With its public profile still dismal and competition from other footy codes increasing, Football Federation Australia needs to unleash a big marketing assault for season seven of the A-League.
The promotion of the A-League this season has been nothing short of woeful. The ‘Fan Made’ ad campaign has hardly got any traction, and other promotion of the competition has been virtually non-existent. Fox Sports do a good job promoting the A-League as host broadcaster, but considering its limited reach it can only do so much.
Though the FFA coffers may be running low, they must put more money into marketing before the next season begins. The clubs are calling out for it. Main media advertising is expensive, but it is the best way to engage the wider Australian population.
You only need to go back to the ad campaign of the debut season of the A-League. Created by the agency Lowe Hunt, the ‘Football but not as you know it’ was a brilliant concept – powerful with great music, great action and great execution. It was very effective and won several advertising awards.
We then had this ’90 Minutes 90 Emotions’ spot (see below), featuring the likes of Nicky Carle, David Carney and Matt McKay, with fans flying into the sky and evaporating into water in the stands (really, that’s no joke. I’ve watched football for 29 years and yet to see that happen at a game, but I digress). This wasn’t as good as the first campaign, but it was okay.
In season five we had this campaign, which on reflection wasn’t bad.
But the FFA needs to do much better. Its ad agency, BMF, has produced some great ads for other companies, like the Sam Kekovich Australia Day lamb campaigns. It can do better. The FFA needs to make sure the media buy is expansive enough so its new campaign is seen across both free-to-air and pay-TV, and has a significant online component.
Historically, sport makes great fodder for advertising campaigns. You only need to look back at the AFL’s ‘I’d like to see that’ campaign, NRL’s ‘Simply the Best’ or cricket’s ‘C’mon Aussie C’mon’ – all iconic advertising. Football is no different. Some of the best ads in the world are about football or for football brands. Anyone who saw Nike’s ‘Write the Future’ campaign during last year’s World Cup can attest to that.
So please FFA, pull your socks up on the marketing front and don’t disappoint next season.
JP
Guest
Love it - then everytime there is a new flavour from Gatorade - oh would have to be Powerade because of current Coke relationship - they could launch this way. Why not then get some endorsement from the current "hot' player of the month. Too many ideas here for the current guys to cope with.....
RedOrDead
Roar Guru
Yeah, why not? Seven-Eleven can start endorsing the 7th A-League season, "A-League 7-11"! They can even create an A-League flavoured slurpee or "The official slurpee flavour of the Hyundai A-League"! lol "7-11 Home of the A-League slurpee" ... hrmmm...maybe Gatorade would be better having an A-League flavour....it can sit right next to the Tiger Woods flavour! lol
jamesb
Guest
you have to find other ways to get revenue other than frank lowys deep pockets. As we all know, Lowys not going to be around forever.
JP
Guest
Nice RedOrDead - there is a basis for something here Hot because of the outstanding players and derbies Who knows they might even be able to get Seven Elevan on board?
RedOrDead
Roar Guru
Maybe they can team up with another company to save money, i.e: "A-League 7 - powered by Windows 7" or "A-League 7-11! So hot you're gonna need a slurpee before the game" ;-) lol Also, clubs need to make the most out of their "Marquee player" - look at what Dwight Yorke did for Sydney - they need spend money to make money and that means capitalising on the fame and history of a Marquee Player! Get someone like Beckham to play for a season, get Harry Kewell to come back to Australia to finish his career, etc... Note: 7 = season, 11 = 2011
JP
Guest
Again - how about a bit of pressure from FFA on the likes of Foxtel with your suggestion so that there is a focus on HAL or Aussie games. Hell - they might even get together with the clubs and offer a special membership deal if they come in watch and drink? Couldn't be that hard really....
John Davidson
Roar Guru
It may be just the areas I live in but I have seen the likes of ESPN Motorcross and NZ Test Cricket shown over A-League in pubs in Surry Hills, Glebe, Redfern and Paddington. They may promote EPL and Champions League, but not the A-League. And most pub staff don't even reason the A-League is at certain times, like Friday nights and Sunday afternoons.
True Tah
Guest
John a lot of these pubs advertise the EPL or Champions League already. And most pubs Ive been in will show the HAL game on, as its summer and there isnt a lot of competition for that timeslot, and said pubs are normally associated with rugby clubs.
John Davidson
Roar Guru
I'd also like to see some sort of targeted outreach in pubs, bars and clubs, venues where the A-league is watched outside of the home and the stadiums themselves. I don't know how many times I have been to a pub and had to ask for the A-league to be put on a TV, usually met with a "What's that?" or "The A-League?". Granted I'm talking about the inner west and inner city areas of Sydney, but this has happened to me about 10 times. Pubs need to encouraged and educated to promote the A-League in their venues, like they do with NRL and Super Rugby.
