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Saturday Morning Spectacular! May 17

Kaneda Pinball Podcasts YouTube Lives·video·1h 36m·analyzed·May 17, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

Kaneda presents marketing critique to Stern, criticizes core strategy misalignment, discusses Potter delays and industry concerns.

Summary

Kaneda delivers a critique of Stern Pinball's marketing strategy and business positioning during a Saturday morning livestream. He presents a formal analysis he previously delivered to Stern leadership, arguing that the company misunderstands its core customer base (older, wealthier buyers) while marketing to younger demographics with no purchasing power. He also discusses Harry Potter delays, expresses concerns about Barrels of Fun's Dune prospects, praises Spooky Pinball's leadership, and addresses community drama regarding the Twippies awards.

Key Claims

  • Jersey Jack Pinball is leaderless and lacks creative vision, making committee decisions rather than having a singular creative visionary like George Gomez

    medium confidence · Kaneda on Jersey Jack's organizational structure and decision-making

  • Stern Pinball ships 600 games per week while other manufacturers struggle to make 10-20 games per week

    medium confidence · Kaneda's presentation slide citing manufacturing capacity comparison

  • No Harry Potter release date was ever officially announced by Jersey Jack, so claims of delay are inaccurate

    high confidence · Kaneda's direct statement: 'Jack never said it was coming out in May... It could come out in July'

  • Stern's primary marketing problem is believing growth will come from new, younger audiences rather than focusing on existing core customers

    high confidence · Kaneda's presentation lists 'The belief that growth will come from new audiences, more diverse youthful ones' as the #1 problem

  • Average Gen Z individual carries $29,820 in total debt with $16,000 median non-mortgage debt and lacks purchasing power for pinball

    medium confidence · Data cited in Kaneda's Stern presentation

  • Kaneda has over 10 years of pinball institutional knowledge and was approached for but not hired as Stern's CMO

    high confidence · Kaneda's direct statement about job discussion with Stern leadership

  • Spooky Pinball under Bug and Luke's leadership is the manufacturer most likely to go to bed happy and wake up in the best mood

    medium confidence · Kaneda's opinion on Spooky's trajectory since Chuck handed over leadership

  • Barrels of Fun's Dune may struggle commercially due to muted color palette and lack of innovation

    low confidence · Kaneda expressing speculation: 'I'm probably going to extract myself from any sort of NDA situation' with Barrels

Notable Quotes

  • “The customer I have isn't the customer I want. What are you talking about, George? You should never say this. You should never feel this. The people that support you should never hear this.”

    Kaneda @ ~55:00 — Core critique of Stern's strategic misalignment—George Gomez explicitly stated desire to pivot away from existing customer base

  • “Jersey Jack is the a prime example of money doesn't solve the real problems. Money actually makes the problems bigger because my sense when I look at Jersey Jack is it's still a leaderless company.”

    Kaneda @ ~20:00 — Structural critique of Jersey Jack's organizational dysfunction despite financial resources

  • “If you have to guess the kinds of themes people want to buy, you shouldn't be a pinball company and and the difficult thing is not just making what you want to make, but making what consumers actually want.”

    Kaneda @ ~33:00 — Philosophical critique of Barrels of Fun's market research approach

  • “There's nothing is delayed if no date was announced. So there's no delay. Jack never said it was coming out in May.”

    Kaneda @ ~2:00 — Reframes Harry Potter 'delay' narrative—no official date was committed to

  • “I I don't like any of the modern buying an incomplete product. I I don't like it. I think consumers don't like it.”

    Kaneda @ ~7:00 — Criticism of industry practice of releasing games with unfinished code

  • “When you've won so many years in a row becomes a little bit of an albatross and the trophy doesn't matter anymore.”

    Kaneda @ ~48:00 — Explains his withdrawal from Twippies awards competition; sentiment shift on industry recognition

  • “There is a real growing army that is becoming anti-Stern and I think it's a little unfair but I also think they brought it upon themselves.”

    Kaneda @ ~44:00 — Documents sentiment shift in community toward skepticism of Stern's output

Entities

Stern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanySpooky PinballcompanyBarrels of FuncompanyKanedapersonGeorge GomezpersonJack Dangerperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Industry-wide practice of releasing games with incomplete code; Kaneda criticizes model and notes consumer dissatisfaction

    medium · Kaneda: 'I don't like any of the modern buying an incomplete product... I think consumers don't like it. There's too much product out there'

  • ?

    business_signal: Jersey Jack Pinball operates as leaderless company with committee-based decisions and lacks singular creative visionary; financial resources not translating to superior game design

    medium · Kaneda: 'Jersey Jack is the a prime example of money doesn't solve the real problems... it's still a leaderless company... Jack's been in charge of themes and he's completely fumbled so many of them'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Twippies awards credibility damaged; Kaneda withdrawing support due to perceived bias and leadership distrust; award prestige diminished

    medium · Kaneda: 'I'm not going to go visit... I'm not going to ask you guys to vote. I really don't care... They did it to themselves... All that was put in place years ago... to take down Canada's Pinball Podcast'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Spooky Pinball positioned as highest-probability long-term success among manufacturers due to leadership quality, innovation, and company culture maturity

    medium · Kaneda: 'Spooky Pinball is out of all the companies is the one that's going to bed the happiest and waking up in the best mood... I really have been very impressed by the ascension and the maturity'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jersey Jack likely to produce less complex/assembly-intensive game design for Potter to reduce manufacturing challenges and cost

Transcript

youtube_auto_sub · $0.000

0:04
All right, we live. We live. And it is it is Saturday morning. Let's get everybody. Let's Let's Let's turn the hat
0:20
around. All right, that just works better. We live. It is Saturday morning. Let's Let's share this link with everybody. It's gonna be a fun one because we're gonna um on this Saturday morning Spectacular, I'm gonna do what I wanted to do last week and share with everybody the stern document. Hold
1:04
right. How's everybody doing? Brian's in the house. John is in the house. What's up, Damon? Robert, sad boy. Potter delayed. We're going to talk all about Potter. Where is Harry Potter? Where's Harry Potter? We've been waiting since TPF in March, April, May. Where is it? Nobody's ordering Avatar. It's got to be on the line. Now, we'll talk about what we think the delay might be. Um, well, look, Saturday's, you know, I'm missing Killian's T-ball today because tomorrow we are going to Paw Patrol live. So, I couldn't do the show tomorrow, but I am going to do this show uh around most likely around Killian's schedule. So, if you like it on Saturday, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but family first. So, I'm most likely going to be shuffling this around between Saturdays and Sundays. Um I I don't think JJP screwed up Potter so bad so close to reveal. What do you mean they screwed up Potter? John, what do you what do you mean by that? I There's nothing is delayed if no date was announced. So there's no delay. Like, you know, I always love this when it's like it's delayed. It's like, no, they didn't set a date. So, you're not late if you did not tell people when you were going to arrive. So, I don't understand why people think Harry Potter is delayed. Jack never said it was coming out in May. Jack never said it was coming out before June. He never said it was coming out in June. It could come out in July. They know that this game is gonna sell like hotcakes uh the second it gets revealed. So, I I'm not worried about Harry Potter sales. I'm very worried about Dune sales. I'm very worried about King Kong sales. I don't think anybody bought Merlin's Arcade. Maybe. I don't know. What do you think they sold Merlin's Arcade? 50 total. I don't know. Right. Retro Jango, the man that knows something about Predator but can't tell us. Uh that game is that game is not also not delayed. there. There's no, you know, there's no release dates on pins, and I wish there were. And I I think these companies need to get better at just how they reveal and giving people a date by which to prepare to see the new product. Uh because also, you give people time to save money. I think Jack's move was smart. I think a lot of people have been waiting and not buying anything until they see Potter. June looks like an absolute brickfest in the Adam Savage video. Yikes. Um, mate, if they were to release the dates, the code would even be more unfinished. Uh, I don't know. Not Not if you actually finish the product before you start a reveal date. I don't I don't like any of the modern buying an incomplete product. I I I don't like it. I think consumers don't like it. I think there's too much uh there's too much product out there that there should be less of it and more of it should be finished when it's uh revealed. Hold

Harry Potter will likely be emptier/more barren than expected because Jersey Jack avoids difficult-to-assemble games

low confidence · Kaneda's speculation based on JJP's assembly philosophy

  • Kaneda makes substantially more money from 688 podcast subscribers through paid membership than from 5,000 episode listeners with zero revenue

    high confidence · Kaneda's direct statement comparing monetization models

    • “I I don't think Stern's lost focus, I think even Gomez lost his focus because when he passed on stuff like Back to the Future, uh stuff like Harry Potter”

    Kaneda @ ~19:00 — Attributes creative decline to leadership decisions to decline major licenses

  • “The happiest people in the world are those that add significance to trivial things. And 100% believe this.”

