We’ve all been pre-occupied with Australia’s World Cup Qualifiers, participation in the EAFF East Asia Cup, Confederations Cup, A-League All Stars vs Manchester United, Melbourne Victory vs Liverpool …
But the 2013-14 A-League has been creeping up fast and is only 73 days away from what many may predict to be another stellar season in which records could be toppled yet again.
As the A-League season approaches, clubs are ensuring everything is done both on and off the field to build on what was the most successful season in 2012-2013.
Record subscription television viewing, attendances and club memberships were a testament to the hard work each club had implemented season after season to ensure the growth of football in Australia continued it’s upward trend.
With the addition of broadcast partners SBS, television viewing via free-to-air will provide extra exposure the A-League and football has craved for some time. And with Fox Sports continuing their amazing live coverage of the A-League, subscriptions for Foxtel could also see increases thanks to the extra exposure Australian football is being afforded.
As pre-season fixtures are in full swing, off the field, club directors, employees and volunteers are trying to once again ensure community based programs and interaction with fans. The importance in doing so allows each club to expose their brand in the most efficient and cost effective way.
2012-13 season recorded the highest number of memberships across the whole of the League and another aim during the off-season has been to continue fan engagement not only threw community based programs but also social media.
With Twitter and Facebook being the largest formats for social-media, A-League clubs have identified this as a key area to engage with the fans and promote the club with much more ease.
When fans struggle to find the news regarding their clubs during the off-season, social-media comes in to provide transfers, signings, developments and other key aspects that they need to know about.
Twitter, like Facebook, has exploded onto the scene and any passionate footballer wishing to find out the latest updates on their club has Twitter at their very fingertips.
What makes Twitter such a hit is the enormous strides in hand-held technology. Hand held devices such as Ipads, Iphones, FoxtelGo, Ipods and smart phones allow you to go anywhere you like while still ensuring you able to access social media with the click of a button.
The clubs are utilising this as an extremely smart and resourceful way to stay in touch with their fans 24/7. On Twitter, hashtags (#) are used to engage in a trend or topic of discussion that allows fans to remain connected.
A-League clubs are initiating that form of engagement by launching membership campaigns encompassing hashtags of #StandWithsUs, #SydneyIsSkyBlue, #HeartBelieve, #LikeNoOther, #COYR10years and others.
It feels intuitive, creative and enticing for A-League fans alike.
Just these # alone used by Newcastle Jets, Sydney FC, Melbourne Heart, Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United respectively are so creative that fans continue to share, tweet, talk about it and want to be part of it.
The opinion in this article has been justified thanks to contact made with Adelaide United’s Chief Financial Officer, Ben Pahl.
Kellett_1992: Why are memberships so important and what positives do they bring to an A-League club?
Ben Pahl: “Membership is crucial to all clubs for a number of reasons. Firstly, the support they give the club week in week out, secondly the income generated from their membership and thirdly the more members you have the more likely companies will be willing to support the club with sponsorship.”
Kellett_1992: What is your current membership total? Have you set a target for this season?
Ben Pahl: “Currently we sit at 3400 members. We have a history of hovering around 5000 members depending on how we have performed in the previous season however we have set a very ambitious target of 10,000 this year. Although this may seem unrealistic we have some strategies in place to try and reach the target.”
Kellett_1992: How do you plan to reach this target?
Ben Pahl: “By becoming more active with social media we plan to increase our presence and hopefully start to engage those fans who come along to a few games but perhaps don’t join up as members.”
Kellett_1992: How have you made memberships more appealing for fans and what incentives are there for fans to join up?
Ben Pahl: “We are looking to add more flexible packages to give people better options that suit their level of interest and are also offering incentives for people to join.”
“We have set the target at 10,000 and will only get there with the support of our signed up members and their ability to get their friends and family to join with them.”
“As a reward we are offering $10,000 to a member if we reach the target. We are also offering match day offers such as a random member winning the match ball each home game and a random member being upgraded to a corporate box each week. Unfortunately we do not have the budget to do much paid advertising so we need to be smarter about how we increase our membership base.”
