http://www.independent.ie/sport/socc...-35298462.html
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John O'Sullivan[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#292f33]You can download Jonathan Gabay's LoI branding report from the following link.
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[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#292f33]http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/626268/LOI%20Brand%20Report%202016.pdf[/COLOR][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#292f33]You're welcome...https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/72x72/1f633.png[/COLOR][/FONT] [FONT=Arial, sans-serif][COLOR=#292f33]http://www.filehosting.org/file/details/626268/LOI%20Brand%20Report%202016.pdf[/COLOR][/FONT]
http://www.filehosting.org/file/deta...ort%202016.pdf
What a pile of utter claptrap, amazing even by FAI standards.
That Balls.ie article makes for equally hilarious and grim reading. What a clownshow. I mean, that last report was shockingly biased towards praising the FAI, but this?
'Under John Delaney it's been amazing'
To start a report like that is genuinely unbelievable ,even if they were giving the league a decent shift why would you start a review of the problems the leagues brand faces with that line,complete bull****!
The creation of a specially designed League of Ireland bus that would travel up and down the country brandishing a new logo: I mean, OK, whatever. Seems like the kind of short-term idea that you wouldn't expect the FAI to waste money on.
Bank Holiday games with sides from America's MLS and NASL: Total nonsense.
A Hollywood walk of fame leading up to grounds commemorating star players: There's something to be said for clubs promoting their legacy I suppose. This seems a bit much. Presumably they'd have to get local government permission.
Uplifting pre- and post-match music: I am always very uplifted by "Right Here, Right Now", let me tell you.
Local bus stops painted in club colours: Window dressing is a very important part of the FAI's strategy.
Local bus stops offering live scores: Knowing RTI, they'd probably be the wrong scores.
Half-time EA Sports gaming tournaments on giant screens in the stadium: If the FAI are willing to buy a giant screen for every ground in the LOI, I think they can put whatever they like on them at half-time.
Managers encouraged to speak controversially in the media: Oh God, spare me with this manufactured horse****, it's a disease in modern sport.
Name change from SSE Airtricity League to the 'League of Ireland sponsored by the SSE': Longer names are always better!
Crackdown on use of flares and discouragement of anti-FAI chants at matches: Know your place everybody, lest you wind being "discouraged" by the FAI.
What a diabolical load of claptrap.
Manager controversy underway
https://mobile.twitter.com/collieone...50175564566528
I knew it was a p1sstake when he said our chips were nice!
All you need to know about the independence of this report is that the FAI selected who he spoke to
Some people, in some clubs
I'm kind of surprised he went ahead with the whole thing. He seems respected in his field - you don't work for Saatchi and Saatchi otherwise. How much money do you have to be thrown to make a complete arse of yourself professionally? Or is he reckoning a story about the LoI will never make it out of Ireland, and he can add the FAI to his list of clients?
An interesting view into modern business anyway. Definitely who you know, not what you know in this case
This is poor form as well.
http://twitter.com/garethpenrose/sta...10999255715840
Edit: Sorry, they've credited Extratime, so not poor form just inexplicably lazy.
A few of my favourite bits from the report -
Bit of a stretch, that one.Quote:
under the FAI’s professional leadership, internationally, football is currently achieving remarkable results which leave other world teams conspicuously lagging behind on the world stage.
So Gabay would rather that clubs had nice shiny plans of where they were going to be in five years' time, while being subjected to winding-up orders for not paying bills. Right so.Quote:
Meanwhile, some clubs at the bottom of the League’s First Division, argued that whilst they could appreciate the need for a wider vision, for them, the daily ongoing struggle to meet short-term overheads, rather than become overconcerned with long-term strategies, had to take precedent
I'll leave that - together with typos; he apologises for them later, but doesn't bother his hole actually fixing them - stand.Quote:
Beyond the clubs as entities, certain cliques of die-hard delinquent supporters such as Shamrock Rover’s Ultras and the so-called, Casuals had, through primal tribal force, rather than rational campaigning, somewhat added to tainting the League’s overall reputation.
