2022 Membership

[chopperduck]

As sport continues to get bigger, more opportunities to make money will keep flowing in. I would suggest that if something like this really rubs you the wrong way, you need to look at following your lower level sports because it will only get worse. The shift might be more confronting for some of us because the club has been irrelevant for so long that we simply haven't had these kinds of money making opportunities. This kind of thing has probably been common place with many other higher performing clubs.

As for the information privacy side, unless you are reading through all terms and conditions before sign up there isn't much use complaining. Would imagine in there somewhere would be a details provided to sponsor promotions type thing. Fairly standard stuff these days.

 

[sisterka]

Well just to brighten the mood!
I am really happy with my Brisbane Lions AFLW Membership pack!
They must have planted a listening device in my home?
A good sized sticker to go on the back of my beetle, a wireless phone charging pad
shaped like a poker chip!, and a nice keyring for said beetle keys.
No more scarves and caps! I have so many that I don't know what to do with.
I am really looking forward to watching one or two games live and the rest on TV.
Merry Xmas to Everyone! GO LIONS!!! All of Them!!!!!

 

[spotthedog1]

As sport continues to get bigger, more opportunities to make money will keep flowing in. I would suggest that if something like this really rubs you the wrong way, you need to look at following your lower level sports because it will only get worse. The shift might be more confronting for some of us because the club has been irrelevant for so long that we simply haven't had these kinds of money making opportunities. This kind of thing has probably been common place with many other higher performing clubs.

As for the information privacy side, unless you are reading through all terms and conditions before sign up there isn't much use complaining. Would imagine in there somewhere would be a details provided to sponsor promotions type thing. Fairly standard stuff these days.

Ok, there seems to be a miscommunication here. I work in business advisory services. I'm not saying "the club is moving forward and I'm stuck in the past". I'm saying "the club is out of touch with modern business operations and this is bad for us and bad for the club".

Over the last 20 years, businesses have realised that they cant compete with China and India on price, and had to move to quality of service. To a lot of business' surprise, it actually worked. Prioritising your customer has been shown to increase growth and profitability over the short and long term. Customer experience is a primary driver in a lot of businesses now... Just check how many large businesses have a Chief Client Officer- something unheard of 20 years ago. Selling customer lists used to be the domain of the evil Multi-National Corporation. Now they won't touch it, and it's mostly small business doing it because they don't know better.

Even silent selling in email lists went out the window about a decade ago, possibly around when Gmail started letting you append email addresses (if you own roger@gmail.com, and you sign up to bigfooty with roger+bigfooty@gmail.com, it'll still come to you. You start doing that every time you hand out your email and you soon find out who is selling to spammers).

This is not "the club is getting too corporate". This is "the club is going badly corporate, and in a way that will harm them". Focussing on customer experience should be the easiest thing in the world for a football club, because we shouldn't be just customers, we are members. That we are starting on this now, however, is a sign of a bad corporate direction, and not a great sign for the club or for members in the near future.

 

[POBT]

So our details may or may not have been provided to Taubmans as part of the promotion... Comforting.

"The club is doing a bit of advertising for their sponsor". Yep, there's the problem. The club are supposed to represent me, not Taubman's. How about a club that values their members enough not to use them as a source of advertising revenue? That doesn't look for more ways to monetise their member base?

There's a difference to selling stadium signage and offering our member lists to the highest bidder (whether they send it themselves or not).

I did not get a single email from Taubmans. I got emails from the club passing on an offer from a sponsor. There's nothing to suggest that my email address has been provided to any sponsor. Going through our major sponsors mentioned in my emails, I didn't receive a single email from any of them this year. So I either opted out or the club in fact doesn't provide members' details to sponsors.

 

[BuntonRules]

I did not get a single email from Taubmans. I got emails from the club passing on an offer from a sponsor. There's nothing to suggest that my email address has been provided to any sponsor. Going through our major sponsors mentioned in my emails, I didn't receive a single email from any of them this year. So I either opted out or the club in fact doesn't provide members' details to sponsors.

.Don't quote me, but I reckon there is a little box you tick/untick/

 

[FFB1]

Membership ‘pack’ just got delivered.

The ‘platinum member’ pin will join all the others I’ve received over the years in the top draw. Would much rather a ‘platinum member’ lanyard, even if there’s no membership card to attach to it. The lanyard and membership card attached to it we used to get made me feel like a member of the club and pride. I don’t now, and haven’t since they got rid of them. Just a fan with a pass on my phone that will get me in to watch 4 games in Melbourne.

Sticker is much bigger. Picking they received plenty of feedback about the stamp size one last year.

Kids backpack a nice idea, but won’t be big enough for my 4yo to carry his Lachie Neale

9

Lachie Neale

Age

32

Ht

177cm

Wt

84kg

Pos.

Mid

Career

Season

Last 5

D

27.0

5star

K

11.5

4star

HB

15.5

5star

M

4.0

4star

T

3.7

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

28.3

5star

K

13.9

5star

HB

14.4

5star

M

4.6

4star

T

4.0

5star

CL

5.9

5star

D

12.0

3star

K

4.6

2star

HB

7.4

5star

M

2.0

3star

T

1.0

3star

CL

0.4

3star

lunchbox he got in last years pack, as well as a change of clothes, to kinder next year. Shame.

