Absolutely no point advertising in the Leaguer or the League Express, anyone who already buys that paper knows what they are going to watch.

Advertising spend needs to be targetted where it will make most impact - and therein lies the difficulty - a CEO f a large business (can't remember who) was quoted as saying - I know 50% of my advertising budget works for us, trouble is I dont know which 50%

IMHO the best target for advertising/marketing money is in joint venture promotions - inserts in programs at other sporting events etc. I think it's very unlikely that things like the MEN will influence "casual attenders" but by targetting sports fans at other paying events (i.e. you've identified those people who definitely WILL pay to watch sport) you have more chance of getting a return on your investment.

Yeah I agree, but do you think other sports events would let you influence their fans away by attracting them to a different sport? Because a lot of fans won't be able to afford to go and watch both and if they fell in love for the great game for example they'd say choose to come and watch Salford instead of going to watch whatever else it was they used to. So even though it sounds good in theory I just can't see another sports business letting a competitor advertise in the ground or programme. Maybe advertising in the pubs around other sporting events is a good idea though for example the pubs around Old Trafford or Gigg Lane where FCUM play? An Advert in the MEN is surely better than nothing? If we put an offer on and advertise everyday in the week leading up to the game a many people would see it and maybe a few would attend. Saying this though, it has already been done on numerous occasions by the club, so maybe we need to think outside the box a little. We are after all the only full time club in the city and we should be pushing and using our resources to the maximum. How many schools are there in Salford/Manchester get in there and brainwash the kids, take ignito in offer out tickets hopefully the kids will go home and pester their parents into taking them. If little Billy attends then little Billy's friend will want to come and pester his parents to go on so on. we really do need to get out and market the club more within the city, Some people don't even know what rugby league is FFS and that's up to us to spread the word of rugby league and get people through the turn styles.

Easier said than done I know and don't get me wrong I'm no marketing expert, but what I do know is more CAN be done!

The promo tickets that have been given out don`t attract many long term new recruits to the Willows going off what I`ve seen where I am .
A lot of youngsters from my lads school have attended the one game the`ve had tickets for and thats it, no repeat visits unless there`s another promo on offer.
Possibly a better way would be to offer a junior seaon ticket for a tenner , Leigh are having a go at this , seems pretty good to me as we take in 2 or 3 games in at the LSV a season .
Certainly takes the sting out going to a game as neutral.

Why not take it a bit further and for all first time applicants through the school scheme they get the ST for a tenner and allow 1 x adult at say £50 for the season,but obviously without the shirt and other freebies. It gives them a whole season to enjoy RL, maybe even then going to a few away games. Then the following year hopefully they've got the bug and will pay the full price.

I know lots of people would have their noses put out by people they know getting ST's for much cheaper than they have paid, but surely we have to start somewhere to increase crowds.

"Simple" solution is to perform better and challenge for trophies. You can advertise all you want, but people will not want to watch a team that suffers a fair few hammerings, produces RL that is far from scintillating and finishes second bottom.

IMO there is also the issue that there simply isn't the hunger for RL in this country. This isn't helped by regular changes to the rules, lack of terrestial TV and radio coverage, the decision to remove promotion and relegation and the whole franchise system. The latter two may work in other countries, but I am not convinced they work here. To some people it is confusing and nonsensical.

Plus football has cornered the market. I would have thought an awful lot of people simply cannot afford to go to both football and RL.

No offence but some of the ideas, such as having inserts into football programmes and the likes, will simply not work. They would have about as much impact as a gnat farting into a gust of wind. If it was so easy, we would have many more people going to The Willows each week.

The best advertisement for any business is to be seen to be winning !

And how exactly are we going to be able to put a winning team together without drawing in the crowds first?

That's the issue we have to address. Not inserting an advert into a programme or leafleting people.

You need good quality junior development, effective management throughout the club (i.e. financial management, scouting, junior development etc..), better facilities, success in the transfer market and a large dose of luck, amongst other things.

If it was as easy as a simple promotion and marketing technique, then no club would have problems getting crowds.

Just out of interest, how many Turkey Readers started watching Salford on the back of free season tickets dished out to local high schools in the late 80's/early 90's? I was at Hope High 89-94 and I'm pretty sure for 4-5 seasons I was given a free season ticket each year until I left school. Ok, the club lost out on 4/5 years of junior admission but they've since had 12/13 years of cash out of me since then (i missed a couiple of seasons when games clashed with Lancy Sunday League matches ). I know a few mates who stopped going once the freebies stopped but if say 30% continued to folow the team after school that's got to help increase attendances. Considering I knew f*ck all about RL before High School it certainly did the trick for me!

If the club could do something similar with Our Lady's (or whatever it's called now!), Hope (or whatever it's called now!), Buile Hill etc there's got to be future fans out there just waiting to be brain-washed! I'm sure someone will no doubt tell me why this isn't financially viable but I'm sure there must be some logic to it.

i continued to come after leaving hope high ten years ago. Now me, my misses, sister and her mate go to every home and most away games. About 4 or 5 of my mates came to some home games last season when i could get them some freebies but they wont pay the £18 to get in! And i dont blame them. They all said if it was £10 on the gate they'd come to most home games.

The club will be doing some kind of promotion, not FREE tickets for all & sundry that seem to get into the hands of regular fans, but on the lines of "find a friend/fan" it will be aimed at folk who havnt been on the clubs database, the club will be giving details shortly.

I don't know where I stand on this I started watching Salford in 1968 when the girl who badysat for use took me along, no freebees no gimics, no mascot just Rugby league and I was hooked. I know kids are different these days for some reason many can not actually entertain themselves for more than 10 mins without having to have somebody tell them what to do next or a change of what they are watching. It is this that we have to get past if we want to bring more youngsters in, I know also that having the best supported sports team in the country on our doorstep doesn't help either, but there are still a lot of people who want to see United but can not afford it but would not consider the alternative which could be Rugby League. Again I don't know how we do this, I think the club have tried everything in the last ten years to get crowds in, winning may be one solution, attractive Rugby another, we all don't know, we were winning in the national league but we did not get large crowds, we even won a "treble" but still could only muster 6000 for a local derby.
The new stadium may bring in new supporters as at Warrington, they built up the crowds without winning anything, but they are in what could be described as an inner city location, we will not be.
Only hope this year people in Salford decide they want to come and watch Salford, as many say £18 may be too dear but we need money for the squad, we are one of five not at full salary cap so there is hope. A couple of wins and who knows we may break 5000, but did the crowd increase last season after our win at Leeds?

"[ipressure makes diamonds[/i"

doesn't it

I believe if we had the same help Celtic have had from the rugby league we would probably get a crowd the same as the other night when entertaining Leeds.
I don't believe the price to be an issue, I believe it is more that the perception of those lost from our club will not go anymore because they think we are crap, playing in a poor stadium
We must forget what is happening elsewhere, hopefully the anouncement that the stadium is about to start on building work will give us the biggest lift possible.