So the internet is doing weird stuff. Or Umpqua is spending a shit-ton of money on marketing. Or maybe both, I’m not sure…
Something like a month ago, I received an email from a retailer, I think it was TCO Fly Shop, advertising the new Northfork packs from Umpqua. They’re a line of minimalistic fly fishing packs that appear to have just the right amount of features and seem to be priced fairly. They piqued my interest as I’ve been awkwardly looking for a good waist/hip pack solution for a while. I clicked through the email to learn more, but didn’t proceed much beyond that.
Anyway, fast forward to current day, and all I’ve been seeing is Northfork content everywhere I travel digitally. Like within the last few weeks, all pretty much all of the fly shops that I subscribe to on YouTube have started doing feature & benefit reviews and product walkthroughs. I think I first saw one from AvidMax… and then the Tuckaseegee Fly Shop… and just in the past week, Flylords dropped one as well. As a matter of fact, it’s the magnum opus of the Northfork video genre.
To top it off, I received an email from flylab, who’s whole platform is non-biased industry coverage and reviews, and they dropped a written Northfork review as well. (Although you can get “pro-deals” by being a member of their site, which seems a bit of a conflict of interest, something’s gotta subsidize those right?)
So, what’s going on here? I already subscribe to all of these content creators, either as a customer, reader, or simply mindless video viewer, so it’s not like the Google and its retargeting cookie monster is necessarily responsible for serving me up all this Northfork. It’s more like a large % of the creators I subscribe to are suddenly head-over-heels excited to show off these Umpqua Northfork packs.
Is this just a case of the marketplace being excited by a new product line? And in the case of retailers, getting a fresh shipment of goods they want to sell before the invoice comes due? Or is something more nefarious going on… is Umpqua out there using Jedi mind tricks to activate what to the non-conspiracy theorist would look like an innocent grassroots marketing campaign that I’ve never quite seen for a new line of fishing packs before?
Beats me. But I kinda want one of those Northfork waist packs now. Call me “redhorse” because I’m evidently a sucker. Mission accomplished Umpqua… dammit.
