Grimsby

[Copps is Magic]

Sold 1,318 of their allocation on the first day of sale. Not even gone on general sale yet. Expected to sell out very quickly.

Guess we will have to make a decision whether we give them 4,200 pretty soon. Not a fan of it myself - we don't particularly need the income or the potential aggro that comes with it.

[GazLaz]

The media should go into overtime building this one up as an explosive game. They should be ramming it down people's throats, but they won't.

[jonnydog]

Tenner per person and a quid a kid should be out in for this. Get the place with more red and white than black and white!!

[Copps is Magic]

There won't be much scope to do anything with ticket prices given they're already on sale. In any case, this is a game people will pay to watch. Would have thought some good old fashioned advertising would work. Difference Between a 9k crowd and an 11k crowd.

[GazLaz]

Prices don't make as much difference to the crowd as you'd think. Marketing is where we fall down. They should swamp the town with red and white. They should be linked to every event, work in conjunction with everyone and sponsor everything.

Nobody sells the club to the people since JR left. Fans need to be sold a dream, that's what he did brilliantly early on. He sold it to potential players as well.

[Welling Rover]

Advertising poster at old rugby league ground on Bentley Road have the kick off as 3.00 pm !!
Not very good as kick off 12.30

[donnievic]

I would give them as many as they want take the money off them to make up from other teams that don't bring many

[Alan Southstand]

Red and white balloons?

[BigKeif]

Tenner per person and a quid a kid should be out in for this. Get the place with more red and white than black and white!!

While it's not a bad idea, I'd be pissed if they did seeing as I bought mine and my missus dad tickets last week at full price and membership price so really I can't see them doing that tbh.

[ballysbackin]

There are many who will not take kids to this match because that lot are loonies, absolute loonies.  Proved it at beginning of season in friendly with Blades, I know one little girl who will not be there.

[MrFrost]

Wonder if we will sell tickets for the return fixture as quick.

Also just had a quick look on social media and there are no mention of tickets on sale to home fans for this game.   

Basics again. 

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Well, I've had e-mails and pop ups on Facebook, advertising the Grimsby game along with the two next home games in that ticket offer.

138,000 people have easy access to that. For us regulars Grimsby is a higher profile game but to the casuals, it's not as big a draw to us, as it is to them.

[the vicar]

Sold 1,318 of their allocation on the first day of sale. Not even gone on general sale yet. Expected to sell out very quickly.

Guess we will have to make a decision whether we give them 4,200 pretty soon. Not a fan of it myself - we don't particularly need the income or the potential aggro that comes with it.

they are allowed 4 tickets per season ticket holder

[IDM]

I may be in the minority but I don't see a great need for the club to market the game so much.  Market any offers, yes, as that is different and by the nature of the name, is an "offer"..

Folks who only occasionally go to football, or as friends/family of regular attendees can easily find out about the fixture, much more than could be done say 30 years ago.  And I am fairly sure it has been argued before that offers don't necessarily boost attendances significantly??

[philsky]

Not saying I'm old but I remember heading for an away fixture when Grimsby had won the old 4th division at a canter.

From memory we won it with a very late Joe Laidlaw goal.

I daren't even think of the date.

[Rovers Return]

78 ish I've got a picture of us on the front somewhere

[Copps is Magic]

I may be in the minority but I don't see a great need for the club to market the game so much.  Market any offers, yes, as that is different and by the nature of the name, is an "offer"..

Folks who only occasionally go to football, or as friends/family of regular attendees can easily find out about the fixture, much more than could be done say 30 years ago.  And I am fairly sure it has been argued before that offers don't necessarily boost attendances significantly??

This kind of thinking has unfortunately pervaded the club for a long time.

This is EXACTLY the sort of game we should be marketing. In fact, it may be the ONLY game all season that we have a chance to promote. We have a regular fan base of 4.5k to 5k. In a normal game the margin of floating fans is so small its pointless spending money on advertising it. This game the floating number could  be 4k and above itself. Its not that people don't know the game is on, its that there are thousands of people with only half a mind to go. It needs to be rammed in their faces they SHOULD go. A time when most will be worrying about Christmas - its obvious promotion would work best at this time.

It's the same logic why Manchester United, Coke Cola or BMW continue to advertise even though people 'Know' about them. It's to slam a face load of subconscious regret in their heads that they might miss out on something.

[Surrey Rover]

Not saying I'm old but I remember heading for an away fixture when Grimsby had won the old 4th division at a canter.

From memory we won it with a very late Joe Laidlaw goal.

I daren't even think of the date.

Last league match of the 78/79 season, former Mariner Jack Lewis scored the other 3. Martin Tyler and the YTV cameras were there for the featured match on the Sunday afternoon "Football Special" programme, it was supposed to be a big day of celebration for Grimsby in front of the cameras who finished runners up to champions Reading. Rovers well and truly gate crashed the party that day and I still have vivid memories of Billy Bremner stood on the touch line in his brown overcoat punching the air in delight as Laidlaw's stoppage time winner silenced the crowd.

[IDM]

I dunno, it's only my opinion and I accept I am possibly in the minority..

I have occasionally gone to premiership rugby at Leicester, living relatively close.  I get emails for every fixture, whether there is a ticket offer or not.  However, and this may be just where it is me, I am not influenced by their marketing - they have a big game coming up against Northampton and the tickets are not discounted at all.  I have other things to do, and no amount of their marketing will change my mind.