This is glorious stuff. Fans are "tribes" now? "Brazen" chants? And in front of public dignitaries?! By Jove.Quote:
Attending the Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup Final, I witnessed flares thrown onto the pitch by some hard-core fans – at one point almost setting fire to goal netting. The tribes also chanted
abuse criticising the FAI. Given that the FAI – in all its broader aspects – from national administrators to associated volunteers - are in fact the League’s greatest supporters, and that the brazen chants were yelled in front of leading public dignitaries attending the game, as an outsider, despite the football play on the pitch, the entire experience left the impression that the brand as a whole, lacked solidity and pride.
This bit may actually be a hint that Gabay is deliberately taking the **** in order to get revenge on Delaney for asking him to publish such tripe.
Rippled Realities is an appropriate phrase here alright. Any more removed from reality, and Gabay is in danger of writing a 60s psychadelic classic.Quote:
League of Ireland clubs have a responsibility to their local communities. It is not enough to simply ban rabble-rousers from grounds. Instead a dialogue is needed to explain how loutish
activities only serves to hurt such die-hard fans’ own beloved clubs (through fines, poorer ticket gates and so on). From the club point of view it simply pushes the problem towards the surrounding local community areas just beyond the gates (tribal ‘patches’) forcing wellbehaved fans who are as passionate about clubs as die-hard fans, to circumnavigate intimidating areas on the way to games. (I delve further into brand implications from this, in Rippled Realties, and Tribal Psychologies, Part Two).
NOTE 2 here is a subnote indicating that while football is really Gaelic Football, he will refer to soccer as football as it's the Football Association of Ireland. So he actually sees the need to define the term "football". Except later, he writes about "soccer (football)"Quote:
From the outset, I did not approach this 12-week project NOTE 1 as a biased, avid football NOTE 2 fan.
Can anyone figure out here what clubs he was asking about?Quote:
when visiting local pubs close to grounds – such as The Horseshoe Inn, frequented by Cork City supporters, I asked around 30 people for views on the general state of professional play (excluding clubs from the Premier Division, notably, Dundalk, and Cork City, and to a lesser extent, Bohemians, Galway United, Derry City, Shamrock Rovers, Sligo Rovers, St Patricks and Bray Wanderers).
Ah yes. Fran Gavin's classic "The FAI created the conditions for Dundalk to thrive" line. But this is still an independent report of course. Pure coincidence there. And of course, the unaddressed elephant in the quote is that a club went out of business under the FAI's highly professional and hugely improved stewardship.Quote:
The fact remains that since the Football Association of Ireland’s administration, conditions have been implemented which allow clubs to better manage themselves, and so improve the
standard of League football (in all its manifestations). Take Dundalk: only four years ago, the club played in front of 250 diehards — finished bottom of the League and were only saved from relegation by another club going out of business.
There's no exploration here here about why the number of Irish players in the Premiership has dropped by 25% in just seven years.Quote:
In the 2007-08 season, Irish players made up to six per cent of footballers in the Premier League (the second most represented nationality after England). In the 2013-14 season, Irish players accounted for 4.7% of top-flight participants - the fourth most represented nationality.
You can't hand out "still more money" if you never handed out any ****ing money in the first place.Quote:
A popular mantra repeated time after time from club management was the plea for the Football Association of Ireland to hand out more… and more… and yet still more money to clubs to invest in players.
Burn them all!Quote:
Some of the clubs suggested that prize-money should be increased to finance affiliation fees and fines whilst still showing a small surplus after a long season of living hand-to-mouth.
He then suggests increasing prize money would lead to clubs going bankrupt. At least he admits licencing is a farce anyway. Even if I doubt he knows what licencing is.
Anyways, that's just the first 20 pages of the 100 page document.
What utter, utter drivel.
Gabay just followed me on Twitter. So exciting!
Try harder Nidge!! :devil:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cz0wQwwWgAE3PqN.jpg
I'm a little puzzled. Everyone else is getting blocked. Gabay wants to be my friend.
John Delaney/FAI propaganda/vanity exercise hiring a brand specialist to act as a front for it is all I see in this latest debacle
I wonder just how much stupid money Delaney paid this guy that he would put his credibility on-line to present John's self indulging deluded insecure sh111te?
He unblocked a few followers(myself included) this evening and answered a few questions and says he will answer more tomorrow.
