Gordon Waddell: We've got the new league.. now give new fans a reason to turn out

GORDON believes the SPFL needs to make the game unique and give fans a reason to want pay to attend every week.
28 Jul 2013 00:01

THERE'S a huge difference between telling people you're giving them what they want, and actually giving them it.

Between creating the impression of quality, and actually creating quality.

So when the new Scottish leagues are called the Premiership, the Championship, League 1 and League 2, which version do you think we're getting?

They're trying to sell you an illusion.

They're trying to say that a fake Rolex is as good as a real Rolex because hey, they both tell the time, right?

Whereas what they should be doing is taking what they make and aspiring to make it as good as a Rolex, making it unique, giving people a reason to want to buy it and then selling it on its own merits.

Like St Johnstone this week. Perfect example.

I was at McDiarmid on Thursday night. Outstanding, it was - a terrific team performance by players whose bottle held when so many like them over the years have collapsed.

And in front of a crowd 7850 too - a club whose average league gate last season was 3712.

Question. How do they get those 4138 people who weren't coming last year back next week? And the week after that? And again and again?

Engaging the disengaged. Connecting with the disconnected.

For starters, do St Johnstone even know WHO they are? Did they take email addresses with ticket sales to create a database? To go back to them and say 'how was it for you? Fancy coming back? Can we sell you a family package?'

Probably not. They'll simply hope.

Or the little things. Like walking through the car park, the queue for their little club shop in the end stand was out the door before the game.

Great - but were they stocked to the gunnels on Friday morning to respond to a stampede of Saintees pride?

And were they offering anything more than the usual tat every club shop in this country sells?

Could you walk in and say 'Y'know what, after last night, I want a Saints t-shirt than I can walk down the street wearing and still look sharp? I want a golf shirt for my dad with the Saints logo on it, but I don't want it to be made of 1970s polyester and for it to weigh 130lbs in sweat by the time he's halfway down the first - i want it to be climacool or dri-fit.

"And I want something nice for my girlfriend, something discreet but fitted, not making her look like she's emptied out 52lb of spuds to wear it.

"And do you have the kits in for the wee ones yet?"

Fan engagement 101 - be prepared to meet demand.

Yet how many of you up and down the country are reading this about your club shop and going, 'Nope, nope, nope...'

Little things, but they all add up to the big experience.

My colleague, the venerable old soldier Keevins a few pages away, thinks it was a stroke of PR genius to have the likes of Graeme Souness there to launch the SPFL's new brands with a dazzling array of one liners.

Whereas the truth is, it was banal guff. Wallpaper.

Yes, his opinions are interesting but did they sell one single ticket for one single game in Scotland next weekend?

The game doesn't need PR'd. It needs marketed. it needs to get into its constituent communities and it needs to give those not coming a reason to come.

Example? Instead of launching with empty words and opinions, why not launch with an offer? Why not sell opening weekend as 'under-12s go free' to every game? It's not as if they don't have the capacity.

Something that says "welcome to the new show, things are going to be a little different..."

Make a statement, something tangible that unifies EVERY club at the launch of your brand, rather than have every headline about one club, created by a guy who hasn't set foot in Scottish football in 22 years, legend or not.

It's hardly innovative but it's practical, and it's engagement. It means a mum or dad who may have thought twice about the expense might go, and if they enjoy it, they might go back. They might spend a fiver on a hotdog and a drink that your club wouldn't otherwise have sold.

I know plenty clubs in the country already do this - what I'm saying is if the SPFL want to sell the game instead of just an illusion, they ALL have to do it.

They have to centralise strategies for things like ticketing and pricing and even merchandising to make sure every club is getting it right.

Okay, all the clubs have their kit deals they have to honour but but why not go to fashion designers for an exclusive range of SPFL t-shirts or golf companies for an exclusive range of club-branded technical wear?

It's the kind of thing that's par for the course in the States. It's called choice, and people will pay for quality if you don't underestimate them.

They claim they're creating a brand. So don't just make it look like you're doing it. Go out and actually do it.

PS: Even a teeny little thing like their new logo. Johnnie Walker realised a decade ago that the wee man on their bottle was facing backwards, which was bad, and spent fortunes changing their brand to have him facing forwards, with the logo 'keep walking...'

Maybe it's psychological claptrap but what's the SPFL lion doing? Looking backwards...

Taken from the Daily Record