    Kaneda @ ~57:00 — Articulates philosophical foundation of pinball community engagement

  • “My dad gave me some really good advice. He said, 'Chris, if you do that, you have to turn the show off.' And the show is really such a creative outlet for you. Do you want to give that up for an internal role?”

    Kaneda (quoting his father) @ ~22:00 — Reveals personal deliberation about Stern employment opportunity and its impact on creative independence

    • Bug
    person
    Spooky Lukeperson
    Harry Pottergame
    Dunegame
    King Konggame
    Seth Garyperson
    Brett Abbasperson
    Tim Sextonperson
    Colinperson
    Twippies Awardsevent
    Chicago Pinball Expoevent
    Potter CE / Pottergame
    Naps Arcadecompany
    Carrie Hardyperson
    Godzillagame
    Metallica Remasteredgame
    Avatargame
    Merlin's Arcadegame

    low · Kaneda: 'Jersey Jack doesn't want to go back and make games that are difficult to assemble. And so that's why I think Potter is going to be more barren than people are expecting'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: King Kong game criticized as embodying design decline; community referencing it mockingly as 'Bing Bong Ellie' (Inside Out character); represents broader skepticism of Stern's recent direction

    medium · Kaneda: 'King Kong is being looked at and people are rooting against it... There is a real growing army that is becoming anti-Stern'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern's marketing targets Gen Z demographics ($16k+ debt, no discretionary income) while actual customer base is older/wealthier adults; fundamental misalignment between audience and product positioning

    high · Kaneda's presentation explicitly contrasts Gen Z marketing imagery with core buyer demographics; George Gomez quote about 'customer I have isn't the customer I want' confirms strategic pivot away from existing base

  • ?

    community_signal: Kaneda considering extracting from Barrels of Fun NDA involvement; distancing from company projects due to concerns about business model and unpaid volunteer labor

    medium · Kaneda: 'I'm on the fence... I'm probably going to extract myself from any sort of NDA situation... I think a lot of people are working at Barrels of Fun for free'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Stern hired new CMO (not Kaneda); Kaneda discussed opportunity but declined due to creative constraints and compensation misalignment

    high · Kaneda: 'They hired someone else to be the CMO... It's hard for them to hire me as CMO because of all the baggage that comes with Canada... Stern wouldn't pay me what I make now'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Harry Potter has no official release date despite community speculation about delays; Kaneda reframes narrative as unfounded

    high · Kaneda: 'Jack never said it was coming out in May... He never said it was coming out in June. It could come out in July. There's nothing is delayed if no date was announced.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Barrels of Fun's Dune at risk due to anticipated brown/beige/muted color palette limiting commercial appeal compared to competitor vibrant design approaches

    low · Kaneda references design philosophy concern about Barrels' potential to continue muted palette; indirectly suggests lack of confidence in game direction

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Growing anti-Stern sentiment in community; players rooting against King Kong; community fatigue with repeated design patterns and pricing

    high · Kaneda: 'There is a real growing army that is becoming anti-Stern... people are rooting against it... they don't want to hear you praise it. I want to tear it down because I'm just more I don't want more of the same'

