News Article: Ottawa Citizen - Marketing and Fan base

[Upgrayedd]

Not much concrete in there and after the recent string of lip service where zero results were rendered I will maintain my holding pattern and wait to see actions...words and promises are great but essentially useless in today's day and age, I will begin to get excited once I see actual tangible change!

 

[BonHoonLayneCornell]

Ownership isn't changing. Now what???

We trade our entire core at the deadline after we don't magically have a great season like management seems to expect?

 

[IlTerrifico]

$30M expansion fee from Vegas and $25M from Seattle buys:

- Raise for Karl from $6M to $10M for 8 years plus

- Raise for Duchene vs Turris salary of $5M for the next 5 years


Annual media revenue increase a few years ago of about $17M per year buys:

- increase in salary for Stone of $5M per year

- pays for the stupidity of overpaying Ryan to compensate for Alfie debacle of ownership meddling
- pays for the Phaneuf/Gaborik mess trying to save on the cheap for Michalek and Greening stupidity of short term ownership cheapness.
- pays to keep Methot in the line up last year through a deal with Vegas, instead of being forced to ice a horrid defense corps that managed to be both soft and low skill.

OR

You can pocket all this cash, flush all the talent down the drain, make a few bucks in the short term operating at the cap floor, and pray for more expansion and media foolishness of renewing deals for putrid product to keep the money flowing after becoming a joke franchise at max level for all of North America.

Good luck to the new personnel under this background. I know more flying hot dogs and fun tunes would have made all the difference in the 8-3 and 8-2 home losses to Montreal and Chicago last year....

Sell, or face true hatred. People whose priorities in orders are family, work and the Sens will get ornery in a big hurry if this season looks completely wasted.

 

[BonkTastic]

We trade our entire core at the deadline after we don't magically have a great season like management seems to expect?

"Oh hey, look at this... Now that we don't have any star players in danger of earning anything close to UFA-tier salaries, our payroll is way cheaper! Man, that's neat, isn't it? What a completely unforeseen circumstance we seem to have found ourselves in!"

 

[Sens of Anarchy]

The blip is like a bump on a hill where you can't see that the other side drops off into an abyss.

 

[Upgrayedd]

"Oh hey, look at this... Now that we don't have any star players in danger of earning anything close to UFA-tier salaries, our payroll is way cheaper! Man, that's neat, isn't it? What a completely unforeseen circumstance we seem to have found ourselves in!"

"Now please disregard your local team getting caved in on the ice and check out this new sweet dad band we just promoted from within, anyone up for some classic Allman brothers instrumentals?

 

[Joeyjoejoe]

"Now please disregard your local team getting caved in on the ice and check out this new sweet dad band we just promoted from within, anyone up for some classic Allman brothers instrumentals?

Please guys stop being so skeptical. throw your pennies at this poor owner please, the franchise is dying because of you poor peasants.

 

[Golden_Jet]

$30M expansion fee from Vegas and $25M from Seattle buys:

- Raise for Karl from $6M to $10M for 8 years plus

- Raise for Duchene vs Turris salary of $5M for the next 5 years


Annual media revenue increase a few years ago of about $17M per year buys:

- increase in salary for Stone of $5M per year

- pays for the stupidity of overpaying Ryan to compensate for Alfie debacle of ownership meddling
- pays for the Phaneuf/Gaborik mess trying to save on the cheap for Michalek and Greening stupidity of short term ownership cheapness.
- pays to keep Methot in the line up last year through a deal with Vegas, instead of being forced to ice a horrid defense corps that managed to be both soft and low skill.

OR

You can pocket all this cash, flush all the talent down the drain, make a few bucks in the short term operating at the cap floor, and pray for more expansion and media foolishness of renewing deals for putrid product to keep the money flowing after becoming a joke franchise at max level for all of North America.

Good luck to the new personnel under this background. I know more flying hot dogs and fun tunes would have made all the difference in the 8-3 and 8-2 home losses to Montreal and Chicago last year....

Sell, or face true hatred. People whose priorities in orders are family, work and the Sens will get ornery in a big hurry if this season looks completely wasted.

600 million expansion divided by 30 = 20 million per team not 30 million

 

[BonkTastic]

"Now please disregard your local team getting caved in on the ice and check out this new sweet dad band we just promoted from within, anyone up for some classic Allman brothers instrumentals?

... but I like Allman Brothers instrumentals. "Jessica" is a legit jam.

No way were Missing Chiclets good enough to play that song.

 

[Tuna99]

I think signing EK and Stone, players that are admired in Ottawa, to long term contracts would help with the marketing and season ticket campaign - but what do I know?

 

[Cosmix]

600 million expansion divided by 30 = 2 million per team not 30 million

You must be using the “new” math!

 

[NorthCoast]

Owner has limited resources to pay huge up front money on the new contracts. Go watch a game and support your team with your pennies.

Huh?

I appreciate your insights mysens....but this statement is completely erroneous. Paying up front money on contracts is not a revenue issue, it's a cash flow issue. Sens revenues are enough to cover the annual cap hits of these players because sens revenues are middle of the pack and very much the same as many of the teams rumoured to be trying to acquire our players.

If the organisation cannot finance front-loaded contracts that will be paid off by future revenues (so long as attendance is similar to recent years) then that's pretty scary. Because that means the organisation is going to a bank and saying that it can prove the revenues will be there in the future, based on historic revenues trends, to cover this expense and the bank is saying "no, we will not give you the money". Unless the future revenues have already been borrowed against for some other purpose

 

[Upgrayedd]

... but I like Allman Brothers instrumentals. "Jessica" is a legit jam.

No way were Missing Chiclets good enough to play that song.

