Cup Final Ticket Info, anyone?

[Archie Gordon]

49 minutes ago, Damien said:

This is really interesting a the immediate thing that springs out is that I can't really think of any marketing and promotion for a big RL match where the event itself has been the selling point like this. Anything I recall getting from the RFL is always centred around the match itself and pretty much nothing else. I know there may be a little more for the Grand Final but it's nothing like this.

This made me look through my 'promotions' email folder (sad, I know).

Broadly, companies alert me to things in one of two ways:

Look - we've made our product better! 

Look - we've made our product cheaper!

RL stuff is always the latter.

[Dave T]

55 minutes ago, Damien said:

This is really interesting and the immediate thing that springs out is that I can't really think of any marketing and promotion for a big RL match where the event itself has been the selling point like this. Anything I recall getting from the RFL is always centred around the match itself and pretty much nothing else. I know there may be a little more for the Grand Final but it's nothing like this.

 

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Zara loves her cricket.

Prices - the tournament is still loss-making is worth noting - run from £32-£55 for standard tickets.

I do think The Hundred (in terms of the actual events) is something we should be looking to take some lessons from. The presentation is 'cool' and they are sticking with the BBC Introducing partnership which is a good one. 

[Gomersall]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Zara loves her cricket.

Prices - the tournament is still loss-making is worth noting - run from £32-£55 for standard tickets.

Who?

[Damien]

15 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

Who?

Your reaction isn't a bad thing. In fact if you are looking for a new target audience it wins hands down compared to yes its Shed Seven or James who I used to like at Uni in the 1990s.

[gingerjon]

39 minutes ago, Damien said:

Your reaction isn't a bad thing. In fact if you are looking for a new target audience it wins hands down compared to yes its Shed Seven or James who I used to like at Uni in the 1990s.

It’s especially not a bad thing when - and I didn’t notice this at the time - *all* junior tickets are £5.

It is also effectively sold out before the season even starts.

[Dave T]

52 minutes ago, Damien said:

Your reaction isn't a bad thing. In fact if you are looking for a new target audience it wins hands down compared to yes its Shed Seven or James who I used to like at Uni in the 1990s.

I've heard of her, but don't know much about her, but a quick search shows she's Swedish, 26 and has 8m followers on Instagram. 

She follows on from the likes of Raye, Becky Hill and Self Esteem as female acts - plus Cat Burns is perrforming at this year's opener.

I had a quick look at the SL Grand Final lists - Reverend and The Makers, James, Shed Seven, Blossoms, Feeder etc - they all meet a certain demographic don't they?

[Gomersall]

29 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Raye, Becky Hill and Self Esteem as female acts - plus Cat Burns 

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, Gomersall said:

Mate, don't give yourself away - just nod and pretend you know what's going on

[RigbyLuger]

Our idea of entertainment is Alex Simmons playing music, when they've already got someone else talking between music, and he appeals to those who found Rugby AM entertaining and no-one outside RL has heard of. 

 

As soon as I saw him on the screen I said "not again!"

If you're doing it, do it properly or don't bother.

[Gomersall]

Ageist bar stewards.

[Leeds Wire]

9 hours ago, gingerjon said:

Zara loves her cricket.

Prices - the tournament is still loss-making is worth noting - run from £32-£55 for standard tickets.

I could go on for hours about it but let's face it the Hundred is utter nonsense. It hasn't worked and will never work so they sell it as something else. 

This is the sport's governing body selling tickets on the back of something other than its own selling point. It's utterly embarrassing and has no integrity.

The Challenge Cup, on the other hand, is a historic occasion with a loyal following and just needs to find its place again. I thought that it worked well on Saturday despite the shambolic ticketing strategy. 

The product is incredibly good, but the people selling it haven't a clue. 

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, Leeds Wire said:

I could go on for hours about it but let's face it the Hundred is utter nonsense. It hasn't worked and will never work so they sell it as something else. 

