The Prosecutor
Brownlow Medallist
- Joined
- Sep 13, 2011
- Posts
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- AFL Club
- Essendon
Without a doubt, the past five months have been the most arduous Essendon supporters have endured arguably. Importantly, however, we have endured. With that, it is no secret that the past five months could fade into insignificance in contrast to what could proceed in the days, weeks, months and years that proceed the release of the ASADA findings.
With that said, if you were in charge of devising our 2014 membership campaign, what your theme be and what would be the key message you would want to communicate to our fellow supporters?
Without doubt, the campaign must be one based on hostility and standing together as the Club and the supporters prepare to walk into the proverbial fire. It must fundamentally appeal to the core values we as Essendon supporters identify to. To that end, I think the most important thing I think the club can do is to go back to the basics and recognise that membership should make you a part of the club, which in previous years has arguably dwindled.
In recent years, basic concepts like open training, the failed 'Flight Program' and various other instances have created a feeling of divide ostracism between the supporters and the Club, with a prevailing thought existing that the club only engaged with members in any significant form when it was convenient to the club (such as the Flight Plan). Essendon supporters and members have shown this year that despite everything, we're still here and, dare I say it, are doing whatever it takes to stand as one with the club through campaigns such as #StandByHird.
As such, for the campaign slogan, I think the club should finally take on board the popular slogan amongst fans, that being 'We Are Essendon'.
In fact, this should be adopted for the foreseeable future and beyond.
Build upon it year by year, turn it into a war cry. This shouldn't be just some slogan that applies for one year, this should be a creed to which Essendon supporters identify themselves. With that, build the 'We Are Essendon' chant and turn it into the ultimate war cry. David Evans saw the potential in this chant back in 2011 and nothing was acted upon, now is the time to implement. Make no mistake, this is a unique situation in marketing the membership, this isn't just convincing supporters to join the cause for 2014, it's about building upon the galvanising that the unfolding saga has done to this point in time and building it up for the next decade.
As such, it is vital that the club actively involve members into the club again. Go back to the very core basics that membership of Essendon use to entail. Open us up to the community and build up that real sense of family. Tear down the walls between supporters and the inner sanctum and use it to turn the club into the true meaning of the word. Basic stuff like open training as the standard, many more social functions, a real focus on building the VFL team up into a force with the aim of making the VFL team become a real passionate interest for the average Essendon supporter (with particular emphasis of requesting double-headers for our home games at Windy Hill and Essendon games later in the evening) and much more networking opportunities for supporters with the team and various other supporter.
Basically, turn an Essendon membership from not only a generic reserve seat, but turn into the equivalent of a birth certificate showing that you are part of the family and all that a family provides each other and on the clubs behalf, turn the supporters #StandByHird into #StandTogether / #StandWithHird, reciprocate what has been shown by Essendon supporters and members towards the club and truly mould us into the one identity.
At this point, I think the digital aspect of this has increased out of sight in recent years, which is a real credit to Justin Rodski and his team. Concepts such as The Hangar and the pioneering on social media has been fantastic by all concerned. However, the focus now must be the physical interaction, as digital interaction only has so much of an impact
Make no mistake, 2014 is a massive year for memberships and is the most critical year we'll probably have in the next 100 years at least.
In light of that, how would you approach the membership campaign and what would appeal to you?
With that said, if you were in charge of devising our 2014 membership campaign, what your theme be and what would be the key message you would want to communicate to our fellow supporters?
Without doubt, the campaign must be one based on hostility and standing together as the Club and the supporters prepare to walk into the proverbial fire. It must fundamentally appeal to the core values we as Essendon supporters identify to. To that end, I think the most important thing I think the club can do is to go back to the basics and recognise that membership should make you a part of the club, which in previous years has arguably dwindled.
In recent years, basic concepts like open training, the failed 'Flight Program' and various other instances have created a feeling of divide ostracism between the supporters and the Club, with a prevailing thought existing that the club only engaged with members in any significant form when it was convenient to the club (such as the Flight Plan). Essendon supporters and members have shown this year that despite everything, we're still here and, dare I say it, are doing whatever it takes to stand as one with the club through campaigns such as #StandByHird.
As such, for the campaign slogan, I think the club should finally take on board the popular slogan amongst fans, that being 'We Are Essendon'.
In fact, this should be adopted for the foreseeable future and beyond.
Build upon it year by year, turn it into a war cry. This shouldn't be just some slogan that applies for one year, this should be a creed to which Essendon supporters identify themselves. With that, build the 'We Are Essendon' chant and turn it into the ultimate war cry. David Evans saw the potential in this chant back in 2011 and nothing was acted upon, now is the time to implement. Make no mistake, this is a unique situation in marketing the membership, this isn't just convincing supporters to join the cause for 2014, it's about building upon the galvanising that the unfolding saga has done to this point in time and building it up for the next decade.
As such, it is vital that the club actively involve members into the club again. Go back to the very core basics that membership of Essendon use to entail. Open us up to the community and build up that real sense of family. Tear down the walls between supporters and the inner sanctum and use it to turn the club into the true meaning of the word. Basic stuff like open training as the standard, many more social functions, a real focus on building the VFL team up into a force with the aim of making the VFL team become a real passionate interest for the average Essendon supporter (with particular emphasis of requesting double-headers for our home games at Windy Hill and Essendon games later in the evening) and much more networking opportunities for supporters with the team and various other supporter.
Basically, turn an Essendon membership from not only a generic reserve seat, but turn into the equivalent of a birth certificate showing that you are part of the family and all that a family provides each other and on the clubs behalf, turn the supporters #StandByHird into #StandTogether / #StandWithHird, reciprocate what has been shown by Essendon supporters and members towards the club and truly mould us into the one identity.
At this point, I think the digital aspect of this has increased out of sight in recent years, which is a real credit to Justin Rodski and his team. Concepts such as The Hangar and the pioneering on social media has been fantastic by all concerned. However, the focus now must be the physical interaction, as digital interaction only has so much of an impact
Make no mistake, 2014 is a massive year for memberships and is the most critical year we'll probably have in the next 100 years at least.
In light of that, how would you approach the membership campaign and what would appeal to you?
