Grimsby

[IDM]

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

Hang on, you just called the DROS a "joke" but when someone else says the information is on there in 2 clicks, you say it isn't the point??

So you dismiss someone else's argument without a second thought, but expect others to accept yours?

[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

Hang on, you just called the DROS a "joke" but when someone else says the information is on there in 2 clicks, you say it isn't the point??

So you dismiss someone else's argument without a second thought, but expect others to accept yours?

The point is, the club she making use of all its media channels, and it isn't. The use of regular websites is declining, the club should move with the times.

[silent majority]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

[Draytonian III]

Grimsby will bring a big following as it's their local derby, a ground they haven't played at before, it very easy to get to by road or rail,also a lot of non regular supporters will come a day out and few pints . Some might even make it a " works do"

[DonnyBazR0ver]

It's their visit to their Post Code capital. Big city, bright lights! 😃

[Drover]

Plus,this is their first season back in the league.We had some good away day followings on our first season back in the league.

[andysly]

One of best crowds we have drawn to a cheap ticket offer was a match against Swansea I think, i may be wrong. I think the club were giving out sales numbers on a daily basis causing excitement and a genuine feeling of something special happening, creating a snowball situation. Among other reasons maybe people were buying tickets so they could guarantee being with mates rather than waiting till matchday and possibly not bothering.

[DonnyBazR0ver]

Yes andysly, that was a fantastic occasion, the offer, the build up on the back drop of us improving as a team. Playing against a team who we aspired to emulate and, if it wasn't for that last minute equaliser from Angel Rangel it would have been a perfect ending.

I think it still stands as the highest attendance for home fans, pushing 13,000. A great effort.

It took some effort to persuade the club to trial 'offer' games. I think it was £10 adults and £1 a kid. Close to that there was another offer of a family of 4 for £25 v Millwall which also sold well. This was at a time when normal price was £27 or £28 quid, and there were complaints that fans were being priced out. The combination of good football, good results and the price brought fans to the Keepmoat. Since then those conditions have been rare.

[Copps is Magic]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

If by shotgun you mean 'mass' marketing then why would rovers do that anyway? If by shotgun you mean a concentrated period of marketing then I hope the club are not using this as a justification to do no promotion.

Skysports, Now TV, every booky in the country, the whole sport of boxing ... all fetishise the product they are selling. The next match/game/fight is THE big thing. They do it to sell it.

The work of Club Doncaster (however great that is), good results, good football will have no bearing on attendances in any measurable time frame. That's the truth of it.

[Copps is Magic]

One of best crowds we have drawn to a cheap ticket offer was a match against Swansea I think, i may be wrong. I think the club were giving out sales numbers on a daily basis causing excitement and a genuine feeling of something special happening, creating a snowball situation. Among other reasons maybe people were buying tickets so they could guarantee being with mates rather than waiting till matchday and possibly not bothering.

Exactly right, but that only worked through that word of mouth buzz .. which is promotion, marketing. There's been plenty of times where we've had price offers and people haven't responded (like the other week for example).

[NickDRFC]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

All well and good and I'm sure it helps to develop the next generation of fans but school visits aren't going to stick an extra 2k on the gate against Grimsby are they? The club need to be thinking about both long term and short term solutions to boost attendances.

[MrFrost]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

So having basic ticket info on Facebook is shotgun marketing?

[silent majority]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

So having basic ticket info on Facebook is shotgun marketing?

Did I say that?

[silent majority]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

If by shotgun you mean 'mass' marketing then why would rovers do that anyway? If by shotgun you mean a concentrated period of marketing then I hope the club are not using this as a justification to do no promotion.

Skysports, Now TV, every booky in the country, the whole sport of boxing ... all fetishise the product they are selling. The next match/game/fight is THE big thing. They do it to sell it.

The work of Club Doncaster (however great that is), good results, good football will have no bearing on attendances in any measurable time frame. That's the truth of it.

There's a limit to the budget to start with. That essentially cuts out plastering the sides of buses with details of the next game, it also rules out setting up displays in Meadowhall and some of the other suggestions that have appeared on here.

