Will selfies lead to more members? - By Mary

The NRL is on a mission to increase memberships in season 2014 and today has unveiled its new membership campaign involving none other than the selfie.
 
While in the past, the selfie has gotten many a footballer into trouble, the campaign stars NRL heroes like Robbie Farah, Jarryd Hayne and Greg Inglis recording their own messages to the fans, urging them to become members.

The personal messages as well as clips of players playing pranks on each other is part of the NRL's goal of doubling membership by 2017, leading to revenue of approximately $50 million.

For the NRL to have such a goal is commendable. I have blogged many times throughout the year about the importance of finding new revenue streams apart from pokies and gambling and working with the fans who are the game's best source of revenue to ensure that we get more people at games and increase the membership bases of the NRL clubs.

 
While I love the idea of players speaking directly to the fans and getting the game's biggest stars involved, I wonder how much this will assist the NRL in reaching its goals.

Over the last 6 months, there have been various ladies who league posting about what they see as the biggest issues in the NRL. There has been no shortage of posts and certainly no shortage of ideas about how we can make the greatest game of all, even greater.

There are some members, like me, who will always be members of their football club and don't question it when membership renewal rolls around in November of each year. For me, being a member of my club is important. I like to feel connected to my club and that I am financially supporting it. There is very little that the Parramatta Eels could do which would see me choose to cancel my membership.

The NRL doesn't need to worry about fans like me - it instead needs to worry about people that are not members of their teams and convince these people to join.

I am sceptical as to whether a brand new marketing campaign will achieve this. The NRL is clearly working hard in this area, but perhaps some of the reasons which prevent people signing up as members need to be looked at more closely.

So to finish this post, I have a few questions.

1. Are you a member of your club and if so, why?

2. If you are not a member of your club, why not?

3. If you are not a member, is there anything the NRL could do to convince you to join your club?

As always, I am very interested to hear your thoughts.

Love,

 

@LadiesWhoLeague