Ok, sure this (or similar topics) must have been posted before...but how would you sell rugby league to the general public in London and the south?

Imagine there was a new sport (which I guess rugby league is to many southeners - still!)....lets for the sake of argument call it "Meshball"....and lets say its a fast, entertaining and enjoyable sport that has a league and supporters elsewhere. How would you want, as a member of the public, to be informed about it? This is an exercise that surely any company or activity provider etc needs to start their strategy plan with. We've discussed flyers, posters etc numerous times...but its clearly not worked. This is an exercise Quins should be indulging in.

I live not more than 5 miles from the Stoop and I've not once been approached whilst in towns or through any other media communication and "informed" about rugby league or the Quins. How do we get the message in an effective manner to the "masses"???

I personally stumbled on rugby league whilst on holiday in Portugal where some friends and I met some St Helens fans, ended up going to a bar and watching the St Helens v Wigan derby in 2002 or 2003 (I can't remember the exact year)and then went to the Broncos v St Helens match in Brentford (which we won 40-6). If it hadn't been for this coincidental occurrance I'd never have found out about the game! There are thousands of people who are surely in the same boat.

Your story is an interesting one. You were encouraged to watch RL on TV in the company of a bunch of enthusaists. Then you were lucky enough for your first game in London to see one of the most memorable performances in this club's history.

For all the money that could be put into marketing, I'm by no means conviced that seeing a bunch of ads at railway stations, bus stops etc would persuade me to go and watch a sport that I'd not really thought about. I've become a fan of Swindon Speedway after a mate asked me to go with him. Similarly, my best mate is a Quins season ticket holder after me dragging him along to a couple of games at Charlton in the Broncos era.

Of course, everyone has tried to drag all they know along to games. But I do think it would help if the club made a further incentive to get people along. For example, why not allocate one private box for every game to a season ticket holder, whose job it is to fill the box with others who aren't already regular attendees? A relatively easy way to get people to rock up, albeit in small numbers, but it's low cost and may encourage somne longer-term fans.

[url=http://viewtopic.php?f=27&t=430103SEPTEMBER 2009[/url....my thoughts on the subject.

Gutterfax....very good point, apologise for bringing this thread up - never saw your previous one. I think all your points in that action plan make perfect sense...its these activities that the club should be engaging in. Half of your ideas wouldn't really cost much and could probably be done by the faithful volunteers they have.

Overall, there is an untapped resource in London for building the numbers....thousands of people just don't know about the sport. Quins can't just "assume" these people aren't interested because we've had posters about...just 0.000001% of London and the south-east's population need to be turned into fans and the Stoop would sell out every home game.

Interesting that you share not only GF's views but also his basic misunderstanding of maths.



Either that or the Stoop has suddenly become considerably smaller than a phone box.

ok..well, 0.0001% or whatever I wrote may be inaccurate if we're going to be picky....but the Stoop's capacity is what about 12-14k?? How many people live in London and the South-East (Surrey, Middx, Kent, or even Hants or Sussex)?? Obviously we aren't going to target all those people but if we just concentrate on London, Middx and Surrey...attracting enough people that would fill the stadium is an extremely minor percentage of the overall figure.

I think the number you are looking for is closer to 0.1% so you were only out by 5 orders of magnitude. That's picky is it



Can I buy your house for £2 ?

So...because someone makes a mistake with a calculation, Quins rl needn't worry about the lack of crowds at the stoop.....it's all becoming clear now. This is the reason that the club have failed in 15 years to attract decent crowds....maths.......it has nothing to do with the total lack of any intelligent marketing.......just simple maths



2 years ago...the club were given a licence and applaudedf or their work in the community and for bringing London talent through to SL level. At the same time, they were warned about the need to build crowds....a warning that was repeated recently. In response they have done absolutely nothing to attract crowds.....and people here think they are bolted on for a licence next time regardless? DH is thinking of walking........and if he does, I would suggest you all get your tube maps out and look for the nearest stop to the Skolars...because the club can't survive on 3k gates and will fold almost immediately DH walks.......

Oh god - it's morning in the land of the long white cloud.

Another busy day in the office, staring out at the view of the bay and wellington in the distance......and somewhat annoyingly, still worrying about the state of the club I follow.
Another hammering at Huddersfield...sitting in second last place with an improving Catalans breathing down our necks, an owner who is questioning the level of FINANCIAL support he wants to provide in future, crowds still shockingly low and the licence application for 2012 being prepared by a management who would have trouble finding their own butts with both hands.....Bob Geldoff was right about Mondays

I was just pointing out the coincidence that the maths was as bad as yours. Don't get so excited.

Yep....usual weapon of choice for those who have nothing to add to a debate.......the pedantic torpedo......
I have no doubt that you are as concerned as anyone else about the state of the club at the moment and you have made it clear that you don't see the point in debating what we the fans can't control, so instead of joining in the debate by pointing out a maths error, I would suggest you stay away from it all together.

The poster was simply pointing out the obvious....a tiny percentage of the population of London/ Greater London would fill the stoop......not exactly a cutting edge statement, but a valid one all the same. The club for their part have done SFA to address this issue and therefore, I will re-hash and re-post until either they do something about it, go under or I lose my posting rights on these boards. As others have said, if my posts annoy you.....ignore them.

how would i sell it? I wouldn't. that's the job of paid pros. I'm a fan. I just wanna watch games and enjoy myself but this team is so poor I can't.

Cheered me up that has. I am still fighting a losing battle with the Rugby League World site to get an e-copy of the article with Quins Marketing Bod......but regardless of what it says.....there is no way in this life or any other life that the efforts this year could be described as the work of a professional.
I may change this standpoint if their website eventually lets me buy a copy, but for now........quins rl marketing efforts in 2010 have been terrible.