    • 4:42
    on. Got to get a little cup of my coffee. My non-refundable coffee mug. Remember when non-refundable was like a like a joke? Now it's like everyone's locking up their money. Um here's what we're going to do. At roughly 10:30, I'm going to pull up. How would you guys like to see uh Canada's presentation I gave to Stern Pinball. Would you guys like to see that? This happened uh around Chicago Expo. I went over there. I had a really great audience with Seth Gary uh and George Gomez and Jack Danger popped in. And I think they were just like expecting a hangout, a meet and greet, and I brought them me, professional me, as I would walk in there, uh, if they were paying me. So, it was a it was a lot of fun to put together. I I think a deck that they weren't expecting. Uh, I'm curious. I haven't looked at it since I went over there. I'm just curious how much of what I presented to them is still relevant, is still accurate, and and and I'm curious what you think of it. Uh because I I went in there with the goal to um to show them how I think they're missing uh the mark and their marketing is ill pointed. It's not even a phrase, illpointed. It's just they just don't understand the target audience the way I I think they should. And I think they're learning, but I also think they're I think Gary just kind of keeps thinking that just keep getting the D just ram these products down the DRO's throats and we'll be fine. And I think that approach doesn't work anymore. And I don't think they know kind of what to do other than that. and they seemingly are just guessing at le numbers and prices are just astronomical and people are not seeing the value and I I and I kind of warn them of that. I really do. I think they um I think they sort of have yet to wake up and and market their products towards the home buyer. Clear coat's not as good. You know, the product quality is not what it used to be. the prices are more than they it ever used to be and I think everyone's just kind of over it. Um, I'll tell you this, Stern was very receptive and we had a really good conversation and I look, I won't lie, won't lie, part of me, a a big part of me would love to work at Stern and be the CMO because that's the only job I would want there. They hired someone else to be the CMO. Uh I have over 10 years of pinball institutional knowledge. I I wish the new CEO CMO luck. I don't know uh if he will be successful. I don't know what power he will have to erect real change. Uh it's hard for them to hire me as CMO because of all the baggage that comes with Canada. But I also now that Tim Sexton's gone, he's really the only guy that got the drink in the face. So, I think I also know that Stern wouldn't pay me what I make now, but I I'd be willing to do it to just do something new. And I would be willing to do it if we could have some sort of contract where marketing decisions that I was responsible for, there could be some sort of monetary contractual percentage bonus. Same way a designer can get a bonus based on game sales. I I think there is a world of opportunity to uh make additional revenue, but not but here's the thing, gang. additional revenue for Stern in a way that doesn't feel like you're getting ripped off. And I think that's the thing is when you start selling $2,000 toppers and then you lie about James Bond topper being exclusive to the 60th anniversary, then you change your mind on that, then you put a cheap signature on it. It's like all this stuff doesn't work. And I don't think they've really had um a game come out in a long time since Godzilla where people felt like the product and the price matched, right? I I think since then it it's been nothing but I would say maybe Metallica remastered a league, but again they didn't they didn't go back to 500. So I'll share that with you guys in in a little bit. Let's talk about um you've got a job at Stern hire. Well, the other thing is this and and my dad gave me some really good good advice. He he said, "Chris, if you do that, you have to turn the show off." And the show is really such a creative outlet for you. Do you want to give that up for an internal role? And when you know, I don't know, like when you look at like Jack Danger and you look at some of these people that go internal, it it doesn't seem like they're having as much fun. Like does Jack Danger look like he's having as much fun as he used to? He obviously is living a dream, but I just the stress levels, the um the disappointment. I I feel like he's gutted based on the X-Men response. So, it's it's tough. It's tough. you you sometimes, you know, your hobbies and your career don't necessarily need to be the same thing. And I think sometimes you can get a little too close to the sun and then all of a sudden it's not what you thought and you lose a lot of the freedom and you can't tell everybody the truth because you got to tow the company line. I mean, that's just that's just the way it is. And so, but I will say this and and it's really easy to sort of uh, you know, constantly uh, you know, tear these games down and and tear down the efforts of these companies. And I I will say there are really good people at Stern Pinball. Really good people. They they Seth is a really great guy. George is a really great guy. Gary is a really great guy. You know, there's um there there's a lot of really great people there. I I probably would say like they don't have a-holes at Stern and uh I you know when you when you go into Stern Pinball and you walk through the doors and you see the size of the facility and you see the the operation I mean Jersey Jack Pinball is smaller than Stern's lobby and and you know there is a uh an overwhelming sense of gratitude and uh well what's the other word I'm looking for? just it's just very impressive and there's a lot of respect when you see how big the Stern operation is. Now, now that being said, that's why Stern as such a massive ship is really hard to course correct when they start heading towards the iceberg. And I and I'm not saying they've hit an iceberg. I just I worry about them the most because at that size and with the amount of people there and and you got to remember all the people are getting salaries, they're getting paid, like the rent check is due, the marketing decisions they make are more critical than anyone else's, right? So like if Stern made Dune, they'd be so screwed it's not even funny. Now I think that Barrels is probably a little screwed with Dune. I I'm just I'm just looking at it. I just don't I don't know. Like just not sure how they turn it back on. We'll talk about that a little bit more today. Spooky Luke. I mean, we have several companies with access to actual billions and still don't nail it every time and struggle a lot. I I agree. You know, Spooky Luke, like let's talk about that for a minute because the here's why Jersey Jack doesn't nail it. Jersey Jack is the a prime example of money doesn't solve the real problems. Money actually makes the problems bigger because my sense when I look at Jersey Jack is it's still a leaderless company. It's leaderless and the the decisions that are made at Jersey Jack feel like committee decisions and they don't have a creative visionary. And for pinball companies to be successful, you need your George Gomez. And even Gomez lost his focus because when he passed on stuff like Back to the Future, uh stuff like Harry Potter, uh you know, there is there's just a lack of creative vision happening. And at Jersey Jack, I just feel like Jack's been in charge of themes and he's completely fumbled so many of them. And then Brett is the like the president and he's down in Miami and he's like flying in once a month. And I think they lack perspective. And by that I think Jersey Jack has a a clientele for sure. I think they have a clientele. I think they sell games to a lot of very wealthy people who are not on pin side. I think they they they have, you know, in their eyes they're they're successful. But what they haven't successfully done is is make the best pinball. They've made the prettiest. They've made the most uh fancy. They innovated years ago. They haven't really innovated so much more since then. But I just think that when you look at a game like Godfather and Avatar, those two games, how do you make those games? How do you like say we're going to we're going to put all of our resources against these titles and we're going to say this is good enough and we're going to charge 15,000 for this. It it's a lack of market knowledge. It's a lack of creativity and it's costcutting. And I I am worried about Potter being emptier than people are going to think because again, I think Jersey Jack doesn't want to go back and make games that are difficult to assemble. And so that's why I think Potter is going to be more barren than people are expecting. Uh Spooky Luke said, "We are giving 110% for you fellas. I think we have some really amazing. You don't Luke, we know you've got amazing stuff coming. And you know, I said in my last podcast, I I do think that Spooky Pinball is out of all the companies is the one that's going to bed the happiest and waking up in the best mood. And I really have been very impressed by the ascension and the maturity of this company and the growth and innovation and the direction this company has gone in since uh Chuck handed it over uh to to Bug and Luke. And I think they've really done a phenomenal job, especially considering how old they are and how uh how you know the responsibilities they have. It's it's been incredible. Um, I you know, I I I think, you know, I think um I think a lot about Doom lately and I'm like, you know, David sent me like another NDA and I'm I'm I'm like, you know, I'm I'm on I'm on the fence now and and and I'm not on the fence of like I'm going to go like attack barrels of fun. It's not like that at all. Like I I hope they find success. I hope they really knock it out of the park, but I'm probably going to extract myself from any sort of NDA situation. I know a couple things. I will I will I will tell them. I won't disclose what I know, but my desire to know more and and get in in with them further. Uh I don't think it's wise for me to do that. And I don't think it's even appropriate. First of all, like I also don't want to just give all my ideas for free. I I I I you know, it's just there's something about that like and I and I think a lot of people are working at barrels for free. I think they're getting a lot of passionate people provide hours and hours of work and they're not making money. And I'm like, you know what? Like, I don't know. I don't roll like that. I I don't think these are charity. I think these are for-profit pinball companies. So, uh, basically, you know, there was a Barrels was going to do, uh, a little bit of a market research move, and I'm I don't even think you need to do like surveys. Like Seth Seth sent one out. I I kind of think you need to know what people want to buy. And that's where we're at. I I I think if you have to guess the kinds of themes people want to buy, you shouldn't be dall company and and the the the difficult thing is not just making what you want to make, but making what consumers actually want. So, you know, we shall
