Quote: TRB "A bad example given that Radiohead have not repeated the idea with their latest album.
The club needs to be run as a business - and the last thing I want to see is the club 'giving away' the value of watching the club. We need, if we are to grow as a club, to be able to realise value from our support base - but I do agree that some type of 'added value' would be a good idea for this and other 'lesser' games!'"
I think we're a million miles away from the luxurious position you describe; you're assuming a larger supporter base than those of us who turn up each week exists (which I agree with by the way) but to extract any value from them, we have to get them through the door. Right now, the 'value' of watching the club to those people is nil - it only has value to those people who attend and there aren't enough of us to sustain the club as a viable business. The most effective way to improve that situation is to grow the supporter base we're trying to extract value from, rather than using the Ted technique of trying increasingly desperate ways to get more money from the same few mugs.
My example probably wasn't the best, but it was fresh in my mind; however, the point remains that much more respected and 'valuable' brands than WTW have derived terrific mileage from giveaways. I think it's got legs and I'm not at all convinced that it would devalue the brand if it was tagged on to a 'new owner, new era - let's party' type promotion.