This is the sport's governing body selling tickets on the back of something other than its own selling point. It's utterly embarrassing and has no integrity.

The Challenge Cup, on the other hand, is a historic occasion with a loyal following and just needs to find its place again. I thought that it worked well on Saturday despite the shambolic ticketing strategy. 

The product is incredibly good, but the people selling it haven't a clue. 

Completely agree. But the key part is - with the important point that they are losing money- the tactic has sold out the final before the season even starts.

[17 stone giant]

Yeah, people only buy tickets for The Hundred final because they want to see Zara Larsson.

And 90% of people at Twickenham don't know what's going on on the pitch and are only there because it's an event.

[Toby Chopra]

10 hours ago, Leeds Wire said:

I could go on for hours about it but let's face it the Hundred is utter nonsense. It hasn't worked and will never work so they sell it as something else. 

This is the sport's governing body selling tickets on the back of something other than its own selling point. It's utterly embarrassing and has no integrity.

The Challenge Cup, on the other hand, is a historic occasion with a loyal following and just needs to find its place again. I thought that it worked well on Saturday despite the shambolic ticketing strategy. 

The product is incredibly good, but the people selling it haven't a clue. 

So, the Hundred, that's about to be sold off for millions of quid, is a total write-off, but the Challenge Cup, which has falling crowds, falling viewing figures and is completely lost as to what's it's place is in the modern game, is basically fine? Just needs better "marketing"?

I'm afraid that's the sort of hubris that will hasten the end of the challenge cup, not save it.

 

[gingerjon]

Just now, Toby Chopra said:

So, the Hundred, that's about to be sold off for millions of quid ...

If it was making the money that it should have been making then the offers would already be rolling in.

They are not because it is not. The sale is not the ECB acting from a position of strength.

But that's a debate for the cricket thread.

I put the advert up to show how canny the marketing - and also the pricing - are in order to get the final sold out in advance of the season starting, let alone the teams being known.

[Dave T]

15 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

If it was making the money that it should have been making then the offers would already be rolling in.

They are not because it is not. The sale is not the ECB acting from a position of strength.

But that's a debate for the cricket thread.

I put the advert up to show how canny the marketing - and also the pricing - are in order to get the final sold out in advance of the season starting, let alone the teams being known.

Yes, I think the strategy of the Hundred is a different point completely, but the positioning and marketing successes can't be ignored. 

I always find those who turn their nose up at wrap around activities miss the point. This event won't be full of Zara Larsson fans, but she is part of creating an event and that acts as a nudge to many people. 

It's like RL fans for all those years sneering at RU events being full of people only interested in the social. Yet they are filling their grounds as our crowds decline at events. 

[Toby Chopra]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

If it was making the money that it should have been making then the offers would already be rolling in.

They are not because it is not. The sale is not the ECB acting from a position of strength.

But that's a debate for the cricket thread.

I put the advert up to show how canny the marketing - and also the pricing - are in order to get the final sold out in advance of the season starting, let alone the teams being known.

Sure, and as you say, this isn't the place to debate the Hundred.

But I stand by my comment - in response to another poster - that it's utterly wrongheaded to think that the Challenge Cup product is great, it just needs a better salesman, whereas the Hundred has nothing to teach us about how to engage new audiences.

Regarding what you shared on the Hundred's strategy for the final, what's interesting for me is that it's basically a souped-up version of their pricing and event strategy for the whole tournament.

The lesson I draw from that is that no matter how well we jazz up the CCF,  the perception of rest of the tournament - and British RL overall - sets the tone.

To be fair to British rugby league, you could strongly argue that we went through in the late 90s with the creation of Superleague and Grand Final, what cricket is going through now. 

ie trying to evolve in a rapidly shifting sports and audience environment. And with all the angst and anger that inevitably comes with that. 

So we've shown that sort of vision before, but we need to do it again. I suppose that's what IMG is here for. 