By shotgun marketing I do mean mass advertising. Time and time again we see criticism of the club for not doing this on a regular basis when it's accepted that it has a very poor return. Selling football is not like selling a commodity, putting special offers on does have an impact but it's generally debatable how effective that is. If football was a commodity you could just lower the price dramatically and people would flood through the turnstiles, but it doesn't work that way if there is no latent demand waiting to be mopped up. There is some, no doubt some people don't attend because of price alone, but again it's debatable how big that number is. The club are working on a long term strategy and it does work. The numbers of U16s that attend are at a level percentage wise well above what we have ever achieved.

I've said this on this forum before and I'll say it again, if anybody considers they have some good ideas or wishes to have a better understanding of what the club does actually do then I'm more than happy to set up a meeting.

[Mike_F]

It's commendable that we're dragging in more youngsters than ever. I remember being one of three regular Rovers supporters in a school year of c. 90 kids (Hello, DonnyNoel & Jonathan!).

The tricky part is keeping them coming through the turnstiles when they make the jump from junior to adult ticket pricing, at least until they're earning reasonable money and can justify the outlay on a ST.

I've been in fairly good jobs for 15 years but still have to whack the ST on a credit card every year and pay it off over a few months!

If we're looking at truly long-term strategies, given the simplicity of holding and tracking customer data these days. perhaps we could offer a 2.5% discount on adult season tickets for every year that someone has held a junior version.

Therefore, for example if Someone has a ST from the age of six to sixteen they would save 25% on their adult ticket.

Whether that is for life (what an incentive!) or reduces over the years until they're paying full price is up for debate.

[Copps is Magic]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

If by shotgun you mean 'mass' marketing then why would rovers do that anyway? If by shotgun you mean a concentrated period of marketing then I hope the club are not using this as a justification to do no promotion.

Skysports, Now TV, every booky in the country, the whole sport of boxing ... all fetishise the product they are selling. The next match/game/fight is THE big thing. They do it to sell it.

The work of Club Doncaster (however great that is), good results, good football will have no bearing on attendances in any measurable time frame. That's the truth of it.

There's a limit to the budget to start with. That essentially cuts out plastering the sides of buses with details of the next game, it also rules out setting up displays in Meadowhall and some of the other suggestions that have appeared on here.

This is side-step from what I am talking about. I said games like Grimsby are exactly where we need to target our (undoubtedly limited) marketing because the pay-offs are far greater. It might be the only game where there are pay-offs.

I don't know who's suggested busses or meadowhall on this thread but that sounds completely daft. The point is, we employ people to specifically do this job for us. They have access to the database and presumably they have some formal education in this type of thing so let them do it. They have to be imaginative with the little budget they have and it has to be targeted in very specific and clever ways.

[silent majority]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

[RedJ]

It's well known within the sports world that shotgun marketing is a waste of valuable resources. Sports marketing is much more integral to the community and a longer more integrated strategy is required to build a long lasting relationship. Club Doncaster, through the work that the foundation carry out is second to no one. School visits might not be sexy but it is vital work. Their achievements in this area are exemplary and have long been a club that receives praise throughout the football world.

If by shotgun you mean 'mass' marketing then why would rovers do that anyway? If by shotgun you mean a concentrated period of marketing then I hope the club are not using this as a justification to do no promotion.

Skysports, Now TV, every booky in the country, the whole sport of boxing ... all fetishise the product they are selling. The next match/game/fight is THE big thing. They do it to sell it.

The work of Club Doncaster (however great that is), good results, good football will have no bearing on attendances in any measurable time frame. That's the truth of it.

I'd be slightly worried if anybody fetishised Doncaster Rovers...

[Drover]

SM,Marketing whether it's so called shotgun or not,should be explored to the maximum by the club.IF the returns on impacting attendance are adjudged to be lower than the costs,then the marketing strategies that have minimum cost/outlay in time should be pushed. I.E. Social medias like FaceBook ect.

[Drover]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

But those,so called none targets,still have many friends and family that are not ST and their word of mouth can spread the word of any promotions/offers etc.

[Drover]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

I also,very much doubt that has had any real significant effect,for me,the tie itself is a very tasty fixture for the Grimsby fans that will come.Same reason me and my family and friends went to Hull,Huddersfield,Mansfield Etc in 2003/4,nothing to do with any marketing from those clubs.
I think it's more important to target Home fans and their friends,relations.

