The 2013 NRL season is almost upon us. We fans can’t wait to see the first kick-off of the year.
We’ll be on the edge of our seats watching the first hit-up and we’ll settle back when the ref awards our team’s first try.
In the interim we can expect to start to see promotional ads on Channel Nine and Fox Sports start to ramp up.
Judging by the ads already running for the NRL All-Stars exhibition match we can expect to see the usual fast-paced highlight package style clips of big hits, familiar stars sprinting, grimacing and diving for a try.
There’ll be a few quick shots of cheerleaders dancing, shots of banners waving and all explosions, flames, sparks and fireworks you could possibly want to overlay.
I wonder which middle-of-the-road, safe, hard rocker from the 80s will be press-ganged into service this year.
Boring!
Presuming the above is as true for 2013 as it has been for the last 20 years, I wonder then the NRL will start to take some more control over the way the game is marketed and presented by its broadcast partners.
The NRL operates in a predatory media environment. Careers are sustained by the muckraking and sensationalising of every petty misdemeanour. Faux offence is taken at every opportunity.
Spluttering, blustering fiction pieces are dashed off, blasting the code and its individual personalities based on nothing but personal feuds and vendettas.
The NRL has taken many strong and effective steps to rein in players’ bad behaviour and the results have shown pretty well over the last couple of seasons.
The media has had to draw some ludicrously long bows in order to get the outrage piece or ‘code in crisis’ story they constantly need.
If the Channel Nine news department wants to pretend their reporter was shocked and offended while intruding uninvited on a club’s Mad Monday party then there’s not much anyone can do to stop them.
But if the best its marketing department can concoct is the perpetual ad outlined above, the trade-off isn’t worth it.
The public are left with the impression that rugby league is a game played by violent, brainless thugs, best avoided if spotted in public and who get paid vastly more than they deserve for bashing each other and falling over a line of white paint once in a while to the sounds of some non-threatening rock and fireworks exploding.
Does the NRL want its product marketed in a way that suits the TV stations, or in a way that suits itself?
The game has been entwined in the fabric of our sporting landscape and our broader culture for a century and more.
The people who reach its top tiers are the same as the people who never progress past under-14 reserves.
The best players’ mothers are the same as the mums who drive their kids to games and bandage their scraped knees.
The same fathers school their kids in which teams to hate. They explain the game’s rules around mouthfuls of Sunday afternoon beers and beer-nuts.
They kick a Steeden in the park and share in-depth opinions with their mates at the pub and on emails.
Tipping comps are run and won. Fantasy league comps reveal the statistical worth of players. We stand behind our nation’s mighty Kangaroos as we watch them take on the best from around the world.
In other words, there is a culture that underpins the pointy end of the code. It has deep roots in Australia’s history.
It has reinvented itself time and again and withstood devastating attacks from within and without.
It evolves and it provides a thread that can be traced back to Provan, Churchill, Dally-Messenger and back into the mists of time.
We participate in the on-field battles by proxy and we wear the weekend’s results either with pride or shame. Our love of the code fulfils a human need for an emotional outlet that is equal parts love, hate, triumph and despair.
All of these things (and much more) form the ‘real’ rugby league. The NRL is just the professional aspect of this culture. As such it is obliged to cultivate and steer the culture that sustains it.
The NRL needs to encourage its broadcast partners to make more of the code’s rich history and highlight the fans’ life-long love affair with their players, club, state and country. If they don’t, the game’s culture will continue to be hollowed and emptied.
Mick
Guest
Go Pro camera - first person perspective. Turn the viewer into the player - imagine that perspective. Expand on that - first person ref perspective "the best seat in the house".
oikee
Guest
The game has unbridled passion and reactions to tries and superslow motion highlights yet to even be looked at and shown. Surely we can find someone to come up with some brilliant new commercials. Get some Rage against the machine, Helmet industrial rock, and even some Jungle Giants music to our ads. Plus the players can start doing some interesting stuff, lets have a competition for best try celebration and use that footage for next years commercials. You would have Hayne Planes, Barba doing the shush, maybe some can do flips or twists , do the cradle the baby or whatever. Backflips frontflips and leaps into other players arms. Lets really turn it up a few cogs. And players can pump up there own crowds, some fist pumping and arms in the air waving to join in and some booty shaking even. League players must have some good booty. :) Competition for best performance for a celebration try at Dally M awards night.
Gus Paella
Guest
High Shot I'm with you all the way. The boring and predictable flames and mediocre rock needs to go. The old die hards dont need to be won over with marketing, we need new ideas, new fans, new members and new benchmarks for the greatest game in the land! -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].
mike from tari
Guest
Beyonce to do a Tina Turner!
Chris Hardiman
Roar Rookie
Great article High Shot.
turbodewd
Roar Guru
Here here! Old Bon Jovi hits wont attract new fans. NRL crowd growth hasnt even kept up with Australian population growth, so we havent attracted new fans at all of late.
The High Shot
Roar Pro
OT: haha nice time to release this article!
The Barry
Roar Guru
Unfortunately there won't be a shoulder charge montage this year...
The High Shot
Roar Pro
Works for channel 9 too. I'm just not sure it's enough for the NRL.
Westie Nomad
Roar Rookie
The NRL needs to be more creative with its marketing. If it wishes to grow the game it needs to target new fans. Giving the one eyed die hards the same dribble every year will keep them happy; but what about those casual supporters who love the game but never even contemplated getting a membership as they only go to two or three games a season? Is there a clear strategy to get them to become members? Are they targeting the youth(18-24) market correctly? They have the disposable income to burn and they could become a force for the future growth for the NRL. I don't think the NRL is truly trying that hard to connect with everyone they could; as that would actually involve acknowledging that the processes that were previously employed didn't work. I am yet to see anyone in the NRL take ownership of errors in anything....
bigbaz
Guest
hey High Shot, thinking Jimmy Barnes,working class man,players running through the fire etc,works for me.
oikee
Guest
Hehe. To appeal to the masses you need to be blue collar. Holden Telstra xxxx and vb,,,, perfect. You wont sell too many Audi's or BMW in a market struggling to pay just bills. Nab down 20% today. Suncorp hit by huge insurance payouts. Rugby league with sandwiches and tinnies is doing pretty good. When you start living beyond your means is when the trouble starts. We are yet to see the you know what hit the you know what. Its coming. It wont effect our game, we have no overheads at the moment, only Panthers and they are downsizing.
Haradasun
Guest
They need to do more to appeal to the corporate end of the scale in order to attract proper sponsorship. Look how AFL and business are intertwined in Victoria. League is still seen as a blue collar game. Last time I went to Brookvale, i saw over the railing the corporate boxes. haha they consisted of a little esky with some coldies in it and some rolls wrapped up in glad wrap and left on the chairs. (nothing wrong with that! but i hardly a memroable night for a corporate client).
oikee
Guest
I would be happy to see them try something a little bit different. Mind you i love the heavy rock and big fire. I get all tingly. I think we can do more as you said, super-slow-mo, i think we can use this to our advantage. Think Kung-foo-panda type stuff. I loved that slow motion facials. :) They are running play rugby league ads on Fox. I said to the Mrs the other day, gee whiz, look at that, it must of been the first time ever i have seen rugby league promoted to kids to join up. Very impressed. 100 million is for promotion over 5 years, surely now we can get some exciting ads on the box.