How Well is Your Club Promoted?

[IainB]

By "Promotion" I mean:

1. activity that supports or provides active encouragement for the furtherance of a cause, venture, or aim

2. the publicization of a product, organisation, or venture so as to increase sales or public awareness.

All clubs seem to put out a press release in the days or day before a meeting with the team line-ups and maybe a quote from the manager or a rider saying something along the lines of "it's going to be really exciting". Other than that is your club doing anything that is noticeable? Birmingham have recently initiated a few things like the track walk, meet & greets etc. but this may be too little too late.

I can only speak of what I see from Leicester, there's a couple of buses going around the city with posters on the side, I don't listen to local radio or read the local paper so can't comment on any coverage, what I do know is that if you go onto the Leicester Mercury website, Speedway does not get a mention.

If I type "what's on in Leicester" into Google, Speedway does not get a mention. Leicester has 2 universities in the city, neither of the student union websites mention Speedway. Speedway does get a mention on the visit Leicester website "The Lions team consists of one Australian and six English riders and are captained by Scott Nicholls a seven-time British Individual Champion. The charismatic Nicholls, who is renowned for his highly colourful tailored shirts, is an analyst on the BT Sport channels during their live transmissions of the season long Speedway Grand Prix competition.". There are advertising screen kiosks around the city centre, are these being used does anybody know?

What is your club doing?

[mikebv]

1 hour ago, iainb said:

By "Promotion" I mean:

1. activity that supports or provides active encouragement for the furtherance of a cause, venture, or aim

2. the publicization of a product, organisation, or venture so as to increase sales or public awareness.

All clubs seem to put out a press release in the days or day before a meeting with the team line-ups and maybe a quote from the manager or a rider saying something along the lines of "it's going to be really exciting". Other than that is your club doing anything that is noticeable? Birmingham have recently initiated a few things like the track walk, meet & greets etc. but this may be too little too late.

I can only speak of what I see from Leicester, there's a couple of buses going around the city with posters on the side, I don't listen to local radio or read the local paper so can't comment on any coverage, what I do know is that if you go onto the Leicester Mercury website, Speedway does not get a mention.

If I type "what's on in Leicester" into Google, Speedway does not get a mention. Leicester has 2 universities in the city, neither of the student union websites mention Speedway. Speedway does get a mention on the visit Leicester website "The Lions team consists of one Australian and six English riders and are captained by Scott Nicholls a seven-time British Individual Champion. The charismatic Nicholls, who is renowned for his highly colourful tailored shirts, is an analyst on the BT Sport channels during their live transmissions of the season long Speedway Grand Prix competition.". There are advertising screen kiosks around the city centre, are these being used does anybody know?

What is your club doing?

The Aces have 2.5 MILLION people all living within 45 mins drive of it..

And have excellent rail, bus and motorway links..

And they also have a truly state of the art, modern arena with excellent facilities and a fantastic racing circuit...

And are a 5 min drive from one of the UK"s most popular visitor destination cities..

A city which has one of the largest migrant student populations in Europe living there during term times..

With literally dozens of major chain, and budget hotels within the confines of the city centre.. 

A city centre that during the day (even in Covid times), will have tens of thousands of people walking through it using the many "street vendors" that frequent the area, and also congregate in various "open spaces" to eat lunch or just take time to relax..

Tens of thousands of people who will be handed leaflets by teams of people advertising various food and drink outlets with money saving vouchers...

You also can break Gtr Manchester into satellite towns, areas, and another city,  (Salford), with Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside, Stretford, Wythenshawe, Sale and Altrincham, all within close proximity..

With Bolton and Wigan around 40 mins drive away, and St Helen's the same..

All major towns that could be targeted individually, as well as a huge city centre at the hub of Grt Manchester that sees weekly footfall in the very high hundreds of thousands..

The Aces seem to get around 1400 (ish), of these 2.5M people that all live in Grt Manchester, and have a total monopoly in being allowed to run the sport for around a 35 mile radius..

No other Speedway teams to follow for 2.5M people..

Just the Aces..

What are they doing to promote the sport?

Given the tiny, tiny % of their potential market who attend?

Not enough maybe? Or, (if they are promoting it), the wrong promotion of it possibly?

[SteveLyric2]

Any business would be doing a cost/benefit analysis of any activity. 