The more I reflect on it, the more I feel the future of the Challenge Cup will be determined not by how well we promote the event, but by how well we transform the perception of British rugby league as a whole. If we can, then the space opens up to build impressive events, not the other way round.

 

Edited June 12, 2024 by Toby Chopra

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Toby Chopra said:

Sure, and as you say, this isn't the place to debate the Hundred.

But I stand by my comment - in response to another poster - that it's utterly wrongheaded to think that the Challenge Cup product is great, it just needs a better salesman, whereas the Hundred has nothing to teach us about how to engage new audiences.

Regarding what you shared on the Hundred's strategy for the final, what's interesting for me is that it's basically a souped-up version of their pricing and event strategy for the whole tournament.

The lesson I draw from that is that no matter how well we jazz up the CCF,  the perception of rest of the tournament - and British RL overall - sets the tone.

To be fair to British rugby league, you could strongly argue that we went through in the late 90s with the creation of Superleague and Grand Final, what cricket is going through now. 

ie trying to evolve in a rapidly shifting sports and audience environment. And with all the angst and anger that inevitably comes with that. 

So we've shown that sort of vision before, but we need to do it again. I suppose that's what IMG is here for. 

The more I reflect on it, the more I feel the future of the Challenge Cup will be determined not by how well we promote the event, but by how well we transform the perception of British rugby league as a whole. If we can, then the space opens up to build impressive events, not the other way round.

 

I often make the point above, that much of what people want is what we went through 30 years ago - but I do think this is slightly different. 

We were very much at the forefront of modernising presentation of sport in this country in many ways - we very much made ourselves a sport for TV, we were quick to introduce new team names, pre-match entertainment and off-field stuff (or "razzamataz" as some like to call it). We modernised with things like dancers, mascots, nicknames, streamlining of the calendar etc in advance of many other sports like Darts, Cricket etc - but we are all in a place where we have all done the basic level of modernising. T20 was introduced in the UK over 20 years ago with all the things above. Cricket isn't just going through that now.

The issue RL has is that we have dropped off much of this stuff - we haven't invested in it, kept up the quality - we did it for a bit, got some good results and now our events look very tired and dated when compared to other sports. 

I think we have lost our way, and I do think there are two key reasons that are ultimately entwined - poor leadership, and lack of money. We have had to tighten our finances, and some of our events look like budget versions of major sports events to be honest. But I think we have gone too far on this - I think it's an issue at my club Warrington at the moment, and we are seeing crowds drop despite playing well.

I really do think the word that you use a few times in your post - perception - is the key one. I don't think RL has a good image, for sponsors, for new fans - and many existing fans are pretty miserable about it right now!

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Toby Chopra said:

 

The more I reflect on it, the more I feel the future of the Challenge Cup will be determined not by how well we promote the event, but by how well we transform the perception of British rugby league as a whole. If we can, then the space opens up to build impressive events, not the other way round.

 

On this bit specifically - it is a little chicken and egg. Perception will be heavily influenced by our events, they are one of the main levers that we have to improve our image. Unfortunately - they feel cheap, budget and for Northern Oiks mostly.

[Toby Chopra]

37 minutes ago, Dave T said:

On this bit specifically - it is a little chicken and egg. Perception will be heavily influenced by our events, they are one of the main levers that we have to improve our image. Unfortunately - they feel cheap, budget and for Northern Oiks mostly.

yes, that's fair

[Hanover XIII]

3 hours ago, Dave T said:

On this bit specifically - it is a little chicken and egg. Perception will be heavily influenced by our events, they are one of the main levers that we have to improve our image. Unfortunately - they feel cheap, budget and for Northern Oiks mostly.

Something as simple as having LMS or someone from the same background on the presenting panel and we'd at least sound like more of a national game and not just Northern oiks. I've nothing against the current pundit line-up but why not a Southern accent as well? He's a loose cannon at times, but an entertaining loose cannon and he was playing much more recently.