2017 All Things Lions Marketing & Promotions

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Qman
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:42 am
SammyGreene wrote:
Sun Jun 25, 2017 7:39 am
An absolutely horrific job on video screen replays last night — especially on challenge plays. They need to think more about the fan experience rather than is it assisting the visiting team's coaching staff. The long pass play to Williams that initially was ruled incomplete wasn't shown until well after the call was over turned.
The PI on Nick Moore in 4th quarter was never shown even though the Esks had already used their challenge on the Fenner fumble recovery.
I believe league rules prohibit showing video replays on the big screen during a review. I thought the Lions got away with showing more than they were allowed last night. In-stadium replays will never match TSN's production, which has more camera angles and the benefit of stop-action and on-air commentators.

I noticed there were no on-field pyrotechnics during the player introductions and no on-field announcer. The stadium atmosphere was pretty flat, and that wasn't helped by the Lions' performance for most of the night. It was nice to see lots of kids parents, and an overall younger demographic. That's the way to get people in the building in summer, when many regulars are away.
That rule is a joke, i thought they got rid of it. I'll stay home next year if it stays. You should get better replays if you paying 735/yr for your seat.

Tons of kids and families last night. Keep doing this. its going to be 5-10years of running this, and they will rebuild their youth fan base. The endzone seats never are more than half full in summer even when they averaged 35k, so its not like they are revenue.

The game was flat because the lions O was terrible last night, first half was unwatchable when you add the TSN breaks.

Don't know why people are complaining about attendance. That the market for CFL football in Vancouver 20k. Its been that way since they dropped the blackouts 10 years ago. Dave v Casey years and post-reno year were outliers.
Blitz
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https://www.argonauts.ca/2017/06/22/home-2017/

Great marketing video by the Argos.
"When I went to Catholic high school in Philadelphia, we just had one coach for football and basketball. He took all of us who turned out and had us run through a forest. The ones who ran into the trees were on the football team". (George Raveling)
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KnowItAll
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I believe that the heat kept some people home, whether or not they already had tickets.

was wondering before the game what affect the heat would have on attendance.
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Huge Talent
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Disappointing to have such a low turnout for a home opener against a division rival. However, it's nice to shuffle over to mid section and have nobody in front, next to, or behind you! Glass half full.

Good job on the half time entertainment - a low budget rapper with the felions flanking.. People were into it - kids, grammas, dads :) - live acts should be a staple.

More of a league issue probably, but man, hurry up with those reviews! The mandatory review on a scoring play needs to be quick, otherwise it seriously interrupts the flow - celebrations are halted, nobody knows what's going on. How hard is it to have a dedicated, competent person to instantaneously verify that the touchdown is okay? I know the CFL has a budget, but surely they can expedite something critical like this.

Thank god they had the roof open. If I go to one more game on a beautiful sunny evening and the roof is shut, i may just cancel my tickets out of protest... we're not just lions fans, but taxpayers who footed the half billion dollar sunroof bill - need to use it. It truly makes for a much better atmosphere.

Keep the DJ, he's doing a good job. Gotta keep the cool factor up, and slowly the attitude about attending Lions football will improve with millenials. Hey, if the Caps could do it with that demographic, why not the Lions, with a far superior product (and i'm also a caps sth).

That's all my random thoughts for this hot afternoon. Thanks for reading.

HT
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David
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Great observations, HT. Some of these things like the interminable reviews and nit-picky flags are league issues (Glen Johnson bears the brunt of this IMO). Not much the Lions can do.

Lions just have to stay the course with initiatives. Keep hammering away at the $5 kids ticket. The 7-11 program is coming back too, so that should help.

I agree that the DJ is an added plus. They got rid of the on-field "make some noise!!" guy a couple of years ago, so people can't complain anymore there. The beer garden at Terry Fox Plaza is a nice touch...always lots going on there pre-game. They still need more differentiators to get fans off their couches IMO. More and better content, stats, apps - only available at the stadium while you're watching the game?....not sure what, but the blackout lift is not going away. Perception of low attendance contributes to fan erosion. Casual fan perception of "deadsville" gets perpetuated into a downward spinning cycle.

