OT: Idea's for increasing our dismal STH numbers

[SNES]

Looking at buffalo being 97% sold out at roughly 16k season tickets (with waiting list? for a team that was a basement dweller last year), makes me sad for the state of the Sens. I realize we don't have the corporate support most teams do being we are a government city. However, 11k STH is abysmal in a Canadian city regardless. I truly believe that it comes down to lack of effective marketing, (see Ottawa rank 27th I believe out of 30 for NHL teams and their social media exposure). I rarely see any advertising for the Sens unless I'm watching a Sens game which defeats the purpose of attracting new fans. Any ideas or observations?

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[Quo]

I would love to know more about the ineffectiveness or effectiveness of the Sens' marketing strategy but that social media ranking seems pretty silly to me. I follow Columbus and they do a great job reaching out to fans. Why they're rated last in the league I don't get.

 

[Ohhh Franco]

Jeff Kyle, VP Marketing of Senators Sports & Entertainment, has been in charge for way too long - I think he's been with the club since Day One. The Marketing Dept desperately needs new blood, new ideas, NEW EVERYTHING. It's the same old each and every year.

The letter that was sent to Season Ticket Holders with our Pre Season tickets was pathetic - ****ing brutal. The boys at 6th Sens picked up on exactly what Im saying/feeling:

http://www.the6thsens.com/2013-articles/august/sens-marketing-tempting-the-hockey-gods.html

Three years ago I participated in a focus group and then had a one on one interview with an outside marketing specialist that was hired by the Sens. They seemed quite concerned that they were missing out on the 20 something fans and were looking to bring more energy to the rink. I think theyve made a few changes since then but they still cater quite aggressively toward families.

Also, it seems as though their in house production and even the commercials that air on local TV and radio are stale and extremely lame - Im not sure who's responsible for or produces them but they're not very unique or interesting. Im a Season Ticket Holder but dont feel like their commercials or marketing get people too excited or jacked up or make the average Joe Blow want to log on to Capital Tickets and buy tickets ASAP.

 

[We Want the Cup 2010]

The Sens should take a page out of the Ducks play book. They have funny videos featuring Getzlaf, Selanne, Ryan etc. that allow fans to see what players are like off the ice and better connect with the team, with Teemu's decision to play one more year video being the latest.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

1)Win, be at the top or get to the finals/win a Cup: The team sold a ton of seasons after the 2007 run and they lost a few when the team tanked. This is a town that loves a winner, give them one.

2)Incentives, fluff, that sort of stuff: Invitation to warm-ups, to Senators At Your Service, dibs on new jersey designs, parking spot discounts, etc. Whether it's the Senators or a club membership or a subscription of any kind, people love the perception that they are getting a "Deal". Just for example, I was on public transit the other day, ad for a newspaper. X Weeks for only $30! Y weeeks for $25 plus free access to the papers's Sunday web edition! It's probably still not worth it but at least it catches your eye.

3)Do not, ever, let the ticket go cheaper than what you paid for it: This is a real dealbreaker for some people. If you paid, say, $80 a seat for your seasons and then you open the paper and seats beside you are on sale for $50 or $60, you're upset. Why pay more for the same seat?

4)Better marketing. Back in the day they had the hilarious commercials: "Shoot it Yashin like it's going out of fashion. Let's go Alfie, go top shelfie." They were cheaply made but they were funny and at least got us interested in getting a season package.

5)Kill the negative branding, prop up the team through radio and so on: This is espeically true for the Leafsl, but local radio spend too much time slagging the Leafs, Habs, whomever and not enough time on the team itself. It's like they're insecure or something. Open Team1200 the other day and I hear Zenon Konopka throwing some shots at Alfredsson and so on. A)Why am I hearing Zenon Konopka on the radio? He sounds like Don Brennan B)Why isn't that an Ottawa Senator talking about the upcoming season?

6)Create the illusion of scarcity: We all know they have 10,000-11,000 diehards. What we should hear is how there are only a handful of seasons available for the 2013-2014 season. If we don't get a package we can't be guaranteed seats to see X, Y, Z. Oh, and if you get a season package we'll give you Y to sweeten the pot.

TLDR: Senators marketing are super lazy. They know it's a hockey market so they don't have to try, they consequently don't try and they hope each game is enough of an event to draw people.

 

[SNES]

1)Win, be at the top or get to the finals/win a Cup: The team sold a ton of seasons after the 2007 run and they lost a few when the team tanked. This is a town that loves a winner, give them one.

2)Incentives, fluff, that sort of stuff: Invitation to warm-ups, to Senators At Your Service, dibs on new jersey designs, parking spot discounts, etc. Whether it's the Senators or a club membership or a subscription of any kind, people love the perception that they are getting a "Deal". Just for example, I was on public transit the other day, ad for a newspaper. X Weeks for only $30! Y weeeks for $25 plus free access to the papers's Sunday web edition! It's probably still not worth it but at least it catches your eye.