“We feel we have made a good start given we are still some 2+ months out from the first game but there is plenty of work to be done!”
Kellett_1992: Thank you very much for your time.
Ben Pahl: “Hope this helps, kindest regards.”
This has highlighted the importance of memberships and what they mean to each A-League club. Ben Pahl speaks not only for the betterment of his club but every other.
It should be noted that even if you aren’t a member but still turn up to A-League matches, your support is still valued, but that won’t stop A-League clubs from trying to convert you into members.
With technology moving forward and becoming more advanced, the importance of social-media for not only A-League clubs but also the fans, will provide a new avenue for interaction and exposure. The importance cannot be underestimated.
With 73 days to go until the start of the A-League season, here is the list of each club and how their membership numbers are fairing.
Western Sydney Wanderers – 14,000 #GoWanderers #weareone2013
Melbourne Victory – 12,766 #LikeNoOther
Newcastle Jets – 7,000 #StandWithUs
Adelaide United – 3,500 #COYR10years
Sydney FC – 3,022 #SydneyIsSkyBlue
Brisbane Roar – 3,000 #GoRoar
Central Coast Mariners – 3,000 #GoMariners
Melbourne Heart – 2,917 #HeartBelieve
Wellington Phoenix – 2,226 #4k4Nix
Perth Glory – No membership numbers have been provided.
Alex William
Guest
The importance of social media and fans engagement is comes in the ground. These are helpful to promote your business truly. How communication with customers are beneficial in real time when you use live chat software. http://live2support.com/livechat-increase-customers.php
AZ_RBB
Guest
very very good article. really like how Chairman Gorman is pushing hard for those temporary seats to be put in. also love it how he's looking to Germany for ideas on rail seats and standing active. sounds like a man who knows his football. if all goes well this season. a MVFC style deal with Olympic Stadium might be necessary. preferably no more than 3 games and finals.
Cameron
Roar Guru
Phenomenal, may challenge victory for number one club? :P
Fussball ist unser leben
Roar Guru
Finally, WSW publishes a figure that we can trust & the club and fans need to be congratulated. Simply a stunning effort for Yr2. "By yesterday (31 July 2013) Western Sydney had sold 14,285 memberships, all full-price season tickets" Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/football/western-sydney-wanderers-want-more-seats-at-parramatta-stadium-before-a-league-season-kickoff/story-fni2wcjl-1226689111857
hardsy
Roar Pro
well written piece we too at @_FTSAL have struggled to get cub membership numbers (esp Perth) but numbers appear to be above previous years. Clubs are using social media to great effect.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Kate Cohen wrote an piece on www.liverpoolfc.tv after the Melbourne Victory game on fan engagement. http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/141188-column-95-000-fans-140-characters Should we start engaging fans in other languages?
Cameron
Roar Guru
Melbourne Heart now above 3,000 members and Champions Central Coast Mariners are now 1,900 away from their target. Records continue to fall. Have heard Wanderers are starting to get closer to 15,000.
Cameron
Roar Guru
That would be amazing Stevo. I'll get there.
Stevo
Guest
Kellett, I often hoped that Roar contributors would actually go out and interview football peple rather than just rely on media clippings. Good work. Maybe next time an interview with Gallop, etc
Kasey
Guest
an apt dig in a thread devoted to "Importance of social-media and fan engagement" I Still can't believe a competent person thought that Glory twitter prank was a good thing to start with.
Franko
Guest
Good news, thanks for the run down. The email from Josep said that thus far all they have done is conditioning work and some skill work. In fact, for the last week he has chosen a skill and they have focused on that skill alone for a day, the next day move on to a new skill. No tactic work so far but will kick in when the whole squad is together. Leads me to think we are in the very very early days but the man has a clear vision. I’m not expecting too much this year to be honest as I think this guy has a lot he wants to impart. Honestly the games at Santos is not a bad idea, though I’m surprised Marden isn’t up to it and I assume it rules out a trip to Port Pirie. $$ going back to state league clubs is great though. Will be interesting to see how it builds, I presume they will take on Blue Eagles, Raiders etc. a grudge match with Adelaide City at Hindmarsh would be great.