BOTTOM LINE: people that attend games seem to enjoy themselves. Just need more of them. Let's also take care of some myth busters. Yes, the Lions skew older. It's not a Whitecaps crowd, I get that. But there is always a huge range of ages at home games. I see plenty of people in their 20s at games. Lots of kids. I see black people and East Indians represented in the crowd. There is this notion that every Lions fan is a 60-year old white guy from Langley. It's just not true.

Still, the Lions could greatly help their cause by working to get more people that live within a 5K radius of the stadium to games. There is huge opportunity to expose the product to those people that currently shun it.

There is no reason they shouldn't consistently be drawing 23-24K into the building. That should be their medium-term goal. I don't think that is unreasonable. Can also help their cause if the roof is "default open" unless it's raining. Fans need to know what to reasonably expect without frantically checking online 2 hours before a home game. Way too much inconsistency there.


DH :cool:
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TheLionKing
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Blitz wrote:
Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:12 am
https://www.argonauts.ca/2017/06/22/home-2017/

Great marketing video by the Argos.
That was well done. Would be nice if Braley would open his wallets and do something similar.
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DanoT
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I would like to see the Lions put the TSN feed up on the scoreboard. They could substitute their own ads when TSN ads play and still have a blackout during a challenge review.

The best way to make viewing a game live, better than TV viewing, is to have both available in the stadium.
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Honour Dewalt
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I think I know why they don't want the replays shown, but this is not a good idea in my opinion. It's just another reason why people would rather watch on tv. Also, I wish the refs would give a brief explanation of the final call just for our knowledge. A casual fan would have seen that fumbled reception and not understand why they still called it a completion. It doesn't take any more time to quickly explain. People in the stadium don't get the commentators analysis, so it would just be a small thing to help fans in the stands. But I realize this is not really the topic of this thread.
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Lions4ever
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B.C.FAN wrote:
Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:42 am


I noticed there were no on-field pyrotechnics during the player introductions and no on-field announcer. The stadium atmosphere was pretty flat, and that wasn't helped by the Lions' performance for most of the night. It was nice to see lots of kids parents, and an overall younger demographic. That's the way to get people in the building in summer, when many regulars are away.
I wonder if it's because they have no one organizing this?

https://www.bclions.com/careers-manager ... ns-events/
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CardiacKid
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Lions4ever wrote:
Mon Jun 26, 2017 2:28 pm
B.C.FAN wrote:
Sun Jun 25, 2017 9:42 am


I noticed there were no on-field pyrotechnics during the player introductions and no on-field announcer. The stadium atmosphere was pretty flat, and that wasn't helped by the Lions' performance for most of the night. It was nice to see lots of kids parents, and an overall younger demographic. That's the way to get people in the building in summer, when many regulars are away.
I wonder if it's because they have no one organizing this?

https://www.bclions.com/careers-manager ... ns-events/
An awful lot of the little things that occur on the sidelines, on the video screen and scoreboard, with the field announcer and in between breaks seemed off-kilter all night. Things weren't working right and folks just seemed really hesitant about when they were supposed to do "stuff". The scoreboard screwed up in the first quarter, the field announcer mispronounced a few names (sorry Gridiron Ernie but Foucault was one), the Feltons went on late a couple of times, Crazy P's air compressor or pressure washer during player intros, the rather sad choreography during Yonus' performance and the "wardrobes" that looked like they were from goodwill, wrong stats appearing on the big screen....
Ordinarily that stuff doesn't bug me but there seemed to be a preponderance of it that contributed to a flat atmosphere. I also fear it may be a symptom of an operations team stretched to the max and getting perilously thin.
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Seems like the Lions marketing and promotion department is in preseason form.
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David
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As mentioned last week. Here is the 7-11 announcement. I still think $39 is still too much for an entry level price point (should be maximum $24.99 each ticket, only sold in twos), but maybe they can't price too low as it will affect sales in other pricing categories.
(Vancouver) The BC Lions Football Club is pleased to announce that it has teamed-up with 7-Eleven for a special ticket offer on all remaining 2017 regular season home games. Tickets will be available for purchase at all 7-Eleven stores in BC starting June 30th.