I sympathise with all of you fans who just want to watch decent RL......but the fact remains that without either David Hughes Money or a minimum of 7,000 average gates, it will be the skolars or nothing in the very near future. The fact that with gate receipts of about 400k and SKY TV money...the club still need 1.5 or 1.7 million to keep their heads above water

...that's nearly 3.2 million a year with no clue how to recoup any of those funds by promoting the game to new fans.
It really is field of dreams marketing........and it still isn't working and it isn't professional either

Is it ever night time over there??

Sorry to sound dismal but living in Cumbria which is according to the media (A real RL hotbed) is just as depressing.
A recent Workington v Whithaven derby attracted less than 800 speccies and Barrow average less than 2000 for a home match whilst knocking on the superleague door.
At least you get to watch top level teams when you buy a ticket and in a decent stadium!!

yes...it's 9pm now.

...

I think something that also needs to be tackled is the fact that we constantly hear that RL is being played by more youngsters in the south-east than ever before - so why the bloody hell aren't they coming along to watch Quins?! Even a couple of years ago when hundreds of free season tickets were given out, there was no noticable take up!

I don't have a clue how you introduce the game to southerners in this country, what i will say i was amazed by the number of southerners (and midlanders) that we met supporting the England team at the last world cup in Oz.

They had ALL emigrated to Oz and had the game introduced there and supported quite a different selection of NRL teams. Might be the fact of the high profile media attention it gets over there...and the lack of decent soccer teams to support. That said they were as enthusiastic and as knowledgable about our great game than us northerners supporting our country over there.

I think it was one of the points in the thingy I posted last September. It's all well and good giving them tickets, but you have to liaise with the clubs to ensure there is the desire to come to games and if not, ask why not.

A lot of this failure comes down to a lack of planning and follow up. An example would be the big gate we got v Wigan in 2008. If Wigan brought down 3,000, then there were 2,000 "other" fans in addition to our 3,000 regulars. The club needed to canvas these 2,000 people. This would have taken time, planning, effort and a fair amount of volunteers, but it would have been feasable to get at least 500 contact details. Questions should have been asked, rewards offered for response and even if only 50 of these people became regulars...it would have been a start.
I may be well off the mark, but it strikes me that there is one of 2 things going on at Quins.
The first is nothing. By this, I mean that there is no budget available for any form of promotion and therefore, the average gates and associated income will continue to fall or stagnate.....
The second is that there is nobody at the club with the ability to think outside the box, take a risk or stick their neck out. Oyster card holders for 1,500 or a viral campaign that nobody saw are cheap options that won't cost you your job if they don't work. They are safe........and useless in equal measure.
Either way, the culture change spoken about by PB when he joined seems to have been put on the back burner

Right on we need really edgy stuff like adverts in the residents magazine and sponsored flowers at the railway station.

Arcadia Magazine. 80,000 copies delivered to homes withina few miles of the ground. 1 page ad £1,400
Oyster Card holders. 5,000, delivered to places including Canary Wharf....cost £1,500
Hmm...let me see? 80,000 locals or 5,000 random people......which would be likely to get me a better ROI for pretty much the same outlay? I wonder, would 75,000 more opportunities for £100 LESS spend be worth a punt.


.....or we could spend a few grand on a video, post it on you tube and no bu99er will bother viewing it. Of the people who do view it, they could be based anywhere.....(although I suspect they were mostly quins fans already)...brilliant.

jbuzza...you have made it clear that you don't agree with my ideas or the posting of them. You accuse me of repeating myself, but hey, you brought up the 2 instances above, so let's go with it.

Are you saying that 5,000 oyster card holders is a better option than an A4 advert, in full colour, delivered to 80,000 local homes? I never said an advert in Arcadia was cutting edge by the way.......just a cheap way to get in front of the local population...as against canary wharf workers

I'm sure your ideas are perfect,the absolute dogs bollox of all ideas.

Maybe, maybe not. In fact, they aren't perfect. No marketing idea is perfect.
A marketing campaign needs to be planned. It needs to be quantifiable and it needs to deliver some form of return on investment.
5,000 oyster card holders is a form of above the line/brand marketing that works if you are a household name. Quins RL are not in a position to waste money on this form of bollox........it isn't quantifiable. Neither was the viral campaign that was neither a campaign or viral.
80,000 opportunities to be seen or 5,000........where would you spend your money? Same amount of cash......which one has a fighting chance of getting even just 1 extra fan through the gates?

Don't try to be clever.....stick to picking up incorrect calculations. Try this one....36,747 divided by 11....I make it 3,340.6363...or otherwise known as a average attendance figure again, even after a MASSIVE marketing campaign including giving things away in canary wharf, recording a video that no bu99er saw and a few posters on the railway network.....that's the mutts nuts......that is

....... but hey, you keep pointing out maths errors.......and while your at it, calculate how much will be added to your match day travel if your only option is to go to Skolars games once DH has walked and the club that currently spends 70 grand a week has to make do with 38 grand...45.71% less....

When they sort out where and when the Warrington game will be played, and it's sounding like it's going to be a Friday night, it will mean reduced numbers coming from Warrington, so let's get some local and vocal support behind Quins by giving away many tickets

Hampshire Cricket are doing similar for their 20/20 game against Durham. Durham aren't the biggest draw in the game and have to come from further afield. HCC have recognised this and have given one local radio station 1,000 tickets FOC, all you do is register and you can have up to four tickets each. That's extra bums on seats who will pay to park, who may pay for a programme, food and drink, and support the local side. And who knows, they may enjoy the experiece and come back again

What's to lose?