Building our Supporter Base

[Little Goffy 12,653]

Giant Billboard on the highway in from the airport.

The standard Red and Blue symbol with

"Melbourne, Birthplace of Football'.

Nah, wouldn't really grow the numbers too much. But it would be a lovely 'here we are deal with it' statement.

In a way, that really is what is needed now, and I think what is happening now. For Demons everywhere to be able to say 'we are here, we have no fear, and we are aiming to be the absolute greatest because anything less doesn't fit with our story'.

Deep down, I don't feel a need for a mass mass mass supporter base. I like the idea of 50,000 Demons turning up to every game and 25,000 of them being complete Demon whackos who hardly miss a game.

[gOLLy 401]

Give a Melb scarf to every immigrant that comes off a plane or ship with 1 free ticket to the MCG. That soul will be sold there and then for life. While we are at it give em to the dudes in the dentention centers aswell. B)

[Guest hangon007]

I thought I heard CS say in his last WhiteBoard Wednesday ... "you will never be short of ideas at a AFL football club."

So I suppose that means that "resources" might be our biggest challenge.

I appreciate you dont want to stem the flow of ideas ... However, our biggest challenge will be to develop the resources to implement the "chosen ideas." Maybe, now we are getting some improved on-field performances hopefully our off-field resources will increase.

[demonsflag555657 3]

Give a Melb scarf to every immigrant that comes off a plane or ship with 1 free ticket to the MCG. That soul will be sold there and then for life. While we are at it give em to the dudes in the dentention centers aswell. B)

Good idea but collingwood beat us to it years ago.

[Cards13 9,117]

Demon Heartland membership I feel needs to be expanded and used to help us develop more supporters.

If we can tap into new migrants and certain communities where kids are 1st generation "Aussies", there parents might not be AFL fans but kids growing up going to school trying to be like there mates and would look to support an AFL team. If we can expand the Heartland memberships and "give" them away to demographics like these we can potentially increase our supporter base faster than our current developments in the Casey area.

They were my thoughts when I 1st raised this and it morphed into the Heartland. I still don't think it goes far enough but then again I don't know who they distribute the Heartland memberships too... I think it is an area we can really get a step ahead of other clubs on.

[Go Dees Attack 0]

I have noticed go dees attack that you have 8 players as your best players can u put the whole team in lol.

Obviously you are not a collingwood supporter because you can count past 3.

By the end of the year I will have the whole team as my favorite players

Go Dees Attack

Edited May 12, 2010 by Go Dees Attack

[Gary Bull Baker 0]

Last week on Whiteboard Wednesday, Cameron Schwab made two telling observations

- We have the lowest supporter base in the AFL ( but the highest membership conversion rate - hence our record membership this year)

- We have the lowest number of Auskick enrolments of any club - by a significant amount.

This is consistent with statistics on the DreamTeam website - which show Melbourne with the fewest number of registrations - but with the highest average score per person. This is just a reflection of what we know already - that Melbourne supporters understand the game better than anyone else !!!

So we have a passionate intelligent supporter base - but it is small supporter base and it is not a young supporter base..... and supporter numbers influence sponsors

Now is the time for all of us to really start talking up Melbourne - to start telling the kid next door to ignore his parents and cross to the Dees to follow Skull and Trenners and the Waipiri Wizard... and get with the excitement

And we have a great story to tell newcomers to Melbourne ................ the founders of the game, the core of the peoples'ground, the community club - and of course Jimmy.

We are doing well converting supporters to members - but we need more supporters to grow our revenue.

I know the club is looking to build our supporter numbers in the Casey growth corridor - but we can help if we all continue to put out positive messages

Let's make sure we are not last on ANY table in 2011

Hoopla, Hoopla -if you start badgering my kids to follow the Ds I'll have you up on a charge.

For MFC to grow its supporter base they need to start winning games -I don't know what Jimmy and McLardy can do to do that -they aren't playing and having an Insurance salesman as President is likely to impact negatively.

When are you going to storm the board? I have heard a lot of good things about you around the club.

