Advertising for the Blaze?

[PW]

I know it's early in the season, but the crowds seem to have dropped ever so slightly compared with the peaks of last season (not accounting for away fans-I know there'll be less people in total at, say, a Guildford game than Sheffield) but is there anything more that can be done to get more people through the doors? I will say at this point that there's a great job being done by the club already up to now, but you'd think there's a great opportunity what with the City being in yet another slump and the Blaze being one of the top sides in the country...I've hardly heard anything on Kix about the team, and only what John mentions on Mercia-the results barely get reported in the news bulletins!

So, anyone have any ideas? I must say I was very much impressed, in Cardiff, by the 30 ft high action pic of a Devils player (I believe it was Jonathan Phillips)with 'Home of the Cardiff Devils IHC' or some such on it which was hanging off the roof and down the wall of the WNIR outside-can the Blaze not do something similar with an action pic of a star like Payette or Calder (ideally in the black kit-it has more visual effect), and hang it off the Skydome or the car-park for the season to catch people on the ring-road or Croft Rd? Relatively cheap, and a very clear advertisement of an ice-hockey team in the city, particularly as it's uni returning time and the Blaze playing on a Sunday night doesn't really clash with anything. It's all very well having a fixture list outside and a bit of coverage in the local press, but most people I talk to still go blank when I tell them there's a top-flight ice-hockey team in the city-and some don't even know there's a rink! There's definitely an un-tapped market out there...

[Claret & Blue Army]

I wasn't aware that attendances were down so dramatically. When you consider that we have had Belfast twice at home as well as Guildford who dont normally have a lot of travelling fans I think we're pretty much as we were. Devils and Panthers brought fans by the bucketload and I guess the Steelers will also despite their alarming fall in home gates

Maybe people are put off by the music man ;D

[Rich]

I wonder if it would be possible to have something advertising Blaze (even if its just a picture of the badge) on billboards around the city. Up my way they had a massive billboard up advertising Manchester U****d with a picture of their badge, which got vandilised (nothing to do with me, I was in Scotland at the time but fair play to whoever did it). A couple of weeks later that had changed to a picture of 3 Ars*nal players celebrating a goal, which also got vandilised (again nothing to do with me but ;D). So why can't Coventry Blaze a team that is actually from this city be advertised on billboards. Other than that the only thing I can think of is the local radio stations giving us more of a mention.

I am making my aim to do my part by bringing a different mate of mine to a Blaze game every week but they only carry on going if I ask them too.

[Claret & Blue Army]

Good point made here by PW. It seems like it is up to us to spread the word

[blue3556]

Hay all

I am part of the student union at Coventry University, we have this bi-weekley newspaper thing, I could see if we could give the blaze a mention in that. Maybe an artical

[JP]

blue3556 said:

Hay all

I am part of the student union at Coventry University, we have this bi-weekley newspaper thing, I could see if we could give the blaze a mention in that. Maybe an artical

That would be great!

[Bulin Wall]

Maybe fixture lists or small posters could be made available to people to put on noticeboards (by coffee machines etc.) at their work places.

[PW]

That is a bloody good idea-in fact there are several here-wonder if the office (if they read this) would consider them worthwhile...
Put them up on a school noticeboard, or in a canteen as suggested, and I'll bet there'd be a couple of responses from each place out of curiosity.

As for the Cov Uni paper-I think there was a bit in there on the first one, in the 'introducing Coventry' bit for freshers, but if you can swing a proper article with a pic etc that would be quality...I shall be putting the word out as I'm in the process of getting myself a show on ths student radio, having done it at Warwick, but there's definitely a large untapped market as far as students go...

Also, not sure if there've been any competitions on Mercia (I don't listen to the radio in general that much) but maybe a 'free tickets' comp would snare a few people, and cost, what, 17 quid in lost revenue each time? 3 or four comps a season for the big games, and it could be a goodie..

[GazzatheDevil]

The big banners, out side the WNIR have worked really well IMO, as most non hockey fans when you tell them about the Devils say 'Oh i thought they went bust' but the Banners of Becker and Phillips show people that hockey is alive and well in the city and i think its an idea which should be used by other clubs

[blue3556]

Your right there was one in the first paper but it was this tiny bit on the last page.