3)Do not, ever, let the ticket go cheaper than what you paid for it: This is a real dealbreaker for some people. If you paid, say, $80 a seat for your seasons and then you open the paper and seats beside you are on sale for $50 or $60, you're upset. Why pay more for the same seat?

4)Better marketing. Back in the day they had the hilarious commercials: "Shoot it Yashin like it's going out of fashion. Let's go Alfie, go top shelfie." They were cheaply made but they were funny and at least got us interested in getting a season package.

5)Kill the negative branding, prop up the team through radio and so on: This is espeically true for the Leafsl, but local radio spend too much time slagging the Leafs, Habs, whomever and not enough time on the team itself. It's like they're insecure or something. Open Team1200 the other day and I hear Zenon Konopka throwing some shots at Alfredsson and so on. A)Why am I hearing Zenon Konopka on the radio? He sounds like Don Brennan B)Why isn't that an Ottawa Senator talking about the upcoming season?

6)Create the illusion of scarcity: We all know they have 10,000-11,000 diehards. What we should hear is how there are only a handful of seasons available for the 2013-2014 season. If we don't get a package we can't be guaranteed seats to see X, Y, Z. Oh, and if you get a season package we'll give you Y to sweeten the pot.

TLDR: Senators marketing are super lazy. They know it's a hockey market so they don't have to try, they consequently don't try and they hope each game is enough of an event to draw people.

All good points

 

[BankStreetParade]

I've been saying for years that the Senators are one of the worst-marketed teams in one of the worst marketed leagues in the world. The Senators' brand marketing needs so much work. How a team that has a guy like Erik Karlsson, who when healthy is probably the most enjoyable player to watch in the league, and they don't take advantage of him in marketing materials is beyond me. There should be a push to splash his name all over the place. Make commercials with him in them.

For instance, imagine a commercial with Bobby Orr going on his end to end rushes and then you superimpose Karlsson in to the video kind of like the NBA does with this one:



I mean, I genuinely get goosebumps watching that commercial. And the idea of doing one with Karlsson skating alongside Bobby Orr and Paul Coffey and those guys. It gets me excited to be a hockey fan. Unfortunately, Ottawa's marketing department doesn't seem to possess the vision, imagination or creativity to do something like that.

 

[Ohhh Franco]

I agree that Karlsson isn't enough of a focal point. Ridiculous.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

I was offered a job with the Sens web marketing department. The pay was sad. I made more self-employed. You get what you pay for.

 

[enviro61]

All good points. I agree, Sens marketing does not take advantage of the assets and opportunities that exist. I love the NBA marketing.

 

[Filatov2Kovalev2Bonk]

I was offered a job with the Sens web marketing department. The pay was sad. I made more self-employed. You get what you pay for.

What goes unsaid though is the alleged employee "self-gratification" that happens at times. A pal of mine worked grounds crew and he reported people just making off with Praise Alfie! gear and one guy tried to head out with a big-screen TV (Allegedly...) in his van while others (Allegedly...) were yukking it up.

If the Senators are losing money not just from low income but also internal losses due to people pilfering, they might have to pay less for personnel. Still, the Senators could indeed use some sprucing up in the marketing department.

 

[Ron Jeremy]

This was a couple of years ago that I was offered the gig. Euge was still loaded then :}

 

[FuriousSenator]

Agreed that Ottawa has a marketing problem.

Part of it is of course the oft-mentioned location of the stadium. This creates a bit of a disconnect because it means the "brand" is headquartered outside of where most fans actually live.

Tied to this is the absolute lack of Sens advertising in the downtown core. Without the stadium nearby, you need to make up for this with aggressive marketing campaigns using posters, billboards, commercials, and newspaper ads. Downtown Ottawa SHOULD be absolutely plastered with Sens everything.

It's the city's ONLY real sports team for crying out loud, yet if you never went to Kanata, you'd never know this city had ever seen a sport.

 

[Micklebot]

The Sens should take a page out of the Ducks play book. They have funny videos featuring Getzlaf, Selanne, Ryan etc. that allow fans to see what players are like off the ice and better connect with the team, with Teemu's decision to play one more year video being the latest.

I agree, we already pried Ryan away, all we need now is to grab up Getz and Selanne! Then we can have some awesome vids just like the ducks.

 

[danishh]

-put political pressure on your councillors to approve the western light-rail extension to kanata BEFORE they extend to orleans or barrhaven.
-wait 20 years for leafs/habs fans to die.

that's all i got.

 

[Qward]

Selling more season tickets doesn't truly matter. Season tickets make the team less money, just gives them the money up front.

We were ranked 10th in the top 10 loyal fans
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1500401-power-ranking-the-nhls-10-most-loyal-fanbases/page/2

List of capacity
http://espn.go.com/nhl/attendance/_/year/2008/sort/homePct
12/13 - 101%
11/12 - 101%
10/11 - 99.3%
09/10 - 98.8%
08/09 - 105% (second in the league for home games)
07/08 - 107% (second in the league for home games)


Also, as far as Buffalo goes, their average ticket price is $38.25 (from 2011/12 numbers) V.S. ours at $55.51(also from 2011/12)

As long as we sell out all the games, I don't care about the number of STH.

