Make it with marketing

by RICK KANE

WHEN it comes to gun sides of the AFL - oh, and here I'm referring to marketing, the only game in town - invariably talk goes to Collingwood. With media maestro McGuire at the helm, their track record has lifted from impressive to ... whatever superlative lies beyond that.

(An aside) Quick comment on that Footy Show Low(er) Moment: You see a person at their most raw in times of crisis. Think George, from Seinfeld, and the fire incident. So lucky viewers got to witness the following. Sam, as unreconstructed as a Chico Roll, apparently The Ox might be a bit of a meat-ax and then there's Eddie. In the tension laden aftermath what does Mr McGuire, the leader proclaim? "I didn't know anything about this". Think whatsisname from Hogan's Heroes - "I know nussin".

But I digress. There are other sides that have marketing prowess of note. Essendon have Sheedy, the ideas man. Ideas, that are, largely, wild, wacky and lateral. The Little Bomber character mascot idea sprung from considering how a cartoon mouse heads the Disney empire. I like it - it's a neat little de Bono jump. Didn't Carlton chance wearing an almost unsightly light blue variation of their usual Regal Blue colours for a few dollars more, once? And Melbourne sure knows how to draw attention to them. Any publicity is ...

For me, the ladder leader this year, by streets, is Richmond. If only they understood how to tap into their own good fortune. Twice have they drawn significant attention to their name, to their brand. With ideas that are wild, wacky and, well, lateral.

The first occasion was the now infamous Chicken Shit incident. Follow me on this one, it did happen. A guy who barracks for Richmond thought "my team's chicken shit." Then a light went off in his head and an idea was born. Yeah sure, we've all that kind of idea. But this time my friends, the idea was executed. I loved it. I reckon get amongst it. You're with mates, jarring on, and you play this game: what's the greatest length a footy fan might go to demonstrate his/her passion for their club? Whatever you might come up with, dumping a truck load of chicken shit at your club's front door after the team disgraced themselves on the weekend would be hard to top surely. Chicken shit! Real, smelly chicken shit. Actually, this would make a good jarring on game. I could get the AFL to endorse it as a season long competition ala the tipping competition or Channel 9 making cricket fans advertise Toyota to enter the best banner comp.

What was the last thing that you did that was driven by such passion? Don't we celebrate passion anymore? Wouldn't this be a bewdy of a ripper little country if it was fueled by that inspired a passion? What's our game, footy, supposed to be about anyway? Heart, guts, passion. Feed it, love it, exploit it. So what did Richmond do with this great advertisement for the passion it inspires in its faithful? Played it down, got angry with the individual and then, after the cock had crowed three times, claimed the fan wasn't a member. That is, said he didn't belong. Rather than claim the passion and run with it they took their eyes off what could have been a golden opportunity. Hang on, isn't that the point the chicken shit guy was trying to make?

Richmond's second golden marketing goal of the season occurred at the completion of the Carlton match. The one in which Silvagni played his 300th. Frawley's organising the Richmond players to stand in line at the race and clap the great Carlton player Silvagni off after he achieved one of the more remarkable milestones for a footy player was pure class. The best media analysis could produce from the incident was the speculation, "Would Richmond have done the same had they lost the game?" Here's a news flash: THEY DIDN'T, THEY WON. It's like asking, what's the sound of one hand clapping? They stole victory from a top end of town team. Then they demonstrated the essence of humility and respect (ensuring that Silvagni's cherished day would be branded by a damaging loss at the hand of a magnanimous victor). They stole someone else's finest moment and came out of it looking pretty good. Alan Bond should be so lucky.

Richmond has produced raw, articulate passion and dignity, not in a cliche sporting commodity sense, but as you might see them in the profile of a decent person. Everyman qualities we imagine. Richmond, you bottle this sort of stuff! People like these things. After another bottle of vino one might even argue that we hunger for them.

Richmond is running a TV ad to attract new members, in Melbourne, anyway. The gist of it is, two fans are leaving a game, slightly tanked. As they're about to open the car door the Richmond Tiger comes out of the club bumper sticker and growls at them. In effect, it tells them not to drink and drive. Someone at Richmond has figured that the way to attract people is to hector them, to point out their shortcomings. Play on their guilt and insecurities and they will come. Richmond FC has the choice of marketing itself as a place to belong, with examples of passion and dignity or, by telling the fans off.

It ain't hard to draw parallels with their on field performance. They can play sublime footy and they can lose the game off their own boot. Do they know how to sell themselves? Do they know how to play the game? Anyways, I can't be wasting time here, I've got a drinking game to flog.

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