Saturday 23rd November – Slough Jets Programme

Good evening and welcome to the Hangar for tonight’s match up against the Wildcats. We had a 7-1 blow-out win last time against the Wildcats just a few weeks back so I’m sure they’ll be providing a tougher challenge tonight.

So last week I got asked by lots of people why we don’t do Groupon promotions. Many people believe that Groupon is a magic fix all that will fill the arena and boost the average attending hugely. If that was true then we’d be using it regularly but sadly it’s just not the case.

Groupon is a great way of getting your business / event known. People search for promotions in their area and up comes your event. They book their generously discounted tickets and along they come. They watch the game, maybe take part in the 50/50, chuck the duck or shirt off his back. They leave at the end of the night.

What happens next is the question that Groupon don’t really want you to consider!

In order to run a Groupon promotion you need to make available a special offer on the event. From the reduced ticket value Groupon then takes their cut for their part in the promotion. If the customers who took advantage of the Groupon promotion returned as regular supporters then that’s fine and nobody minds giving away a taster for a lesser price if it results in boosted attendance.

What then happens is where the problem is. The average Groupon user uses the service to find a bargain. To do something they wouldn’t normally pay full price for. After enjoying the game ticket promotion their next enquiry isn’t “when is your next home game”, it is “when is your next Groupon”. And that’s where it all goes wrong.

Without using Groupon we could fill the rink with a massively discounted promotion but the art of promotion isn’t to blindly give away tickets just for the sake of it. The idea of promotion is to target people who are likely to become new customers (or in this case supporters) and that’s why we have decided not to use Groupon as it would target people who would most likely on return on the next Groupon promotion.

We do have promotion going on right now. We have had a fixture pull out in the Slough Observer listing all of our games this season. We have teamed up with Best of Slough for our advert in the town centre, and on the Best of Slough website. We attended the Christmas Light switch on in Slough on Thursday with players spreading the word and handing out flyers looking to attract us new supporters.

I’d love to see the return to the days we saw 700+ supporters every week and I assure you we are working hard to try and make that happen.

last weekend was sad to see Muzzy go and it was pleasing to see the entire fanbase unite in sending him off well at his last home game. Good luck to Scotty and Longer tonight in their new roles

Enjoy tonight’s game

Mark