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Berwick 2015


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Not if you have a hard and fast "let's hammer the promotion" agenda, it seems.

Don't you think it strange, when a genuine discussion with the aim of helping to find ways of promoting, someone has to believe there is an agenda, tad juvenile. I watch the NE news every night, little on speedway in general, gets a mention occasionally, the club mentioned the least out of the 4 Northern clubs, is our beloved Berwick. I don't know if it gets coverage in scotland however.

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These people are already attending, trying to suggest ways of increasing the attandances.

 

 

Do you not think they might stop attending if they are asked to continue paying full price while people who are in the area for a week are left in free in the hope they might come back, even though they are on holiday and probably travelled from miles away to be there?

Edited by sparkafag
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Why don't they get an Aeroplane with a banner attached to it saying 'Speedway tonight 7pm' and fly over the tweed.

errr..cost?

 

footage of Ben barker racing would do it for me, love him or loathe him he is entertaining and you are lucky you do get tv coverage for the speedway. Is it possible or cost effective to get CDs out to the schools to hand out to the kids or local youth organisations with short exciting snippets from your own footage? Sometimes you have to look longer term rather than the short term and if you get the kids wanting to come now you could - if you treat them right - have fans for life. And they tend to want burgers ;)

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Do you not think they might stop attending if they are asked to continue paying full price while people who are in the area for a week are left in free in the hope they might come back, even though they are on holiday and probably travelled from miles away to be there?

Don't think the price at the level Berwick charge is an issue, when it was dropped to £10 it made no difference. Those who can afford it can afford it, those who cannot, cannot, it really is as simple as that. The challenge is to get visitors to attend who normally would not, so to let them know about it, is a good starting point. To achieve that you need to identify where the visitor would read that information and provide the information.

errr..cost?

 

footage of Ben barker racing would do it for me, love him or loathe him he is entertaining and you are lucky you do get tv coverage for the speedway. Is it possible or cost effective to get CDs out to the schools to hand out to the kids or local youth organisations with short exciting snippets from your own footage? Sometimes you have to look longer term rather than the short term and if you get the kids wanting to come now you could - if you treat them right - have fans for life. And they tend to want burgers ;)

Good ideas, however Berwick and the surrounding areas are in the 10 bottom paid areas in the country. New figures last week also placed as 3rd highest amount of workers on minimum wage not attaining a 'Living Wage'. so an up hill slog...

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Don't you think it strange, when a genuine discussion with the aim of helping to find ways of promoting, someone has to believe there is an agenda, tad juvenile. I watch the NE news every night, little on speedway in general, gets a mention occasionally, the club mentioned the least out of the 4 Northern clubs, is our beloved Berwick. I don't know if it gets coverage in scotland however.

 

whenever there is speedway mentioned on the local border tv news spot. its always the Berwick track that is being shown it is also up to date on the coverage of the week before s speedway meeting with clips from G.R.T. media. its a lot more tv coverage than worky,redcar and newcastle get . all thanks to G.R.T. media covering the meetings. so as far as coverage on tv, Berwick gets the lions share of coverage.

 

COMmEnTS made by myself are not accusations..

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You have referenced A4 sheets of paper that are left around Berwick promoting the football yet their attendance is typically comparable or lower to the speedway despite your earlier point that it is the most effective method of promotion, tangible evident confirms it isn’t.

 

If you’re exposable rescore is stretched as it is I am not entirely convinced that pandering to a Caravan site is a smart move.

 

You aren’t going to encourage repeat custom, the people are on holiday attending a Caravan site where the typical attendee is there for the attractions on the site and you are also only going to see a short term attendance burst over a 2 or 3 month period, probably not enough to shift the needle.

 

As Lioness has suggested a far more sustainable, viable and longer term promotion strategy is to target schools (as far as I am aware that has been ongoing axcross the country, not just at Berwick) where you are more likely to grow your weekly fan base rather than short bursts of fans who even if they enjoy it probably won’t be back as they won’t be in the area the week after.

 

All this being said, promotions up and down the country have invested in promoting the sport and have carried out the majority of the ideas suggested on this forum. I personally think there is a slight ignorance to suggest that people aren’t aware of speedway. I don’t think 10 or 12 bits of A4 paper left around a caravan site will make a massive difference to Berwicks attendances. The general attendance trajectory since the early 80s, suggest people simply just don’t care. And while ideas like topsoil are to be applauded, attracting new fans, you can’t do that at the risk of alienating the fans you do attract.

Edited by sparkafag
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Its always an uphill slog Tourettes - thats why marketing bods get paid so much but are in jobs that are risky lol

 

btw I meant to say i can confirm that berwick speedway does get coverage in Southern Scotland - my mate in Lockerbie tends to keep me up to date with whats happening with them and Workington as reported on their tv stations

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Not if you have a hard and fast "let's hammer the promotion" agenda, it seems.

 

What an odd post, the last couple of pages have been a debate on how the club can attract more fans, points for and against, one thing is for sure though, no matter how hard the promotion try to get extra fans through the gate if an employee goes on a forum and calls one of the clubs loyalist fans a cretin, that can undo so much good work.

 

Engage brain before tapping the keyboard.

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Don't you think it strange, when a genuine discussion with the aim of helping to find ways of promoting, someone has to believe there is an agenda, tad juvenile. I watch the NE news every night, little on speedway in general, gets a mention occasionally, the club mentioned the least out of the 4 Northern clubs, is our beloved Berwick. I don't know if it gets coverage in scotland however.

 

Closed season, maybe, but over 40 appearances during the 2014 season for Berwick, out of over 90 in total for the Northern teams, is hardly little.

 

It gets mentioned on TV, be thankful for that.