Poole are very good at getting local media coverage - newspapers/tv and radio often have interviews with Matt, Danny Ford or Middlo - as well as terrific pre and post meeting coverage in the main local paper including online -and have got much better at using social media including showing meeting highlights on facebook which fans then share accordingly. In the past they have also had a merchandising presence in the main shopping centre.

Of course at the moment the number one priority is getting back to a solid financial footing at the same time as having a successful team - both of which are progressing well with increased crowds (when the stadium allows!!).

I'm interested in the bus advertising concept as when I worked in the events and media industry we carried out some research as to who had seen a particular product advertised on the buses and more importantly who had actually made a purchase of that product as a result of seeing the bus ad?  The results were very poor although if part of a wider awareness marketing campaign across various different media, then it may get better results - but at what cost??

Edited August 13, 2021 by Skidder1

[Bagpuss]

I think most Lynn fans would say not very well for the last few years.

[IainB]

41 minutes ago, mikebv said:

The Aces have 2.5 MILLION people all living within 45 mins drive of it..

And have excellent rail, bus and motorway links..

And they also have a truly state of the art, modern arena with excellent facilities and a fantastic racing circuit...

And are a 5 min drive from one of the UK"s most popular visitor destination cities..

A city which has one of the largest migrant student populations in Europe living there during term times..

With literally dozens of major chain, and budget hotels within the confines of the city centre.. 

A city centre that during the day (even in Covid times), will have tens of thousands of people walking through it using the many "street vendors" that frequent the area, and also congregate in various "open spaces" to eat lunch or just take time to relax..

Tens of thousands of people who will be handed leaflets by teams of people advertising various food and drink outlets with money saving vouchers...

You also can break Gtr Manchester into satellite towns, areas, and another city,  (Salford), with Stockport, Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside, Stretford, Wythenshawe, Sale and Altrincham, all within close proximity..

With Bolton and Wigan around 40 mins drive away, and St Helen's the same..

All major towns that could be targeted individually, as well as a huge city centre at the hub of Grt Manchester that sees weekly footfall in the very high hundreds of thousands..

The Aces seem to get around 1400 (ish), of these 2.5M people that all live in Grt Manchester, and have a total monopoly in being allowed to run the sport for around a 35 mile radius..

No other Speedway teams to follow for 2.5M people..

Just the Aces..

What are they doing to promote the sport?

Given the tiny, tiny % of their potential market who attend?

Not enough maybe? Or, (if they are promoting it), the wrong promotion of it possibly?

Do you work for Manchester City Council?!? You've almost persuaded me to up sticks and move to sunny Manchester 

[stevehone]

38 minutes ago, Bagpuss said:

I think most Lynn fans would say not very well for the last few years.

used to be quite well advertised locally

[HackneyHawk]

Kent.....not much.  An occasional mention in a local newspaper....very occasional

No signs, posters, radio, TV, appearances etc etc etc

If I ran a team, I'd design a really modern looking, classy car sticker with some essential ingredients such as the club logo and clear 'SPEEDWAY TEAM' on it and give them out free to ever single person that attends.  Cheaper than you'd think and car stickers get seen ALOT

Edited August 13, 2021 by HackneyHawk

[mikebv]

4 minutes ago, HackneyHawk said:

Kent.....not much.  An occasional mention in a local newspaper....very occasional

No signs, posters, radio, TV, appearances etc etc etc

If I ran a team, I'd design a really modern looking, classy car sticker with some essential ingredients such as the club logo and clear 'SPEEDWAY TEAM' on it and give them out free to ever single person that attends.  Cheaper than you'd think and car stickers get seen ALOT

I do think so much could be done so simply, and more importantly maybe, cheaply..

As I mentioned before. Literally thousands walk through town and city centres daily where Speedway tracks exist. 

Therefore. Now lockdown is over .

Why not do a display in the local town centre at the weekend before a match? Hook up a few TV's to show highlights, car stickers, posters and pen giveaways, riders with bikes on hand, selfie opportunities etc..

(A "fanzone' if you will)...

Give out a couple of free tickets to all the shops within the town centre if they put up a poster in their window for you. (Like a circus does when it comes to town). (No clown comments at the back please)..  

Have people handing out leaflets with money off vouchers, and not just one but several so they may return, as one visit might not make them 'a fan' but several may..

If savvy enough you will know by speaking with them who attends and those who dont so can target those who dont attend with the vouchers and just do some giveaways to those who do.. 

