Leigh changing their name? Bored journo doing a rumour?

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Chrispmartha said:

I liked the market research they conducted.

Degsy wore a leopard print hoody once and some people liked it.

I stopped you where the market research really stopped.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

8 hours ago, RigbyLuger said:

But plenty of cougars in Keighley?

In my experience, slightly too many of them. And scary ones at that 

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

8 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Its clear from that tweet that he also wrote that guff in the presentation.

Every last word

That’s what Leigh is. Degsy’s lunch break fun project. It absolutely cracks me up

[Colin James]

Maybe it's an elaborate sponsor reveal for Clearasil. Guaranteed to get rid of spots.

 

[Dave T]

13 minutes ago, Colin James said:

Has to be a wind up.

"We've changed to leopards 'cos the owner likes leopards" is such ridiculous reasoning it can't possibly be true.

I think it's a superb reason. 

[GazTheDon]

I've been looking at this for a couple of hours now and I still can't believe it's not a wind-up. I really feel for Leigh fans. For their sake I hope this leopard can change its spots!

 

Edited October 21, 2022 by GazTheDon

[The 4 of Us]

If it is a wind up it is off genius levels in the marketing scale, and will be up against Truss-Lettuce in the annual marketing awards.

It has generated a huge amount of comment, negative or not, but certainly got Leigh mentioned.

[RP London]

51 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

May as well ask this here: a couple of years on, anyone know if Halifax Panthers is sticking as a name?

People using it? Seem like Halifax are always going to be the Panthers now?

I remember being quite cynical about it at the time.

In all seriousness (sorry) I don't mind the name change.. think it could work... its everything else! The stupid shirt (that is embarrassing) the logo that could have been done better for £5 on the Internet (I know this because we did it back in 2010 with a club I helped set up!), the change of colours, the release video etc etc.. 

Sadly it's overshadowing genuinely good news around the academy and women's team, which is unforgiveable..  

[RP London]

I don't understand using the leopard picture anyway but why not keep the colours and do more like the red shirt with leopard print on the shoulders?using the leopard pic for the away if you must to test the water but christ why such a big change to something you cannot surely imagine will not get some ridicule.

Edited October 21, 2022 by RP London

[Chrispmartha]

3 minutes ago, The 4 of Us said:

If it is a wind up it is off genius levels in the marketing scale, and will be up against Truss-Lettuce in the annual marketing awards.

It has generated a huge amount of comment, negative or not, but certainly got Leigh mentioned.

Again i have to question why it would be ‘genius’

The club looks amateurish and is getting the ###### taken out of them.

Being talked about negatively is not good marketing.

Especially when it has overshadowed the actual good stuff they appear to be doing, which because of this terrible rebrand no one is talking about.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Chrispmartha

[Colin James]

3 minutes ago, The 4 of Us said:

If it is a wind up it is off genius levels in the marketing scale, and will be up against Truss-Lettuce in the annual marketing awards.

It has generated a huge amount of comment, negative or not, but certainly got Leigh mentioned.

Only within RL circles. Don't think it's broken out of that.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Chrispmartha said:

Again i have to question why it would be ‘genius’

The club looks amateurish and is getting the ###### taken out of them.

Being talked about negatively is not good marketing.

Anyone who believes there's no such thing as bad publicity has clearly never had to deal with bad publicity.

[David Shepherd]

Wait until you see the training gear

[Mapleyther]

2 minutes ago, Chrispmartha said:

Again i have to question why it would be ‘genius’

The club looks amateurish and is getting the ###### taken out of them.

Being talked about negatively is not good marketing.

Especially when it has overshadowed the actual good stuff they appear to be doing, which because of this terrible rebrand no one is talking about.

It would be genius because the discipline required to actually pull it off would be incredible.  All the negativities would be washed away instantly by the fact that EVERYONE has been taken in.  Many Leigh fans are praying that this is indeed a wind-up, but sadly it doesn't appear to be.

Still, Derek is claiming on FB that IMG are very supportive.  That begs the question of what atrocities other clubs could be soon inflicting on their fans?  

 

 

[Davo5]

6 hours ago, lacuna1 said:

I need to throw my cat into the ring here, i mean.... hat.

 

This is actually worse than the Mexico 94 world cup goalie top. It's so bad it would make an onion cry. Imagine how the players reacted when they were presented with this. I hate our badge (Wigan) but compared to this, it's small fry. It's beyond belief that somebody could be so stupid. Even Del Boy would refuse to wear it. 

Trying to find a positive,at least the players can’t see the cats butt  on their backs.

Edited October 21, 2022 by Davo5

[dkw]

 

[Chrispmartha]

2 minutes ago, Mapleyther said:

It would be genius because the discipline required to actually pull it off would be incredible.  All the negativities would be washed away instantly by the fact that EVERYONE has been taken in.  Many Leigh fans are praying that this is indeed a wind-up, but sadly it doesn't appear to be.

