The fans group will raise their own funds....in theory....if anyone is intersted in doing something other than moaning about the club.

something is being "done"..so watch this space..........
I would have no problem contributing £5 a month by DD to the Harlequins Rugby League Marketing Fund.
Now there's an idea.......

Count me in for the £5, but the wrangle over how it is spent will be something else!

mm...possibly.

If there were say 750 people contributing, then they would elect a team/committee of 5 to "oversee" the spend. This committee would have to agree by a 4/1 + majority on the spend.....not ideal, but £45,000 to spend over the course of a season only equates to just short of £3.5k a game, so any mistakes/failures wouldn't be the end of the world would it.
I know that the club should be doing this, but I would have no problem giving up my time to help with such a program.
If the 750 members all had an opportunity to put forward ideas, which the elected committee could then vote on, then it would get the approval of the club I don't think there would be too many foul ups.
I tell you what....how funny would it be if (and it will never even get past the dreamland of these boards) this Fans Funded Marketing Group actually made a difference.....


If we got an extra 10,000 over the season, that would be a 20% increase at no cost to the Club.......and the Marketing Team (as such that there is one) would look very silly indeed.

Ah a man with a plan, excellent, the five person committee could be called The Directorate, I am not greatly in favour of things run by committee, I am reminded of the camel that came out of a committe that was trying to design a horse! But if we have the talent, time, funds and permission this could be very inovative.

Well I disagree, I think it should be called The Taskforce.

(I don't really, I just wanted to write some rubbish)

Ladies and Gentlemen...we have our first committee member.

That's what im talking about, im in...but I want it called 'Crowdbuilder'



Season ticket prices are too cheap anyway, so fans could contirbute the difference between what they're paying and what they should be paying to the fans marketing force.

Marketing & CrowdBuilder Taskforce Committee Directorate.

Gun.

we'll have to vote on what it's called

No. I'm the only committee member therefore the decision has already been made, unanimously I might add.

Now, where's the £45k for me to embezzle? You didn't put it in Icesave did you gf?

You all missed my reference to The Directorate, this was the body in the French Revolution from which Napoleon emerged! IIRC

So come along people who is going to volunteer to organise this committee, provide a place for meetings, collecting committee dues and donations..................... etc .............etc. Sign up now and we can go forward

I will volunteer to organise meetings etc....but not the cash side of things. Sorry, but I have seen what it did to arthur fowler and I don't want to go there


IF people think it is worth re-creating the Independent Supporters Group, as a seperate entity to the club (but with their backing of course), then I will tap Ian Lenegan for the use of the area of the Sports Cafe in Haymarket once a month FOC to host a meeting of the ISG. That said, I will not offer to handle any cash....subs....or the like. Maybe the club would do that for us?

If the club would agree to this idea, I don't see why they could not handle the cash side i.e. be a post box and promote the idea. Without their co-operation this idea is dead, but with goodwill it could work. A lot people put a lot of work and time in at the Broncos on a similar voluntary effort and we could do it again. A good number would be sleeping partners and just put up the cash. I think it could be done, and will volunteer to help.

There have been about a dozen posts in response to GF`s proposal and I am already fed up with the level of bureaucracy!!



Should it ever get off the ground you can count me in for a monthly contribution.

Would have thought it would have to be set up as a stand alone company, with all the ususal baggage of Director`s, AGM`s, meeting minutes, fiancial accounts, external audits etc etc....I am sure there is someone out there who can advise on the legal aspects. But before it gets that far the strategy and aims of the group would need to be sorted, before you can `sell it` to the punters and see if there is sufficient interest and likely funds to make it work. How it might work with the club and the flow of information and co-operation needed between both groups is another story.

I am sure this is a well trodden path for others who have already tried to organise similar groups and club support in the past......would be good to hear comments from those people (along the lines of Al the Bronco`s comments)

Some interesting ideas.

What form would the marketing take?

How will you measure responses?

What do you consider a good return on investment?

If we had 750 @ £60 a year, then we would have £45,000 to play with. The elected commitee would meet as often as required to discuss proposals from those who have contributed (the 750) and select the best way to spend the money available for each game.
I would think that as an organisation, we would need to have backing from the club to be able to negotiate deals and build relationships with the local press and community, but I would imagine that with £3,500 available for each game, we would look at a voucher in the local press, some PR coverage on local radio stations, maybe a poster at Twickenham station (oh, how i'd love it for Quind to sponsor the station..flowes, clean and tidy thanks to Quins RL), leafletting at the station on Thursday/Friday nights...blah blah blah...
I would consider a 5,000 increase on the annual total (£9 A POP) a fair return on investment...but more importantly, we would attempt to get feedback from the newbies on what they liked/didn't and encourage repeat business.
This may or may not be a pipe dream, but I feel it might be worth the club considering it NOW rather than in February.......which is what will probably happen

This highlights the first hurdle.....Key to getting anything moving is funds and being out of season I would have thought it necessary to use the club`s data base (yes I know this was mentioned/derided on another thread), to send out a mail drop and gauge the level of support/interest/funding that existing fans may give....get some money through the door and things could be active before next season. Working arrangements with the club and their general appetite to co-operate will need to be sorted sooner rather than later to give the initiative some direction.

right, with the few on here that seem keen, we have about £180 so far.....whose round is it

I'd in addition to you ideas give all local schools free tickets for two children and one paying adult for the opening game. The club should do this. Then all those who bought into this can be offered a reduction for the next game and so on.