A family ticket for £20 with "as many kids as you want to bring" would get a fair few interested I would think. Families who would be considering the cinema, bowling etc might think £20 "not a bad price," for an evening out admission, before the usual food and drink costs that they will inevitably incur..

Give out say five of these vouchers in total and see if five visits means further visits down the road, as the kids take to it..

To control it you hand out one voucher at the fan zone then another voucher at the track when they attend and use the one given, and mark each one given out in turn to see how many they have had, (and also used as this would be an indicator of whether the mechanic has been successful)..

Let's be honest, there may be a chance some regulars who attend end up getting in for a bargain, but most people you hand vouchers to wont have been anywhere near a Speedway track, so it's no loss to the tracks selling these tickets at a reduced price as these people dont attend now.. 

And councils are desperate to get people back into town and city centres so now is the perfect time to approach them for permission to do a "fanzone"..

Maybe weekly, maybe fortnightly, maybe just one a month....

A Speedway club is the only one for miles given the way the Promoters set up licenses so it really should, at the very least, be recognised as in existence by the vast majority of the locals...

And if you can get them to know about you, then you have at least a chance that some will go along and see what you have to offer..

[Sings4Speedway]

3 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

Kent.....not much.  An occasional mention in a local newspaper....very occasional

No signs, posters, radio, TV, appearances etc etc etc

If I ran a team, I'd design a really modern looking, classy car sticker with some essential ingredients such as the club logo and clear 'SPEEDWAY TEAM' on it and give them out free to ever single person that attends.  Cheaper than you'd think and car stickers get seen ALOT

There are plenty of people who i know have attended Kent to watch Greyhounds whilst the Speedway track has been in situ and had no idea that Speedway even ran from the stadium. If you can't advertise fully at your home venue to catch passing trade what genuine hope do others have (given that Kent still get reasonable attendance figures)

[chunky]

5 minutes ago, Sings4Speedway said:

There are plenty of people who i know have attended Kent to watch Greyhounds whilst the Speedway track has been in situ and had no idea that Speedway even ran from the stadium. If you can't advertise fully at your home venue to catch passing trade what genuine hope do others have (given that Kent still get reasonable attendance figures)

That is an all too common occurrence at tracks that stage greyhound or other motorsports.

I recently stumbled on an online article about Plough Lane, and there was no indication that they ever held speedway...

[Trees]

I dunno what coverage the Stars get on the King's Lynn radio station but it certainly gets plenty of coverage online from the Lynn News and on BBC Radio Norfolk. The promotion did have their A frame trailer sitting on a main roundabout verge when I drove home on Thursday.  They have had leaflets out through a local company as we have had them in my store 40 miles away.

They do loads of promotion online but if the fans don't share the posts and retweet the tweets they probs struggle to get them out far, fans don't seem to understand this about online posts, they tend to like them or comment but not share or retweet!  If I was them I'd put plz share on every post lol

 

Edited August 13, 2021 by Trees

[The Dog]

It was suggested at Coventry years ago that they give a couple of hundred free tickets to local companies, schools, bike clubs etc to get people aware and interested in speedway and hope that they want to return. The promotion wouldn't do it claiming that they would be losing money by not charging them to come in. The fact that these people weren't coming in the first place seemed to go over their heads and the only cost incurred would be the printing of the tickets..... 

[The Dog]

11 hours ago, Trees said:

I dunno what coverage the Stars get on the King's Lynn radio station but it certainly gets plenty of coverage online from the Lynn News and on BBC Radio Norfolk. The promotion did have their A frame trailer sitting on a main roundabout verge when I drove home on Thursday.  They have had leaflets out through a local company as we have had them in my store 40 miles away.

They do loads of promotion online but if the fans don't share the posts and retweet the tweets they probs struggle to get them out far, fans don't seem to understand this about online posts, they tend to like them or comment but not share or retweet!  If I was them I'd put plz share on every post lol

 

Online promotion only makes regular speedway fans aware that there's a meeting coming up and they already know that. It's trying to seduce the newbies into speedway that's the hard bit. 

[steve roberts]

10 minutes ago, The Dog said:

It was suggested at Coventry years ago that they give a couple of hundred free tickets to local companies, schools, bike clubs etc to get people aware and interested in speedway and hope that they want to return. The promotion wouldn't do it claiming that they would be losing money by not charging them to come in. The fact that these people weren't coming in the first place seemed to go over their heads and the only cost incurred would be the printing of the tickets..... 