    18:39
    see. Yeah. So, yeah. Thank you, Luke. You haven't told me anything. You don't believe in me. You don't believe in Grenada. Well, you're also smart, you know. I have a big mouth, but I don't I don't break trust. I don't. Not
    18:53
    anymore. Um, yeah. First of all, guys, I want to thank everybody here who's a member of Canadas Pinball Podcast, uh, who signs up and subscribes every month. You know who you are. If you, uh, if you watch this or just catch this show on YouTube, uh, there's a there's a great podcast that I think most people know about it by now. I mean, I've kind of like plateaued at around 700, 688 now. Like, it it's hard to get more. Uh, you guys also know you can give the gift of Canad Spinball Podcast to a friend. So, if you ever want to do that, Patreon allows you to do that. Uh, I'm really proud of the show. I think the content's been great. I I think the format is the most entertaining show out there from a podcast standpoint, and I think we break a lot of news. We talk about a lot of rumors. We give credit to where credit's due. I love Knap's Arcade. I love Carrie Hardy's latest takedown of King Kong. You know what they're calling King Kong in in the chat? They're calling it Bing Bong Ellie. Now, look, I would love an Inside Out pin. Bing Bong. That character is amazing. But they're calling it Bing Bong Ellie. And I I will say this, King Kong is being looked at and people are rooting against it. I mean you you can feel it. There is a there is a real growing army that is becoming anti- stern and I think it's a little unfair but I also think they brought it upon themselves. Uh so I think when you see a lot of people's reaction to Kong it's like I don't want to hear you praise it. I I want to tear it down because I'm just more I don't I don't want more of the same. Uh it was also an interesting week with uh some of that what social what is it? Social political BS being thrown into the pinball world. Uh I I don't I don't agree with that. I took down the post because I also I don't want to I don't want to like trigger all these people. And also I will say this, people get really angry and they get really mad and they get very charged. And those kinds of conversations are the ones that lead people to try to dox you and really personally take you down and hurt you. Now, I I don't know if you can tell by my my my outfit today, but I'm a I support whatever people want to, you know, however people want to live their lives. Like I don't I don't think anybody should, you know, should tell someone how to live their life. Now, there's consequences to decisions everybody makes. And, you know, if you want to tattoo your face, you're going to have a hard time getting a job. You know, it's just like I just always believe in common sense. And, you know, and I might have some personal opinions about different things happening in the world, but I don't think pinball is a place to talk about any of that stuff. And I think the move to to spark that conversation was inappropriate. And I think it was just meant to get attention, but the wrong kind. And you know, I do think Colin should be really uh questioning what he's doing because his audience is supposedly pinball fans and lovers and he is basically I don't know like alienating the very people that are going to make him money. I you know and support his his entity. Like the reason I'm I'm not supporting the Twippies anymore, nor do I care to like be a part of it, nor will I promote it is I just don't like I don't like the direction they took it. I don't trust the leadership over there. I don't trust the results even. I I mean that like they didn't reveal the second and third place votes. Uh almost having a hundred more votes than uh you know than than than than another podcast and losing to them. It's just I I get it. All that was put in place years ago. Wasn't this year, but all of it was put in place to to take down Canad's Pinball Podcast. And in the end, I laugh because when you when you when you've it's like winning so many years in a row becomes a little bit of an albatross and the trophy doesn't matter anymore. You know, when I when I was when I was at the height I mean the height of my listeners, 5,000 people an episode making zero dollars. Now I got 688 subscribers and I make a lot more than zero dollars. Now I don't make a ton of money, but and it's a win-winwin, right? The awards are fine. It would have been nice, but like I just won't be a part of it anymore. So that's that's that. So, I I don't care what venue it's at. I'm not going to go visit. I'm not going to ask you guys to vote. Um I really don't care. I really don't care. I I think it means nothing now. And they did it to themselves. Okay. So, it is We have two minutes. Let me pull up this presentation, guys. I'm really excited to walk you through it. Um All right. Here we go. I'm excited for you guys to see this because you get to see a little bit of like Canada in action. And I am uh I I and this is you know when I do um when I do presentations I like to make it very um very visual. I I I don't believe in, you know, PowerPoint should not be um should not be a Word doc in on a PowerPoint
    24:49
    slide. You're making at least 60,000 a year from your podcast, so you can't complain. Yeah, but you know what? What if I told you a distributor can just sell three LE's and make more than I do a month? Do you think they're doing more work than me on threele sales?
    25:10
    I don't think so. All right, let's see. Where's Here we go. Why is it okay? I'm trying to
    25:32
    Okay. All right. Let me see if I can find it. I don't know why it's not. Hold on. I'm gonna try something here. I don't want to mess anything up. Oh, that's why. Oh, I see. Oh, it needs to be a screen. Hold on a second. I don't know why it's not it's not letting me pull up PowerPoint. Hold on. We're gonna we're going to get
    26:00
    this. Uh let me let me do this. Let me make it a I think this will be fine. I want to try and make it a Google doc, but I it might mess up the um the fonts, so I don't want to do that. Hold on one second, guy. Docs. Google file new. H. How's everybody doing? Let's see. Import
    26:30
    slides. [Music] Upload. [Music] Okay. Stern. Thank you for staying with me. I'm always the worst at tech.
    26:54
    I'm just uploading. Be patient. It's going to be worth it. Come on. There we
    27:12
    Um, okay. Hold on one second. Welcome to every vendor presentation I've sat through. Now it's like I because I I thought it won't let me share PowerPoint. I'm
    27:26
    gonna All right. So I have to upload it to Google Docs because it'll share
    27:40
    um Oh no, the fonts are not the same. Oh, it's going to mess everything up. All right, let me just clean it up a little
    28:02
    bit. Why wouldn't it let me share? You know what? Let me let me see if I can save it as
    28:12
    a Let me see if I can save it as a PDF. Export. One second. It's up. I just It just messed up all my fonts. Um, and I don't want it to be messed up. Let me see if I do impact here. What font is that even? Are see. All right, I'm going to go through everything real quick. Give me a second,
    29:07
    Hold on. I know. I should have done this earlier, but you know, I didn't know it was going to mess up all the
    29:18
    fonts. And it's going to be good. It's going to be worth it. You guys will love it. So, get hold on. Go. Give me two seconds here. Let's get this a little bit bigger.
    29:37
    Um. All right. This is going to be awesome. All right. Get ready. It's I'm just going through every slide. I'm just changing the fonts because they were all messed
    29:58
    up. Oh, here we go. I'm gonna do this. How's everybody doing? Good. That's good. Um I know you're going to be like, gosh, can you just delet I'm almost, you
    30:23
    know, everyone go take a bathroom break. I'll be ready in five.
    30:37
    important and I want you guys to see how I do work like the way I would really do the
    31:03
    This is great. This is going to be so much fun. Okay. I'm doing this for a reason, guys. You'll see. You'll appreciate when it's done. Be
    31:34
    patient. You'll see. You'll see. You'll see. I didn't realize I had to do it like this. So, you guys are like, "What the hell?" Whatever. All
    32:00
    font. I don't have to change every font. It's not needed. Someone someone uh someone entertain the crowd. You're going to love it. You're going to love it. You're going to see it
    32:41
    [Music] Okay, I I I I really can't wait to show you guys this. Trust me, it's worth
    32:57
    it. Oh, man. All fun. All right. All right. We're almost there. We're almost there, guys. Stay with me. Stay with
    33:46
    All right. Almost there. Almost there. Trust me. Oh god, Canada, you're the worst. You really should give back your Twippies.
    34:23
    Is anyone going to be left when I'm done doing all so. I forgot I even put these thoughts together.
    35:07
    right. We're almost there. You guys are like waiting patiently. Are they Are the landscapers here? What are they doing?
    35:30
    [Music] gang. This is such a good This is such a good presentation. That's why I want to get it right for you guys.
    35:45
    Details matter to me. I'm very detail oriented and I'm I can bet you that their new CMO is not walking in with a deck like this.
    36:48
    All right, I'm done. We're get to see it now. Thank you for being patient, but you'll understand why I wanted to get the fonts right. All right, are we ready? I think you guys are ready. Thank you for bearing with me, by the way. All right. All right. Okay. All right. We ready? Sorry about that. Everyone can time stamp, but the 30 30 something
    37:18
    minutes. All right. Now, I want to just make sure I want to make sure when I flip slides, you guys can see it. Can everyone see this? Because I'm going to go back and forth. Can you guys see
    37:39
    this? Yes or no? All right, you ready? Hello everybody at Stern Pinball. I'm going to give you guys how I would present them. So, you know, it comes to pinball. You saved pinball thriving and I always want to start a client meeting with the, you know, the reality. You guys should be very proud of yourselves. Like without you, pinball pinball would not be where it is. And we It wouldn't even be modern pinball if it wasn't for Stern. Congratulations on doing that. See, this is the old one. But your industry is at a crossroads. All right. And this is real. This is present. And this is something that you really need to think about now because we're not we're past the point of of saving pinball and getting all the credit and you know think about what that crossroads is. Hi, my name is Chris. You know me as Canada. Um it's really nice to be here. Thank you for you know giving me the opportunity to share with you some thoughts on your business and the state of Stern Pinball. Um, quick little background on myself. Uh, you know, I've spent a quarter of my life studying the pinball industry and market. I know that sounds embarrassing, but it's true. Did it freeze? Is it
