If they can't afford a pint then does that mean the eL to be marketed at the least desirable "consumer"?Originally Posted by Dr.Nightdub
Outdoor advertising would be pointless as would not be able to cover all the areas of the country which have teams. I think this will be a radio advert as its cheap with maybe postal campaign...?
Something like football tv adverts from that UK DIY company would be good. I cannot remember the name now...
400k is the spend, agencies put there fee on top of that figure, normally 15%
OK, I said I'd come back and quantify what €400k would get you in media terms.
One preliminary point: I'd concentrate the activity in the first three months of the season, get people in while things are still relatively open and before it all tightens into a two or three horse race.
So here's other advertisers' outdoor spends for 2006 - divide by four to get a rough idea of what we'd be looking at over the same three-month period. Bear in mind these are "ratecard" spends and no-one pays the full ratecard price:
Budweiser €1,550k / 4 = €388k
7Up Free €1,365k / 4 = €341k
Miller GD €1,233k / 4 = €308k
McDonalds €1,079k / 4 = €270k
Actimel €1,061k / 4 = €265k
Like I said, €400k could go a long way on outdoor, even knocking off a bit for creative and production. Yes, there are blackspots in terms of coverage but Dublin (including Bray!), Cork, Galway and Waterford are all well-covered and I'm guessing Derry is too.
In a nutshell: unaccustomed as I am to saying this, it has the potential to be good stuff on the part of the FAI.
Revenge for 2002
I agree. The league needs more publicity at the start of the season whereas later on hopefully the games themselves would generate interest through the media...
The FAI could give away pair of tickets to Ireland game at every ground on the first 4 weeks of the season.
I would have said should be focusing on promotion the star players but not many of them left anymore...
Of course there are are. what about O'Donovan, Gamble, Ndo, Paul Keegan (not the real Keego, Drogs imposter), Deery etc. All internationals at some level. Hype them up the **** and get people interested.
Joxer Kelly.
TO TELL THE TRUTH IS REVOLUTIONARY
The ONLY foot.ie user with a type of logic named after them!
All of this has happened before. All of it will happen again.
yeah there's loads, i just can't think of them cos they're not marketed very well.
you could hhave a massive billboard on the M50 with glen crowe in an ireland dressing room carrying in a tray of tea and biscuits.......
LOL, quality wws. not often you make funny comments but thats two in a row today!!
I'm a bloke,I'm an ocker
And I really love your knockers,I'm a labourer by day,
I **** up all me pay,Watching footy on TV,
Just feed me more VB,Just pour my beer,And get my smokes, And go away
I still fundamentally diagree with the use of outdoor as a medium to market the EL with a 400k budget - or any budget, to be fair. It will achieve absolutely nothin.
You simply can't say or do enough in such a static word-and-image-limited medium to overcome the huge marketing problems the league currently faces.
It's all very well highlighting Budweiser's outdoor spend of €1.55m a year in Ireland - but they are an established brand, with a very strong and positive equity, and their outdoor messages at any particular time is merely an integral part of their overall marketing, with TV taking the lead. They do not treat outdoor in isolation - which is what you are proposing to do.
Most advertising can be distilled down to 2 core objectives - raising awareness and/or driving trial. To have even a vague hope of success, any advertising for the EL would have to do both. Furthmore, it would also have to counteract any existing negative product image, whilst also telling consumers when and where they can trial.
In essence, therefore, what is required for any EL marketing campaign to stand a chance of success is to treat it as a new product launch - or at the very least a major re-launch. The Eircom League is currently the Skoda of Irish sport. Skoda didn't reverse their ingrained negative brand equity by spendign €400k on a few posters for 3 months ! Would that really have chnaged anyone's view of Skoda ?? Instead it took a few years of clever advertising at decent weights across a variety of mediums - consistently building-up a positive image by tackline their old problems head-on - and helped, it must be said, by a demonstrably improved product. You simply won't find examples of any serious new product launch/re-launch in ireland - no matter how small the brand - that thought they could achieve their objectives solely through a €400k spend on outdoor. Such an approach simply won't address such a complicated Marketing challenge. You should know this from your experience in Marketing Dr Nightdub.
Last edited by dcfcsteve; 02/02/2007 at 6:29 PM.
Sky Sports are also confused. Click on his name here
Giving 400K to McConnells is a joke. Firstly because they probably know damn all about Irish football and secondly because 400K will just about cover their lunch expenses for about two weeks. This is just another example of clueless Delaney firing money around in the naive belief that it will achieve something.
Talk about moaning for thr sake of it. They would have had to pitch for the job. By your logic only eL fans could get the job.