[karldew]

Grimsby tweet:
We have now sold over 2,750 for our away fixture at Doncaster on December 17th. Unbelievable support! #GTFC #UTM

[silent majority]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

But those,so called none targets,still have many friends and family that are not ST and their word of mouth can spread the word of any promotions/offers etc.

You've missed my point completely.

[silent majority]

SM,Marketing whether it's so called shotgun or not,should be explored to the maximum by the club.IF the returns on impacting attendance are adjudged to be lower than the costs,then the marketing strategies that have minimum cost/outlay in time should be pushed. I.E. Social medias like FaceBook ect.

Don't doubt they should work to the full, but resources are finite therefore a structured approach is called for. Football is not a commodity. Leeds Utd can attack social media utilising Facebook, Twitter etc as much as they like but I still wouldn't go anywhere near them.

[Copps is Magic]

Grimsby tweet:
We have now sold over 2,750 for our away fixture at Doncaster on December 17th. Unbelievable support! #GTFC #UTM

Good support from the fish fingers, can't knock it really.

Hope SY police are on the ball for this one.

[silent majority]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

I also,very much doubt that has had any real significant effect,for me,the tie itself is a very tasty fixture for the Grimsby fans that will come.Same reason me and my family and friends went to Hull,Huddersfield,Mansfield Etc in 2003/4,nothing to do with any marketing from those clubs.
I think it's more important to target Home fans and their friends,relations.

So, you went to some away games 13 years ago and it had nothing to do with marketing? That's not much of an argument is it?

The truth of the matter is that for most clubs away supporters form a significant percentage of unique visitors to their stadiums in any given season, they also pay more and spend more. Attracting away supporters is an easier route to filling stadiums sometimes than trying to persuade those disenchanted home supporters to turn up. Grimsby are back in the FL, they've never been to the Keepmoat before and its a key game before Christmas therefore it makes common sense to try and attract a large crowd given that its been moved to an early kick-off. I'm sure that the little effort that we've had to put in so far will be well rewarded, and the proof seems to be in the pudding. What is a fact is that where away supporters are made welcome they respond by turning up.

[selby]

Weeds would be no good in our cup,they lost to a youth team last night.

[MrFrost]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

What activities are they planning? It is obviously working; why don't we adopt a similar approach?

You still can't provide a valid reason why there is still no mention of tickets for the next two games on our Facebook page? Is that beyond our limited resources?

[silent majority]

CiM,

But that is shotgun marketing, just blasting out in any direction with the hope you'll hit a target or two. What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about, targeted marketing. Look at it in a different way, if you're a ST holder and not the target then you shouldn't, in theory, see any advertising or promotional material for that particular game. Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it isn't being done. The target markets are the people who don't attend, that's where the effort is being applied.

To add to that, the club do look at individual games and identify the ones that they think will bring in a reasonable return for a reasonable outlay. Unfortunately they can't always get other teams to play ball. Reciprocal pricing is usually a great way to grow the attendance at particular games, and offers were made to several clubs at the start of the season, unfortunately most of them refused.

Meetings with staff at Grimsby took place several weeks ago with the intention of encouraging as many Grimsby supporters to attend as possible, the obvious drawback being the early kick-off and the attraction of Christmas shopping. What I do know is that several activities have been planned that day to encourage a large following from Grimsby to make that trip and judging by early sales that seems to be working.

What activities are they planning? It is obviously working; why don't we adopt a similar approach?

You still can't provide a valid reason why there is still no mention of tickets for the next two games on our Facebook page? Is that beyond our limited resources?

Point missed. Its not the work that Grimsby are doing, its what our marketing team are doing.

[Lincoln Rover]

Leeds brought over 50000 to Wembley. Bristol Rovers 40000 to Cardiff.
Didn't do them any good did it ?
Don't get me wrong it's excellent support, but it guarantees you nothing.
We are loyal fans in the maIn at Donny and if other clubs bring huge followings then so be it. Personally I've more time for visiting fans who've supported their team through bad times. Darlington, Halifax, Scarboring etc. Met an AFC Rushden fan the other day, what a star.