Community/Marketing Ideas

[redmum]

Ok, so at the Membership Meeting last Monday, a few of us raised the issue of lack of community involvement and marketing from our club.
Glenn stayed back for quite a while agreed with all the points we raised, and a meeting has been organised with Glenn for us to discuss further these issues.

What we would like to take to this meeting are the ideas/suggestions of the fans and supporters regarding these aspects.
Please, we cannot change the footballing, coaching, business or financial side of things...so keep your suggestions to the topic at hand!

Some ideas already being worked on....Family Day, non traveling players attending a pub event to watch the game with supporters, increased social media....

Get on board and remember 'WE Are Football'!

[Old Gregg]

-Food trucks / street festival on Milner Street during game days (as per the 'general issues' thread)

-I was thinking that a cool thing to do at some point would be to have up a temporary futsal pitch somewhere in the city, like in the middle of Vic Square or Hindmarsh Square - Adelaide United could hold demo 5-a-side games there. It would be great during festival season, would draw a crowd, and could surely be done through Splash Adelaide. Imagine Cassio/Dario/Carrusca et al pulling out the street-football flair in front of a crowd of interested passers-by...
(could even get FFSA involved, have Super League teams field 5 of their most skillful players & have a little futsal tournament)

[Stuckey]

Incase you don't look at the FN thread.

Bring back the family fun day. It could be coupled with current AU players, past AU/Socceroo legends, other sport stars, celebrities and maybe even competition winner’s charity match and after the game everyone who attends can come on the pitch where the club could set up stalls etc. Once the all the players have a shower they come back out and meet the fans and sign merch. AU could charge gold coin entry and give the money raised to charity.

Also what about a members reward scheme where if an existing member encourages a new member to join AUFC next season and that new member mentions the existing member's name, the club rewards that existing member for bringing more members to AU and offers the existing member a discount on their next season's renewal.

Another idea I heard mentioned was AUFC ties. Sports club ties are a fantastic way for AU to get exposed in a more corporate environment. It’s a fantastic way for say a diehard AU fan who is also an accountant to promote AU to his accountant mates and clients, strike up a conversation about AU and possibly invite these (possibly high net worth) individuals along to AU game. If they like what they see maybe AU could have another sponsor the following season?

One thing another club is doing I like is Wellington, they have an app on Facebook that if you like, share or comment on articles you gain points and you can cash those points in for match day tickets etc. I would love to see AU run with this and encourage fans who want Hindmarsh full and AU successful just as badly as they do themselves.
Offer points for fans that check in at Hindmarsh on FB, invite friends to join the page and attend AU games and events, and quote their season ticket and financial member numbers.
If you accrue enough points you can cash these points in for match day tickets, club merch or a discount on next season's membership. Obviously something like this could easily be price structured so it’s not costing the club money it just cuts their profit margin a little but if it means fans are basically promoting the club on their own time maybe it’s an investment in exposing AU to a wider group of people creating the possibility or more fans and more profits.

[davidbloop]

That app idea is great. I love it.

I think Adelaide really need to belt home the social media side of things. I realise they've employed someone for this but I'm still skeptical about how it's going to be run.

It would be awesome for the AUFC twitter or facebook page to have player live Q&A's throughout the season, where a single player takes over the AUFC facebook page and answers questions directed at them.

Not only this but constant updates with photos/videos. Would be nice for the AUFC facebook page to post short videos interviewing the players, even if it's something stupid like a quick run down of each players favourite foods or something. Would help people connect with the players a bit more. Maybe a weekly question that makes it to a weekly video.

In fact I think Adelaide would find itself better supported with just providing lot of content such as this. Fans always want to see behind the scenes or extra stuff they can't see just by watching the match. Would be great to see the club provide that content.

It also think it would be a good idea for the entire team to make appearances at various shopping centres and arrange with supporters to rock up and chant. Idea stolen from how awesomely the RBB made WSW look when they did an appearance. It does make a big impression on everyone walking by however to see a huge group of people chanting and singing at something as simple as a public appearance and can be seen as a way to expose people to what the atmosphere of a match is like.

