Re: Sky losing interest. : Tue Jan 06, 2015 4:10 pm
Sal Paradise wrote:
I don't agree with your Cas v Leeds idea. If Leeds played Wakefield it would be one Wakefield's biggest games of the year the reverse fixture at Leeds would not have the same importance. Same if Salford were playing Cas the same weekend Warrington were playing Wigan you can't market the two games in the same way.
What the RFL need to do is work out they can improve the product on the field and then how they can get that message across. Clubs need to conquer there own challenges independent of the RFL's bigge5r marketing effort.
What the RFL need to do is work out they can improve the product on the field and then how they can get that message across. Clubs need to conquer there own challenges independent of the RFL's bigge5r marketing effort.
I could not disagree more.
If we prioritise some games.as big and important. By definition we declare some games as less big and less important. From a marketing point of view that makes no sense whatsoever. You have just made any attempt to sell Wakefield v Salford a million times harder. As we are finding we cannot sell some games as the pinnacle of sport, a huge clash between titans. World class players squaring up against world class players and hen others as a bargain basement day out for people who can't afford proper top quality sport.
The view our a me puts out cannot be 'hey come watch Super League, a fair amount of games are a bit poop but some are good'.
There is no intrinsic reason that Cas v Salford cannot be a big game, Salford are the Man City of RL, rich middle eastern owner v the green bay packers of RL the small town team punching above its weight. The clash of styles, the highly paid mercenaries v the home grown talent from the heartlands.
That's your pitch for Cas v Salford, not we know this game is a little poop so we have made it cheaper, don't worry though Wigan will be along soon.
We don't just need to improve the product, we don't just need to improve how we tell people about it. We need to decide what the hell the product is first. Is it the best Rugby competition or is it a cheap and cheerful day out for people who can't afford the football? Are we standing chest puffed out against any rugby competition in the world or are we happy being a cheap way to kill a few hours. We can't be both.
During the WC, the rfl said we were offered the chance to see world class sport from £5 per ticket. We need to know if we are selling the tickets on the basis they are £5 per ticket or because it's world class sport because people know world class sport doesn't cost £5 per ticket. Crap sport does. Those two messages we put out contradicted each other.