FC Edmonton fans, if you had a $1000

[notasoccerguy]

Lots of folks are complaining about the "lack" of promoting being done by the team.

Just for giggles...

if you had a $1000 and were part of the advertising team, how would you spend it to promote FC Edmonton?

[notasoccerguy]

Here's what I would do:

a) business cards, a 250 pack, can be done for roughly $25, I would make some cards in Portugese, Italian, & Spanish and ask to leave them at tils in stores of their corresponding languages.

The card holders are $5 a piece and 8 by 10 holder drawing attention to cards is about the same price. Total cost, approx $250.

I know United Cycle to be a great supporter of Edmonton upstart sport teams, if any players are local & available, I would have them them there every Saturday in March from noon to 4PM at United Cycle. Set up at United Cycle is free but the players likely have an appearance fee. Figure it would be about $100 for the 4-hour spread times four puts the cost at $400 for a total of $650 spent.

c) silly idea, as a club I would buy cases of "big foot gummy candy" approx $6 and target busy "non grocery stores" which have a high volume of customers...maybe stores like Home Depot, banks, pet stores, maybe some restaurants, have them at the front til next to handouts saying something like "Soccer is a game of big feet, FC Edmonton invites you to enjoy!" giving the customer a couple free candy's and increase the likelihood of them grabbing a nearby copy of the schedule with website info. (possibly in different languages to go along with idea a)

20 cases of candy (meaning 20 different locations) is $120, put $30 bucks into a fund for printer paper, plus another $100 for paper holders to display the promo. That brings us to $950, putting the rest into printer costs.

Your thoughts and ideas?

[jedinathan]

actually, FCE already has an agreement with United Cycle. Not sure about the specifics of the deal, but I'm sure autographs could be done.

What would I do?

Invest as much as possible into a simple but clear poster, then print as many as the cost will allow. Then plaster them downtown, Whyte Ave, Universities, High Schools, gyms, or basically any business that will let you post something in their store. Cheap, simple and effective. You get the name out there for a few hundred dollars and people start looking into the website.

[notasoccerguy]

actually, FCE already has an agreement with United Cycle. Not sure about the specifics of the deal, but I'm sure autographs could be done.

What would I do?

Invest as much as possible into a simple but clear poster, then print as many as the cost will allow. Then plaster them downtown, Whyte Ave, Universities, High Schools, gyms, or basically any business that will let you post something in their store. Cheap, simple and effective. You get the name out there for a few hundred dollars and people start looking into the website.

everybody does posters...how would you make your posters stand out a bit? devil's advocate I realize, just hoping to create some newer ideas. So how would you jazz up your idea?

[jedinathan]

Everyone does posters for a reason... a lot of people will see it and those who may be interested have a higher chance of connecting with the team.

To make it different? I would try to get colour done on them (which I know will raise the cost). I could see just the team crest with the website initially, then followed up by the promotion of TFC vs FCE about a month before the game.

[Soccerpro]

I would have management + ownership at a different pub every saturday to watch European soccer with real soccer fans ala Mo Johnstone at TFC. You don't need $1000 for that.

[alberta white]

I would have management + ownership at a different pub every saturday to watch European soccer with real soccer fans ala Mo Johnstone at TFC. You don't need $1000 for that.

You do if your buying the Ale!

$1000 dollars worth FC EDMONTON Signs on the back of the bleachers that overlook the South Campus transit station. and on every station north and south of it.

Saying that I've probably blown about 10K rather than a thousand! ah well what's money?

[jedinathan]

I would have management + ownership at a different pub every saturday to watch European soccer with real soccer fans ala Mo Johnstone at TFC. You don't need $1000 for that.

Actually the FO has been doing this lately... I think they've been out to one of the pubs on whyte 3 times lately.

Alberta White: Ya my other idea was signage on the buses, LRT and billboards but I figured it was outside the budget provided!

[alberta white]

Actually the FO has been doing this lately... I think they've been out to one of the pubs on whyte 3 times lately.

Alberta White: Ya my other idea was signage on the buses, LRT and billboards but I figured it was outside the budget provided!

It probably is outside the Budget, unless you treat the ETS admin staff to areally good lunch.

And for those who still working out my sense of humor.... Yes I am joking!

[alberta white]

Actually to be serious for a minute

If we were to take our 'newest' four signings down to the CBC centre stage in the City Centre Mall, along with a set of goals and $1000 dollars worth of free tickets and merchandise for the TFC game; to be given away on 'Sticking one (or two) past RB etc, we might get some CBC exposure time on Peter Brown afternoon show.

Just a thought.

A couple of Rowdies Style 'hostesses', wouldn't go amiss either, apologies to any of the Femenist on the thread, but I'm afraid that kind of thing still sells sports, even in this libertarian age.

[alberta white]

xxxx

[jedinathan]

Its good to see some gentle humour on these boards!

Actually I tend to agree with you about the cheer team.. If anyone hasn't checked it out yet, Vancouver is doing some pretty cool stuff to build up to kickoff, and one of the events included putting up a huge sign with scarves hanging off of it in front of BMO. People could go grab a scarf (which uncovered their slogan) and there were several attractive girls there in kits to help people. Could be a good thing to do when the weather gets warm enough out.

[Trident]

Its good to see some gentle humour on these boards!