PDF of the report in case anyone missed it =+
http://sseairtricityleague.ie/images...than_Gabay.pdf
Crying racism (without a shred of credible proof): http://www.thejournal.ie/jonathan-ga...46496-Dec2016/
This guy. Wonder if Delaney still thinks this Comical Ali exercise was worth it.
Edit: FAI not revealing how much he was paid is eye-raising. Would an FOI cover that?
I saw that on his twitter alright. I think the phrase he objected to was "Jesus wept"
Good enough for the guy anyway.
There's no little irony in the realisation that his own twitter handle - jigabay - is very close to sounding like another racial slur.:rolleyes:
And, because accuracy is important, if he was upset at the use of the word shyster, neither Merriam Webster nor Oxford note any anti-Semitic etymology. (There is a possible link with the German scheisse, which seems appropriate given his report.) What a schmuck.
The report isn't that bad, which a lot of people have failed to acknowledge.
It comes up with quite a few decent suggestions.
Much better and actually very realistic suggestions there fair play to them. The only slight quibble would be with the all local club players going free suggestion, a discount may be a better bet.
But what about the curry chips in cork...every professional presentation always has a food review in it ?
In fairness, they're still pretty sh!te as suggestions go.
None of these so-called marketing geniuses seem to have a fecking clue about marketing. Everything you do with it is to either :
1) Raise Awareness (let people know something exists),
2) Create Trial (encourage them to use it for the first time), or
3) Generate Loyalty (i.e. second and subsequent usage).
The Awareness of the LOI is ok, but it's image is poor. This is in part responsible for the trial level of the League being abysmal - how many people in Dublin who like sport and football have been to an LOI game ? A tiny portion. So the key focus should be on making people think about the league in a different way and getting as many as possible along to a game in the first place (assuming the product is good enough to reel them in, which is another discussion entirely). Ideally in a way that captures their data (age, email etc) so you can then follow up with them later to encourage loyalty.
The single most simple and cost-effective proposal I can think of for the FAI to promote the LOI would be to have an equivalent of Non-League day here. An LOI day - on a weekend when there is no 'top level' football in England or Scotland to act as a distraction or excuse. Schedule the derby matches on that weekend, to maximise the crowd and vibe - the way that the Irish League always has derbies on St Stephen's Day. Have a big FAI-backed campaign about it all, using LOI stars past and present who the public would recognise. Rope in a few celebrity fans like Dara O'Briain to say why they love the League and will be there on LOI Day, through both ads and social media. And use things like the FAI's database of international ticket buyers to encourage people to go and sample the LOI on 'LOI Day' (I'm not suggesting that specific name btw - it needs a better one. Like 'Community Day' or something less cheesy). Get the league clubs themselves fully on-board and to run all sorts of things themselves to improve the matchday atmosphere before during and after games - samba bands, bar promotions, competitions etc etc. Get entire schools along etc.
Easy to do, relatively cheap, if done properly it could see a big increase in awareness and attendances on that day, and it could be replicated every year and become part of the Irish sporting calendar the way that Non-League Day is in England.
So feck these so-called marketing gurus who haven't got a clue. It's about raising positive awareness, encouraging trial and then securing loyalty. Nothing more complicated than that.
In all honesty, that 'alternative' strategy is utter nonsense for the best part too. Not everyone is on social media and not everyone sees everything that's on social media accounts. There's a lot to be said for simple ideas like billboards, fliers, local radio/newspapers, etc.
I do like their idea of fan days, and social media could definitely be utilised more, but the idea that it's the be all and end all is pure drivel.
If its about bringing people in then a free weekend where the fai pay all clus their average gate but it's free in. Would cost less thenergy people think by the time season ticket holders are excluded ....up to each club then to promote a free match
I put in lots of typos because that and food reviews is what goes in professional reports........
Agree with the above poster, I don't know why there's never been a ''LOI day''. Non league day in England is massive
Absoutlely love the idea of a Thursday night Facebook live LOI show.
Facebook is sooo 2012.
Its demographic is ageing upwards rapidly, as kids have moved on to other platforms to communicate now.
Social Media should be an important component in creating and marketing the LOI. But it shouldn't be the sole way, which is what those Limerick chancers have managed to blag some free national media out of largely suggesting.
Facebook is stil the biggest social medium, and it isn't even close
The problem is all advertising on the internet to get people out of their houses and off their phones is pretty much doomed