Seem to recall that Arena Essex operated for one meeting only free entry for all and attracted a big crowd...however crowd levels returned to normal thereafter.

[IainB]

43 minutes ago, The Dog said:

It was suggested at Coventry years ago that they give a couple of hundred free tickets to local companies, schools, bike clubs etc to get people aware and interested in speedway and hope that they want to return. The promotion wouldn't do it claiming that they would be losing money by not charging them to come in. The fact that these people weren't coming in the first place seemed to go over their heads and the only cost incurred would be the printing of the tickets..... 

Which promotion was that, can you remember?

I was looking at the Leicester admission prices and it's just a £3 reduction for students at £14 and in a city with 2 universities there is no mention of Speedway on the student union website. They should be looking at students for a fiver and get the rest in bar takings. During term time get the Speedway done by 8:30pm and get a local upcoming band on for the 2nd half like they do at the horse racing.

Maybe they think that there's no long term gain as once a student has done their course they move back home and stop coming to Leicester.

And this is not just a Leicester thing, no club in the country does this kind of thing as far as I'm aware.

Unfortunately it in a lot of cases it all seems like it's too much trouble to go to.

Edited August 14, 2021 by iainb

[teaboy279]

21 hours ago, HackneyHawk said:

Kent.....not much.  An occasional mention in a local newspaper....very occasional

No signs, posters, radio, TV, appearances etc etc etc

If I ran a team, I'd design a really modern looking, classy car sticker with some essential ingredients such as the club logo and clear 'SPEEDWAY TEAM' on it and give them out free to ever single person that attends.  Cheaper than you'd think and car stickers get seen ALOT

That's simply not the case, the riders do TV interviews every meeting, and it usually features in the Friday evening news on South East ITV Station Meridian tonight.

Also bbc radio Kent mention it quite often. And there is also a close tie up with sittingbournes own radio station

Len has also every year produced thousands of posters and fliers, and supplied them to fans to distribute in thier own local areas, this scheme is known as fans force.

Then there is the carnival scene, where the club has a float representing speedway in each town.

Also the Kent messenger group (countywide), and the more locally sittingbourne rags, all fearure weekly reports and previews too.

 

 

I think we can all agree the king of promotion are the Wightlink Warriors, and them seemingly never stop promoting thier club. Even they found island residents at recent meetings gave stumbled across the racing whilst claiming they never knew speedway existed on the Island.

What that tells me is even with a consistently high energy promotional effort, people will always slip through the net. Can most clubs do more? Certainly, but actually when you scratch under the surface there are plenty of clubs doing a hell of a lot of work out their to bring more people in.

[cityrebel]

19 hours ago, chunky said:

That is an all too common occurrence at tracks that stage greyhound or other motorsports.

I recently stumbled on an online article about Plough Lane, and there was no indication that they ever held speedway...

When i cleared all the Greyhound racing equipment out of the old Wembley, there was a stadium tour going on at the same time. I stood there on the hallowed turf and listened, guess what, no mention of speedway. A sport that regularly attracted massive crowds was airbrushed from history.

[Baldyman]

At my club Ipswich I don't think anything is done promoting outside of the norm,,, your usual Facebook posts to fans already following. They have a stand at the Suffolk show every year,,,but do they give free or discounted tickets out I wouldn't know. 

Ipswich do have one of the biggest, if not the biggest average attendance though,,,,but I'm sure much more Could be done. Answering the questions on their Facebook page would be a start. 

[steve roberts]

3 hours ago, cityrebel said:

When i cleared all the Greyhound racing equipment out of the old Wembley, there was a stadium tour going on at the same time. I stood there on the hallowed turf and listened, guess what, no mention of speedway. A sport that regularly attracted massive crowds was airbrushed from history.

I did the Wembley tour and I remember that there was no mention of speedway...it was all geared towards its football history.

[Trees]

6 hours ago, The Dog said:

Online promotion only makes regular speedway fans aware that there's a meeting coming up and they already know that. It's trying to seduce the newbies into speedway that's the hard bit. 

I think you're wrong, when they promote on the internet the fans should be sharing and retweeting their posts so it reaches all their followers then maybe their followers do the same thing so the word gets out to thousands. The trouble here is fans don't share or retweet, they just like posts, twits!  Shame with riders, they need to do the same ....