Actually I tend to agree with you about the cheer team.. If anyone hasn't checked it out yet, Vancouver is doing some pretty cool stuff to build up to kickoff, and one of the events included putting up a huge sign with scarves hanging off of it in front of BMO. People could go grab a scarf (which uncovered their slogan) and there were several attractive girls there in kits to help people. Could be a good thing to do when the weather gets warm enough out.

What? In front of the stadium in Toronto, or a bank in Vancouver? And it was just a sign with scarves hanging off of it? And they werent all taken by one person?

[Trillium]

I just did a quick check o9 the FC Edmonton web site and could find no information ....re single ticket price .... not smart.

But what to do to sell tickets, they have about six home games before the end of June, they should be talking to high school athletic groups..to sell tickets in each high school at ten bucks per game with half back to the high school, if you have twenty high schools in the program and move two hundred ticktets per school ( not hard to do ) thats four thousand sales to young fans age 15 to 18 with the huge upside that if you seat them around your supporters group .. and they start cheering over the three for four games the kids go to .. you get a great kick on the atmosphere side.

With school announcements every day promoing the coming game, and ticket sales at lunch ...and posters in the schools you can make it an event ..to get high school kids out to.. especially if you sell over a number of games and get them into going .... ( just like going to a junior A game ).

[notasoccerguy]

I just did a quick check o9 the FC Edmonton web site and could find no information ....re single ticket price .... not smart.

just to answer the question so the thread doesn't get de-railed, for better or worse the club is only selling season tickets and will launch "games" presumably in March.

Back to ideas of what you would do with a $1000 to promote the club.

So far we have:

a) adding another poster to mass amounts of posters in all the expected spaces

use a cheer team and a prop (scarves) to draw attention

c) the CBC stage in City Centre Mall

d) United Cycle autograph sessions

e) "big foot" candy giveaway by tills of busy stores that are not grocery

f) attack high schools to drive sales (which is trickier than you might realize)

g) $1000 dollars worth FC EDMONTON Signs on the back of the bleachers that overlook the South Campus transit station

h) more pub outs to watch "real" soccer to get "real" fans aware of FC

i) multi language cards to influence the multi ethnic groups in Edmonton to support FC

[alberta white]

Oh yes and make sure that the TFC game is sold on a game day ticket basis similar to the Edmonton Cup and the Colo Colo games and not totally connected to the sale of season tickets ,other than as a discounted special.

(Ergo, if you have a season ticket, then you are entitled to either 10% of face value, or a seating upgrade etc.)

We dont want to be scaring of the the student body (high school and/or Uni) the lower waged, the visting tourist or the downright curious, by slapping a $400 surcharge on them do we?

Okay so I'm probably way wide of the mark on this but I'm hereing 'water cooler' talk along the lines of, "we'll im intrested but i'm not spending $400.00 bucks just to go watch toronto one time.

Yeah I know it might be a stupid rumor, but If its out there then it has to be challenged and corrected.

Right?

[jedinathan]

What? In front of the stadium in Toronto, or a bank in Vancouver? And it was just a sign with scarves hanging off of it? And they werent all taken by one person?

In front of a bank in Vancouver since BMO is also a sponsor for them. Doesn't look like they were jacked by one person.. There was some media there to interview people about it. Kinda cool stuff, they also went and put scarves and extra large kits on landmarks around Vancouver. The pics are on their wall on facebook if you want to check them out!

I like the idea of going to schools, and I'm also hearing a lot of talk of people not wanting to invest 330-400 on an unproven team. I'm waiting until the single tickets for the TFC game go on sale (I was told 6 to 4 weeks before the game) and then constantly going to my friends about coming out and watching the game. I have friends that LOVE EPL and follow it religiously but there is a mentality about North American soccer out there that I'm trying to break through (usually by using the transfer of Lam as an example).

I'm getting way off point here, but as for the singles tickets: so when do singles go on sale for the MLS? I'm trying to plan out a road trip through the cascadia area and can't plan it until March 1 because single game tickets don't go on sale til then. Let's not get too down on the FO because of the lack of sales.

Back to the point, I like most of the ideas so far. Hopefully someone is trolling from the FO and takes some of these and uses them. This same thread has also been started on the FCE forums too btw (thanks for posting in both notasoccerguy!).

[Trillium]

just to answer the question so the thread doesn't get de-railed, for better or worse the club is only selling season tickets and will launch "games" presumably in March.

Back to ideas of what you would do with a $1000 to promote the club.

So far we have:

f) attack high schools to drive sales (which is trickier than you might realize)

So you have done a lot of marketing to High Schools? The marketing of such and event on a split the profit on ticket sales is very very easy .... just get out and do it.

[jedinathan]

FCE is already doing this though with the season ticket sales, and amature soccer teams. No reason why a school couldn't get in on it, do a fundraiser to raise funds for that schools phys ed budget and get some tickets to give out as prizes.

[notasoccerguy]

This same thread has also been started on the FCE forums too btw (thanks for posting in both notasoccerguy!).

no prob, I do have a selfish reason though. This thread will be brought up when anybody on either forum complains about the "lack" of marketing. It's my way of making the critics defend themselves when an endless cash pit is taken away from them.

So you have done a lot of marketing to High Schools? The marketing of such and event on a split the profit on ticket sales is very very easy .... just get out and do it.

just for clarity, I don't work for the club but did spend 2 years in ticket sales...the reason I said schools are tricky is because as a salesguy you cannot just walk in with this great moneymaking program.