Once again the Oil suck slough water and...

[Diesel]

The Esks aren't taking advantage of a largely hockey apathetic populace by NOT cranking up their marketing and advertising. Lots of season seats, merchandise, swag, etc can be sold before this pathetic excuse of a hockey season is over fellas!

[Evil Dr. Len]

to defend the Eskimos a little, they will be game sponsor of an April Edmonton Rush game.

So theoritically, that will be their kickoff to their promos which is way earlier than usual

[Oiler]

Who cares about the Oilers this year?

[glenvb]

Who cares about the Oilers this year?

Did somebody say something?

[Inquiring Mind]

The Esks aren't taking advantage of a largely hockey apathetic populace by NOT cranking up their marketing and advertising. Lots of season seats, merchandise, swag, etc can be sold before this pathetic excuse of a hockey season is over fellas!

Wait a sec... the Esks have marketing?!

[stamphater]

The Esks will never be in a better position - hopefully - to push their product.

To not do it is asinine!

[chub]

Not only that, but the Oil are going to be horrible for like the next 5 years at least, so the Esks could really become the center of the Edmonton Sports scene if they tried hard enough.

[Jtuck09]

This is a hockey market. You can market the crap out of them and they still won't take over from the Oilers.

It's just the way this city is.

[Diesel]

The EE had 50K season tickets in the first years of the Oil's existence in the NHL. I see no reason why they can't have 40K now if they put a $eriou$ effort into marketing their brand. That's been my longest standing gripe with the franchise going back 20 years. The reason why the EE are considered second tier in this town is because they allowed themselves to be viewed as such for a long time.

[beware]

what kind of marketing to you want to see? it is only feb..

[Jtuck09]

The EE had 50K season tickets in the first years of the Oil's existence in the NHL. I see no reason why they can't have 40K now if they put a $eriou$ effort into marketing their brand. That's been my longest standing gripe with the franchise going back 20 years. The reason why the EE are considered second tier in this town is because they allowed themselves to be viewed as such for a long time.

You can also blame the media for a lot of that too.
It's game night for the Esks and what's the first story on most sports sections of the news? Who the Oilers are negotiating with to sign as a free agent.

It's true. Don't blame Esks marketing when the media in this town gives them poor publicity too.

[beware]

local media maybe but they only have so much freedom.

when it's november and grey cup fever is in full swing, the oil will not have first page news...

the cfl is not to blame. in five years it's been outstanding i can recall many seasons it was way in to april and you didn't hear a sniff of cfl new's at least theres a story from the cfl.ca website once a week now. the draft gets coverage now..for the average cfl fan there doing great like i said i can't think of ways to market football in canada in feb?

[Diesel]

what kind of marketing to you want to see? it is only feb..

Season ticket renewals are over as of Jan 29, so now new customers are open to buy now. Do any casual fans even know this?

How about Eskimo 3 game mini packs ( Sask, BC, and Ham or TO for example), deals on pre-ordering Grey Cup Swag, advertising that full season seat deals are available (that include your GC seat don't forget)?

How about planting the seeds that the start of football season is only 100 days away (give or take) and build a viral marketing campaign that gives "the Edmonton frustrated sports fan" (re:hockey) a team that has the highest playoff percentage in pro sports, a team that plays in the nicest time of the year, not -30c, a season with an up and coming exciting team? Add in some gratuitous crowd shots of some hot chicas wearing "summer time attire" mix in a collage of some of the best hits and plays of the past year and you have the genesis of people starting to look forward to spring and football.

The NFL does a great job of keeping their brand relavent in the offseason by NOT shutting down and going dark. We should learn from their success by planning our marketing strategies to be geared towards an 11 months of the year plan instead of the current 7 month plan, IMO. The Oilers employ a similar strategy and it's paid off in spades by having people continue to be overzealous about this steaming pile of on ice product...

[Diesel]

You can also blame the media for a lot of that too.
It's game night for the Esks and what's the first story on most sports sections of the news? Who the Oilers are negotiating with to sign as a free agent.

It's true. Don't blame Esks marketing when the media in this town gives them poor publicity too.

The Esks have to grab the bull by the horns in this new day and age where they don't have to rely purely on traditional media to get their message out. Viral marketing campaigns, and creating relavence year round is the job of the franchise and the league, not some media hack who always follows the path of least resistance.

[Inquiring Mind]

You can also blame the media for a lot of that too.
It's game night for the Esks and what's the first story on most sports sections of the news? Who the Oilers are negotiating with to sign as a free agent.

It's true. Don't blame Esks marketing when the media in this town gives them poor publicity too.

Diesels right, the Esks are treated like second-class citizens by the media because they've allowed themselves to become second-class citizens. The media favouring the Oilers first and foremost isn't some grand conspiracy, it's because that's where the money is... and if the Esks want that sort of treatment, they need to earn it.

If the fans come, the media will follow.

The Esks have just rested on their laurels for decades on end and as a result been left in the dust as a result.

[moontoscott]

Season ticket renewals are over as of Jan 29, so now new customers are open to buy now. Do any casual fans even know this?

How about Eskimo 3 game mini packs ( Sask, BC, and Ham or TO for example), deals on pre-ordering Grey Cup Swag, advertising that full season seat deals are available (that include your GC seat don't forget)?

