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Central Coast Mariners players (L to R) Tom Pendeljak, Matthew Simon and John Hutchinson sit dejected after loosing 0-1 to the Newcastle Jets in the A-League Grand Final in Sydney on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2008. AAP Image/Paul Miller
Just imagine the following happened: Sydney FC played an A-League home game against the Melbourne Victory at the Sydney Football Stadium as a curtain raiser to the Socceroos-Holland friendly on Saturday night. Yep, I’m dreaming right?
Absolutely.
There are numerous and obvious reasons which would preclude an A-League-Socceroos double billing on the same night.
However, I can’t help but think it is this type of far out thinking that the FFA needs to start exploring to kickstart publicity for the A-League.
The thought came to me when reading the thoughts of Australian FourFourTwo magazine’s Deputy Editor Trevor Treharne, who makes the correct point that the A-League needs the Socceroos as a booster to lift the profile of the league.
But even the Socceroos success is no absolute guarantee for bumper A-League crowds.
As Trehane says, “There is no single sickness or remedy to the poorly nature of A-League crowds.”
However, aside from Socceroos success, the most likely stimulant to create a ripple in the marketplace is through concerted advertising campaigns in key markets – campaigns that vary in their approach.
Rather than going for the jugular in the first season of expansion, the FFA has stuck with the method of what appears to be limited advertising when the other codes are in season.
We are lead to believe promotion is ramped up when the AFL and NRL seasons are consigned to the history books.
We are at that stage now, so there should be clear and visible signs that these campaigns will go up a couple of gears.
If not, then questions need to be asked about why such campaigns appear unfeasible to the FFA.
The fans are concerned by this lack of intensity. A poll on the FourFourTwo website showed that 42 percent of voters thought a lack of promotion was to blame for the dip in crowds.
It’s time to ramp up the message and start thinking beyond the usual avenues of the one fancy advertising campaign run throughout the season, the odd billboard splattered around CBDs, and Warwick Capper.
I’m no marketing guru, but it seems there is a real staleness to how the A-League is promoted.
The “Be Part of Something Bigger” tag line for this season’s promo is fine, but it loses its sting after repeated hearing, especially when that’s as far as advertising for the league seems to go.
There needs to be some differentiation in advertising campaigns, perhaps a new aggressive approach separate to the ‘official’ promo.
The Socceroos double-header is obviously a fanciful idea, but if it were possible, would the FFA be brave enough to take up such opportunities?
It needs to look beyond the conventions of ‘Marketing 101’ basics and start thinking laterally, addressing some of the doubts that have emerged about the A-League from football supporters who turn up for the Socceroos but not their local team, and enticing them into the turnstiles.
It sounds simplistic, but it is surely a marked improvement on the little advertising – let alone the little imagination of that advertising – that is around now.
There will be no excuse for us to still be pondering low crowds next March when the AFL and NRL awake from their slumber.
Despite how the weather looks across parts of Australia, summer is coming and the reality is that the Aussie summer is a baron place for sport, with a few irrelevant cricket matches against a weak West Indies, a couple of golf tournaments, the stuttering NBL and the Australian Open tennis in January.
With little else around, encouragingly, media coverage of the A-League appears to be on the rise.
While watching sports reports over the weekend, it was gratifying to see A-League highlights second only to reports on the Bathurst 1000.
The ‘combo’ of a Socceroos game in Australia against one of the great footballing nations and an intriguing round of A-League matches certainly generated some great press.
The A-League’s time is now. It’s time the FFA took advantage of this and ramped up its advertising aggressively.
If not, then at least explain to us the reasons for their inaction.