After years of reading thousands of posts on this site, i can't hold my tongue any longer.

I used to accept that the fact we are based out of the rugby league heartlands meant that commercial opportunities would be limited and the magic figure of a 5000 average attendance would never be achieved.

However, we have been shown up by the success story first of Catalans and now even Celtic Crusaders. They both operate in an area where union reigns supreme much more so than in London.

In just a few years look what they have done. they have amassed a fan base not much off the size of ours and both have real sponsors (idec and brains) who actually pay them money and don't happen to own the club.

At what point do we acknowledge whilst everyone off the pitch work very hard, they are not up to the job. I cant help but feel if you gave the boards of Catalan and Celtic a city like London to operate in they would take advantage of it.

SPOT ON! eusa_clap.gif

Would think that both of those clubs, while remote from the heartlands are nicely positioned as "community" clubs and have sold themselves accordinglyto the sponsors who can see a local reward..................used to think that Youngs or Fullers would be probably the only brands likely to associate with Broncos/QRL at the Stoop but for some reason it never happened.

Greene King being one, VB being another and let's not forget Fosters.

Thats poor, I am not sure how the club structure at Quins works but it may not have been the development officers fault, maybe the ticketing & accreditations department, perhaps marketing?

Junior Ticketing works, its one thing that I feel that the Quins as a club should implement immediately to all juniors who play RL in London. There is a sever lack of kids at Quins games. But we'll save that for another thread.

Being associated with a nomadic club thats on the verge of going bust, having done so already just three years ago? Count me in
And tell you what that free box i get will be great to wine and dine people.
What better way than to look like a major player than to bag exclusive tickets to a three quarter empty event?
Why didnt I get a box at the stadium across the road you ask? couldnt afford it and anyway this is where its at.

No

A community tie up with strong links to the area helps us build up our identity and help it bed into the area and it helps St Marys reach a wider audience and increase awareness of it and links it in peoples mind to west london rather than as a remote outpost.

DarthChris

Thankyou - my drivel was trying to achieve exactly what you just said!

Quote ="100%Legume0%Onion"Just on that point - season tickets were promised to junior players but at the club where my sons play they did not materialise because one of the community coaches (now moved on) didn't get his act together to make it happen. Whilst it made no difference to us because we had had tickets anyway it did discourage some of the parents/kids from attending. There is a lesson for the club about attention to detail there - not always easy given the lack of resources.'" Have you emailed the club about this? ebonyb@quins.co.uk is the address for Ebony Blake, the Community Development Manager. Tel: 0208 410 6000

Quote ="100%Legume0%Onion"Just on that point - season tickets were promised to junior players but at the club where my sons play they did not materialise because one of the community coaches (now moved on) didn't get his act together to make it happen. Whilst it made no difference to us because we had had tickets anyway it did discourage some of the parents/kids from attending. There is a lesson for the club about attention to detail there - not always easy given the lack of resources.'" Have you emailed the club about this? ebonyb@quins.co.uk is the address for Ebony Blake, the Community Development Manager. Tel: 0208 410 6000

Wow, what a thread.

Hi there EFH! I too am a sports events and marketing proffesional, albeit an Australian one who has recently arrived in town and is looking to get back in the industry. May have to chat to you sometime.

There is a lot guessing going on here at the moment, we do not know, and probably will never know the exact details of the shirt sponsorship. I for one, hope that the deal is not contra, as I am unsure of what benefits the university can offer the a RL club.

Listy, you are critical of the choice of jersey sponsor. Howevr EFH has raised some good points with regards to the Quins RL market. Who are we exactly? The one thing for sure is that we are a very small, but seems dedicated group. From reading these boards, I am sure that the club would yet to have any research on Quins RL fans and may have to rely on general SL research to sell the product. What company is willing to shell out £'s if they dont know who they are targeting?

EFH, you are right, finding a perfect sponsor is the holy grail. The smart ones out there know that with any major sports sponsorship they should be willing to back up their investment in the club/event with the same amount in further promotions related to the said club/event. You would be suprised by the amount of companies/account managers who havent taken this into account and therefore reducing the impact of the investment.

Without ranting on for too long and losing my way, the jersey sponsorship comes back to the front office once again. As long as the club is operating on a shoe string budget, they are going to be taking tiny steps towards growth.