    39:15
    frozen? Um, I was voted favorite pinball podcast six years in a row, as you probably may have heard, because I won't stop talking about it. I recorded over a thousand episodes with over two million total plays. So, you know, maybe that wasn't the richest use of time, but it really uh you know, it it just goes to show you like I I' I've been in this and in your space for very long and I'm very deeply connected to your core audience and new inbox buyers and I think that's always been what my show's been about. Okay, so thank you for having me here. Um, I want to just bring a real quick quote from, you know, someone I work with on a daily basis that I think speaks a lot to why pinball has become such a a healthy community and hobby. Um, the happiest people in the world are those that add significance to trivial things. And 100% believe this. I believe this is what we do every week in the pinball community. This is
    40:29
    froze? Is this working? Are you guys seeing Oh, well, because I have to go back and forth between the deck. So, that's the
    41:07
    thing. All right, you hear me? I think it might freeze every time I go back. It freeze again. Is it freezing every time I go back and forth? All
    41:28
    right. All right. So, all right. I won't present it the way I present it to them, guys. I'll just go through what I talked to them about. All right. So, what I wanted to talk about with them was what's working, what's the problem, thought starters, and a new goal. All right. So, for those of you who, again, I don't know if you guys have ever been in a marketing meeting or present it to clients, but yeah, and for those of you who think this is not a good PowerPoint presentation, you're wrong. I would run circles around you in a room presenting. All right, you you can bring your big ven diagram garbage, but I'm I'm gonna Let's talk about what's working. All right. All right. You have the best talent wi without a doubt. Stern Pinball between designers and software and they they no one would argue that Stern Pinball's talent and their roster is the best in the business. Okay. All right. What else? You have the best product. All right. And this is just if you look at the rankings of the top what is this like 15 games you guys are beloved within you know the community and your games most of your recent games are are very highly uh acclaimed.
    42:48
    Okay. I don't think anyone would argue with this. You have the best manufacturing. I mean you guys are cranking out hundreds of games a week. hundreds of games a week and you know everyone else is struggling to make 10 to 20 games a week you guys can make 600 so that is working your favor um you know I mean if you just look at the amount of games you guys have shipped this was an old slide but since 2015 you know Stern pinball look at everybody else's output again this is not current this was when I went there or maybe it was like a year before but how many has Stern in this I think. Where's the stern number? I don't know, but it's something crazy. I mean, look at all
    43:35
    those. All right, guys. Have the best connectivity, right? Again, this isn't stuff that's like new to anybody. All right, so what's the problem, right? What's the problem? Like, why what why why are we at this crossroads? What is the problem? Here's the problem. Number one, the belief that growth will come from new audiences, more diverse youthful ones. This is what is guiding you and this is your biggest problem. And you can easily, and I'll never forget, George, you said this on an interview. You said this to me multiple times. The customer I have isn't the customer I want. What are you talking about, George? You should never say this. You should never feel this. The people that support you should never hear this. Right? And when you go down this road, you can easily end going down a road where you start making, you know, decisions that don't align your with where you're at. Right? And so according to recent data, okay, so I I I love showing this. Like if you look at Stern Pinball and how they're marketing, does this look like the audience that buys your product? Right. According to recent data, the average Gen Z individual carries around 29,000 $820 in total debt with a median with a median non-mortgage debt of approximately 16,000. These people have no money. No money. And so when your company is presenting itself like this, it's confusing to the that buy your product because these are the people that buy your product. And nothing that you guys put out from a marketing standpoint is celebrating these individuals looks like these individuals. And you know the amount of product these individuals buy, you think it look a little bit more like this. Okay. I'm trying to read some of your
    46:00
    commentary. All right. So you want growth. This is how you grow Stern Pinball. What if your current audience brought one new friend into pinball each year? That would double the size of your audience. And instead of trying to find new people to all of a sudden be into pinball, get the existing community that is into pinball to bring new people to pinball. All right, problem two. You killed the golden goose. Okay, you you killed it. And the golden goose, the golden egg was FOMO. And this was this was really what drove a lot of excitement around each of your big launches. And you know, we all remember when launches of your products felt like this. Everybody was trying to get their hands on an LE. It was a beautiful thing. And I witnessed this for like six years. You had it. You had it, right? And getting your hands on an Ellie was a moment. It was a moment, right? You felt like you were you you you won the lottery. You felt this kind of excitement because you had a relationship with a dro. You got one. You knew you had your hands on something that was going to be uh, you know, never lose any value and and go up from there. Right now, if you bought all of these on launch day, okay, if you bought all of these on launch day, guess how much money you'd be down right now? Can you guys guess? Are you guys tracking right now? Are you enjoying this? I'm just curious. Like, do you see the way I present? Are you enjoying it? Are you Are you thinking this I mean, have you seen a pinball PowerPoint presentation? You're not enjoying it.
    48:20
    data, right? $20,500 loss. You hand it all to your loyal customers who went in on your LE machines. Okay. And that is ridiculous, right? Because if you really want to think about what we've what you've done recently to the collectors out there, this is the vibe. Like this is what it feels like. And I I I really think this is really something we need to work on because if you think about stern buyers, you know, 2005 to 2021, you bought a new and boxed game. You enjoy that game with no instant hit to the value. None. And then you, you know, you sell for minimal loss or profit was how it went. And then you had cash and space free for the next game to buy. That was the model for 16 years. You guys did it so well. now, right? You buy a new inbox game, you enjoy the game, but it it has a huge day one loss in value. Um, I can't read. What does it say? The third one. Okay. Hard to sell. You're going to have a huge loss is at the bottom. And then your cash and space are limited. And you don't want to lose on another new inbox again. You don't. All right. Now, if you look at right, if you look at this, the MSRP of your products, you guys did this like look at look at that spike in the LE price. It used to be everything was closer to each other, right? And then all of a sudden there's this big jump. And what that jump has done is you've taken the golden goose that was FOMO and you've replaced it with [ __ ] You know, we're [ __ ] right? Went from fear of missing out to now having an entire buyer base that has a fear of commitment. They're they're they're afraid to buy your games now right away because of everything we just talked about. Right here is the the hard truth is that a Stern Pro is holding better value than the LE. Like how it like what did we do? You completely flipped the value exchange with your product, right? So, you know the solution, Stern. Less to give consumers some exclusivity back. You need This is before Metallica Remastered, and I think they listen to me, gang. All right. Ellie numbers need to be based on the theme popularity, not always the same. Okay? You can't just make a thousand Venoms. You can't just make a thousand like John Wixs. You need to give Ellies more that can't be had elsewhere. Exclusive code, exclusive toppers. Making make getting a stern Ellie a moment again with the community and establish a loyalty program where being in the Ellie club means something. Okay? Like like let's this is this is what you need to do. All right, look. I asked them this question in the room, gang. Have you ever done anything special for owners that have currently bought $100,000 or more of your product? And when I asked them this question, no, no hands went up. They ne they have never done anything. And I I drilled this into them. How are you doing nothing for these people? And yet you've got Sharp running around college campuses, stern army on location. You everything you do is saying thank you to like tournament players and leagues and you're doing nothing for your loyal new inbox buyer. Nothing. And that is a problem. Are you guys tracking? Are you guys enjoying this? Like do you guys agree with this? Do you think Canada knows how to do marketing? Do you think he knows? Like what? Too much
    52:58
    going? All right. So, I had some thought starters. All right. I gave I gave them some ideas. All right. Hold on. My first idea I gave them was to create something called club 86. Okay. And I thought club 8 I get I think I have three ideas in here for them and then a little bonus fun
    53:24
    idea. This is this is dumb. I don't want Toyota to throw me a party. Just who said anything about throwing a party? Foo Fighter. I never said that was the idea. So, uh, stick to your last, bro. Don't put ideas in my mouth. I didn't You didn't even spell
    53:47
    check. First of all, um, All right. I'm I'm I'm kicking Scott Stallion out of here. He's annoying. I'm not having people buy Scott.
    54:04