How about planting the seeds that the start of football season is only 100 days away (give or take) and build a viral marketing campaign that gives "the Edmonton frustrated sports fan" (re:hockey) a team that has the highest playoff percentage in pro sports, a team that plays in the nicest time of the year, not -30c, a season with an up and coming exciting team? Add in some gratuitous crowd shots of some hot chicas wearing "summer time attire" mix in a collage of some of the best hits and plays of the past year and you have the genesis of people starting to look forward to spring and football.

The NFL does a great job of keeping their brand relavent in the offseason by NOT shutting down and going dark. We should learn from their success by planning our marketing strategies to be geared towards an 11 months of the year plan instead of the current 7 month plan, IMO. The Oilers employ a similar strategy and it's paid off in spades by having people continue to be overzealous about this steaming pile of on ice product...

This is another area where you have to question what type of job Lalecheur is doing. Some people are arguing that he's not hired to be a football guy so you can't hold him responsible for the product on the field. I don't agree but let's assume that it's true.

He should, however, excel at marketing because this is his area of expertise.

[Deathsdoorstep]

Considering that the Eskimos have been brutal to watch the past few years, no amount of marketing may help.

[Diesel]

I disagree, they have turned the corner in relation to their on-field product and have been back in the post season for the past two years.

In sales and marketing it's been proven that as Bruce Dickinson sang on his solo project song, "Sacred Cowboys"...

" You can sell people crap and make them eat it...." (See Oilers)

[Deathsdoorstep]

I think the jury is still out on the "turned the corner" thing. It's an 8 team league. They've made the playoffs the last 2 seasons, sure. But they've still been brutally awful and boring to watch.

But you do have a point. You can sell people crap and make them eat it. See the Billboard hot 100.....

[Esks4ever]

Esks marketing doesn't exist, and when they actually try to market something they epically fail. ( remember the slogans? )

I dont think we'll see 50k in the stands for every game ever again. Economics are different these days.. but for sure with better marketing they could bump up the attendance easily.. They do such a poor job of getting info out to the casual fan..

What we need is someone who knows how to market a team, and a couple seasons of dominating football...

[Diesel]

I think they have some proper pieces in place but the vision and direction isn't there, IMO

[Deathsdoorstep]

Esks marketing doesn't exist, and when they actually try to market something they epically fail. ( remember the slogans? )

I dont think we'll see 50k in the stands for every game ever again. Economics are different these days.. but for sure with better marketing they could bump up the attendance easily.. They do such a poor job of getting info out to the casual fan..

What we need is someone who knows how to market a team, and a couple seasons of dominating football...

I think it's TOTALLY possible to make the CFL into something where there are 50k in the stands EVERY game for EVERY team. But the league just simply refuses to do many of the things that would make the conditions for that possible.

[stamphater]

It wasn't that long ago the Esks were getting 40K to most of their games. They have to build up an atmosphere that teens and early 20s want to be at. Aside from the game day production; winning is the biggest factor...

[pizmo]

It wasn't that long ago the Esks were getting 40K to most of their games. They have to build up an atmosphere that teens and early 20s want to be at. Aside from the game day production; winning is the biggest factor...

I agree with that. Perhaps a free ABBA album or even a complimentary grey or blue hair dye job. Make them feel one of the crowd!

[moontoscott]

[QUOTE=pizmo;557132]I agree with that. Perhaps a free ABBA album or even a complimentary grey or blue hair dye job. Make them feel one of the crowd!

There was always something about "Dancing Queen" that got my old girlfriends really hot.

[Numberz]

I think they have some proper pieces in place but the vision and direction isn't there, IMO

You say that, and I know you know some people who are charge there (you mentioned something about it a while back)...but I have yet to see much of anything to back that up. I really like what they've done with Facebook and Twitter, but otherwise they haven't really done much.

Furthermore, the slogan for the Grey Cup is 'Hot to Huddle'

[BUCK]

Furthermore, the slogan for the Grey Cup is 'Hot to Huddle'

OK, I'll bite -- what does 'Hot to Huddle' mean ???

[BCEsksFan]

I'm not sure they've turned it around on the field yet. Sure they've made the playoffs the last two years, but one of those was a crossover spot, and the other was third. How long has it been since the Esks have actually hosted a playoff game? Too long. When they do that again, maybe we can say they've turned it around on the field....

[Diesel]

You say that, and I know you know some people who are charge there (you mentioned something about it a while back)...but I have yet to see much of anything to back that up. I really like what they've done with Facebook and Twitter, but otherwise they haven't really done much.

Furthermore, the slogan for the Grey Cup is 'Hot to Huddle'

They have begun to embrace social media, and that in itself is a quantum leap from the Hughie era. IMO there are still those that call the shots that learned their way of business under the Hughie era.

It won't get changed instantly but they have to be able to react quicker. Questions like " How does our marketing strategy change if the Oil have a lousy season and are out of it by March?" need to be asked and plans put in place to capitalize on opportunities

[Inquiring Mind]

OK, I'll bite -- what does 'Hot to Huddle' mean ???

Means we are still using marketing people that for some unknown reason thinks alliteration is somehow clever, and is in someway an adequate substitute for quality.