I'll see what I can do at Uni on Monday, it'll be my first task as a Student rep ;D

Let me know if there is anything else I can do

[Dave17]

Ruutu15 said:

Maybe fixture lists or small posters could be made available to people to put on noticeboards (by coffee machines etc.) at their work places.

They must be available as the is always one in the Orange House with the current monthe fixtures on it.
....and I love the phrase "We'll sell you the seat, but you'll only need the edge of it"

[Claret & Blue Army]

Thinking about it those posters in the Orange House detailing the months fixtures are the simplest and best way to attract attention. They just need to be more widespread

[SallyMahers]

Hi folks

Thanks for your concern and your suggestions. However crowds are up from this stage last season by quite a bit. Although they may seem reasonably low if you compare them to the end of last season. This is mainly due to the fact that it does sometimes take a while to get people interested early on in the season and we have to build the crowds. We never fill right at the beginning (although we've been quite close!)

Thanks for your suggestions though. Its an upward struggle to get lots in the paper outside Coventry because (even though I have provided them with the figures of Blaze fans in these areas) it is not classed as "local" news and is only covered sporadically.

We have discussed sign writing on the junction sign and outside the rink and this has been ordered and dealt with (after a few queations about planning permission..bear in mind we don't own the rink) and that should be dealt with soon.

Just so you know our Blaze advert is on every 15 minutes on Kix 96.2fm and we have interviews and fixtures all week so not sure why you havent heard anything! Ashley is also on every friday at 4.15pm. We give away a pair of tickets to every game on a friday and are currently arranging the "Bg night out" give-away with John on Mercia. We also give away family tickets to lots of local charities for thier raffle prizes and 99% of people who win are newbies which is always good.

Advertising on billboards/magazine/publicity material is hugely expensive and the budget I am given to market the club is zero. There is just no money to do this so we do pretty well considering!!

Fixture lists and posters are available for peoples workplace, if you read my programme piece I ask people to take then off my hands and disrtibute amongst friends where possible. Fixture poster and lists are also available from the tourist information centre, the shakespeare, most of our sponsors establishment, Jaks, Kix reception, telegraph reception, Observer reception, Starbucks shop, on Breadrocks in town and various other places...if you want some putting out in your work place please ask.

We also held an event prior to the season in the citys largest footfall area the Lower precinct where you guys turned out in your hundreds and we distrbuted over 500 fixture lists to help raise our profile further.

We are present in every school via posters and we currently have a poster campaign featuring Chris Mcnamara and Dan Carlson in over 260 schools in the area for an Anti-litter campaign. We visit at least two schools a week and run a cashbakc promotion which gives money back to schools to raise money for PE equioment etc. We visit hospitals throughout the year and the annual childrens hospital christmas visit.

We were featured in Loaded magazine last season and also on A Question of Sport. We run new company promotions every week and generally have between 100 and 200 newcomers for each game (excluding Nottingham and Sheffield games)

I ran promotions and fixtures via Warwick university and Cov Uni magazines and had absolutely no responce. We are however planning on running it again.

We visit all local scout groups and currentl are in contact with sunday league football teams to get more people along.

This is a small cross section of what we are involved in and if you have any more ideas which would be useful I would be happy to hear them. Two heads are better than one as they say but generally the one thing I always ask is just to keep spreading the word to newcomers and get them along to a good game.

Hope this gives you more of an idea how we try and boost the gates and wasnt too long to read!

Thanks

Sally Lissaman

Marketing and Promotions Manager

[King Rich]

Good thread

I think we the fans owe it back to the club that entertains us every week to come up with some ideas on how to publicise it even more.

I like the idea of the massive poster on the side of the arena. In my only visit to Belfast last season there was one on the side of the Odyssey, and it was very impressive.

And yeah I hadn't noticed a drop in attendances, on the contrary I was surprised to see ample presence a couple of times for certain home games where I didn't think the Blaze would pull such big crowds.

I don't watch the news that much (I read papers), but we don't get any exposure on Central News or Midlands Today do we? What's the deal with that?

[Steph Cowley]

I've never seen the Blaze mentioned on Central News or Midlands Today.
But there is a fair bit in some Evening Telegraphs. i have a big pile of clippings anyway.