    I I I don't want people on here like if you're going to come on here and start insulting colors and calling pink wo like you're you're gone. Like again I I just I have to draw the line of of just just grow up a little bit. And this is coming from a guy wearing pink and blue and flowers. Like just stop. All right. Scott's gone. All right. Club 86. Here was the idea, the insight here. You know, Stern's communal marketing efforts have focused on leagues and operators with nothing tailored for the home buyer. So, what if Stern introduced the Stern um Club 86, an invite only club offered to Stern Pinball's most loyal customers? So named after the year Stern Pinball was formed. Members of this club will receive exclusive benefits. That was the year Stern Pinball was formed. So if we look at Oh, see I didn't do the fonts on the side, so they're going to be messed up. Um, first dibs on LE titles. Okay, you you've bought this guy's bought a quart million dollars of he gets first crack at it. he doesn't have to chase down um you know every new LE launch. If he wants it, he gets it. He doesn't have to like deal with any shenanigans. Exclusive first look at upcoming titles. But here's the fun part, gang. No cell phones. Let their enthusiasm drive the FOMO. Let them see the game early. Right? If you saw King Kong early, if you saw Jaws early, you're not going to spoil it. All you're going to do is get people more excited to see it. Club 86 gets to select a future theme release. Why not? Why not? Ferrari lets its best customers make a custom version of a Ferrari. Why don't you let these guys pick a theme? Exclusive lounge VIP areas at shows with access to new product and and stern talent. Like whatever it, you know, make make it mean something. Okay. All right. We're going to keep going. I also love, you know, 1986. First look, now this was just meant to be fun. All right, cuz like some tactics should be memorable, should be fun. So imagine Stern mailing to Club 86 members footage of one of its new games, but the only way you can watch it is if you have a VCR and we really do a throwback 80s launch. This is just a tactic. This is just a fun way to make something different, something a little bit more conversation and memorable, right? They should be having more fun. When you get to market something like pinball, you shouldn't just release it the same way every time, right? Boring and boring. So, just you want to bring in a new audience, right? I'm not saying like don't bring in young people. A lot of young kids play pinball. They love pinball. But like everything you're doing doesn't create media. It doesn't create conversation. It doesn't get parents who love pinball to get their kids into pinball. So, the second idea was the startership. the here. Um, kids play sports and earn scholarships to college, but no kid that's amazing at the sport of pinball has ever been recognized by schools ever. Okay. So, what if Stern Pinball did a yearly tournament for young students where the prize was a college scholarship to do and then you get headlines like this. Stern Pinball offering free college tuition to best pinball player under the age of 18. Wouldn't you make your, you know, introduce your kids to pinball and give them a chance to compete for a chance to get a free ride to school and then all of a sudden you get, you know, the first ever pinball scholarship in the world. All right. Again, it's not like we can't talk to young people, but you're not giving them anything of value when the only thing you want to do is try to sell them a 7 to $13,000 game. They can't afford it yet, but what a fun way to get them into this. All right. All right. What else we got? Guys, remember this, right? You remember
    58:26
    this gunate? Because this was just All right. So, first and foremost, you guys got to control the narrative before it's too late. And they didn't. And remember when this game had just come out, they weren't quick with talking about this the the right way. They didn't talk about the licenser issues. They they they let it out there like we wouldn't notice. And that was really like thing to do. And Gungate, when we think about it, they should have told the truth right away. They should have found a new way to excite people around John Wick and let the theme guide the activation. Now, this is my point, and this is like I love this next idea. I get the license holder didn't let you put the guns in the art, but it didn't mean you couldn't do something that got everybody excited. I had a very simple idea for them gang because good be simple. You're shot at a John Wick pinball machine. So the idea here, the insight being John Wick is known for his incredible skills with a firearm. What if Stern Pinball hosted in its key markets launch parties at gun ranges? Whoever is the best shot would win a John Wick Ali. So you give people a chance instead of like playing for the pin. you're shooting for it. Could have done this. There's gun ranges all around the country and you could have had some fun with it and this would have been awesome and this would have got people ignited in the right way and and and and you get again, right? It's like you're letting the theme dictate the launch and not just doing the same old over theshoulder footage, right? Get creative, Stern. Get creative. I mean, I kept you got to get creative. You don't do, you know, and I just like like why when you guys launch Jaws, there's always news stories about sharks washing up on the beaches. You didn't even have to. Why not to just have fun launching Jaws? Just take it take the cabinet. It could just It could even be like an empty cabinet. Just take a Jaws cabinet and put it on the shore. have it wash up on the shore where Jaws was filmed. And that could have been the way you first show the game to the world. Again, I'm just saying get creative that every game every game that you come out with has an opportunity to do something more fun and drive converation. So, you know, just one goal for all of us in the room and it was launch one game in 2025 in a nontraal way. That's it. That's that like can we do that? Can we launch one of your games in a non-traditional way? They did not. King Kong should have been at the top of the Empire State Building. They should have revealed it there. They didn't even get the license for MA building. And that's that's it. That's my presentation to Stern Pinball. So now, you know, um I look, they weren't expecting anything and I think I think all of what I walked them through was very thoughtful, very
    61:50
    smart. You guys are like really You guys are like you're you're happy it's over, Freaky Guy. Like I I really, you know, I I put a lot of work into that. So just show a little respect. I mean, I mean that like I I get it. It's the internet. You want to be negative, but like you like you think you could have done a better job analyzing. So anyway, whatever these trolls, man, everywhere. So it's fine. It's fine, guys. Like just Yes, I went into Stern and presented that. Franchie, what did you uh did you agree with what I said, Franchie, or disagree? I go into billion-dollar companies and present like that and they they love it. Like that's how you present. All right. You want to just stare at like ven diagrams.
    63:05
    like well, you know, they look they love the presentation. I think they um I definitely think the decision to limit Metallica was inspired or or not like maybe they were doing it any anyway, but I definitely I feel like reinforced their decision to do that. But unfortunately, I think they just went back to the playbook again. And I think they're they've they've gone back to the playbook. I mean, they're trying, right? They're trying to like they they went less than a thousand on X-Men and Dn D and King Kong, but you know, you kind of see like they they should just stay at 500.
    63:51
    Thank you. I I I look gang, I believe me, I I did all that work for them for free. It was fun presenting it to them. I I think um everything in there is still valid and true. In fact, the amount of money you're losing now is is would be way more than even 20,000. And yeah, like club 86, I I think um the fact that they have no loyalty program is weird. And you know, again, I think the new CMO would benefit um from, you know, thinking about some of these things when I did that at Expo. So that was October of
    64:33
    2020. I believe it was Expo. Yeah, I think it was Expo. It was October of It was right when It was I think it was right when I want to Why do I want to say it was when Metallica came out or was before Metallica came out? I'm I'm not sure. Well, the the thing is gang is I I'm I just don't think they're going to lower the price. I mean, I did show the the graph of of the of the spike in price, but I'm I'm just not sure they would lower the price. And of course that's something everyone would like to see.
    65:13
    So I um my you know how are you guys feel? Like are you guys optimistic about where pinball's headed at these prices? I I think what's going to happen again? I just think it's a boutique's world. I I've said this for the last year or so.
    65:40
    PJ, who's PJ Delay? If you want real F, just say it here, PJ. I don't care, man. Like, honestly, I I'm I and and nothing is hard for me to hear. But I'm just curious what what what did you think? because I I I'm not I don't want I'm not going to get into private messages debates about a deck I put together like eight months ago for Stern Pinball, but you know, we're talking about it now, PJ, because when people watch this, I think it'd be beneficial for them to hear your feedback now. I you know, and like I I really I I just got to say this, PJ, as a professional communicator, if you want real feedback, like come on, man. Like don't don't get on your high horse, bro. Like only you have real feedback. Come on. Just post it. Don't don't get I I'm I'm very confident in my ability to present ideas and marketing. I've been doing it for 24 years, bro. Uh there's a reason why, you know, I I've been very successful in my career. So, I just I would if you have some feedback, what what what is it?
    67:07
    PJ gang. It's not that I like it's not I don't have a problem with Stern using like young people, diverse people in its marketing. They should. It's just but the absence of anyone that looks like they're actual new inbox buyers, you know, walk around a pinball show and and that's what's weird. It's like they they present themselves like one thing and the reality is another. And and I just think it's weird. PJ, what's your experience, bro? You're not saying anything. Maybe I do also have some experience. PJ delay. PJ, come on. You're not saying anything. Don't Don't Don't like you you got the floor. I I've I've you experience PJ. Just at least give us some like these guys like the internet. Like can people not have a normal like you're getting asked to write something? Write it. I don't even know what you are and I'm giving you the floor. So if you're sharing your pitch with us, does that mean none of those other ideas will be considered? Did Stern No, I think they they look they I I sent them the deck. I think they they they can do what they want with it. It was it was really a friendly meeting and as you see like a lot of my ideas like the scholarship I think was really smart. I think the idea for the Club 86 was smart. And then I think you know each of their themes should have a creative launch that is guided by the theme a little bit. And and they're just not doing any of that.
    68:44