Edited by Steve Park
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Anyone know how much a banner covering a panel of the poly-foam fence would cost?

 

Not a business enquiry - Just interested

I heard around £700 for the season
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Anyone know how much a banner covering a panel of the poly-foam fence would cost?

 

Not a business enquiry - Just interested

 

Contact the Club.

Don't think the price at the level Berwick charge is an issue, when it was dropped to £10 it made no difference. Those who can afford it can afford it, those who cannot, cannot, it really is as simple as that. The challenge is to get visitors to attend who normally would not, so to let them know about it, is a good starting point. To achieve that you need to identify where the visitor would read that information and provide the information.

Good ideas, however Berwick and the surrounding areas are in the 10 bottom paid areas in the country. New figures last week also placed as 3rd highest amount of workers on minimum wage not attaining a 'Living Wage'. so an up hill slog...

The bottom line is that the sport is in decline,and is not attracting new fans.The various reasons have been well discussed and nobody has found the answer.Ideas that seem to be suggested by fans from various clubs and sound reasonable don't seem to find favour with the people that run the sport.So be it .
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Engage brain before tapping the keyboard.

 

I did have a wee laugh when I read this, a recent post of yours springs to mind. Nice of you to share your wisdom.

 

Now, to respond to some of Taffy's comments.

I think holiday camps are not really a strategic target. If you are lucky you are going to get a one-off hit from the occasional person. Unless they are visiting Berwick for speedway, it is unlikely that you will pull them in to speedway on their holiday.

 

A longer-term strategy would be to encourage adults to bring their kids and get the fans of the future engaged. As far as I can see, Berwick is the only club to offer under 16s free admission with an adult, and have been doing for a number of seasons.

 

TV and radio coverage always seems to be pretty decent to me, I really don't think Taffy's claim that we are under-represented on TV is correct.

 

One of the most effective marketing tools is the good old-fashioned banner. Something I was taught by the Marketing Director of a very successful beer brand. Berwick do that well.

 

Quite a remarkable claim from a self-proclaimed business guru is that there is no point in promoting to your current customer base. Quite an extraordinary comment to make Taffy!

First and foremost you must retain your loyal customers and never - ever - take your eye off the ball with them.

 

The suggestion of posters is a good one, but not A4, they need to be posters, not leaflets. A3 minimum, and they need to be current.

I guess it is expensive to do multiple runs of posters to keep them current, but more posters is a good idea.

I'm not quite sure what your point is when you refer to Berwick Rangers doing this, as they get much smaller attendances. Are you trying to disprove your point?

 

Screm's point that the rest of the word might not be interested in our wee sport is a very interesting one. I kind of agree with you on that, Screm.

You really can't force people to like something. This then brings me back to promoting to families so that kids can get bitten by the bug.

 

With regard to admission prices: when admission was dropped to £10 it made no difference to crowd levels, so must have whacked about 30% off takings!

However, the tickets books are an interesting variation on season tickets. It offers a discount for bulk purchase, but avoids the problem of a conventional season ticket where holidays, illness, weddings, etc., make them a bit risky. It also offers an opportunity to buy tickets as gifts. To me this is all part of the promotion/marketing mix, and another example of something being done well.

 

My points are not to be read as the sun shines out of their backside, it is merely to show that there is a considerable effort made to promote the sport, and many of the suggestions are either being done, or have been tried.

This effort is often done by people who have work and family life in addition to their speedway work.

So be fair with any criticism, offer it in a positive way, the club is always open to suggestions and looking to improve things.

 

If you have something to offer, why not get involved?

If you have time to come on here and air your opinion, why not use some of it to offer a hand?

 

After all, we support the club and all (I think) want to see it survive and flourish.

 

Oh, and one final point, is signing Ben Barker not a big deal in terms of the wee team in one of the most poorly paid parts of the country?

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Good Morning!

Monday again, who's ready for the weekend already?

Don't forget we're having a social night this Saturday 14th, 7:30pm in the Black and Gold. There will be some speedway DVDs on show, some quizzes and maybe some special guests! We hope you can come along for a drink and a chat to get us started in the season!

...

We will also have membership forms available on the night so if you have never been a member before why not join? It's only £5 for adults and £2.50 for the kids!

And if you fancy coming along you can also put your name down for the bus to Ricky's big day! Seats are only £10 for members and £20 for non members.

See you then!!

 

Taken from Berwick Supporters Club Facebook page, where it looks like they are attracting many new members. :approve:

 

Taffys later question never heard any mention of Berwick on Scotttish news come to think of it cant remember Edinburgh or Glasgow getting a mention

Edited by Bandit59
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Another e-Newsletter has arrived, with plenty to read. Perhaps an item worth immediately highlighting is this one:

 

SPRUCE UP THE STADIUM:
This Sunday (March 15th) is going to be 'Spruce-Up The Speedway Day' at Shielfield, with staff (and possibly a rider or two) going hard at it to smarten up our speedway facilities in time to have everything ship-shape for our Press & Practice sessions on Saturday 21st.

Any willing volunteers will be more than welcome to come along on Sunday and assist in getting things tidied up. We'll be getting going about 10am.
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7.30 seems early to me if practice starts at 6.30 regarding Taffys later question never heard any mention of Berwick on Scotttish news come to think of it cant remember Edinburgh or Glasgow getting a mention

Berwick always get a mention on the BBC Radio Scotland local news , details of up coming fixtures , results the next morning of the previous nights meeting when there has been one , news on signings and other stuff to

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Berwick always get a mention on the BBC Radio Scotland local news , details of up coming fixtures , results the next morning of the previous nights meeting when there has been one , news on signings and other stuff to

I was thinking more on the Tv news but didnt realise it was mentioned on Radio Scotland know Edinburgh get mentioned on Radio Forth

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