The old top gear intro, classic tune, hat tip to the reference; and I agree not many could play that one...when Slash ripped it live that one time it was excellent!

Anyways I too like the Allman Brother Band a lot...their original recordings of course!

 

[NorthCoast]

The COO and CMO have little to do with your complaints. I'll give them more time to figure it out. You can go and write them off already

I think the underlying sentiment is that while they can put together a new campaign, slogans, messaging, graphics, uniforms, improve game experience, etc, etc. all of this does not equate to rebranding. A brand is not the marketing campaign. A brand is "the intangible sum of a product’s attributes" - David Olgilvy.

Or maybe better put, “A brand is not a logo. A brand is not an identity. A brand is not a product. A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or organization.” - Marty Neumeier.

New promotional strategy is not going to change the gut feelings of many sens fans across the market right now. You have to change the internal culture across the board of the organization so that every outward communication and move made by the organization reflects what you want the brand to represent. <<<This will take a long, long time IMO for a COO and CMO to impact given that the people above them that led to the current perception of the brand are still in place.

It's not about writing them off as much as setting realistic expectations.

 

[IlTerrifico]

'600 million expansion divided by 30 = 2 million per team not 30 million'

Strangely, when I tell my banker that $12K a year mortgage payment = payments of $100 per month, I get the strangest look.

But OK, less expansion funds from Vegas, more use of media revenues, same end result

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

What a load of crap this article is. Lip service is all it is.

Yeah, let's make the fan experience more fun as we let a cheap owner and incompetent GM decimate the core while giving away draft picks willy-nilly.

Marketing is incredibly important, don't get me wrong, but these two hires are the definition of putting lipstick on a pig. Until whoever owns this team actually spends where it matters, noting else matters.

The issues you stated are definitely the core issues but I always like to give people a chance. I would say the new marketing people deserve it strictly in the marketing realm of things.

Let’s see how they do. Maybe they actually surprise us.

 

[BatherSeason]

The issues you stated are definitely the core issues but I always like to give people a chance. I would say the new marketing people deserve it strictly in the marketing realm of things.

Let’s see how they do. Maybe they actually surprise us.

Has there been any marketing done yet? Is there any promotional material out there in the city? Seems like these guys are already failing. Preseason is two weeks away.

They cut the "Canadian Tire Tour" down from 12 stops to 4, completely ignoring the east end and across the river.
They have failed to see the need for a new jersey, while every other team in the NHL has made a change.

I'm all for giving people a chance, but when your only sports marketing background is "Worked for the Ottawa Rapidz", fans deserve to be very sceptical

 

[Engineer]

ok

 

[BankStreetParade]

Has there been any marketing done yet? Is there any promotional material out there in the city? Seems like these guys are already failing. Preseason is two weeks away.

They cut the "Canadian Tire Tour" down from 12 stops to 4, completely ignoring the east end and across the river.
They have failed to see the need for a new jersey, while every other team in the NHL has made a change.

I'm all for giving people a chance, but when your only sports marketing background is "Worked for the Ottawa Rapidz", fans deserve to be very sceptical

When a restaurant's kitchen is in the middle of the heaviest part of their service and wait times are starting to creep up and customers in the dining room are starting to get impatient, it's critical at that point that you not rush the food out. Send it out the right way and people will forget that they had to wait if the food is worth it. There's nothing worse than waiting a long time for your food and the kitchen sending you out an underwhelming plate of food with undercooked items or missing items.

Do you understand the gist of this analogy?

 

[FormentonTheFuture]

I think signing EK and Stone, players that are admired in Ottawa, to long term contracts would help with the marketing and season ticket campaign - but what do I know?

So what's the excuse three-four years ago when these players were locked up longish term? The casual fanbase is just not good at committing money to the team other than a few games per year.

 

[IlTerrifico]

His point was your claim of $30M per team for Vegas was wrong. He clearly intended to type $20M and typoed by missing the zero.

Anyway, it was $500M/30 = $16.667M for the Vegas expansion.

What part of 'But OK, less expansion funds from Vegas, more use of media revenues, same end result' didn't you understand?

 

[Engineer]

ok

 

[BatherSeason]

When a restaurant's kitchen is in the middle of the heaviest part of their service and wait times are starting to creep up and customers in the dining room are starting to get impatient, it's critical at that point that you not rush the food out. Send it out the right way and people will forget that they had to wait if the food is worth it. There's nothing worse than waiting a long time for your food and the kitchen sending you out an underwhelming plate of food with undercooked items or missing items.

Do you understand the gist of this analogy?

I completely understand that there is no need to rush things, but why break whats not broken? Reaching out across the river and the east end of the city is a no-brainer and the marketing department failed yet again.

 

[Ray Kinsella]

I completely understand that there is no need to rush things, but why break whats not broken? Reaching out across the river and the east end of the city is a no-brainer.

Personally, I don't get the drastic cut in the Home Town Tour - there is very little cost attached to that and it's a significant gesture towards the fans. It's one of the easiest and cheapest promos they can do in reaching out to potential new sales. Very strange...

 

[PeterSidorkiewicz]

Has there been any marketing done yet? Is there any promotional material out there in the city? Seems like these guys are already failing. Preseason is two weeks away.

They cut the "Canadian Tire Tour" down from 12 stops to 4, completely ignoring the east end and across the river.
They have failed to see the need for a new jersey, while every other team in the NHL has made a change.

I'm all for giving people a chance, but when your only sports marketing background is "Worked for the Ottawa Rapidz", fans deserve to be very sceptical

Definitely nothing wrong with skeptical and I’m far from a marketing aficionado but I assume it might take some time for new people to shape the marketing how they want it.