 

[chopperduck]

Ok, there seems to be a miscommunication here. I work in business advisory services. I'm not saying "the club is moving forward and I'm stuck in the past". I'm saying "the club is out of touch with modern business operations and this is bad for us and bad for the club".

Over the last 20 years, businesses have realised that they cant compete with China and India on price, and had to move to quality of service. To a lot of business' surprise, it actually worked. Prioritising your customer has been shown to increase growth and profitability over the short and long term. Customer experience is a primary driver in a lot of businesses now... Just check how many large businesses have a Chief Client Officer- something unheard of 20 years ago. Selling customer lists used to be the domain of the evil Multi-National Corporation. Now they won't touch it, and it's mostly small business doing it because they don't know better.

Even silent selling in email lists went out the window about a decade ago, possibly around when Gmail started letting you append email addresses (if you own roger@gmail.com, and you sign up to bigfooty with roger+bigfooty@gmail.com, it'll still come to you. You start doing that every time you hand out your email and you soon find out who is selling to spammers).

This is not "the club is getting too corporate". This is "the club is going badly corporate, and in a way that will harm them". Focussing on customer experience should be the easiest thing in the world for a football club, because we shouldn't be just customers, we are members. That we are starting on this now, however, is a sign of a bad corporate direction, and not a great sign for the club or for members in the near future.

I get that. But professional sports is it's own beast. You are going to have these kinds of things from sponsors, because ultimately that is where a good chunk of the money is coming from. The sponsor is essentially the customer, not us. We are the target audience for all the advertising that comes with it. As long as details aren't getting sold (which it doesn't seem to be) there isn't really a problem. I would imagine the AFL itself would have a pretty big say in what happens with membership details anyway. AFL has as much to do with memberships as the clubs do individually.

 

[spotthedog1]

I did not get a single email from Taubmans. I got emails from the club passing on an offer from a sponsor. There's nothing to suggest that my email address has been provided to any sponsor. Going through our major sponsors mentioned in my emails, I didn't receive a single email from any of them this year. So I either opted out or the club in fact doesn't provide members' details to sponsors.

Depends on the contract between the club and Taubmans. Taubmans prefer it to come from the club, but they'll also require statistics of who it was sent to (either anonymised or not), how many were opened, and how many were engaged with. It's rare for a supplier to take another business' word for it.

I get that. But professional sports is it's own beast. You are going to have these kinds of things from sponsors, because ultimately that is where a good chunk of the money is coming from. The sponsor is essentially the customer, not us. We are the target audience for all the advertising that comes with it. As long as details aren't getting sold (which it doesn't seem to be) there isn't really a problem. I would imagine the AFL itself would have a pretty big say in what happens with membership details anyway. AFL has as much to do with memberships as the clubs do individually.

Professional sports should be leading the way at respecting members, not lagging behind.

The sponsor is a customer, agreed, but so are we. That's why in the financial statements, tickets and memberships are listed under "revenue from contracts with customers". It doesn't have to be worded that way, but it does give an indication of the CFO's perspective on members.

FYI - we can't break out sponsorship revenue from the financials, but I can tell you that in the 2020 financials, Corporate and Marketing sales accounted for $6.85m revenue, out of a total of $49.69m revenue. That's <14% of revenue. A chunk, and you don't want to lose it, but it isn't our primary income source. Of that $6.85m, most will be corporate boxes and logos on the kit and the gabba. "Sure, we'll sell off our member lists" isn't worth that much. That's why it's so harmful.

 

[Kernel Kurtz]

Membership ‘pack’ just got delivered.

The ‘platinum member’ pin will join all the others I’ve received over the years in the top draw. Would much rather a ‘platinum member’ lanyard, even if there’s no membership card to attach to it. The lanyard and membership card attached to it we used to get made me feel like a member of the club and pride. I don’t now, and haven’t since they got rid of them. Just a fan with a pass on my phone that will get me in to watch 4 games in Melbourne.

Sticker is much bigger. Picking they received plenty of feedback about the stamp size one last year.

Kids backpack a nice idea, but won’t be big enough for my 4yo to carry his Lachie Neale lunchbox he got in last years pack, as well as a change of clothes, to kinder next year. Shame.

Agree , put me in the Lanyard boat.
we stopped getting them when mine would of been gold.
I've been robbed of show boating in the que.
Plus I was going to hang them all in a row in the bar.
Robbed.

 

[M Malice]

I like this years sticker, it's not miniature like last years.. already on the car.

 

[LionsMaw]

I like this years sticker, it's not miniature like last years.. already on the car.

Can u post a pic for those of us still waiting for our m'ship packs?

 

[M Malice]

Can u post a pic for those of us still waiting for our m'ship packs?

I'm largely technology illiterate LionsMaw, I have no idea how to get a photo from my phone to post here from my desktop on my widescreen TV sorry.

Can anybody else out there with technical nous do it please.

