Lack of Marketing staff - i think there is 2 from previously 8 - means there is very little in the way of marketing. I've mentioned it many times to the club to let the fans do it ! set up a group of volunteers who would be willing to give up their time to get into town and ask people :
A) if they are aware of the Giants
B) have they ever been
C) if so what would it take to get them to come again etc

Once we have an idea of what it will take to get people to come and watch us then the club can work on implementing them. As it is at the moment the club are ( or as it seems to me) simply relying on existing fans to bring new people. There is no incentives for new people to come, they need to be able to 'try before they buy' in some way or another.

There is lots that can be done, granted lots of them will probably end up costing or losing money at 1st but isn't the old saying speculate to accumulate?

Sorry guys, didn't realise it had been done before

It would be great to work together to get some solid ideas together to present to the board, I think volunteers is a BRILLIANT idea!! I'd be happy to spend time on evenings and weekends spreading the message about our games. I think with the ST prices going up our attendance is bound to fall, so we need to be proactive!

I've suggested it to James Brammer in the past and he has said what an excellent idea it was but has never been back in touch regarding getting it off the ground.

Great, well this is where I hope to get things off the ground. After October we're in down season which means the marketing team will have time to listen to our ideas... during season they're swamped, so even though it's a good idea they just don't have time to look into it.

So my list to take to them is...

1. volunteers to help spread the word through the town centre and local villages.
2. Exclusive Squad release on Twitter for followers
3. Billboard in town which is ours exclusively for the season
4. Possible discounts for large companies who buy a certain amount of tickets?

the twitter thing though....that's for existing fans only isn't it ?? how is that marketing the club to new fans ?

Also, again i've suggested the discounts for companies based on group bookings etc before too but i still believe its a good one so yeah go for it !!

they've already done 1,3 and 4.
1. no one volunteered except Daz,
3. the club said It costs too much and no one notices it
4. they've done this before and no one bothers to buy tickets.
(2. brearley will miss it seeing as he didn't notice the tweets about the questionnaire )

I know others offered too Jools, we spoke to James at the Fans Forum at the start of the season about it.

they were tongue in cheek comments daz!

Oops

The club has 10,000 followers on twitter but only 6,000 at games, so that means there is at least 3,000 'casual' supporters that follow giants on twitter! It's a great way to market

Several ideas were mentioned in the latest issue of the fanzine, I got in touch with the club, one month later I was sat in a meeting with Ken talking about which ideas they were using and how they were going to be implemented! He said at the end of the meeting 'The fact fans, like you, have been suggesting ideas has 'reinvigorated' our marketing team and me'! It is clear the club is listening and wants all of our ideas!

leeds rhinos have 56k followers on twitter.. maybe we need to take a look at what they are doing on that platform

hell even london broncos have 11k !

its a way of getting the message across and the club needs to think outside the box instead of the general boring stuff they usually give out on twitter and facebook.

its the best way of engaging with the public now.

town centre is dead.. and people would just walk past not interested if we were out handing leaflets

the whole squad were out in the town and villages at the start of this season remember...

I'd like to look at a model where we sign up as club members for different incentives. I'd be interested in how the Australian models work. Living in London I will never make all the games but want to support in other ways. I always spend money in the club shop, pay into the cash bonanza scheme. I think there are other ways to involve members, as well as being season ticket holders.

I'm sorry but Twitter doesn't really mean squat in real terms. I'm on twitter and I follow the giants, but that doesn't mean I read it everyday. Its just one avenue in which to get the message out, where many should be pursued. I would be surprised if even half of giants fans used it regularly if at all.

The key is lots of avenues, direct mail, pr and press, editorials, radio, tv, ambient media, events, reciprocal advertising, drip feed stuff little and often, then pick your big stories and know when to use them for maximum impact.

maybe start with having a pre season launch like we used to do?
make it a big event, with things going around town,put it around the pubs and maybe have giants theme nights, a family fun day,meet the players etc and a main function in the evening, get some big names involved, maybe a few live bands etc.
make it an event for everyone not just a few die hard fans, get people talking about the giants even if they only have a passing interest..make people aware..make them want to be involved., offer them tickets for the first game if they aren't regulars...maybe get some of our partners to sponsor it or subsidise travel to our first away game?
i know it would cost and logistically might not be easy but if it gets people interested then why not?