a community that is currently interested in another, "similar" hobby. I cannot even name you one from the top of my head, but basically it is what I and others are trying to do with beigoma: bring it to a few Beyblade tournaments, and let people try that different game.
Those are the usual pieces of advice that we give. I really hope you can get something going in Spain, and I hope that there is actually some small coverage of Beyblade there, either right now with Burst or at minimum previously with Metal Fight Beyblade or even Plastics and HMS.
RE: how to kickstart a community? - Limetka - Jun. 26, 2017
I'm gonna be honest, if beyblades are not sold there, it's impossible. I would wait a year or two for Burst to come to Spain.
RE: how to kickstart a community? - exodia0 - Jun. 26, 2017
Sorry kai, I quoted you without any response by mistake.
I can´t be 100% certain but I´m pretty sure beyblade never got to spain, not even MFB, it came with some plastics and that was it, and even then most of the retailers had fakes (proper retailers such as Toys´r us and such) I think it didn´t "pop out" to the spanish public.
I thought the idea of going to conventions was a good one, and I have a big enough collection to lend to people and play but ultimately depending on how hyped those people will be I think is a difficult and steep jump to go and tell them to spend 50$ or so on ebay to play any other time, as Limetka said I think it would be quite difficult, as currently I don´t have the money to invest in large quantities and try to sell them.
I don´t know if the admins have access to the map to see if spain is still dead.
BTW: if any spanish bladers read this and want to try a little house tournament message me I´ll be happy to set it up.
RE: how to kickstart a community? - Beylon - Jun. 26, 2017
The comment about conventions is apt. France has a pretty strong spinning top following for "trick tops" and there are often dedicated conventions, swap-meets and markets just for that. Perhaps this also applies to Spain? The forum itopspin.com sometimes has clues for where to go - it even has a spanish section, which I cannot read. Good luck!