C-BRAT Calendar 2021 Submission Request

[ssobol]

Previously, the calendar was a C-Brats member thing organized internally by one of the the frequent users of this website. (While there are many owners of C-Dorys, only a fraction are active members of this forum.) The calendar was mostly bought by the most active members and people who submitted images for inclusion (even if their image was not selected). I believe that the annual sales of the calendar was in the dozens.

Since the manufacturer has become more active in the forum, perhaps there is a sponsorship opportunity here. The impression I get is that NMI is encouraging the whole calendar thing. Submissions to the calendar could be encouraged by the awarding of C-Dory swag to submissions that get selected for inclusion in the calendar. At the very least, if the manufacturer is encouraging submissions, they could send each submitter who ended up with an image in the calendar a free copy of the finished calendar.

There seems to be a big promotional opportunity here. The company (if they are sponsoring the calendar) get a bunch of images of their product that they can use for promotion (with the appropriate legalese around the submissions) in exchange for the cost of 13 calendars (plus postage) if the "prize" for getting an image in the calendar is a free copy. It is not uncommon in photo contests that submissions to the contest can become marketing material for the sponsor of the contest. Even if the company only gets one image that is of sufficient quality and content from all the images submitted for the annual calendar, getting that one image for about $150 (the cost of 12-13 "prize" calendars) is an unbelievable deal. (Try setting up a marketing photo shoot with a budget of $150 for a product that costs ~$100K new, you'll get laughed out of the room.)

There may be some people who won't submit anything because of perceived privacy issues if a submission becomes corporate property used for promotion of the product. But I'm guessing that there are also plenty of people who won't have a problem with that ("Hey look, the picture of my boat is so great, it's in the company calendar!"). They are proud of their boats and will be pleased with getting the word out about them to others.

It would be sort of like Pirelli having owners of cars that run on their tires submitting photos for the annual Pirelli calendar rather than spending millions on some arty photographer you never heard of (e.g. Paolo Roversi) to come up with a series of photos representing some obscure idea (the subject of the 2020 Pirelli calendar is "Looking for Juliette") that has little or nothing to do with the manufacturers product. Ok, the C-Dory calendar is not in the same league as the Pirelli calendar (not by a long shot). The product of the Pirelli calendar effort is the "Pirelli Calendar", but maybe you get my point.

[ssobol]

P.S. I enjoy my boat and I enjoy photography. I like making the effort to get an interesting and unique image of my boat. Personally, if the boat manufacturer wants to use my image for promotion, I have no problem with that (with appropriate credit). It is better for a nice image to be seen than just having it collecting dust on my computer hard drive.

Occasionally, I do get them printed and put them on the wall.

[thataway]

One of the problems if used for commercial purpose you will have to have model release with other details. Check w with the professionals, like James Wild Blue fame, or Bill with Falcon.

One of the images I submitted was of a couple of C Brats on their boat. I was a bit concerned about that. I believe that they would give model releases, but don't know all of the legalities. Of an Internet forum vs the manufacturers usages of images.

[ssobol]

[hardee]

For a bit of clarification. Yes, NMI is involved with the calendar. I asked Julie, (the Marketing person) if she would be willing to help with the calendar. In exchange for her help, NMI gets a look at the submission photos to see if there is something they could use and C-BRATS gets the help with the technical submission part of getting the calendar into Lulu, as that part was beyond my technical capability. I seriously thought that there would be plenty of participation, actually considerably more that we had. WE (Julie and I) sorted out the photos, and aligned them for the calendar, then she was going to get them loaded up at Lulu. WE ran into a hitch in that the cover photo would not load at Lulu, and so we made a substitution and somebody got both a cover, and an month page. Then there was a snag with getting the text info onto the photo pages, (photo and boat info). I think that is where we are now.

I appreciate the comments and if we have interest in continuing with a calendar, then there are some changes that we need to do. Maybe first off, see if there is any interest in that.

Harvey
SleepyC

[hardee]

OK, folks, Maybe I lied. It seems we have had a snag or three in out calendar production. Maybe this is something I should just let die a natural death. I Actually thought that NMI would be interested in this enough to do the technical part with Lulu. I know this is a busy time for all of us in some way or another. I am including a copy of (mostly) what I got from Julie. If there is anyone who wants to look into doing the LuLu part, the rest is done. Thanks to those who submitted photos, and to Greg for the C-BRAT logos. Take a read, and let me know where to go with this.

email from Julie, NMI Marketing

[ssobol]

Plenty of other places that let you create calendars. One thing Lulu lets you do is sell to others via their website. Not sure who else lets you do that.

[colbysmith]

Walgreens, mixbook, shutterfly. Many places will allow the making of calendars. Not sure why lulu has to be used. I've never made a calendar, so maybe there is more to it. But somewhere I just read Mixbook does the best job. I just logged on there, and it looks like it wouldn't be that hard for somebody to do it there. Just make one for show, then take orders and place them. I haven't tried it, just looking at the website. I have done photo books there, and they've come out pretty nice. Colby

[hardee]

[ssobol]

[hardee]

If anyone finds a alternative place (I believe they are called self publishing companies) that looks like it could work it might be worth a try. We would need to be able to upload photos, (13), and then the calendar orders could be placed individually by the purchaser. Taht way there is no money cahnging hands, going through or bothering the C-BRATs.

Harvey
SleepyC

[curioustraveler]

I'm happy to help. Is it just a matter of uploading the photos to LuLu?

[jkidd]

If the calendar happens or doesn't maybe they could add the photos to the home page and freshen it up a bit.