![\"Zach](\"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/news\/zach-sharpe-interview\/zach-sharpe-pinballnews.jpg\")
<\/a>According the Stern, Zach will lead in… “expanding its rapidly growing global business while focusing on extending the Stern entertainment experience within the consumer, commercial, and competitive player brand portfolio\u00a0<\/em>including pinball machines, merchandise, and accessories.<\/em>”<\/p>\n Pinball News caught up with Zach to ask him about his new job, starting with how he came to be offered the position. He told us, “With Stern Pinball growing as a company so fast, they were definitely stretched a bit thin on the marketing side of things. They had approached me to see if I was interested in working in pinball given my background in marketing\/advertising working at iris Worldwide. Needless to say, I was more than interested!<\/em>”<\/p>\n His appointment at Stern Pinball comes as Jody Dankberg, who previously held marketing responsibilities, becomes the company’s Director of Licensing and New Business Development. \u00a0It might seem there is some crossover between marketing and new business development, so we asked Zach is he could clarify the responsibilities of the two roles.<\/p>\n He said, “It\u2019s incredible that Jody doesn\u2019t have as much grey hair as I do given all of the responsibilities I\u2019m helping take over on the marketing side of things! With his promotion to Director of Licensing and New Business Development, he\u2019s really able to focus on that side of the business. It\u2019s going to allow some incredible collaboration between the two of us to really promote and take pinball to the next level. We\u2019re already doing some incredible work together and are excited to see where we can take things. Less than a month on the job and we\u2019ve already secured a spot set-up at the Big Buck Hunter World Championships where we will be running the inaugural Heads-Up Pinball Championship! Many more exciting ideas and plans in store that we\u2019ve been brainstorming, so stay tuned on that front.<\/em>”<\/p>\n Now that Stern has a dedicated Director of Marketing, we asked Zach about the key areas in which he saw potential for pinball to grow, and if there were any expansion opportunities Stern has yet to explore. \u00a0He was, as you might expect, very upbeat. \u00a0“There\u2019s always room for growth for all things pinball!\u00a0 In particular though, I\u2019ll be helping not only increase the exposure and awareness of pinball to the general public, but also add a heightened level of customer engagement to and throughout the community through many different channels.\u00a0 Call me an eternal optimist, but I would love to expand to the point of where every single person on the entire planet knows and loves pinball!<\/em>”<\/p>\n We questioned how that increased level of customer engagement will be felt by Stern Pinball’s existing customers and enthusiasts. \u00a0Zach said the Stern Army scheme in collaboration with the IFPA was one area which would benefit. \u00a0“I\u2019m definitely passionate about all things pinball and now that I get a chance to combine my skills from my previous day job into my actual day job, I\u2019m hoping the result of my enthusiasm is seen and felt throughout the community. \u00a0One of the first big initiatives I\u2019ve been diving into since starting here has been with the Stern Army program.\u00a0 This program and all of the members of this army are such huge assets to the community in truly getting the word out about how pinball can make an impact at pretty much any location.\u00a0 There\u2019s no better case study to show operators what pinball can do for them at their location and now with the time and resources here at Stern, I can really help foster, nurture and grow this already incredible and impressive army from 50 locations up to 500! (again, eternal optimist, it\u2019ll never stop)<\/em>”<\/p>\n While the Stern Army focuses on operating pinball, there is no doubt that the direction of travel has been markedly towards home sales in the past decade. \u00a0Domestic buyers not only expect a high-quality, attractive and reliable product in their homes, they also expect a higher level of after-sales support in case of any issues, often underpinned by consumer protection laws. \u00a0We asked Zach if, given how Stern Pinball markets their products increasingly towards this retail channel, whether they have the support structure in place to match.<\/p>\n He stressed the importance of making sure the product is designed and built in the best way possible from the start in reducing issues further down the line. \u00a0“One thing that was extremely eye opening to me as I started here and am still learning the ropes, was going on the factory tour (and in fact giving a few of them myself!). It truly is incredible the level of detail and the environment these machines are built in, one of the key aspects being the quality assurance process every step of the way.