Getting players and promotions into basketball stadiums is the most important step.

Thanks for all the posts. If systematic promotion in basketball stadiums hasnt taken place, it cant have failed.

If there is not an existing market, mainstream advertising campaigns are largely a waste of money.

Most of the big basketball associations in Melbourne have more than 10,000 people through them a week. Advertise in 20 of them at what is a very cheap rate comparative to other forms of advertising, and you reach more than 200,000 people.

Multilply that around the country and complement it by player visits to those stadiums (preferably the player in the ads) and you have a widespread marketing campaign aimed at people who already like basketball.

the stadium thing maybe one of the answers, it is not the only one. The dragons had a concerted campaign into stadiums -perhaps trhe most concetred effort since the Bob Turner inspired Sydney kings efforts of nthe mid-ninties - and it created significant awareness for them, if not crowds.

That's correct HO, it is definitely not the only answer but it is an important first step as it is cost effective and reaches the target market correct. That then makes more mainstream types of marketing more effective.

The Dragons certainly made some inroads, but I think you are greatly overestimating the work they did in stadiums.

Even their membership promotion days just involved a volunteer handing out brochures without signage etc. They did not have players as stadium 'case managers' nor any significant advertising in a number of big stadiums.

But they did a much much better job of it than the Tigers.

Let one of them go out get pissed, wave a dildo around and spew everywhere...it will be the biggest and best marketing possible!

^^^

Sounds like Heal with a commentary microphone in hand...

The 1st I knew of the season starting was when I got home last week and my son said he was watching NBL live on Fox. I told him that the season hasn't started yet; he pointed to the TV and sure enough NZ was playing someone in NZ. Needless to say I wasn't interested.

I'm a season ticket holder (but have not received them yet)and only found out today that the 6ers played on the weekend and lost.

New management of the NBL; same old same old me thinks!

The Dragons did the best job of marketing themselves in stadiums since the old SE Melbourne Magic. The Tigers do virtually nothing.

I agree with Paul, a cheap, simple and very effective way of maximising marketing spend.

WhoWhatWhere - Boti has had many articles in the paper and on AdelaideNow, the NBL site has had regular news as has the 36ers site and this site. The 36ers have had a few TV pieces and have been doing scheduled interviews on radio. They have had adverts in the Messenger for the last couple of weeks. The 36ers accounts on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been pretty active. John Gilchrist was half-naked in The Adelaide Magazine just recently.

What would work for you? Just e-newsletters, or something more? Are you subscribed to the Basketball Australia newsletter?

I appreciate that reaching people who don't make the effort to stay in touch is a real challenge (and an expensive one), but if you're interested in any sport, past-time or issue that isn't dominating mainstream news, sometimes you have to head to the right spots. Seems to be the reality.

(I think a tennis event was played recently but couldn't tell you where or what it was!)

Has the NBL Started?

Anyone living in Adelaide who doesnt know what is happening with the Sixers just isnt trying. They get great coverage.

To the person above who said they were a season ticket holder but didn't know the season had started, how exactly is it anyone elses fault that you didn't know the 6'ers played? That sort of information is readily available at the league website, or on this dicussion board, and if it's not, it would take you 5 minutes to find out. Make a phone call, use the internet, ask your son.
You want to blame the NBL management for not delivering the news to your doorstep but people like you who make no effort can't really blamw anyone but themselves.

First, to Anon - I think the thrust should be two-fold:

- go after those who do loosely follow the 36ers, but get them to come to games
- roughly try to convince the non-hoops people that the 36ers in Adelaide are a genuine, decent team that deserve better than the "basketball is lame" gibes typically lumped on the NBL.

TC2, that is almost a fair point, but there is more that the 36ers could do with e-newsletters to fans and I have been holding them up. Hopefully I can get that all running.

Like the NBL should be proactive with the media, the clubs and their web partners should do the same with fans.

Anon, obviously, but who's going to pay for that? The league has no money and the owners are concentrating on stabilising their clubs. Shotgun advertising on TV isn't a particularly effective way of going about things.

The 36ers' sales have been decent so far and their primary tactic has been contacting season ticket holders from last year and the couple of years before that. At this point, no TV ads have been run (gearing up for walk-ups, I'd guess), radio has only just started and been about awareness, and I've only seen Messenger ads in the last couple of editions.

Shotgun advertising would be horrendously expensive and probably not worth it at this stage.

What "new product" is it? The guy who buys season tickets has every intention of following his club this year but is too lazy to look up some info. I don't understand why you wouldn't do that at the same time as you make your purchase.

Isaac, I agree with you, the approach needs to be to target people who are more likely to have an interest in basketball first.

Anon, apart from the fact that the NBL doesn't have the money for major FTA marketing campaigns, I just don't think its that effective. Most people just tune ads on tv out.

IMO, the people who are going to turn up to a game are those who play the game, have a family member who does, or have been invited to a game by someone who is already a fan. Most people need some kind of link to the game to invest enough time in it to understand the rules and get hooked.

IF the NBL can get some FTA coverage, then I think it would be worth some mass media promotion encouraging casual sports fans to tune in and give it a go. After all, its not a big time investment for a casual fan to sit down and watch a basketball game on FTA in their own lounge. But I don't think you get the same positive response rate if you're advertising to get them to buy a ticket and head out to a game they know nothing about. And unfortunately, unless they can get FTA coverage, that is what would be happening.

So I think the NBL is doing the right thing by targeting its base and shoring it up to get the league stable again in the short term. Major growth strategies are something the league can focus on once its got its house in order.

In the meantime, I think Sixers coverage here in Adelaide has been pretty decent, with regular coverage in The Advertiser, Adelaide Now (online paper), radio stations (ABC Adelaide, and KG and the Colonel), FTA news reports, 2 for 1 tickets for City to Bay Runners, the local Messenger paper, other websites. Most people would have seen or heard something about the Sixers in the last few weeks if they are remotely engaged in the world around them.

So frankly, I flat out reject the idea that the NBL is doing a poor job this season. On the contrary, I think the league might finally be taking the right steps to stability and future growth.

Well, I think you have to differentiate between the NBL and the clubs because I don't think the league is doing a whole lot more than putting out press releases. All the ads and appearances you've cited are club-specific efforts.

Maybe the league should've rebranded as iNBL 2.0 to get a bit of attention?

Yeah, my bad, I should have more carefully distinguished between the two. My comments are really about the Sixers efforts more than anything, so shouldn't have extrapolated that to what other clubs may or may not be doing.

Out of interest though, if a national marketing campaign was run for the NBL, would it be done by BA itself? I assume it would, but then we are back to square one, because the money isn't there for BA to do that at the moment. Hence it comes back to clubs targeting their local community to attract people to their games - which I think the Sixers are doing quite well right now.