 

[Back in Black]

Switch to Black home jersey's.... . I'm sure some of you have been waiting for me to say it!

 

[aragorn]

Switch to Black home jersey's.... . I'm sure some of you have been waiting for me to say it!

They should hire Loonie Gleiberman to market the team, remember the beads idea?

 

[Back in Black]

They should hire Loonie Gleiberman to market the team, remember the beads idea?

I'm all for it, if it brings out more hot women.....

 

[Rand0m]

For me the ONLY reason I don't have season tickets and don't get out to more games is location. Make it closer to downtown and season tickets will soar.

It's not so much getting to the game that's problematic but leaving the game is where it all goes wrong. I live in Gatineau and I once timed it and it would take me about 20-30minutes extra to go to and from a Habs game due to their Metro

 

[vogels13]

Agreed that Ottawa has a marketing problem.

Part of it is of course the oft-mentioned location of the stadium. This creates a bit of a disconnect because it means the "brand" is headquartered outside of where most fans actually live.

Tied to this is the absolute lack of Sens advertising in the downtown core. Without the stadium nearby, you need to make up for this with aggressive marketing campaigns using posters, billboards, commercials, and newspaper ads. Downtown Ottawa SHOULD be absolutely plastered with Sens everything.

It's the city's ONLY real sports team for crying out loud, yet if you never went to Kanata, you'd never know this city had ever seen a sport.

Was just in Ottawa for a 4 day visit last week, walking around the downtown area the only reference to the Sens I saw was a flag hanging outside the Senate Tavern. I couldn't even find a place to buy Sens apparel downtown. My wife and I were both confused by the lack of anything Sens downtown. Should be a giant Sens store located right by the canal/market area.

 

[Ohhh Franco]

Was just in Ottawa for a 4 day visit last week, walking around the downtown area the only reference to the Sens I saw was a flag hanging outside the Senate Tavern. I couldn't even find a place to buy Sens apparel downtown. My wife and I were both confused by the lack of anything Sens downtown. Should be a giant Sens store located right by the canal/market area.

Completely agree - it's sad. There was a Sens Store at the Rideau Centre for a year or two, right by the Food Court (solid location) but it wasnt making much $ and they closed it down and relocated it to Carlingwood (!!!!!).

Unless the losses were absolutely ridiculous, I would think having a decent sized Sens Store in the downtown core/mall would be good for the brand...**** the "losses" the store would incur. Sens Marketing Dept and overall org is sometimes waaaaaaaay too shortsighted.

 

[CanadianHockey]

What goes unsaid though is the alleged employee "self-gratification" that happens at times. A pal of mine worked grounds crew and he reported people just making off with Praise Alfie! gear and one guy tried to head out with a big-screen TV (Allegedly...) in his van while others (Allegedly...) were yukking it up.

If the Senators are losing money not just from low income but also internal losses due to people pilfering, they might have to pay less for personnel. Still, the Senators could indeed use some sprucing up in the marketing department.

In my experience, the way to solve low level employees stealing merch and goods is to attract better employees... by paying them more.


Anyway, I think part of the problem is simply, as mentioned, that the 'Sens' fanbase is still young enough that a lot of the born and bred fans don't have enough money for season tickets. Also mentioned was the problem of the arena being out in Kanata. On top of danishh's arguments about pushing for LRT to Kanata as priority, I'd suggest increasing the OC Transpo allotment. Too many people complain about how overcrowded the buses are for the trip back. Adding another bus or two for the major routes (eg the 403 downtown) would alleviate that problem a bit and shouldn't be too costly for the team.

Edit - Oh yeah, someone mentioned that season ticket holders get pissed off about tickets being cheaper than face value (eg Metro Family Four Pack nights). I don't know if that's actually dissuading people from buying season tickets, and I'm pretty sure it's still less expensive per game to be a STH, all costs considered.

 

[ottawah]

One problem the sens likely will always have that as a government town, the population has a significant population that falls below upper middle class, which is usually your season ticket holders. They have a very high population of mid and lower middle class, which traditionally are more interested in one off games, or small packages.

In other cities less government centric, the salary ranges are wider, and it results in more upper middle class.

And in the past ten years the federal government has really clamped down on vendors giving out tickets, to the point that many corps around town have dropped their luxury boxes because they cannot fill them.

Ottawa will likely have to rely on a walk up crowd for the foreseeable future.

 

[harvey]

a few things to add to the discussion:

expansion of the queensway to highway 407 will add dedicated bus lanes, HOV lanes etc to the arena, which will greatly improve time to travel to/from kanata.

Vast expansion of subdivisions in Kanata and between Kanata and Stittsville.
There will in say 10 years be a sizable number of people who will be able to walk to the arena even in winter.