Always have been...
Membership means a huge amount to the Port Adelaide Football Club. As the only non-Victorian AFL Club organically born out of the community, our members are core to our identity and the bedrock for our existence. The number of members we have is a true indicator of our connection and value to them.
Coupled with that, membership is a substantial revenue generator for our Club, vital to both financially support our on-field efforts and underpin our business operations.
However, with plateauing membership numbers over the last 4 years (60,000), combined with a poor on-field end to Season 2018 (losing six of our last seven games and missing finals), even our most loyal and engaged supporters have questions and hesitations about the next season. 2019 will provide a substantial challenge for the club in terms of retaining and acquiring Members.
However, with all that working against us, we’re pursuing a key objective to deliver a record in number of members, and pivotal to achieving membership growth is our retention efforts and success. Therefore with the season ending in September, we launched our membership retention campaign in October.
The brief.
Create a timeless campaign that has the strategic foundation and creative flexibility to relevantly, and emotionally resonate with everyone that comes into contact with our Club. Whether member, fan, spectator, commercial partner, staff, player, volunteer, the proposition and execution needs to connect deeply and drive action, all whilst being definitively and uniquely Port Adelaide.
The barriers to rejoining.
There are a remit of controllable and uncontrollable reasons that stop people from enacting the behaviour we want our audiences to do - in this instance, sign up as a season member again. Some examples include:
No trust or faith in our on-field performance or in our off-field endeavors.
No alignment with our brand (not sure what we do actually stand for and no longer engage with it).
Can’t justify the spend, notably with another price increase.
Changes in life circumstances that no-longer able to attend PAFC home games.
Dissatisfaction with their treatment as a Member.
Decide that they don’t need to be Members to support the Club in their way .
The proposition.
With question marks around the Club both on and off-field, from football performance to admin and financial performance, we set out to remind those audiences further along the fandom spectrum, those with a higher propensity to purchase membership, of what it meant to be a part of the Port Adelaide Football Club. A club like no other.
The execution.
It was executed across a series of key channels including digital and direct initially and will continue to roll out across 2019.
Testing the tactical messaging.
Using a considered and appropriate mix of both channel (mobile, display, social, search, native content) and type of execution (banners, video, text), we’ll be setting out in the coming weeks to understand and optimise our messaging and interest, specifically around new products such as the 6 and 2-game membership product, that will define what we take to market, and how we go to market post-February in the lead up to the new season.
I've outlined below the indicative messaging for each priority product to test against / across each other that is influenced and directed by our understanding of our audiences via our segmentation work:
11-game
One focused on their identity / fanaticism.
One focused more on the value / price proposition.
6-game
One focused on the busy lives of those likely to buy this product.
One focused on the fixtures / choose your own blockbuster flexibility.
2-game
One focused on the value proposition of all that you get for such an affordable price.
One focused on highlighting that we know not everyone wants to buy an actual membership.
Combined Membership Products
Whether you’re a hardcore or just a casual socialite, we’ve got the product for you.