All houses in the TW1 postcode should be direct mailed with a book of discount tickets and a warm invite.

The club needs to take a huge gamble and have a concerted push with the locals as I'm more inclined to try something new if travel is not a problem.

Have I been cloned.
Simon, all of the things you say are true ('sept for the station flowers....it works for surrey county cricket and the estate agents that sponsor putney overland station...cheap brand awareness).
I have (if you can be @rsed searching through the ,000's of posts) said everything and more that you have and this is why we are having this discussion.
I also said PR through local radio, as I wouldn't spend a penny on that or TV.
Vouchers....last one I remember seeing was in Metro for £10 in and 6 VB at Griffin Park when we had an "inside man at Metro"
Leaflets at the station depends on how you do it. I have in the past suggested that a couple of fit players and a couple of fit cheerleaders should actually tour the regions bars and pubs for a couple of evenings, handing out leaflets and selling advance reduced price tickets.......at little or no cost to the club. Let's face it, of the 250,000 odd population who reside in the borough....about 1% if that know we exist.
5,000 bums is a realistic target at a CPA of £9.....20,000 at £2.25 or even £1.25 with the revised 25k total is insane and I for one would worship at your door if it could be achieved. My target is 10% yours 40%....let's split it down the middle and aim for the stars!
As for a big splash at the begining to get repeat business, if there were to be a big push, I would leave it to May/June when the competition are OFF season. Also, let's not push us v Saints.....why not us ve Celtic (a win is good for the soul)
I believe that above the line marketing is best left (in most parts) to the P&G's of the world. What we need to do is look at clever ways of promoting the club to the locals. Cleaning up the station which must see 100,000+ journeys, 2 times a day, has got to be a start. FFS......even I would give 2 hours a week to sweep, paint and generally keep it tidier.
As for the free kids and adults with reduced return tickets....I am sick of banging on about this, The CRM at the club is non existant. As for mailing
and the club speculating....do not get me started. Nobody on these boards will thank you for it!



SIMON....IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME...i POSTED THIS IN APRIL2007
RANT
I have just been reading the post on the VT about the attendance for the Wakey Game and I think it's about time that the club took a risk to get our attendances up.
Offers to transiant fans in TNT is all well and good, as is the occasional advert over a urinal in pubs, but I would like to see more "above the line" (as against "above the urine"icon_wink.gif marketing from the club.
The Evening Standard/London Lite/The London Paper/Metro have a combined readership in excess of 2,000,000. Why not give away 1,000 tickets on a first come first served basis, with late comers offered a taster ticket for £5 a pop. This would not be "advanced purchase", but turn up on the day.
The expense of such an exercise, I believe would not be too taxing, given the extra (potential) revenue at the bar/food outlets. THEN......if we do get an extra 5,000 through the gates, offer them another £5 taster ticket for use at ANY FUTURE home game this season.
Estimated cost: £20,000 on advertising and £3,000 on additional stewarding.
Potential result: Depending on what the club can squeeze out of the London Press and Radio stations, (PR) I would hope that 5,000 extra bodies would show up, with 4,000 coughing up £20,000 at the gate and an additional (£3 each minimum) £15,000 in residual spend (hotter the day, colder the beer!)
Hard to estimate the number of secondary tickets sold, but if the voucher to get the free ticket required an address to be filled out, we would get 5,000 extra targets for future offers.
If the £20,000 advertising cost is deemed too much, reduce it by targeting commuters at Waterloo and Victoria Stations, using the Harlots and a few players and volunteers. Also, possibly target our union brothers for the same game with a fe kids and cheap ticket offer.

I don't know if this would work, but it's got to be worth the club taking a risk on SOMETHING other than the "slowly slowly catchy monkey" approach that so obviously isn't working.
RANT OVER

THERE HAVE BEEN MANY MORE LIKE THIS, DATING BACK TO 2003, BUT THE SERVER SWITCH BINNED LOADS OF THEM.

Seeing as I have been asked for my views on this, I shall give them.

The club did indeed back the former Supporters' Action Group (SAG) which raised funds through things like try sponsorship etc. Once year zero had been declared - 2006 under Lenaghan - this few quid was not wanted anymore. There has been quite a long history of the club getting into financial bother, turning to the support for assistance and then declining said help when things seemed more settled. Based on this, it'll only be a matter of time until...

That said, some sort of crowdbuilder scheme which saw cash assistance and ideas with regard to marketing could help things. QRL has to get it right within the next three years. The fact that fewer than 4k people sometimes out of a population of 8 MILLION attend fixtures regularly is a disgrace and something really needs to be done. All of GF's, Simon M's (hi mate) and Poplar Panther's (hi Dave) ideas are sound and should be actioned before next season starts.

For want of a horseshoe nail, the battle was lost...

well you can have £100 off me and my time to do leaflet drops flyering etc. at weekends. Would a big push with 1000s of flyers with all the home fixtures on, prices and an image of LMS on it be a good place to start? raising the visible profile is the key i think so getting into local homes, pubs, an ad at the station, in the local papers has to be the place to start?

I will match Your 100 smackers