[Gary Bull Baker 0]

Yes ... it would cost a bit..... but some sort of mass promotion within schools ( together with sustained on-field success) might be more than worth it.

On field success alone is not enough - look at North in the 90s

Perhaps $5k to every school with 50 mfc junior squadron members?

So hang on Hoopla, you are suggesting that the club with the lowest membership revenue pays a clip on 'additional' junior memberships. Numbers don't make sense your $5k for 50 MFC Jnr Squadron members means that you've lost the club $2k! (50 X $60 per U15 M/ship)

[Rogue 585]

Most (all?) of the ideas mooted here were mentioned at the Club's 'Summit', so I'm sure they're aware of these.

As hangon007 says, I imagine resources are the problem.

It was great to see the Monash/La Trobe campaign though! : >

[praha 10,293]

The 70s and 80s really did bring this club down, didn't they?

Edited May 12, 2010 by calabreseboy

[Supermercado 2,617]

The 70s and 80s really did bring this club down, didn't they?

Well the 40's and 50's brought it up in the first place so it's more of a natural correction. Look at the average attendances from 1897 to the late 30's and MFC were never near the top.

I was stunned (in a good way) with the number of Africans at the game the other night. Not sure if the Bulldogs were working a special promotion just for the night or whether they've really nailed that market in the west, but that's the sort of thing that we're at a disadvantage from (as usual) by not having our own geographical base. And the difference between marketing to permanent residents as opposed to international students is that they don't show an interest (hopefully) for a couple of years and then go home.

[hoopla 418]

Giant Billboard on the highway in from the airport.

The standard Red and Blue symbol with

"Melbourne, Birthplace of Football'.

Great idea

Victoria is growing at the rate of 1800 per day... of whom some will eventually be sucked into the "religion" of this State.

A sign like that might just help get us more than our proportional share share. First impressions last!

[hoopla 418]

Giant Billboard on the highway in from the airport.

The standard Red and Blue symbol with

"Melbourne, Birthplace of Football'.

Great idea

Victoria is growing at the rate of 1800 per day... of whom some will eventually be sucked into the "religion" of this State.

A sign like that might just help get us more than our proportional share share. First impressions last!

[Theo 263]

It was announced on Nine news last night that Justin Madden has unveilded a plan for a new suburb at East Cranbourne.

The plan will include housing for 20,000 over the next 15 years. Three shopping precints (similar to the Point Cook model), 3 schools, 2 kindergartens and more than 6700 homes.

However the planned East Cranbourne reilways station won't happen until 2013.

MFC have got a great opportunity here to increase our supporter base. I hope the AFL Reserves competition does not come to fruition because our alliance with the Scorpions is paramount in building our supporter base.

[btdemon 475]

The fact that we need to build a supporter base from the ground up is becoming more and more obvious. When I was a kid in the sixties the Demons had one of the largest supporter bases on the back of sustained success. A significant proportion of those people will have passed on. 46 years in the footy wilderness has had a devastating effect on our numbers. Knowing that we have a really good supporter to membership conversion rate, and intelligent and thoughtful supporters will not sustain us in the future. We need young people to jump on and build a critical mass and supporter momentum.

The club are very aware of this and seem to taking steps in that direction. The Casey move is one example. Whether it yields an increase in supporter numbers remains to be seen. The club is creating an exciting new image. Giving access to TV cameras in coaching rooms is a great idea. The fact that we have only had one free to air game in eight rounds is appalling. The excitement around last Friday's game was palpable and it is this kind of thing that generates interest among the young. Kids want to identify with the players as people. At the moment we have a super 'clean cut' image with lots of exciting young players. Scully, Trengove, Grimes, Aussie, Jurrah, Watts, Petterd, Davey and the new generation are so marketable to the young. All exciting in different ways. The more we give access to the media, the better.