JP
Guest
John - I'll be interested to see what the summit with the football federations and various stakeholders achieved. The FFA did conduct or is about to finish a review I believe. Yep all of those sponsors are a dramatic improvement and yep some of the board members assisted here - John Singleton when he was running his agency handled Hyunday and Qantas. More importantly your point about the clubs is more relevant. They struggle to get sponsors them and to hang on to them - if I take MVFC as an example they have not been able to hang onto the following Samsung, Dulux and Intralot. Now MVFC is arguably the most successful in terms of on the field and yet they cannot translate that to generating other revenue streams and hanging onto sponsors. As I have said previously on this matter - the FFA need to assist the clubs in terms of their direct marketing efforts with membership drives. Members is what drives the economic return for all revenue streams. At the moment the guys in the chairs have little or no idea about this part of the equation. Grow the membership base via DM and digital strategies -and it is a relatively inexpensive way to do this versus other mediums, let the FFA help in terms of the registrations that they have for players and assist in terms of driving and promoting the league as we have said on other occassions. Yes there is probably a better way to carve up the marketing pie and all of the stakeholders want a slice of it. Don't start with the State Federations - the majority are a basket case. Victoria has changed it's strategy on youth development 4 times in 5 years - and they wonder why their talent is escaping overseas? Oly - John is right. There was limited broad appeal with SBS who consistently pulled in the same low numbers which probably indicated they were the few that loved the game and we now have similar situation with Foxtel - we only get to 25 - 30% of homes and then the relevant channels impact a percentage of that number. That is why there needs to be some sort of HAL asset that can go to FTA in the next deal - finals, midweek, Super Saturdays, Sunday afternoon match of the weekend, FFA Cup. Let's see what happens for the forthcoming season....
John Davidson
Roar Guru
JP, you may be right, but there is a lot of money in the game, it just needs to be used properly. Maybe the state federations are taking too much, board change at Football NSW might be a good thing. On the sponsorship front football has improved dramatically in the past six years. Hyundai, Qantas, Optus, Hungry Jack's, Coke etc. A lot of this is at the top level, for the Socceroos, but more needs to be done by the clubs. However when you see NRL and Super Rugby clubs struggling to find sponsors, you realise it is a very bloated sports market now. I think A-League clubs need to push the membership angle more and get fans directly involved. Oly, agreed, free-to-air is key. Pay TV is a limited market. There needs to be FTA and newspaper coverage, otherwise theres little point
oly
Guest
There needs to be A-League advertising actually on Free To Air. Ads on Fox are preaching to the converted in a way. I can't remember the last time I saw an ad on FTA. As for the campaign, some of the goals this season have been amazing. Surely they could be used in a campaign in some way. Rather than an ad with Schwarzer in goal (why was he there anyway?)
JP
Guest
John - I am not sure that there is enough coming out of those 'fees' to get major income for a marketing push. Sure Frank has deep pockets and I am now thinking is more of a football tragic than I orignially thought but revenue from sponsors and partners needs to improve. From what I can see they are not all that strategic or 'smart' about how they handle this part of the revenue balance sheet. Tired old football admin guys pushing the same old approach - potential partners and sponsors have moved on. They want a 'real' return for their dollar and they want the sport, event or code to really assist in driving their business objectives. I'm afraid the Frank has been leaning on his 'mates' at board level as has the board been leaning on the network. That's a good start but it requires a bit more sophistication than that.
John Davidson
Roar Guru
There is no way that the FFA spends more money than the AFL on marketing, and doubtful the NRL either. Not in 2010. Where is the money coming from? Well Frank Lowy's pockets are a start. But I agree that's not sustainable. What they need to do is maximise their share of revenue from all participation in the game at all levels. Aren't there hundreds of thousands of football players in Australia? I just paid $350 to play a season of senior club football in Sydney. It is not cheap to play football in Australia. Where does a lot of this money go? To the FFA. Not to mention Socceroo home matches, the ticket prices for those have been going up for years. There is enough money in the game in general, it just needs to be utilised wisely.
JamesP
Guest
Frank Lowy. Although as a successful business man he may want to cut his losses soon...
MyLeftFoot
Roar Guru
Chris Judd had a baby? Now that's news!!
Axelv
Guest
Like the AFL needs any promotion, Go to work, AFL AFL AFL, read the newspaper, AFL AFL AFL, watch the news, AFL AFL AFL, watch the network ad's (7, 9, 10), AFL AFL AFL. Wake up the next day, AFL AFL AFL, and on a non related AFL story, CHRIS JUDD HAS A BABY! This is all free public exposure and cost the AFL nothing. Foxtel also promotes the A-League, but theres no-one that has Foxtel to notice it. Sometimes the A-League gets decent exposure, but sometimes Melbourne Victory will get a resounding win and theres not even 10 seconds of it on a commercial network. Meanwhile SOCCER GANG WARS ROAM THE STREETS, GREENSTREET HOOLIGANS V.2.0 (kids childishly steal a banner from other kids)
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
AndrewMc I don't know anything about NRL, but you're having a laugh if you think the FFA's spend on promoting the HAL exceeds the AFL's promotion initiatives! The promotional spend on the AFL & HAL would not even be close - the difference would be in the millions of dollars!
JP
Guest
Really?!?!?! Where is that source of info from. I am pretty sure that is not the case - mind you what are you defining as promotion?
jamesb
Guest
John Davidson, where are they going to get the money from, as far as an effective advertising campaign is concerned. The FFA only gets $17 million a year from the tv deal. You could say they get money from major sponsors, but in reality the FFAs revenue is very low. John, The FFA need to find new revenue streams that could generate millions into FFA and the games coffers. Also in 2 years time, hopefully the FFA can get a new improved tv deal that has FTA coverage of both A-league and socceroos. Basically hang on for the next couple of years.