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2023 Advent calendar.

ellocoloco

By ellocoloco
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ellocoloco Mentor

ellocoloco

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Happy (nearly) Christmas guys and gals.

I wonder if the folks at Hornby Towers have just given up on the advent calendar this year? Sure, there is something on FB and Insta but I can't find anything on the homepage of Hornby's online presence other than some rules!

And while I'm moaning, how come the Hornby Int'l brands don't seem to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the trains?

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P-Henny Mentor

P-Henny

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A quote from the Hornby.com website.

"Advent competitions will be held across either Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube or the Hornby website. Only one platform will hold the competition per day."

The two key comments are that the Hornby website will be included in the Advent Calendar, but not every day.

This new policy (new policy this year) means that those who want to follow the Advent on a daily basis has to follow ALL of Hornby's social media sites. This is, I think, Hornby's sole intention this year, to get as much visibility and sign-ups of their social media sites as possible. I assume you have to sign in to the social media site to enter an Advent competition.

If you recall, last year the Hornby website Advent Calendar was as useful as a chocolate teapot for those who didn't use social media. That too raised a few forum moans.

Let's be honest, the forum membership is largely frequented by the more elderly. Hornby are obviously targeting a younger audience by focusing on Social Media, where youth predominates.

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Yelrow Grand Master

Yelrow

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Its an interesting approach to marketing. Models becoming too expensive for youngsters, so advent calender, aimed at the younger market, who can then win a prize, but cannot afford to take up the hobby. Us oldies, who have the Brass to spend, precluded from taking part, unless we wish to join these awful social media sites. If this is progress, count me out.

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LTSR_NSE Mentor

LTSR_NSE

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How have they got anything ‘wrong’?

The advent calendar for the last few years has been entirely about attracting a new audience. Naturally in the digital age this means social media engagement/advertising.

Those who make a deliberate choice not to engage, (myself included - so I understand the legitimate reasons) are also choosing to opt out of access to some of the ‘perks’ too.

Why does entitlement mislead people into believing that offers, competitions, giveaways etc. must be available to all?

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ellocoloco Mentor

ellocoloco

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I think the original intention of my opening post has been somewhat missed above.

As shown in LT&SR's helpful link above to last years 'discussion', Deem posted a lovely screenshot of the 2022 calendar from the Hornby website. Where is this years? I don't really care if it includes links to assorted SM sites - I can go there if I choose - I just think there should be a homebase for the festivities! And Hornby International should be invited.

(Todays deal - 3rd Dec - is on the website, Hornby Advent Calendar :: Hornby Hobbies - reward points for six lucky people. What are you waiting for.)

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VESPA Grand Master

VESPA

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Methinks there is mid teen to mid twenties person organising lots of Hornby things and failing dramatically. No way am I using teenage websites for a hobby followed by mainly over 40'S ( being nice there when I meant grey aces of the fat wallets) I don't see any other makers in the mags making silly toys for model railways. No, they are going for excellence in accuracy without gimmicks of having a chance to win a Beatles or Cocoa Cola pop van fron tooling made in the 60's. No longer is Hornby Railways a toy at the prices being asked and should be Hornby Model Railways and the cheaper stuff rebranded from Railroad to Toytown Trains, with regular competions in the Beano. ANNOYED you bet I am annoyed. "What would you like for Christmas Johnny, a trainset of the latest XBox gizmo with loads of games?" "Oh I would like Smokey Joe with a Beatles wagon and circle of track as nobody else will have one at my age" Hours of pleasure discussing it on Thick Tok, Poo Tube and Clatter. Christmas for me this year, a very cheap, almost give away price LMS Turomotive and two Bachmann Royal Mail club specials vans. Miserable present now my new Aston Martin has just become a tad expensive. Johnny has changed his mind and is now getting the XBOX a new 65" tele and a new Iphone S6000 with inbuilt tardis technology for time travel to avoid airport queues. I doubt this post will last until Christmas

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P-Henny Mentor

P-Henny

Posted
Posted
I can't find it, where is the advent calendar on your website Hornby?

 

 

@Bridgey,

This year the term 'Advent Calendar' is rather misleading as it DOES NOT take the form that was published in previous years i.e a Calendar showing all days in the month with revealable windows.

This year, the Hornby website will only show an 'Advent Event' (not a Calendar image) on the few days of the month where the Hornby website is being used to host the competition event. As stated in earlier posts in this thread, the 'Advent Events' are being distributed across many 'Social Media' sites. This distribution policy means that a traditional 31 day calendar format is not being used this year.

To see the 'Advent Events' on any day that are being hosted on the Hornby website (this one) it can be found by scrolling down to the bottom of the Hornby home page and the link is in the "Blog and News" section. Noting that ONLY the days being hosted on the Hornby website will show there. You cannot see 'Advent Event' days being hosted on the other 'Social Media' sites. To see those, you have to navigate individually to each of Hornby's 'Social Media' site pages.

For example, so far (at the time-stamp of this post), only 'Advent Event Day 3' has been hosted on this Hornby website. The direct link (duplicated below) to the Day 3 result is located via the link described above in the 'Blog and News' section. This page below is likely to be updated when the Hornby website is chosen again to host another (next Hornby website) 'Advent Event'.

Hornby Advent Calendar :: Hornby Hobbies

 

 

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BritInVanCA Community Regular

BritInVanCA

Posted
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Well today’s doesn’t even work (Day 9). Broken link on social media and nothing on the website. I feel their heart is not in this competition this year. Perhaps they’ve found they’ve hit a brick wall in number of social media followers which, let’s bo honest, is why they run this competition in the first place.

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RB51 Grand Master

RB51

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I think they are trying different routes to get to a new market. Whether that will ultimately bear fruit is open to discussion. They are aware of the 404 error message, but being the weekend there is little opportunity for corrective action. R-

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