OK. Simple lesson in sales for all those on salaries who have never had to rely on commission payments to pay the bills:

1. Believe in what you are selling (see above comment from Chris). If you do not believe in it, then how the feck to you hope to sell it?
2. Enjoy what you do. If you don't pitch with a smile, then don't bother.
3. It is a numbers game. Every sales person I know has to make more than 1 call to make a sale. Yes, some products are easier to sell, but the rewards are often less. If it requires 100 telephone calls to get a sale, then make those 100 calls as quickly as you can.
4. There are 2,500,000+ registered companies in the UK, so you will never run out of leads.
5. Think outside the box. Look for a company in the TW area that would possibly target our Northern brothers. The people who advertise on Sky TV during the day perhaps? Yes car Vredit, ambulance chasers, Loans, etc....We may only get 3,500, but Leeds and Hull certainly don't.
6. Go back to point 1 and start again.
IF IT WAS EASY, THEN EVERYONE WOULD BE DOING IT! That's why it's called Sales..........because you SELL stuff

Oh great, another one



After a few years the guesses are pretty accurate

and I bet you no cash has changed hands!

You are a fast learner then

With this in mind, don't you think it mught be worth trying to poach a few of the backroom staff at Cats or Celts to give our lot a kick up the ? Cats have acheived a hell of a lot on and off the pitch in the short time they have been in SL, it concerns me that far from improving our psition the takeover by Harlequins has ,at best, left us standing still.

We made good progress in the past, its just that moving from place to place and going bust killed all that.
Now we have to start again, but this time without the good will sourrounding a new venture, and have to slowly build up our identity.

Lost the will to live on this one.

In the end is a shirt sponsor good or a bad thing? GOOD

Do we need to market the club better? YES

Did the Manly game show us a way? YES

Are some of the ideas on this thread good? YES, but what the hell do i know i go to Quins to watch rugby and support my team and that s why i come on this site.

so direct all these emails to the club or find a better website - "Marketing Weekly.com" or "I dont believe i am obsessed but i just want to say.com"

No. What the club needs is someone who understands the whole concept of CPA marketing, or in laymans terms, cost per sale. Enough of the "good work done by ...blah blah" and another award for blah blah.....if you want bums on seats then the person who worked on the Manly Game is the guy we want. He won't be cheap, but as CEO with a remit for marketing we would find it hard to locate someone better.
By all means "borrow" ideas from Celts and Catalan, but do not believe that your average Londoner is anything like a taff or a frog.

Manly was a one off. we cant look at that as a model which is why i was disappointed they didnt get more schools community groups and local businesses involved -as then the trick could be repeated.
We need to build up our own id and being a club where there is no atmosphere as our crowd is made up of aussies on a day out is probably not the long term direction we should be heading.

The tie in with St Marys boosts the profile of both us and them and that is better for us than money at this stage

good point, although Gutterfax amy argue that it is not the target audience (e.g. Aussies) but the way the club went about marketing / selling the game.

It is funny, but when the club seem to try to market to the Aussies they get it almost spot on - but marketing to Brits they seem to miss the mark. Is it just me?

I think the St Mary's sponsorship is fine, thats what my email said. My point re Manly was that someone did something and it worked so lets try something? The ideas that gutterfax and others have suggested are interesting, i am not an expert, so try them or SOMETHING?

I wouldnt mind 5000 quiet aussies/Kiwis/Quins RU fans/ or bloody martians as long as the 3000 or so regulars can shout scream and have a good day out. 5000 appears a magical figure, if we dont get to it in 3 years then maybe no franchise or D Hughes may bail out, i would be very sad to lose RL at Quins - its the highlight of my week (how sad is that).

My point was were was there any mention of rugby, the team or anything of interest to 99.9999999% of the worlds population in most of the posts on this thread. Just lots of egos having a "my **** 's bigger than yours" competition.

And before i am accused of bias, i am from Hull, was there 2 weeks ago for the Cas match - but i regard my exile as escape.................

The Aussies love anything that reminds of home. Therefore when you get the top NRL club playing in London, they're going to turn up.

Tease......it doesn't exist. I thought it was a real website


and as for obsessed....at least I care

The apathy of some is the inspitation of others.....without passion we may as well watch Union.

I'd love to give the Marketing a go for Quins!

as long as you didnt come up with [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0HOqjSzqw&NR=1this[/url

email the club, or call them and ask how to apply.

They have a Marketing Manager dont they?

it doesnt exist, my god......................

actually agree we need more people with passion!