For $39 per ticket tax and fees included (sold only in pairs) fans will receive a Touchdown Endzone ticket to any regular season home game. Plus, each pair of tickets purchased includes 2 FREE large Slurpee and 2 FREE smokie coupons (a $10 value).

“We’re very excited to have 7–Eleven back on the team for 2017,” said Lions’ VP, Business, George Chayka. “Having our tickets available at almost 200 locations across the province is tremendously convenient for our fans and a great partnership for our club.”

Fans can download the 7Rewards app by texting LIONS to 711247 then head to any 7-Eleven in BC to purchase tickets, a unique code and Ticketmaster link allow fans to pick their game and seats. Their 7Reward wallet will be sent 2 FREE large Slurpee & 2 FREE smokie coupons to be enjoyed anytime.

DH :cool:
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David wrote:
Fri Jun 30, 2017 2:17 am
As mentioned last week. Here is the 7-11 announcement. I still think $39 is still too much for an entry level price point (should be maximum $24.99 each ticket, only sold in twos), but maybe they can't price too low as it will affect sales in other pricing categories.
(Vancouver) The BC Lions Football Club is pleased to announce that it has teamed-up with 7-Eleven for a special ticket offer on all remaining 2017 regular season home games. Tickets will be available for purchase at all 7-Eleven stores in BC starting June 30th.

For $39 per ticket tax and fees included (sold only in pairs) fans will receive a Touchdown Endzone ticket to any regular season home game. Plus, each pair of tickets purchased includes 2 FREE large Slurpee and 2 FREE smokie coupons (a $10 value).

“We’re very excited to have 7–Eleven back on the team for 2017,” said Lions’ VP, Business, George Chayka. “Having our tickets available at almost 200 locations across the province is tremendously convenient for our fans and a great partnership for our club.”

Fans can download the 7Rewards app by texting LIONS to 711247 then head to any 7-Eleven in BC to purchase tickets, a unique code and Ticketmaster link allow fans to pick their game and seats. Their 7Reward wallet will be sent 2 FREE large Slurpee & 2 FREE smokie coupons to be enjoyed anytime.

DH :cool:
I agree $39 each for 2 is a bit high. With the 7-Eleven freebies, maybe $30 each would be more attractive. I used the 7-Eleven promo a few times over the years, the last time was in 2012. (At that time, you got 2 Lions cap vouchers).

This is an attempt to make them more relevant to those who want to use an app for everything.
https://www.bclions.com/7eleven/
I just looked at the ad fine print. You pay for the tickets in the store, then you select them afterwards. They recommend doing that on a desktop, and it can take up to 5 hours to get the code after purchasing in store.
Those 2 limitations could potentially make this a fail for last minute fans.
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SammyGreene
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$80 for a pair? Geez Lions have to do better than that.

I know this was 11 years ago but this was also when tickets were actually scarce. The difference between the Ackles and Skulsky eras:

October 21, 2006 - Canadian Football League (CFL) - B.C. Lions

News Release

(Vancouver) As the BC Lions close in on the end of another outstanding regular season, there's plenty of excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead. With just two home games remaining on the schedule including tonight\'s tilt with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Lions fans can still purchase seats at select 7-Eleven locations across the Lower Mainland. Tickets are $19.99 ea. (+GST) and are only sold in pairs.
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David
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This highlights the issue right here:

Management's perception of going to a Lion's game:
Lions Canucks

Public's perception of going to a Lion's game:
Lions < Whitecaps, Canadians

:sigh:

DH :cool:
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