\u00a0 And what I found most fascinating and illuminating (apologies on the Demolition Man reference) is the proactive nature of the team to continually refine and update processes to improve the end product whether it\u2019s process advancements through our supply chain or process advancements on the factory floor.\u00a0 Ultimately, we are very focused on the quality of the product we\u2019re selling because at the end of the day, if we aren\u2019t happy with the product, the customer won\u2019t be (and vice versa).\u00a0 We will always stand by our product so I\u2019d say Stern is in a great position to support not only home buyers, but operators alike.<\/em>”<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong>Another initiative to help get more pinballs into the home has been The Pin – Stern’s range of sub-Pro models sold through big-box retail stores and warehouses. \u00a0Stern has struggled to gain market traction with The Pin, despite trying several different versions and sales partners, and there is currently no promotion of these games on the Stern Pinball website.<\/p>\n But the company regularly insists there is a market for this level of game, something Zach endorses. \u00a0“For as much flack as The Pin gets from the enthusiast community, it\u2019s actually a lot of fun to play!\u00a0 We are still testing and refining this product, but the Spider-Man pin has a really nice and easy to understand ruleset for that rec room consumer.\u00a0 We absolutely believe that there\u2019s a market for an entry level consumer game as we have seen first-hand, and the goal is to broaden the market to as wide an audience as possible.<\/em>”<\/p>\n As Director of Marketing you would Expect Zach to be upbeat about the future of Stern and the pinball market in general, but does he think pinball can ever reach the heights of popularity it achieved in the ’90s – a time which many see as the ‘glory years’ for electronic pinball? \u00a0“It absolutely can get back to the glory years of the early \u201890s, there\u2019s no doubt in my mind.\u00a0 And as far as public reach and awareness goes, until I come across the day where every single person on this planet knows what pinball is, I\u2019d be hard pressed to see how pinball can\u2019t or won\u2019t keep expanding within consumers\u2019 consciousness.\u00a0 It definitely won\u2019t be easy by any means, but as long as we keep innovating, locations keep increasing around the world, further promotion of tournaments\/expos\/shows go up, the trend is solely pointing up.<\/em>”<\/p>\n And what can we as fans of the game do to help pinball grow? \u00a0“Play!!\u00a0 Go grab a friend or introduce a co-worker and play!!\u00a0 Don\u2019t be afraid to enter in tournaments, introduce new people and generally get the word out.\u00a0 I\u2019ve personally never met anyone who has played a game of pinball and didn\u2019t have some level of enjoyment from that experience.\u00a0 I like using the quote\/analogy from Wayne\u2019s World \u201cand they tell two friends\u2026and they tell two friends\u201d.\u00a0 To me pinball personifies that quote since most people are introduced one by one into the hobby.\u00a0 It\u2019s really a niche, grassroots hobby that is only growing up, so until you exhaust all of your friends and contacts about this incredible machine we all love and play, keep playing and sharing the pinball gospel.<\/em>”<\/p>\n Finally, as the top-ranked player in the world, are we still going to see Zach competing at the highest level, or is his new job going hinder his ability to play in major tournaments around the world?<\/p>\n He is optimistic it won’t be a problem. “I would certainly hope not!\u00a0 But I\u2019m sure just like in my other job; timing of tournaments is always at risk based on work conflicts, so that\u2019s something that will never change.\u00a0 And if pinball ever got to be so huge where employees of the company providing machines weren\u2019t allowed to compete in the event\u2026.well I guess Lyman, Keith and I will just have to play for dollars in the arcade here on our lunch break!<\/em>“<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Stern Pinball announced the hiring of a new Director of Marketing on August 11th, it was a name familiar to many in the pinball world. Zach Sharpe is perhaps best known as a world-class pinball player – \u00a0currently ranked #1 in the IFPA rankings, an organisation where he holds the post of Vice President …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8200,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[58,382],"class_list":["post-8190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-stern-pinball","tag-zach-sharpe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8190"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8190\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8208,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8190\/revisions\/8208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pinballnews.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>