This transcript has been lightly edited by AI
Sean: I do think your background in reporting and storytelling and telling a narrative is a really big part of what marketing is, but even more so now, like you said, content marketing, how can you take these stories, repurpose these stories for your marketing objectives and sort of looking back at that data.
And like we said, Sydney is a very different market to Melbourne. I think the Swans have done a terrific job in marketing the message of membership, which is ingrained in Melbourne. But you're also working with your team from a membership point of view to go, what should the product mix look like in Sydney and how does it fit for the Sydney market?
So you've been working with your team and the team that manages membership and developing that product. And then you're looking to market it and you've sort of looked at that product mix going forward to sort of benefit for the Sydney market. Can you talk to that a little bit about like what those new products are and how it has been driven by both the data, but then also what the Sydney market wants?
Loretta: Yeah. So I've worked really closely with Natalie Fagg, who's our Executive General Manager of Consumer. And Nat's team really does set that product mix and what we have seen over the last few years, especially coming out of COVID, is that committing to an 11 game membership might be a bit more of a stretch for some people because there's been so much uncertainty.
Certainly now it does feel like we're back, we're back in events, we're back in the community, footy's back. We had it last year where we had crowds at every game, but that was the first time we delivered a full season in a few years that hadn't been interrupted by COVID. And certainly we started last year, we were still coming out of COVID.
There were still restrictions at the start of last year. So it does feel like footy's back, but what we have done is tweak that product mix where we have more flexible membership products. So we now offer a five game membership as opposed to just a traditional 11 game membership, which caters for people that know that they want to come to Swans games.
They love the clubs, but they might not be able to commit to coming to every home game. There's another product that was developed last year. The Swans Pass, which is 11 tickets, but you could use those 11 tickets at one game. So you and 10 friends could come along. Or you could use them one per home game across the year like a traditional 11 game membership.
So it just provides some flexibility in what people might want to do. And also noting that people come to the footy with friends. It's a social event. So recognizing some of that and tweaking the product mix accordingly. Probably the other thing on membership, really, in the promotional field in we've just looked at it will cut a new television commercial for this year.
One of the things I'm really conscious of doing is reframing that perception of what it means to be a member. I think there has been a perception that to be a member of a footy club you have to be head to toe in club colours. But the reality is our members don't necessarily sleep in red and white.
You know, they have jobs, they have interests outside of footy as well. So we've just cut a new TVC with Red Engine, Channel 7's agency we've been working with, to show Sydney Swans members, which, you know, women doing yoga at the beach, families in the park kicking a footy, people in the pub after work having a beer on their way to the footy, that people that look like you and I that might just have a scarf on but they're proud to show the club colours still.
So that's one of the challenges that we're working through is how we reframe membership. So that people can really see themselves as members. And so a new television commercial, which is on air at the moment is the start of that journey.
