How do we make the Vikings the focus of Widnes?

[RB]

How about us advertising on TV?

Of course we can't afford that!! .... Can we?

Well, after a 10 minute search on Google: "UK Affordable TV Advertising Television Commercials", came up with this one, there are plenty of others out there.

Our inclusions for the £200k "Challenger" Pack guarantees the following all-inclusive services with no extra costs:

• Management of the entire Project [on-air 8 weeks from Brief]
  
• Creative fees and rights of use
  
• full TV Production through to copy clearance, on-air transmission and running costs
  
• 2 Group Discussions to pre-test Creative Ideas upfront
  
• plus a two-stage quantified pre- and post- Omnibus Awareness Check by IPSOS
  
• AND a fully-tailored Nat TV Airtime Package
  
  • with @ 50% Coverage,
    
  • 3 OTS
    
  • and a minimum 1000 rifled spots.
    
• No extra costs. No nasty surprises.
  

Pioneering, brave and unique in the UK as a complete "Challenger" Package: £200k All-in.

Reference: not sure about advertising policy on here, but if you want to know, Google using the suggestion I included above or maybe mods could okay it?

Well certainly we could not afford that! Eh?

But notice it's a national campaign, what if it were regional? Would it be cheaper? I don't know.
Let's assume it was the same cost, how on earth are we going to afford it?

Well why not team up with all the "Lancashire" clubs and share the cost?

We could produce a series of 30 sec ads Fridays and Mondays

Fridays - includes a list of the weekend games
Mondays - includes a list of the weekend results and maybe tables

Each week have a different team / star is highlighted
Maybe we need more like 60 seconds, with fewer ads on fewer channels for only a couple of days. I'm sure we could tweak the package to suit our needs.

Imagine this:
SL clubs Warrington, Wigan, Saints, Salford and the RFL each input $20,000

CH.1 clubs Widnes, Leigh, Barrow and Whitehaven each put up $10,000

Ch.2 clubs Oldham, Blackpool, Swinton, Rochdale and Workington find $5,000 each

Add in our major sponsors, who'll get a mention every week too: say $5,000 x 13 clubs

Input:   Sl - $100,000
   Ch1- $ 40,000
   Ch2- $ 25,000
   Spn- $ 65,000
----------------------
TOTAL:         $230,000

Enough for a national TV advertising campaign of 1000 spots!
"That's my town, thats my team" sounds good eh?

Now, there'd be additional costs to produce the week specific content and such, but you get the idea.

Go ahead, tell me it couldn't work. But the reality is, it could work and it just needs the clubs working together. And given the monet being spent on Matt Orford.... the money's there.

Think big - be big..... Think small - be small

Not the best quality, but with a little effort could we do this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVoF71StNIA

How about we challenge the uni students in the media / advertising field to take on the production of something like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2vevuOfx3o&feature=related
Can you imagine seeing our teams running down the main streets of Widnes / Wigan / Warrington etc..??

But to me the best one is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm5SXqqhrwo&NR=1

We are where we are.
The Club have a limited marketing budget which must be targeted at the potential audience of most return.
That potential audience is in Widnes then Runcorn then South Liverpool then Frodsham Helsby then Chester and so on.
I agree with Mick the best way is to target kids through the schools , local rugby teams etc the Club are trying to do this.
A target audience is opening up I think especially in Runcorn ( the kids in Widnes has alwyas been a more promising market ) where kids are not being taken to football matches as in the past becuase it's too expensive. It's an uphill battle over here but I think tickets and coaches over here may reap some reward.

[ozviking]

.....I agree with Mick the best way is to target kids through the schools , local rugby teams etc the Club are trying to do this. .....

I certainly agree with this. But How do we excite the kids about going to watch Widnes? If someone gave me free tickets to go watching the local hockey team would I be interested? But if they gave me tickets to watch Liverpool or Everton...... why is that? PROFILE.
And that is the pooint of this thread.. we need to raise the profile of the club (and Rugby League in general) ... how do we do it?

There's no right or wrong, if the club had all the answers there'd be no need for this thread. So giving away tickets is a great idea for kids. So is free coaches to away games.

[johnf]

The simplest idea is in future supporters, when i was at St Michaels Junior School in the 60's complementary match tickets where given out for each home match, the Rugby team got them first then what was left was handed out as rewards for good work in the classroom.
It got many of us hooked on watching Widnes and no doubt many are still watching. Not sure if this still goes on in the schools but if not why not?

Very well said - very well said indeed - we are always going to sruggle with the current generation - they (potential spectators) will show up if we are successful but they are not 'ingrained' in the ame. Let's aim for the next generation - get the kids involved in a community based club ....

