Official Club Stuff Our Heartland

[Interloper]

I like it. My doggies pride is as high as ever at the moment.

My one problem with the whole campaign though, and it was more evident last year than this year, is that we're NOT the only team in the western suburbs. Essendon are there too and I've found that most Western Suburb's people I've met support Essendon.

If we repeat it often enough though people might come to believe/accept it especially new, younger and unaligned ones.

 

[maddog37]

I was in the USA a while back. Down south where I was you often see these same bumper stickers on the back of pickup trucks and gigantic four wheel drives. There's a couple of them that follow the same theme and are also popular as tattoos. They read 'America - love it or leave it' or 'My country - right or wrong', and they both feature ol' glory flapping in the breeze. If you go questioning anything about the way America is conducting itself with the driver of one of these stickered vehicles, you're likely to encourage him to pluck his 12 gauge from the gun rack.

Back in Oz, my bumper sticker is just the 2012 membership one and my (one and only) tattoo is a quite small one of the old bulldog straddling the footy with FFC underneath (no dots), which I got in Scotland, of all places (a long story). He is starting to fade a bit.

I don't live in the west anymore - haven't for thirty years, since I started in advertising on St Kilda Rd - but I feel like I still know it. Actually, the only things I feel I really know much about these days are footy and advertising - after 50 years of studying one and 30 of the other. I think I know a bit about footy. I know I know a lot about advertising. So, when I criticise* 'Our Heartland', my aim is not to 'bash' the club, but to get people thinking about just how good it can be, will be, when we get even better at what we are doing passably well now.

My world would be complete if in a year or three I could watch Macca's ruthless, young Bulldogs get to the big dance and win it, and at the same time see the club develop the 'Our Heartland' campaign to be the premier support generating strategy in the competition with 50 000+ members and climbing. They are real possibilities, both of them, but they won't happen if we're happy to sit back and rest every time we do something half all right, either on the ground or in the marketplace. Winning footy games is a massive part of what we have to do, the most important part, and we all spend a lot of time here criticising the club's efforts, but selling the club and its future is also vitally important, and we should be equally critical of its efforts there.


* Got this from Wikipedia (I'm lazy) "Critical thinking clarifies goals, examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, accomplishes actions, and assesses conclusions. 'Critical' in this context does not mean 'disapproval' or 'negative'."

Me thinkee you thinkee too much.

 

[inyourfacedunk]

It makes sense though. Working in marketing means he would be more critical about the campaign than the rest of the target audience. He would have his own ideas of how it should have been, while the company who created it had their ideas. Probably based off the various surveys the club puts out throughout the year, amongst other studies.

Almost everyone who doesn't have a background in marketing (your average joe) really digs it. They are the people this is targeted at.

Just as an example, I have a few graphic designer friends. They are very good. They are always picking faults in designs. Designs that me and other non-graphic designer people think are pretty good. It's just one of those things. If you are an expert, it's hard to take a step back and see it from the perspective of the average person.

And they are better off targeting the average person because the amount of experts in marketing that may have an interest in the Bulldogs would be minimal compared to non-marketing experts.

 

[Tommycash]

I like it. My doggies pride is as high as ever at the moment.

My one problem with the whole campaign though, and it was more evident last year than this year, is that we're NOT the only team in the western suburbs. Essendon are there too and I've found that most Western Suburb's people I've met support Essendon.

I think that's what they are trying to rectify.

 

[DexterTan]

Im thinking advertising dude should offer his services free of charge to the bulldogs ; )

 

[Martyn_30_]

I like it but who's actually going to see it? Will it just be preaching to the converted

 

[Tommycash]

I like it but who's actually going to see it? Will it just be preaching to the converted

That's possibly the one downfall. Not so much the who will see it part, but the fact we used Mitch Wallis. Don't get me wrong, a good player. But not the face of the club. Neutrals might see the club and think of Dahl, unlikely to think of Wallis. However, any fan of the doggies knows that he's the son of a great. From this, I think we can gather they are more seeking to get the fans to renew their membership or sign up after a hiatus. Their target audience isn't really knew fans. That makes sense to me.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Pretty sure nobody's posted the actual song

 

[Dannnnnnnnnn]

Not really my type of music generally but it's actually pretty good.

 

[VitalDread]

i wonder if Bulldogs knew some of their songs is about them smoking weed?

 

[Tommycash]

i wonder if Bulldogs knew some of their songs is about them smoking weed?

Maybe Libba suggested them? Too soon?

 

[Testekill]

Membership campaign has been launched

 

[ManOfClay]

That new marketing company we hired must be earning their commission.

 

[Dazb86]

I just feel all of this should have been done years earlier.

I know we changed the name to Western Bulldogs to be the team of the west it wasn't marketed very well though.

Anyway we are doing it correctly now and I hope it pays off.

 

[SonOfScray]

I just feel all of this should have been done years earlier.

I know we changed the name to Western Bulldogs to be the team of the west it wasn't marketed very well though.

Anyway we are doing it correctly now and I hope it pays off.

Agree. This is the push that should have accompanied the name change, or simply could have bolstered the already well established brand identity Footscray had at the time as a team of and for the West.

 

[dogzrule]

Agree. This is the push that should have accompanied the name change, or simply could have bolstered the already well established brand identity Footscray had at the time as a team of and for the West.

You are talking about something that we should have done 16 years ago, so what it is what it is now

Media and marketing departments have done a brilliant job this preseason being in the Hun every or every second day all with positive exposure, just need the barrackers to get their head out of their backsides and take out a membership now

Go Dogs

 

[SonOfScray]

You are talking about something that we should have done 16 years ago, so what it is what it is now


Go Dogs

I am, good observation. "it is what it is" and that is a short sighted and poorly executed re branding. Until this point in time at least. Shameful that fans have accepted less for so long.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

30 second TV version released.

Still nice but a bit busy for me.

 

[Tommycash]

30 second TV version released.

Still nice but a bit busy for me.

I like it still. Hard to make 30 second ads, but I think it was good.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

I reckon they should have gone straight into the "feeling like superman" line from the longer ad straight after "I'm proud to be from the west". Very nice ad but I feel it goes from slow to fast and busy in transition. too quickly.

Actually watching it another couple of times, I reckon it's not the transition, but just the first bit is too slow. More content needed.