At the moment we seem to be everyone's 'second favorite team' because of this excitement and because we are seen as such underdogs. This will only last for a couple of years. People may begin to hate us because of our success. Then we have to capitalise on our succes. Success of course, does build support in the young. Look at Geelong. I, for one, used to despise them. Every year I would take that trip down the highway to the annual thrashing by a flashy but inconsistent bunch of show ponies. They have turned that image around to such an extent that the majority of the public believe they deserve every success they have and hope that their own teams can achieve the same level of professionalism.

On the subject of Geelong, they have conducted a number of visits to my daughter's school over the past few years. The value of this can't be underestimated in recruiting young people. She met the likes of Sellwood, Milburn, Corey, Lonergan etc. They ran clinics and were incredibly good with the kids. She is a dyed in the wool Demons supporter but has a real soft spot for Geelong. The clean cut image of Ablett and Bartel have enormous pulling power amongst the young. We have this potential at the moment and need to exploit it with as much public access to the players as possible. Whiteboard Wednesdays hopefully show that we are on to it. The one thing we can assume is that we won't survive as a club if we rely on a supporter base that is largely 30+ yrs old and not being refreshed and built at the bottom end. This is a football renaissance for the Dees. We must milk it for all it's worth.

Edited May 14, 2010 by btdemon

[Gary Bull Baker 0]

Great idea

Victoria is growing at the rate of 1800 per day... of whom some will eventually be sucked into the "religion" of this State.

A sign like that might just help get us more than our proportional share share. First impressions last!

Hoopla,

You think?

[H_T 2,941]

Hoopla,

You think?

Not you again. Darren Cuthbertson I presume ? Lay off Hoopla.

[Red Sox 2]

Hoopla,

You think?

Who are you?

[hoopla 418]

Not you again. Darren Cuthbertson I presume ? Lay off Hoopla.

Good pick up High Tower. I reckon you are right

[hoopla 418]

Giant Billboard on the highway in from the airport.

The standard Red and Blue symbol with

"Melbourne, Birthplace of Football'.

Nah, wouldn't really grow the numbers too much. But it would be a lovely 'here we are deal with it' statement.

There is now a big Hawks sign on the Monash freeway. Are they wasting their money .... or have they undertaken research which demonstrates that brand advertising actually works?

[This Dangerous 93]

Bump.

I took the kids to the Jam Factory where the club had organised a "Meet the Players" . They got to meet James Frawley and James Magner, then the have a bit of fun handballing and kicking to a target.

The positives:

* The James's were awesome. Great with kids, friendly and patient. Both happy to sign autographs and pose for photographs.

* My daughter was excited to meet Ellie from the "Getting to Know" videos, who was also very friendly.

* The kids absolutely loved it.

The negatives:

* There were only 5 kids there.

* The event could have been advertised better.

While it was cool that my children got to spend practically one on one time with AFL players, its was kinda sad seeing so few kids there. I knew that as a club we were about as popular with the young ones as dentistry, but I didn't think it would be quite this bad.

So I can highly recommend / implore / taking your children to these little events put on by the club. I figure the more positive Demon related experiences a child has the more likely they are to remain a fan in adulthood.

[daisycutter 28,603]

Bump.

I took the kids to the Jam Factory where the club had organised a "Meet the Players" . They got to meet James Frawley and James Magner, then the have a bit of fun handballing and kicking to a target.

The positives:

* The James's were awesome. Great with kids, friendly and patient. Both happy to sign autographs and pose for photographs.

* My daughter was excited to meet Ellie from the "Getting to Know" videos, who was also very friendly.

* The kids absolutely loved it.

The negatives:

* There were only 5 kids there.

* The event could have been advertised better.

While it was cool that my children got to spend practically one on one time with AFL players, its was kinda sad seeing so few kids there. I knew that as a club we were about as popular with the young ones as dentistry, but I didn't think it would be quite this bad.

So I can highly recommend / implore / taking your children to these little events put on by the club. I figure the more positive Demon related experiences a child has the more likely they are to remain a fan in adulthood.

how did you hear about it?

did the club email members?

[This Dangerous 93]

DC, my wife heard about this from a friend from who got it from The Jam Factory's facebook page. The club then tweeted about it about half an hour before it started.

So yeah, I just don't think many people heard about it.