6th July

7.30pm @ Bullbuilder HQ!

By the way, minutes of meetings etc. should appear rlhererl in future instead of the (very) temperamental google group.

They will definitely appear there from now on as I'm very happy there's a much better alternative to the google group, which was so full of bugs it's amazing that Google are willing to put their name to it.

That would put 5'000 on the gate straight away!

Minutes of the last meeting are available rlhererl.

Would look forward to reading an interview with Donno. Perhaps posters on RA&B could contribute questions?

Sorry it's taken so long....here are the clubs responses to the questions we'd pooled.


Pre Match & Promotion

1. Pre-match entertainment that's cheap and people might like - get an old player back each week. Post who it's going to be on here the week before, collect suggested questions, and have Stuart interview him on the pitch at half time or before the game.

Yes – this could easily be done.

2. YouTube virals to promote games - spamming people will put them off but if it's half funny people won't mind and will forward it on to current and lapsed fans alike. Get the players involved, two minutes with a handy cam in the week and you're sorted.

Time & resource issue.
Would anyone be willing to volunteer their time to put something together?

3. How about a printable poster before each home game to be displayed in schools and workplaces? Same job done as a billboard on the M62, and done virtually for free.

Need some IT input.
Again, could anyone offer their expertise?

4. Price promotions on tickets - buy one, get one child's ticket half price, buy 2 get one free, etc.
5. Also on season tickets - free entry for a second person to Celtic, Harlequins and Cats.
6. Personally I'd do a permanent buy 5 get one free all season. This might sound like a lot to buy but it's amazing how far some people will go to access an offer. The sums boil down to 6 people buying a ticket at £15 rather than £18 and could be the sort of thing that gets groups of mates who already go to games pestering other mates to make up the numbers.

4/5/6 – there has been some activity this year based around these areas. There are two considerations around these sorts of promotions though.

Firstly – the club need to be careful not to devalue the season ticket and secondly care has to be taken not to cut the overall income, e.g. would half price tickets more than double the crowd? Probably not, therefore the club could end up losing money.

Promotions are based around bigger games; this gets people to a better game with better atmosphere / pre match entertainment and hopefully gets them hooked.

Kit & Merchandise

1. Given that the Bulls logo is pretty well known these days, maybe merchandising (t shirts, baseball caps) that just used its outline would look good in a minimalist sort of way.
2. Away kits that mean something - RAB hoops, amber with thin RB hoops, 93-94 style green, yellow and purple hoops, 91-92-style red with a RAB vee.
3. Any chance of the bulls selling a retro scarf?

The club would like more items and stock in the shop. But again it’s the amount of money tied up in stock that is an issue. For example; if a certain line sells 250 items but the minimum order is 1000 – that’s 750 items sat gathering dust.

Kids

1. A pdf for kids to print off that when stuck together and stuck to card makes a full size <player x/y/z> cut-out. Add a 'be healthy, don't eat chips all the time' slogan and get the kids to take them into school to be put on display. Even if only a couple get made, it's better than nothing surely and wouldn't take much time. Take the pic in high resolution, email it to someone with some nous on here and I'm sure it could be knocked up in half an hour. Maybe put a spot on it for a replaceable 'next home game' square.

Again, not enough in house expertise or resource.
Can anyone help in this area?

2. What has happened to junior bulls club every month? They have organised 3 big events this year but my kids used to love going once a month.

Format wasn’t working and expectations became too high, again the question was asked – where as a club are we better spending our money?

Academy

1. YouTube highlights of Academy games for the website- don't know if they are/can be videoed or whether Sky has the rights, but if not it could help get the message out that we have some reason to hope for the future.
2. All academy and reserve home games are recorded by the club.

All academy games are recorded. The club are happy to give a copy of this DVD to whoever wants to edit it and put it on a website – probably through BullBuilder I would suggest.


Miscellaneous

1. Can I just suggest with regards to future fan forums, when it goes to questions from the floor, hand over a mic to the question asker so everyone can hear what's being said.

Yes

2. On putting stuff on Ebay - I've been saying for a long time that the club should set up an ebay shop. It's pretty easy to do, requires little work and can be used to sell one-off items such as used bits of kit. If a player rips a shirt in training, get it washed, get him to sign it and bung it on the shop. It might only fetch a tenner but it'd all go into the community development pot.

I missed this one, but again if someone was willing to co-ordinate this I’m sure the club would be more than happy to give old kit / items for the cause.


Other Points

The club would love people to volunteer up their time to help out and for whatever task. And people who can offer professional expertise, then even better.

More resource is now available in the community area – so much more work should be going on here. As with any sport though, a winning side always helps!

I think the time has come for the club / fan interaction and the supporters trusts stickies to be merged into one "BullBuilder" thread.

Stuart was happy for all suggestions / offers / etc / etc to be channelled through this route. It kind of makes sense to try and have all club interaction through BullBuilder - the official voice of the fans if you like.

Some good responses from the club there (thanks to Mark for sorting out the meeting and taking those suggestions to the club). I would suggest BullBuilder would happily pick up a couple of those ideas).
- Also I really like the 'unique auctions' idea for eBay! Maybe BullBuilder could organise this and put those raised funds back into the junior set up at the club?
- I'm sure it wouldn't be a problem putting PDF posters on the website if anyone wants to volunteer to make them (although it sounds like the club would happily do this as well). Same with the kids pdf - also I believe we could get a grant to help with the kids one if it featured some kind of healthy living message, I know other trusts have. Again, we'd need to find someone with the time and know-how to put something like this together, just like the club would.

Any volunteers to help with any of this?

Excellent work from Bullbuilder to formulate and broach these suggestions to the Bulls.
Very interesting response from them to ask for volunteers whatever task and professional skills especially.
IIRC This is different to their attitude when approached a few years ago about the same sort of thing thing as they basically told others to keep out unless it was to take over the running of away transport.
Times change and this would be for the better!
IMO Bullbuilder could excel in focusing those who want to volunteer to do something practical for the club with the club's requirements, both those the club have identified and those that Bullbuilder have suggested.

There will be some minor legal niceties to sort out but maybe at last we can go forward to give us the chance to help the club.

Here's a thought, is there any way the Club could tie up with Bradford Uni/College and Students doing Marketing/Media Studies. Might be a very cheap way to get new ideas and an action plan on the Marketing front?

Why not merge these two threads into a BullBuilder one, and we can use it for anything that supporters would like to raise with the club or BullBuilder.

Also, if you haven't already, please join BullBuilder. We're already working with the club to provide extras for the academy, and every penny is appreciated. You can even join with PayPal now if you like - links in my signature.

Out of interest, has everyone here signed up to BullBuilder?

If not, then I suggest you do and lets pick up and run with some of these ideas.

Great minds!!