Quote BoredWiganer="BoredWiganer"While i agree with alot of this, i know i am also bombarded on facebook with ads from wigan and frequently see their posts, but i am also an active fan who engages with their content so it will be pushed to me in the algorithms, hopefully it also reaches to the people it needs to more such as lapsed past season ticket holders, fans who don't typically attend and sports enthusiasts who could be potential new fans. When you look behind the veil of social media marketing and algorithms it's scary how targeted it can be and hopefully the club is using this to their full advantage.
I think it was mentioned earlier on in this thread, or perhaps somewhere else on here recently, but i think a return scheme for lapsed fans would be a good incentive to get people back into the habit of attending. Suppose this is too late for this year, but perhaps something along the lines of 15% off the early bird price for Lapsed season ticket holders within the last 5 years, 10% off for lasped season ticket holders in the last 10 years. Couple this up with an advertisment campaign via social media, post, email, website, maybe even some signboard around the town. When you sign up for a season ticket, you pass the club all this information so i would like to think that they keep records of it, at the end of the day you are selling a seat that may have been empty anyway (even if it is at a reduced rate for that season) but you could also be re-engaging lapsed fans that buy season tickets then for the next 10+ years on top of merchandise to wear at games etc. The issue with this is that it would need to be managed in a way that it does not get abused, the offer should only be available once to any supporter so that people are not getting reduced price season tickets every couple of years. Maybe this is easier said then done to keep track of but it would only need to be as simple as a note on their account with the club.
On the current attendance figures, i do personally think these are inflated currently by free / reduced price tickets and are maybe not reflective of our current season ticket sales. For me this is not a huge issue, i just hope for the club that it is working and that some of these people attending stick and contribute more in the future. In my group though that attend together, i know there has been a bitter taste left in a couple of mouths regarding the frequency that free / reduced price tickets have been available. It sparked a discussion in our group about whether it would even be worth buying season tickets this season when we could just take advantage of these offers then pick and choose other games to attend, we have all ended up buying tickets in the end and this was not my outlook on it at all, but goes to show some fans must feel this way and i am sure it is not just in my group.'"
It'd a LONG conversation, but with regards to the last half of your post, that's why giving cheap/free tickets doesn't work.
I don't think Wigan do a lot of it compared to other clubs, and I know for a fact Wigan didn't give a free ticket away for a long period under Simon Collins on, as I had numerous conversations with him about marketing and thebwork/experience he gained in America through the NFL.
THE lapsed ST Holders reduction is a good shout.
But ill say it again, Prices are not the problem