[ozviking]

I don't particularly want to restart this discussion but I just read a quotye from Steve Morrtimer talking about a new Greater West Sydney (GWS) Aussie Rules team starting up, the amount of money being thrown at it, and the publicity that its generating......

"I'll tell you this now,'' Mortimer said. "There's a child yet to be born who knows nothing about rugby league, knows nothing about Aussie rules, right ... but when that kid gets to five years old, they will know all about the GWS.The millions of dollars the AFL have is an investment in children that haven't been born yet. It's only to get bigger and bigger.''
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/mortimer-believes-afl-can-kill-league/story-e6frexni-1225801597426

Surely the same applies in UK - league vs union? We get no exposure in the media - should we create our own? Thats what I was suggesting with TV ads idea.

[King Viking]

But there's no money in rugby league to do this. The AFL have got huge financial backing from the state and sponsors. Rugby league in this country has not.

[Peter]

But there's no money in rugby league to do this. The AFL have got huge financial backing from the state and sponsors. Rugby league in this country has not.

Money is not always necessary.  Rugby League, for the main, exists in small towns. But at one time the main event in Widnes was the match on Saturday.

[ozviking]

Money is not always necessary.  Rugby League, for the main, exists in small towns. But at one time the main event in Widnes was the match on Saturday.

Money IS necessary, but you're exactly right in what you say. The problem is that its not the main event in town now. So how do we make it so?

In my opinion we have to partner with the local councils at the very least. Show that RL is part of the heritage of the town(s). Let's get into schools and get the kids doing projects - I'm sure a lot is being done already.

I've always thought that RL sold itself short by promoting a very successful under 11's schools competition and then abandoning them to RU when they move  to senior school. Why can't we have a Cheshire schools competition in secondary schools? They won't do it? How about we team up with Warrington and stump up some money and help get sponsors to provide playing kits (wouldn't O'neills like that?), footballs, coaching, and a winner takes all prize of #10,000. Y'know, TIW just gave away #7,000 to a professional club! We'd probably need to structure the competition around RU but get the councils involved and promote "Heritatge Month" or something, put on events...

...hey have I been here before?

See my opinion is that we tend to do nothing, or very low key promotion. We talk about raffles and collections - buy a brick. These are all small time. Buy a damned house and raffle that! Surely one of the many builders in Widnes would join in a promo like that? Tell our sponsors that we expect promotion from them! That should be part of the sponsorship "payment". Rugby League needs 24 hour promotion in all media and the sad fact is we're not going to get it without digging deep and spending some money.

Why doesn't Gillette use our players on their TV adverts... or at least reference Rugby League by name? It doesn't have to be overt, just, for instance, use Kyle Eastmond shaving, with a small subtitle, "Kyle Eastmond, St.Helens and England Rugby League". In Widnes, have the players part of ads in Bus Shelters - again just wearing the kit and a tag line "Mark Smith, Widnes RL".

[neilw]

I'm not sure of what the exact answer is there are probably several answers that when combined would be the ultimate way to the Vikings the focus.

I do think it starts in the schools and Widnes do a lot of work in the schools every year. In 2008 we managed to get over 8,000 people to come and watch us on a Thursday night whilst we were on TV due to an offer from the club to kids via schools which asked parents to attend too. Think it was a choir type thing were they sang before the game.

I think with the Championship being so competative now it may pay dividends to do this a few times this coming season against Halifax, Barrow, Leigh, Haven and Toulouse. If we can get people to these games and they are good well fought games (hopefully Widnes winning) then it may lead to them talking about the match to those who didn't go and they may return to the next game taking their mates. If the kids start talking about at school and at home then their teachers will talk about it as will their parents, they mention it to their friends etc. etc.

The hard part here is that being a summer sport, the school summer holidays of six weeks gives kids enough time to forget about WRLFC as no-one from the club can get into the schools to keep up the interest.

Would be good if we could get 4/5 games over the 5,500 crowd figure, even if it is via discounts vouchers given out in schools with parents having to attend with their kids. If TV games all the better as it is more exposure for the club and the crowds we could attract, which in turn may attract sponsors as they see that we have healthy following and get TV coverage.

Could do the choir one again, a fancy dress one with the kids getting on the pitch again like last season, maybe an sprint one for kids where they compete at school then finalist are parade at the ground to run length of pitch at half time for a cup and prize (holiday vouchers or free trip courtesy of local sponsor).

Getting kids involved means getting them in to the ground and if it means getting them onto the pitch (offically) so they remember the occasion and return then so be it.