thanks mate and we need all the luck we can get

We're coming to the end of our second season in Ealing and the club STARTS promotion/ advertising of the club? ( face palm)

Why is it a surprise? The people of Ealing are NOT our target market generally. Why start doing some now though, because we have something to promote, e.g. A bigger club that might draw in some folk
Fact is if you are going to spend money on promotion, if you are not going to get any return for that investment it's wasted money.
This view that lots of people have that when we move to an area we are going to get loads of new support from folk in that area is tosh, who is our target audience? Fans new to the sport? That's a very long slow game and that's a national problem. Lapsed fans maybe, reality is until we are competing at a higher level they are not going to come back.
So who do you target and how? Would spending thousands on banners posters press adverts have made any difference to our crowds? Doubt it.
There have been posters on here saying they have spoke to new fans, did they find out about RL in london from promotion?
Yes let's promote the club but spending loads of money on it is not going to work.

There must be thousands of email addresses on the Broncos and Trailfinders databases. It would cost nothing to send out emails to these people and offer them a deal. Don't hold your breath.

That's your opinion but it's not supported by Fact. Ask some long her supporters who actively helped the club letterbox the area around Griffin Park which era in the clubs nomadic history was the only one in which we left a ground with more fans than we arrived with.

Your opinion that you try to pass of as fact is shared by the cheque writer and whilst that's important, it doesn't make either if you right. If you don't market you don't grow....you shrink.....and the fact if the matter is the club have shrunk under the current ownership and that shrinkage still hasn't resulted in the club being self sufficient.....just smaller cheques from the benefactor.

Call me dog!!! So at griffin park are you saying that all the new fans came from the Brentford area? Look at the demographics of Ealing

Maybe Brentford was a lot to do with we were competitive

NB Call me God lead or contributed significantly to the marketing programme at Brentford and will provide statistical facts. He also works in that sector.

I suspect his understanding of promotional growth is far more detailed than your throw away thoughts.

Surely you mean call me dog?

Maybe he did work in that are and can provide the numbers I would be interested to see the numbers that proved all the new support actually came from Brentford which is what has been suggested.
Let me give an example.
I have friends who live in Ealing, they are quite possibly pretty typical of the demographic, all be it higher end earners.
They are a typical family 2 kids. They are originally from N Yorks and have a good knowledge of the game, although RU fans. The boy now 21 played at trailfinders. Market them as much as you want until we start being competitive against the higher level competition they will never bother coming.
Why did people stop coming, because unless it's in yr blood interest will drop off when the team is not doing well.
So market away, but until we start having some success and start getting the bigger names in the game back it's money thrown away

So we do nothing. David Hughes decides he has had enough. The club folds.
Everybody off to Skolars, who do work hard at getting people through the gates.
Marketing needs to be smart, it need not be expensive.

I agree, and that's the whole point, the opening comment was about the club marketing now! Is that not smart? Spend money on marketing when you have something to market, as in the visit of Warrington.
Spend 100k on marketing!!! Still not going to get enough bums on seats to make the club sustainable if DH goes though.
Genuine question, what is skolars average crowd this season? Has it gone up stayed the same or gone down? How many of those that came to the Toronto game came back?

The community work done by the club should be considered as part of the clubs marketing scheme. There is some excellent work being done in local schools. John Keyes and his award winning team are putting the clubs name out into the local area. It however needs to be followed up.
This is ground building work, which works for both the schools and the club. Children are after all the future. I do think that secondary schools should be part of the mix.

Is there a correlation between participation and crowds, something thats been discussed previously?

I remember the year they gave ST to all players in clubs (or similar) and it did nothing to the crowd.

Giving tickets to players that play on a Saturday afternoon when you play yr home games on a Saturday afternoon! Work it out

Two for one ticket offer for the Warrington game. The club are getting a bit carried away here.

This is an odd one for me; they've chosen a game that's almost guaranteed to be a defeat, and likely a heavy one at that, as an opportunity to run a ticketing promotion. Seeing Warrington, who by rights have no business being in this competition, run in lots of tries against us is hardly likely to encourage newbies (and returnees) to come back the following week. I don't think it's all that smart.

How have Warrington got on in their other games ? Didn't they only just beat Halifax at the w/e ?Maybe we can compete with them and impress a few newbies.

The onus is on the team to perform similar to Fax did at Wire and make a game of it and show of there skills and capabilities. Warrington is the biggest draw in this middle 8's lets promote it.

I have to agree with Plum. Warrington were poor though out the regular season and this has continued in the 8s. Although we have not won in the 8s we have competed and we may well have a chance against them. So we should not be written off.

Warrington have no business in this competition? They have every right to be in this competition and fully deserve to be here, just because they have been top of the tree does not give them rights to stay there if they don't compete, look at other teams you could have said that about in the past, e.g. Bradford.
I find it ironic lots of folk complain that the club don't market or push the game, now they are doing something folk are saying it's wrong, most odd.

Glad to see people are more optimistic about this game than I am.

I find it ironic that some still defend the club blindly even though its now playing home games at a conference centre against 2nd tier opposition where as it used to play at a bespoke rugby stadium against world renowned names such as Wigan and st Helens....

Someone has broken the spell.

We could beat Warrington but probably won't. And promotion if ever a realistic opportunity disappeared at the Fev game.

Agreed, promotion is gone, 6th spot is the best we can do. So need to start planning the trips to Toulouse Toronto and errrrrrrr good god possibly Perpignan hmmm