[shinAUFC]

Personally i dont think it would hurt if watrs's had a section where every few weeks a player , member of coaching staff or griffen himself answered questions posted on here, heavily moderated of course.

Easy replacement for adelaidereds.com site that got shut down

[Shane]

Personally i dont think it would hurt if watrs's had a section where every few weeks a player , member of coaching staff or griffen himself answered questions posted on here, heavily moderated of course.

Easy replacement for adelaidereds.com site that got shut down

I have a feeling this is going to be brought back to life, however not by WATR.

There has been behind the scenes activity by the club.

[bpowell454]

The club seems to not want to be associated with WATR in any way for some reason, which is a real shame.

I'm hoping that this new media/marketing employee might open an account with some of the fan forums (hopefully this one seeing as its the only one I've ever been on) and just pop in and make a comment once a week, whether it be official or unofficial. That would be a good way to interact with the community.

[Stuckey]

http://digital-football.com/interview/i ... _215401511

Interesting article. Some ideas could be used. I would if the club could look at more video content? Filming NYL and W-league games would be great as well. Has the club looked into that?

Also I would love to hear if the club has, is or plans to look into setting up a feeder club that plays in the local league?
The more AUFC plays in whatever capacity the better. As Glenn said whether you being talked about for good things or bad things its always great just to be talked about.
Well what better reason to be talked about then if the club is basically playing 12 months a year at some level of the game.
I'm sure loads of diehard AU fans would love to head to an AU Premier League game played during the winter. Maybe if could be set up by the AUMC and hopefully it could be to the point that a club room could be set up on the site and fans can watch the club's stars of tomorrow play while spending money at their club.

[Stuckey]

Another idea I had why doesn't the AUMC look at producing AU merch? There are loads of items we could be selling.
Matchday scarves
Casual t-shirts
Retro t-shirts
Casual jumpers and jackets
Retro jumpers and jackets
Past season's kits
Sleepwear
Socks and Undies
Golf balls
Bags
Mugs and kitchen items
Glasses
Pet wear
Stationary
Toys
Match DVD's

The committee could start small and when sales start coming in develop larger product ranges with the money.
They could also have competitions for fans to send it designs for casual t-shirt ranges to save money of designs.

While we're at it though Melbourne Heart had a competition for fans to design a third kit for the club. Considering their are sponsored by Kappa also I don't see why AUFC could set up the same thing?

[davidbloop]

Ye Merchandise is one of those things that's really lacking and really isn't hard to get off the ground into a profit.

I've printed my own shirts, hoodies etc. before and pulled a profit from only 30 sales or so.... so I imagine AUFC could be raking in some good cash. Especially by offering casual shirts and the like for cheap. Lots of parents will buy their kids an Adelaide shirt if they see it for $15-20

[Old Gregg]

Doesn't even need to be 'official' AUFC merchandise. I mean, the Red Army have all their own gear and that in itself spreads the awareness & visibility of the club around town.

Whether it's through the Members Committee, WATR, a bunch of dudes printing up their own T-shirts, whatever. If there was a market on in Hindmarsh on matchdays, someone could even set up an unofficial merch stall.

[Stuckey]

Considering all EPL sides have it around their clubs (not sure if they have any say over it) but surely if it goes on around clubs of that power and magnitude we could have it done in Adelaide.

[Shane]

I was contemplating bringing out merchandise, however it is a lot of work, time, management, etc and you need to buy it in bulk to keep costs low.

[Stuckey]

I was contemplating bringing out merchandise, however it is a lot of work, time, management, etc and you need to buy it in bulk to keep costs low.

If you have somewhere to store it that wouldn't be a bad thing. Its not like food where it has to be sold. If we don't sell all the scarves for example just hold on to them till next season!

[davidbloop]

I was contemplating bringing out merchandise, however it is a lot of work, time, management, etc and you need to buy it in bulk to keep costs low.

You dont really have to buy in much bulk. I used to turn a profit on buying orders of 30 shirts or hoodies at a time.