Khoop, have you not read the thread? €400k is the campaign spend, their lunch expenses come out of whatever agency fee is on top of that. For an ad spend of that size, I'm guessing their retainer would be no more than a grand a month. If they choose to blow it on lunches, that's their look-out - it's not gonna affect the FAI or us one way or the other.
Steve, I don't think the gap between our thinking is as wide as you might think.
My starting point is the size of the budget and assessing what can be done with it. I know it'd be preferable to start with the objectives and then allocate all the necessary resources but in my experience, that's not how it works in the real world. I'm a graduate of the loaves-and-fishes school of marketing - "there's your budget, now go work miracles with it."
The fact that the budget is limited to €400k - and like any marketeer, I'd prefer if it was much bigger - effectively rules out the big splash re-launch you're talking about. As I said before, I'm assuming that in 2008 and following years, there will be fresh budgets allocated. I totally agree with your view that €400k in one year won't fix the problem, I never said I thought it would. I'm not looking for an enormous bang with no follow-up and we've too much negative experience of failed once-off blitzes by the FAI. It may be a big assumption, but we have to assume that this is the start of something longer-term on their part, not another attempt at a quick fix.
I accept that multinational brands are always gonna treat outdoor as one strand of a multi-million multi-medium communications strategy, the only reason I gave their outdoor figures was to point out that within the admittedly restricted confines of one medium, the FAI will be spendng on a comparable level to some very big players. Better to be a noticeable fish in a one pond than spread scant resources too thin across several. Having worked on household-name local food brands, it's the only way to approach it.
I like the Skoda analogy - let's see how many boxes the FAI can tick:
- Demonstrably-improved product? Players yes, progress in Europe yes, facilities no. As a Derry fan, you can't exactly argue that one, and you're not the only club in that position. Be happy to be a flagship product for the rest of us.
- Public image? OK, abysmal failure on this front. My best suggestion for a PR strategy for the FAI / League would be "Shut the fúck up." And perversely, Shels sinking may improve things here as Ollie not being around to drag the League through the mire a couple of times a year will at least stop the rot. Maxi being in jail should give the wackier element of one-club mé-féinism pause for thought as well.
- Awareness? That's what I'm talking about with both age groups
- Trial? Check: 18-24s, at least in terms of trialling the general concept of LoI football. I think you're asking for a bit much for a League campaign to address the specifics of where and when to trial locally, that's got to come from supplementary efforts by the clubs. Which is where the Community Promotion Officers or whatever they're called come in.
- Re-appraisal? Check: 25-34s (assuming that previous match-attending will have left some latent positivity to whatever club)
I think you're being unnecessarily harsh expecting an ad campaign alone to counteract the sustained erosion in brand equity that we've had to put up with. However, as part of a wider effort to re-build that equity, this could be a good first step. After that, it depends on the FAI's ability to re-invent itself in terms of avoiding PR fúck-ups for once. That part, I'm not so confident about.
Revenge for 2002
I'm not sure if it matters who gets the job. This is a clueless Delaney firing money at a probably enthusiastic but clueless ad agency who will produce some snazzy ads which won't make a bit of difference because the real problem isn't being addressed - namely how the league is run.
Last season was marked mainly by liquidation and litigation - and that's how the new season is kicking off aswell. An endless stream of bad publicity, as a direct cause of League and FAI incompetence.
So is the undecided punter now going to go to matches because of snazzy ads?
No.
But John Delaney gets his snazzy ads and can hold a press conference to say "Look what I've done, look what I've done!" - and sure that's the main thing, isn't it?
Last edited by khoop; 03/02/2007 at 7:53 PM.
Just because the league is marketed better does not mean that cannot improve how it is run. I think everyone has said that need to improve how the league is run in tandem with promotion...
Made me laugh!
DCFC Steve - symantics, you're arguing over hypotheticality.
KHoop - you're 'argument' is a kin to saying that just because a company isn't run well that it should stop advertising its products and concentrate on changing the management. Silly really.
I agree that any marketing campaign should be top heavy in that it is concentrated before the league starts and continues into the early part of the season.
I got no lips I got no bones where there
were eyes there's only space
What a load of tosh! If a company isn't run well, then of course changing the management is the best option! Did you actually wake up before writing such rubbish?
Once the management is changed (for the better hopefully) proper advertising should then kick in.
Well then khoop it's a matter of opinion. I'd prefer that they advertise the league now, you'd obviously prefer to wait until hell freezes over.
I got no lips I got no bones where there
were eyes there's only space
Fact is, Delaney is a liability. He gets 400K a year, but he gives absolutely NOTHING in return. He is an arrogant, incompetent waffler. I don't want to wait until hell freezes over - I just want the incompetent fools like Delaney to stop screwing Irish football for their own personal benefit.
Last edited by khoop; 04/02/2007 at 11:06 PM.
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