Kasey
Guest
As you would expect at this stage of things they looked a tad heavy with their first touch, there was a noticeable effort going into passing and moving into space. Overall, given the level of the opposition, they looked good. even resident cranky pants Advertiser reporter Val Migliaccio was complementary of the performance( 'tiser headline:Under-strength Adelaide United a success in first hit-out). enough green-shoots to be excited for the first hit out v HAL opposition A Couple of off-field observations... -Graphpak (local promotional merchandising company(they also used to do TDU and Clipsal 500, Bathurst etc) going under(sad as it is for thier employees) has forced the club to take 'merchandising' under its wing..they(AU) bought the old Graphpak merch trailer that was on site last night to follow through on an often forwarded suggestion...sell merch at these trial games. The new 10th anniversary scarves by sekem have come up a treat. I like them a lot. - it could have been it was the über-long off season whetting the appetite but as I walked into Santos Stadium last night I detected a definite vibe of excitement & optimism in the crowd, which was pretty healthy for a Tuesday night(1000+ I believe) against a non-ethnic community based team IMO. Entry fees (Gold coin donation) should have raised a fair amount of money for the Foxes- my guess having manned the gates at one of these things in the past... roughly $2k to $5k) which is nothing to sneeze at for a State Premier League club.All United pre-season games will be held at Santos Stadium with the gold coin dontion entry going to the 'hosting' FFSA club:) FFA determined the lighting at the grounds of the actual Super League clubs to be an insurance risk for the HAL players:(
Franko
Guest
El Rojo Conquistadors kicked off pre-season games with a 4-1 win - Nuemann a hat-trick. Still missing Galekovic, Vidosic, Cirio , Sanchez, Tarek Elrich, Cassio, Djite and Malik. I heard Izzo got caught with the ball and we went down 1 nil but rebounded well. Crowd of 1,000 isn’t too bad considering Cumberland have no ethnic following and are not really powerhouses in SA. Kasey, how did they look?
gawa
Guest
What I and many other Brisbane Roar fans would like to know is why they thought it acceptable to go on the money hunt from the fans directly after the season ended. Are the Bakries really that skint that they need people like me to pay six months in advance of the season kick off? As for big mouthing a target of 10, 000 memberships, well this just more big noting from these guys similar to the talk of being an Asian powerhouse and also the week after the takeover when the owner of group head talked about building a stadium within 10 years. Less of the hollow statements and hot air and more actual substance would be better in building support, no amount of social media can undo this nonsense. When quizzed by fans earlier this year about how Brisbane Roar planned to achieve 10, 000 members "we have a plan" was the response. Still waiting to find a sign of this.
Chopper
Guest
I agree with you gawa I too was told that my seats were sold however I do not believe them I just think they are lazy as the position my seats were in are in an area that was totally empty most of the year. I am really disappointed with the roar and the lack of credibility they have in anything they do at the moment. I think I have stated before the best thing they could put up on the web page was a situations vacant for Roary and Rosie (giants need not apply). That was the headline for over a week. Do they have a Marketing Department?
yewonk
Guest
its hard to give an exact figure when it grows by the hour i was told by the office this afternoon it is well over 14,000
Bondy
Guest
Ian What Fuss has posted is correct but also you get two European Cup matches "Champions League" on ESPN 1@ 2 .
Cameron
Roar Guru
I just hope that behind closed doors that they are doing well. I really feel as though that Perth Glory are poor on all of the fronts that I have mentioned. Maybe they're adverstising around Perth, who know's?
Cameron
Roar Guru
Cheers Nick, fingers crossed that everything continues to improve and Victory go beyond their target and WSW reach their cap.
Brick Tamlin of the Pants Party
Guest
Well they showed great initiative by giving the football community 10,000 free tickets for our last home fixture so theres no complaints on that front.Hopefully if they've got any sense they have kept the details of the people who grabbed those tickets and have been mailing those people details of memberships,family memberships etc.I doubt they have though seeing they can't even provide or bother to call you back regarding memberships.