    The issue is this. Could you keep your mouse shut if they hired you? Um, yeah, of course. Of course. I don't I don't um I I I don't talk about any of my my my clients. Uh and I don't um I my whole job is is holding on to secrets of what brands are planning.
    69:09
    We all know you have it. Great sharing with your Okay. The rogue cyber. I'm in my mid20s and whenever I talk to anyone around my age about pinball, they don't care outside of playing a game. Yeah, because they they've got student loans and they're making no
    69:31
    money. They should make Stern themed coffins. we'd all be out the best podcast. Um, well, thank you. I um Well, no, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. Um, it didn't happen. Now, like where where Stern could just kick me some bucks is when they have a new launch and they want some ideas, I'm happy to do that, right? Because to me, like at a launch marketing moment is is simply that. It's meant to get people as excited as possible at launch and you know I don't need to doesn't cost a fortune but they they have a PR agency that really doesn't do much for them and they know that and I know what they spend on the PR agency and it's not a lot so they're getting what they pay for too. They're really not getting
    70:30
    much. Yeah. I mean, I think everybody um wants the price to come down. I I don't know. I don't know, gang. It's like I'll tell you this. I have not bought a pinball machine in a while. You know this. I mean, I don't really have room, but I I I went into my checking account yesterday and I was just like laughing how when you don't buy these games, how quickly your money just piles up. And it's it's it I feel better having a lot of money at my disposal uh for personal things and meals and trips and toys. And when you buy these new pinball machines, the amount of money it just sucks out of your world just does not it just the fun isn't there for that much money. And again, as I've always said, like most of you have pinball machines, so you don't need another. So, I don't know, right? Is it is it really worth chasing every new inbox game? And I don't think it
    71:42
    is. Did you sell your Type R? Yes, I did. Um, I sold my Type R during COVID. I paid 34 for it. Remember the old Type R was like 34 35,000. They with three years on it and like 16,000 miles. The dealership gave me 38,000 for it. So I sold that baby like boom, take it. I made money on it basically. Um yeah, I love that car. I I love the look of that car way more than the new Type R. The new Type R is boring. I love my GR86, but I I I missed the Type R punch. Like that car like pulled you through corners like a scalpel. It was so much fun. The Honda like I mean the Toyota Subaru, the one I got now, eh? Eh, like it's it's a momentum car. It grips, but it doesn't it doesn't exhilarate when you drive it. It's it's you can't Yeah. It's just hard to explain. It just needs another like 50 horsepower to to for that chassis and and for the for the grip. There's a lot of great deals on pins now. It's a buyer market, gang. It's a buyer market. I mean, you wake up every day, you see these the prices just keep going down and down and down. So, I I don't know. I would just I would just wait. I don't know. Just maybe just not keep Maybe just enjoy what you have. I think that's the best advice.
    73:13
    Now gang, also like I could drive I could drive um 30 minutes to automate it and play these games for hours. So I don't why would I want to buy
    73:29
    them? So PJ, you weren't in the room. So if that's your feedback that it was too much of I have the solution versus having a more collaborative approach. Um it it a lot of that PJ all happens style over substance. What do you mean? What substance was missing? I I had data. I had real hard data. I had insights and strategy and creative ideas, style over substance. It there was nothing but substance
    74:11
    there. Um, but yeah. No, but PJ I I let them have it. You're talking Gary Stern, George Gomez, and Seth. They needed to hear that they [ __ ] up their entire FOMO market. Like what do you mean collaborative? It it was a I wanted to make it a lesson that they need to know what they've done and I think they're they've been ignorant to what they've done. That's why I didn't get the job. It wasn't even a job,
    74:47
    man. Are you kidding me? You know why our my agency is like one of the best in the world? Because we go in with the hard truth of what the clients need to hear, bro. We We don't sugarcoat it. We don't serve back to clients what they want to hear. We we give them what's going to be successful. And you don't get to that if you sugarcoat the insights or the landscape or the category realities. You know what I'm saying, PJ? Like, if I'm talking to Jameson, they know young people aren't drinking as much as they used to.
    75:27
    So PJ, what do you do? What do you do? What what's your job in marketing? What what what do you do? And also like I I'm just curious where where do you work? What what's your credentials, brother? Let's come on. You're you you now you're coming in hot. Where do you
    75:46
    work? You know, it's it's just I'm very transparent, right? And I'm sharing something and I, you know, I just want to know who who I'm talking
    75:58
    to triggered. I love it. I just want to know like where what what marketing where is he coming
    76:07
    from? It's not about me. All right. All right. No, I I'm not asking it's about you. I'm just saying I just want to know. Don't Don't you think if you're going to get feedback that you should know if the person giving it even understands what the you know the the category or or has done this
    76:36
    before. I have been CEO of a top man and ran their marketing
    76:43
    department. I have been CEO of a top man. What does that mean? It's fine, man. See, PJ, I'm happy. Oh,
    77:03
    okay. He did everything. CEO, marketing, manufacturing. Okay. No, look, it was a good conversation. So much so, they invited me out afterwards. We all hung out. Like, it was all good, man. There wasn't any. It wasn't strident. They loved it. Gary loved it. You You got to know Gary's a bulldog. Gary wants you to talk to him like this. He doesn't want you to sugarcoat it. It was a discussion. You know, I did. This was just me running through it on YouTube with you guys. Um, but it wasn't style over substance. To that response, that's [ __ ] I got to I got to be honest, PJ, to say that that presentation was style over substance. It was to that's that's a horseshit feedback because it was all substance in there, man. I'm just saying like the like what more substance do you need if you're a CEO? Yeah. You want to see data, right? Gave him data. You want to see strategy. Give him strategy. Gave him like
    78:04
    so my people's skills. I'm like the best presenter, one of the best presenters we got. Come on, man. PJ, I I I I can't. I can't. If you want to know real skills in the world of communicating, PJ, try try getting a microphone and doing a podcast about pinball 1,092 times. Okay, brother. Um PJ, are you a member of the Canada Club? I mean, CEO, you've got five bucks, man. We gave you enough air time. Stop saying real feedback, man. Just say feedback. Don't. That's such a condescending thing to say. Real feedback. No, give me fake feedback, bro. Like, what does that mean, man? Come on. Come
    78:50
    on. Just funny. I know. P We're going to make PJ a star, man. PJ, we you are you a member of the Canada Club? Are you Are you a member? Did I mean, surely you've got a lot of money if you were CEO of a major manufacturing company. Five bucks. Awesome. All right, he's in. He's in. Yeah, we'll talk, brother. I'm I know. I'm just, you know, we're just taking the piss out of each other here. This is fun. Don't worry. Yeah, I'm I'm I'm loving this. I love I love talking about marketing. I love talking about, you know, these companies through the lens of marketing. I think that's always been something that separated my show from a lot of the others out there is is sort of like the point of view. Um, but I do think that the Canada community is represented by mostly new inbox people and I think a lot more collectors listen to Canada than everybody else because it's like it's this is what collectors want to hear. This is how they think. This is how they talk. So I I I definitely um you know I don't think Stern's going to change much. I think right now in all of pinball right now it's just a battle of theme and when you have a good theme uh you're you know it's like 90% of the marketing is done when you've got a great theme and I I think you don't need to do you know you don't need to do activations and stunty fun things but the reason why you should when you 10 is I've always said this like make you have one chance to make a launch memorable and I think a lot of these companies don't even think creatively about that and when you have something you know the the best position to be in and PJ knows this is like when you're a marketer the best position to be in is you're marketing a product where there's in intrinsic demand for it so much so that the the marketing and communications team spends the majority of that product's development keeping things a secret. You're you're trying to hold information back. Everybody wants the info. Everybody wants to see it. Everybody, you know, that's not true of most products. Most products is the opposite. You need to drum up the interest. You need to drum up the demand. You need to get the excitement going. But pinball is the opposite. And that's why the opportunities to be very creative in pinball are limitless and the effort though is pathetic. And and that's been my observation of it. And and look, you can't blame Stern because in the golden years they didn't have to do anything and everything was selling out. Now they have
    81:43
    to. I think club 86 is just is just something that they should do. You know, we've seen different clubs, the fan club, we've seen people try, but no one's really like done it,
    81:57
    right? I don't know how they downscale. I I don't know how they do it. PJ, give us one idea. No, it's it's
    82:14
    um yeah, you know, I um I know what David wants to do. He wants to create these moments and these memories around his products and and their launches. And I I'm just I don't know. They didn't do it. They just didn't do it. For whatever reason, they didn't do it. handing out bags of sand at pinball at the beach is not doing it. They just I I don't they didn't really have a launch strategy that seemingly worked or was very creative or um and then you know and then it's back to the same formula. Get the guy from Mythbusters to play the game, you know, put the game in front of his audience. Same exact tactic as Labyrinth. Boring. boring. Could have they could have buried and I mean this they could have found somewhere in the country. They could have buried a machine in the sand and if you can find it it's yours. They could have done