Still, Derek is claiming on FB that IMG are very supportive.  That begs the question of what atrocities other clubs could be soon inflicting on their fans?  

 

 

Being able to pull a wind up off wouldn’t make it good marketing.

I bet IMG think that rebranding is a good idea, I bet they didn’t mean this.

[gingerjon]

2 minutes ago, Mapleyther said:

All the negativities would be washed away instantly by the fact that EVERYONE has been taken in.

To what point though.

This is time, money and effort that could have gone towards getting people excited for a Super League campaign, and converting that excitement into ticket sales.

Now all anyone is talking about is the massive ego of the owner and that bit won't change if it turns out that he got the official accounts of Super League, the RFL and our media partners to call them Leigh Leopards and use that badge.

[Harry Stottle]

10 hours ago, Tommygilf said:

To top it off they've signed 5 players from Warrington

And two from Headingley.

[JimBronco]

I'm not feline the change.

[The Masked Poster]

I didn't bother reading this as I just assumed it was obviously a joke. So I will ask, is it for real? 

 

And if it is true, the kit looks like something Boycies wife 'Mar-Leeen' would have designed. 

Edited October 21, 2022 by The Masked Poster

[Damien]

9 hours ago, Mapleyther said:

Well, I've lurked on this board for years but as a Leigh fan I decided to join today to thank everyone for the brilliant humour on this thread which has made me crack a smile.  Frankly, there's not much else to smile about today - at this moment I couldn't care less about the new signings; that's for analysis another day.   What bothers me right now is what Derek has done to the club and the way he has done it.  It's an omnishambles of Trussian proportions - in Derek we Truss is about right.

There is such a missed opportunity here, which makes the debacle all the more frustrating.  Some form of rebrand makes sense - the Centurions brand never quite resonated for many, and I don't think many will really miss it that much.  All the iterations of the logo have been pretty amateur, although I am learning the true depth of the word today.  Still, where was the fan engagement to bring as many people along instead of alienating what seems to be the vast majority of the current fanbase? The bombshell was dropped on us with no warning and it really feels like Derek has stuck two fingers up to the fans and saying 'It's my club and I can do whatever I want with it.  I like leopards, so we're going to be Leigh Leopards.' (I can hardly believe I am typing this!).

The problem with the whole thing, apart from the fact that the designs have been done by a schoolkid, is that it severs the club from its history.  It's completely unnuanced with no nod whatsoever to the heritage - an evolution, not a revolution, if you will.  That could have been achieved by a clever new name and/or logo, or by the choice of kit. The logo is amateur, insipid and won't be impactful across the various media it will need to be used in.  Microsoft Paint, ClipArt etc. etc. - every bit of criticsm is valid.

And the shirt?  It's a clear rip-off of the Wolfpack from 2016, which seemed innovative at the time but isn't any longer (and their logo was genius).  It looks cheap, tacky and guaranteed to make the average fan wearing it look absolutely ridiculous.  At least it might only exist for a season before we get something better.  But the loss of the club's colours is a bitter and unnecessary blow - I get the desire to differentiate from Wigan, just down the road.  But I am not even sure what our colours are now - white and black, and yellow? 

The thing is, what new fans are going to be attracted by this crackpot concoction?  And what on earth will our new consulting friends be making of it? Surely they won't have endorsed it? If they have, then the future of the sport is in real jeopardy (or should that be leopardy?!).

We're now going to be in the situation of a large number of Leigh fans refusing to embrace the rebrand, so we will effectively have 2 brands going for the next few years.  I just hope someone can help Derek to see sense, rather than double-down on this vanity project.  But, like a certain bloke in charge in Russia, I am not sure what his exit ramp could possibly be. 

You may have lurked for a long time but my that's an outstanding first post and you nailed it.

Jokes aside I do feel really sorry for the Leigh fans because having your identity being stripped away with no consultation is just wrong. Beaumont may be the owner but he is just a custodian of a century plus old club.

[Mapleyther]

7 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

To what point though.

This is time, money and effort that could have gone towards getting people excited for a Super League campaign, and converting that excitement into ticket sales.

Now all anyone is talking about is the massive ego of the owner and that bit won't change if it turns out that he got the official accounts of Super League, the RFL and our media partners to call them Leigh Leopards and use that badge.

I'm not suggesting it would be a positive thing, but nowhere near the negative it currently is.  There'd be a huge sense of relief across the sport that this ridiculousness wasn't dragging the sport down even further. The whole fiasco would soon be forgotten.  Although there would be some who wish Derek would continue to make an exhibition of himself

I think this is for real, though, more's the pity.  This will be a marketing case study for decades to come, alongside Ratner.

[Tommygilf]

14 minutes ago, Harry Stottle said:

And two from Headingley.

Can't be wrong all the time

[Tobias_Blackthorne]

oh, ok it still appears to be real then