I guess that is the same line of thinking I have about the football.  The best marketing tool is the result!

I am not saying, however, that it is wrong for the club to undertake marketing activities, just that it doesn't work for me.

[Copps is Magic]

You've just pointed out how it works! Leicester send you regular marketing, you go to the odd game. Of course it's not affecting your conscious decision making because its not designed to. Its intended to bob along in the back of your head. Bringing them up on this thread is an almost beautiful example of what I'm saying.

And results absolutely do not affect attendances in either the short or medium term. Rovers are a perfect, perfect example of that. We'll be top next week and still get around 5k. Couple of years back I kept track of rovers' attendances and analysed it properly, I found exactly the same thing, results have no bearing on subsequent attendances.

It's counter-intuitive but its true. Far more important is people's perceptions of long-term success possibility.

[DearneValleyRover]

I've had to buy xmas presents for the step grandson from the Blades shop and I get regular emails from them promoting games and offers, do we do that to those buying from our shop website?

[IDM]

You've just pointed out how it works! Leicester send you regular marketing, you go to the odd game. Of course it's not affecting your conscious decision making because its not designed to. Its intended to bob along in the back of your head. Bringing them up on this thread is an almost beautiful example of what I'm saying.

And results absolutely do not affect attendances in either the short or medium term. Rovers are a perfect, perfect example of that. We'll be top next week and still get around 5k. Couple of years back I kept track of rovers' attendances and analysed it properly, I found exactly the same thing, results have no bearing on subsequent attendances.

It's counter-intuitive but its true. Far more important is people's perceptions of long-term success possibility.

No, not at all.  I would go to the occasional rugby game through choice and research of my own - looking at the bbc website for fixtures, then the club website for ticket information.

That was what I was equating to the football.. Someone with half an interest in DRFC thinks "is there a game this Saturday" then looks in the local press, or online (or on teletext before t'internet) and then finds out about tickets..

I do not need, nor respond to their marketing, in fact it is more the opposite - I am less likely to react to it, but I receive it anyway because I forgot to tick that box when I first registered to buy tickets!

How many more fans would turn up after the club send out pro-active marketing messages??

Don't forget, I am only talking about my own experiences and not saying other methods shouldn't be tried...

[Copps is Magic]

err, I don't think my points have quite hit the mark. I don't want to get on a soap box really but information being available is not the dark art of marketing. Hovis don't advertise their bread for you to suddenly go out and buy some.  They just want Hovis in your head. This is not an afront to your freedom, you can chose not to buy Hovis. You're just more likely to.

[IDM]

I'm not disagreeing with you for the sake of it and I would like to draw a line - I chose to go to the rugby, casually, and found out about the fixture and the ticket without any marketing and only since have I been on the receiving end.  It will not influence my further attendance.

I do understand about brand awareness, its part of my job - but I also understand that some audiences don't react, regardless.

Anyway, irrespective of how we get there, I am sure both you and I and anyone else getting bored reading this would be happy to see our attendances increasing as the season progresses..

Back to the theme of the thread, and again only speaking for myself, I don't see Grimsby at home as any more of an attractive fixture than any other opposition team in this division...

[idler]

It might be less attractive to some folk IDM.

[MrFrost]

They've sold 2500 so far.

Fair play.  Don't think any other team in this league including us would sell so many tickets as quickly

[MrFrost]

I may be in the minority but I don't see a great need for the club to market the game so much.  Market any offers, yes, as that is different and by the nature of the name, is an "offer"..

Folks who only occasionally go to football, or as friends/family of regular attendees can easily find out about the fixture, much more than could be done say 30 years ago.  And I am fairly sure it has been argued before that offers don't necessarily boost attendances significantly??

This kind of thinking has unfortunately pervaded the club for a long time.

This is EXACTLY the sort of game we should be marketing. In fact, it may be the ONLY game all season that we have a chance to promote. We have a regular fan base of 4.5k to 5k. In a normal game the margin of floating fans is so small its pointless spending money on advertising it. This game the floating number could  be 4k and above itself. Its not that people don't know the game is on, its that there are thousands of people with only half a mind to go. It needs to be rammed in their faces they SHOULD go. A time when most will be worrying about Christmas - its obvious promotion would work best at this time.

It's the same logic why Manchester United, Coke Cola or BMW continue to advertise even though people 'Know' about them. It's to slam a face load of subconscious regret in their heads that they might miss out on something.

This.

Basic marketing which the club fail miserably at.

We have away games this Saturday and the following Saturday.  Absolutely no info on social media regarding tickets for either game.  You have to trawl through the joke of an official site to find it. 

[Nudga]

They've sold 2500 so far.

Fair play.  Don't think any other team in this league including us would sell so many tickets as quickly

Let's be rate, it's their cup final haha

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Found the information in 2 clicks. Stevenage and Plymouth away tickets and info.

[MrFrost]

Found the information in 2 clicks. Stevenage and Plymouth away tickets and info.

That still isn't the point.

Facebook etc is free advertising,  it's laziness.

I've spent the last 16 years in sales and marketing,  the club don't have the first clue  when it comes to basic fundamentals