    83:23
    that. It's just barrels are boring. No. No. I you know again I I think these companies don't and PJ will appreciate this and you guys will you guys they don't invest in they don't invest in it so they get what they pay for which is nothing they don't hire the right marketing people they don't they maybe hire people that are legacied in you know the sharp kids are in the marketing department or sharp one of the sharp sons. I I I don't you know I I don't I don't know like he's never had a marketing job. He's just had a pinball job. And and I think the value of someone like myself is just having both like having the marketing training and the pinball expertise and the community connection. Right. I don't think the sharps are like connected to collectors. Like they don't I don't think they really care about eleas and losing money on games, right? And I remember once um I think is it Zach? Is it Josh or Zach? I always get them mixed up. Who's I think it's I I want to say it's Josh is at Stern or is it Zach? I don't know. But he emailed me once years ago. Zach is at Stern. Okay. Zach Sharp. He emailed me years ago and he said something along the lines of and I'll never forget this because I I I think fundamentally it is what is wrong with Stern Pinball and and they've got this mindset and he has it and they have it and their marketing people have it. He said to me, "If a game is fun, the price is irrelevant. It doesn't matter what the price is if the game is fun." And I was like, what? No. Like, what what I don't I don't agree with that cuz every game is fun, but to just remove the price and act as if price doesn't matter like that. If you made a fun game, people like that's just arrogance. And that's not how people look at products they buy. And I and I really think they think that that it just doesn't matter what we charge for these things if we make them
    85:53
    fun. What marketing people did Spooky Spooky does their own marketing. You know, Bug and Luke do their own marketing and they're out there. They're making content. They're engaged with the community. That's how you do it when you're a boutique. You can't, a boutique can't afford, you know, to pay a marketing department. They don't need a marketing department. What they just need to do is make good marketing decisions
    86:25
    internally. Yeah. You know, I I do agree that I think Stern should be using Jack Danger more. He should be the face of the company more often. He should be the one streaming their games. Um, and it does feel like they they a little bit like removed Jack's persona from the web. And I think it was a mistake. I think they should have like allowed him. You know, the the one thing that was weird though was when he was like streaming competitors games and helping competitors sell product. You can't do that. Like that that to me is you would never have a Chevrolet test, you know, a Chevrolet race car driver on his spare time taking out a Ford Mustang to tell you how great it is. Um, I pay for the Cana podcast every month. Best marketing. Yeah. Well, thank you, Luke. Well, I'm always giving people ideas and advice and and you know, while I haven't sat down uh intimately with the team at Spooky, I I feel like we've had a lot of personal conversations and and and I I think they're just they're they're doing it all right. Like if I went into Spooky, if I went into Spooky versus Stern and I did a analysis, a marketing analysis or a or suggestion, right? Or what are what are the problems? What are the solutions? Um, much different company, much different vibes, much different. They're not at a crossroad. They're they're on a rocket ship. Spooky is not at a crossroads. They are at they are they are heading to the moon and they know it and they've got the right themes and they've got the right vibes and they've got the right talent. Change nothing. Nothing. The only thing I would change at Spooky Pinball is themes that are a little bit more mainstream. Nothing else needs to change. Keep keep using Franchie. Keep doing what you're doing. Keep being yourselves. Keep being authentic. Keep being transparent. Don't change
    88:34
    anything. You know, when I you know, and I think I don't think Barrels of Fun knows how to do that. And and and that's always been my advice to David. I just I think they struggle. I don't who's the voice of barrels of fun. Do do you see them enough gang? Let me just explain something to you and and Luke is here hanging out with us, right? Jenis is here. We've got other people. Think about it like this. If you had a pinball company like David Vaness has one, right? There's people that worked there. Brian Savage. Why wouldn't you do this? Why wouldn't you do a Saturday morning show where you just talk to the pinball community about what's going on in the hobby, things you've noticed, some stuff going on with your company? Why wouldn't you just have a conversation? Are are you that busy? Are you that busy at Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m.? you're not, you know, and and I think there's just like this inability to and and look, I'm not it's like it's like find a time that works for you. But if you run a pinball company and you're not out and about enough and you're not connecting with people enough, it's like it's the same thing with like Jersey Jack. It's like they don't do this. There's no nobody talking to you like this from Jersey Jack. Why not? Like should it be Ken? Maybe it's Eric. Maybe it's even Jack. I don't Why aren't they doing this? Why? Why? Why not continue to connect with your community and your people in in a in a in a controlled setting like this and do it on your time? But they don't do it. They don't do it. And again, I think everyone just thinks they can just if you build it, they will come. The orders will come. It's not true. It's not going to be true. Um, you know, Harry Potter will be an exception because of how big the theme is, but I just want to see more companies be more transparent, uh, be a part of the community more. Uh, and I think it it only benefits them. It only benefits them. You know, you can control it. If if trolls come in and try to derail it, you can you can silence them. Um, I'll go a little bit few more minutes. I know I like paused a lot changing the font. So, thank you guys for bearing with me on that. I didn't realize it was going to be so uh you know, difficult to share like that. Um, but you know, it's um it's a lot of fun to watch this hobby and I tell people, you know, every time I meet people, I met people last night at at this uh comedy night in our town and I love talking to people about the podcast. People are always fascinated about pinball. Like it's this universal toy that everybody knows. Like everyone has like a story about pinball. Have you noticed that? Like everyone like has a game they remember or they have a relative that has one. I you know there's there's I don't think there's anybody who has gone an entire life and not played pinball. And so that's what makes it a lot of fun is is always like this curiosity around how how like what do you talk about and like are there new pinball companies and how much are they? Like there's it's it's just something natural as an icebreaker that's very innocuous that everybody sort of has some sort of opinion about. So I I really enjoy it. I I think there's just enough product in this hobby to get your head around it. There's just enough topics every week to talk about. Um, and and it's going to be fun. It's going to be fun to see what all these companies do this year. I don't think most of you are going to buy most of the stuff. And I know we're all waiting for Harry Potter. I don't think it's going to come out until June. And I think JK Rowling's changes might have required new playfields to be printed. I think I think her changes might have been more significant than they were thinking and which might make them have to like Can you imagine if they ordered I mean I don't know how they even ordered playfields though if like she didn't make final approval because can you imagine having to reprint but I don't know like the those eccentric people like her who who have final say they might not want to even see anything until it's done. And they the people like that, trust me, they love exerting their power over their own property. And I and I and and I bet they always make changes because it's just a flex of who's this comp, you know, who made this. You now listen to me. You
    93:22
    know, it was always coming out in very late May, June. So, Bill, when is it coming out? You know, Bill, I love you, but you have a tendency to act like you know. So, here, tell us when Nap says Harry in
    93:44
    August. When did he say August? I I didn't see Nap say that. Um, I saw Nap talking about Jaws 50th. I mean, that's that's something we've all known Stern is going to do. No one's surprised. Like we we were talking about Jaws 50th like a year ago and it's it makes total sense these rumors they're not r I mean look it it's like it's it doesn't take a genius right for any of us to come to the conclusion that they've done Godzilla anniversary Jurassic Park why wouldn't they do Jaws you know and in what is it uh I don't know when's the next King Kong anniversary they'll do that like 80th year, 80 90th year. And so that's it, gang. Everybody, look, have a great Saturday. I I appreciate you guys hanging out today. I hope you enjoyed my little presentation. Uh I I feel honored to be able to wake up and and cook up creative ideas, not just for my professional career, but also as a side hobby. And it's all because of the great community that subscribes and, you know, tunes in every week. So, I do appreciate it. And look, if you've been just hanging around Canada for years and you kind of like what you hear, I really would appreciate um, you know, people signing up. I always had a goal to try to get to 800 subscribers. We got to 740 and then we had a little bit of a decline. I think people just had like fatigue of high prices and whatever, but it'd be nice. It it would only take like I don't know like 120 of you to invite a friend. It's like everybody here right now. Come on Jang is just sign up 120 times with different email addresses. Um Eric and wife booked in a hotel for right after release. This could be like the weirdest like that, Bill. That's like the funniest way to like spoil a launch is that what? So, what date are they booked into your hotel? And I I should fly out because I got my wedding gift is still a trip to Bill's hotel. Not a trip, but the hotel
    96:07
    room. All right. Well, thank you everybody. Look at all this positivity, man. like we're not divided. We're not argu We got rid of that one clown. He was he was being pretty negative. We had to get rid of him. Um but everybody else had a good time and I'm glad you guys did. And now people can watch the replay of this and don't buy Kong Ellie. Bing Bong Ellie. Trust me, it's going to be 10K in less than six months. Everybody have a great Saturday.