 

[LionsMaw]

I'm largely technology illiterate LionsMaw, I have no idea how to get a photo from my phone to post here from my desktop on my widescreen TV sorry.

Can anybody else out there with technical nous do it please.

If you come onto Bigfooty through the internet on your phone then you should be able to upload the photo by clicking on "post reply" then clicking on "attach files". Not that you have to do it or anything just if you want to

 

[M Malice]

If you come onto Bigfooty through the internet on your phone then you should be able to upload the photo by clicking on "post reply" then clicking on "attach files". Not that you have to do it or anything just if you want to

I'll give it a try now, thanks for the tip.

 

[M Malice]

If you come onto Bigfooty through the internet on your phone then you should be able to upload the photo by clicking on "post reply" then clicking on "attach files". Not that you have to do it or anything just if you want to

 

[M Malice]

Last years sticker remnants are under this years to give you an idea of the size difference.... I've learnt something today, thanks LionsMaw

 

[POBT]

Depends on the contract between the club and Taubmans. Taubmans prefer it to come from the club, but they'll also require statistics of who it was sent to (either anonymised or not), how many were opened, and how many were engaged with. It's rare for a supplier to take another business' word for it.

I can't work out why you assume the club has provided your personal details to the sponsor. Then, if you are right (which I'm becoming convinced you are not), why this particular campaign has upset you and not the countless times the club has promoted an offer from a sponsor like Hyundai?

I'm going back to assuming the club isn't involved in some massive conspiracy to breach the privacy of its members just so a very minor sponsor can sell a bit more paint. I figured I had missed a smoking gun of some description but apparently not.

 

[BuntonRules]

No sticker on my car this year. flipping paddlepop.

 

[LionsMaw]

Last years sticker remnants are under this years to give you an idea of the size difference.... I've learnt something today, thanks LionsMaw

You're welcome mate

 

[LionsMaw]

Wow. That's effing..........MASSIVE.

(there's a joke in there somewhere )

 

[MacMum]

Wow. That's effing..........MASSIVE.

(there's a joke in there somewhere )

...just have to cut a few inches off it

 

[spotthedog1]

I can't work out why you assume the club has provided your personal details to the sponsor. Then, if you are right (which I'm becoming convinced you are not), why this particular campaign has upset you and not the countless times the club has promoted an offer from a sponsor like Hyundai?

I'm going back to assuming the club isn't involved in some massive conspiracy to breach the privacy of its members just so a very minor sponsor can sell a bit more paint. I figured I had missed a smoking gun of some description but apparently not.

That's what I meant by anonymised. No conspiracy. Taubmans will be getting spreadsheets of "this many members sent the email, these age and gender breakdowns, this many engagements" at the minimum. If the club are sending personal details (possible), it'll all be legal (they'll have clauses in the fine print).

I agree, the club have been promoting Hyundai similarly for a while. That didn't annoy me as much, perhaps because it's been a continuation from when that was the norm in business, perhaps because they are our major, major sponsor, and perhaps because it has been structured more as a partnership (member discounts/cashbacks, presumably more than you'd normally get from a dealership. These are often negotiated to get a win-win). This one was a minor sponsor, and a new one, so indicates we're looking to do it more, and it's blatantly just spam. You can enter a raffle if you spend money? That's not exactly a win-win.

No conspiracy, no smoking gun. Just concerned that our club are going backwards (on the corporate side). The last two years, there's been a fair few posts that the club are increasingly treating members less like members and more like customers. Now we're even letting minor sponsors spam members with nothing in it for the member.

 

[MacMum]

...just have to cut a few inches off it

...just for a couple who had dirty minds about my reply above...No.

Let me clarify........the sticker looks massive and if as big as it looks in those pictures it will need to have a few inches cut off the sides.

I prefer the larger stickers, but that looks way to big.

tut tut you guys.

(Merry Xmas to you all by the way. Wonder what the New Year will throw up at us. Here's hoping its 3rd year lucky in lots of ways. Cheers)

 

[Brett C]

So our details may or may not have been provided to Taubmans as part of the promotion... Comforting.

"The club is doing a bit of advertising for their sponsor". Yep, there's the problem. The club are supposed to represent me, not Taubman's. How about a club that values their members enough not to use them as a source of advertising revenue? That doesn't look for more ways to monetise their member base?

There's a difference to selling stadium signage and offering our member lists to the highest bidder (whether they send it themselves or not).

Jesus you’re a sook aren’t you.

If you’re that concerned read the clubs privacy statement which will clearly outline the usage of your personal information.

I wonder if you had a tantrum having to purchase your membership via a 3rd party (Ticketmaster) and providing them with your personal and banking information.

 

[MacMum]

Sticker arrived yesterday arvo.....it is huge and will definately need trimming on the sides.

Covid ruined our xmas today. In-laws about to leave home to come to our place for lunch when S-I-L got a txt saying she was a close contact (at an eye specialist) and needs to get tested and isolate for 14 days. Went to a site and waited nearly 4hrs to get the test.

An hour before that happened, had an email from mums Aged Care home to say they have a covid case....thank god I picked mum up last tuesday. will be keeping her here with me until I consider it safe for her to go back..

What a day.....lots of food though.