News: From the Sarries Marketing Suite...
By St. Fly
May 26 2014
As we build up the the biggest match this season, our Fly on the Wall, St Fly, has managed to jot down the salient points from the Sarries Marketing meeting this afternoon.
Saracens Marketing Meeting
Attending, Tom, Dick and Harry
Tom: OK boys, we have a big match coming up on Saturday and we need to come up with something very innovative to make our fans buy tickets and cheer the team on.
Harry: Rob, they have been buying tickets, we have nearly sold out our 8,000 allocation in 2 weeks.
Tom: Saints sold out their's in 8 hours. Some of our allocation has been going to an NN postcode.
Dick: Boys don't worry about that. Our fans were so positive we would be at Twickers, I bet they had already bought them from ticket master.
Tom: Good point Dick. Let's move on to how to get them to cheer the team on. Now, we don't have access to the tanoy, so that causes us a number of problems.
Harry: Problems Tom
Tom: Yes Harry. Think about it. On average we remind our fans to STAND UP FOR THE SARACENS every 3 minutes.
Dick: More than every 3 minutes Tom if there are a lot of breaks in play.
Tom: Quite right Dick. So what can we do?
Harry: Any chance of getting the fat lady back
Tom: She did the Atkins diet
Dick: What about giving out some bibs with the words Stand Up printed on them?
Harry: Like the tabards we did a few years ago
Dick: Yes, that's what I am thinking of.
Tom: I like it. Maybe we could offer fans their money back on their match ticket if they send a photo of them standing up next to Gavin in Twickenham.
Harry: Don't think the Saints have Gavin, I think he is still in Bath
Tom: Well maybe standing next to any one orange?
Dick: Do you think that is going too far?
Tom: You know what we say here Dick?
All : LOL You can never go too far, there is only one thing worse than being talked about. (que laughter) that's not being talked about. Ha ha
Tom: OK, done, I will get graphics onto the posters, web etc. Now it goes with out saying that we will give every fan 3 flags each. Did you order them Dick?
Dick: Yes I ordered 9,000.
Tom : Nice work Dick. Now what about getting the fans to sing and be vocal.
Harry: have to get them hammered again?
Tom: Naturally. Let's organise another gathering. I think we almost have a tradition of doing that when playing the Saints
Dick: What, you mean we have a tradition now?
Harry: Does that mean we are a proper Rugby Club now?
Tom: Boys, stop getting carried away. We don't need to have traditions or be proper.
Harry and Dick : why Tom?
Tom: Because we are SPECIAL
Harry and Dick: ahhhhhh
Tom: We need to wrap things up quickly now, as I have still got to order some coaches for Twickenham for the fans. We need a campaign hashtag. "Something Special" was a bit last year. Harry, what are you doing?
Harry: I am on the Saints web site. Thought as we nicked Ulsters promo vid this season, we could nick Saints hashtag.
Dick: Inspired, what is it?
Harry: It's Our Time
Tom: That's great, done. It's Our Time. I like it.
ALL: LOL You can never go too far, there is only one thing worse than being talked about. (Cue laughter) that's not being talked about. Ha ha
St Fly
26 May 2014
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Per Ardua Ad Astra
I wonder how long before we get a post from the Barnet Internet troll - sorry policing brigade

“Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security will not have, nor do they deserve, either one.”
Benjamin Franklin
Tetleys Block F E143

For a natural pessimist, I am quietly confident. Eek!


Yawn. I'm glad our club gives you such giggles.
Though perhaps you should change your moniker to #icepack because last Saturday your much self heralded defence froze...
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Quote:#wolfpack
Brilliant. Hilarious. Oh I'm still laughing. Oh you guys. Oh you do need to behave yourselves. Comedy gold right there.
Yawn. I'm glad our club gives you such giggles.
Giggles? no not really. But if you are going to endlessly set yourself up with marketing gimmicks, each in my opinion showing varying degrees of disrespect to your opponents.
And for your club to pretend that it has some special team ethos that no one else can match, when the reality is that you have a better team than nearly everyone else simply because you have spent more money than nearly everyone else, then don't be too surprised when others show you slightly less respect and take the mickey out of the club.
If you don't like it I suggest you stay off other clubs websites. I dont go on your because to be frank I now find the whole South African billionaires marketing experiment somewhat tiresome.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:27:08:06:20 by St. Andy.
In fact, after my fist visit to AP earlier this season, I would suggest the opposite - the respect and friendship extended to visiting supporters was exemplary.
And as for the money thing, I'm afraid until any club is proven to have broken the cap, it's not good form to accuse without evidence (purely in my opinion, of course).
Just when the supporters seemed to be getting on so well (see TOKS comment), this whole thread makes me very slightly uncomfortable. Hey ho, probably just me.
Though of course the greatest form of flattery is imitation...
It also costs nowt!

So here you are - hopefully this will make you understand:
Marketing ploys
Yes, we know they can sometimes appear crass and no doubt amusing because it looks like the club is flogging a dead horse. But they have to do this.
In Northampton you have one of the top 3 rugby teams in England for the last 5 years or so. And a football team that plays in League 2.
In North London we have one of the top 3 rugby teams in England for the last 5 years and now one of the top 4 teams in Europe. And two football teams that are two of the biggest sporting brands in the World.
The difficulty in attracting sports fans when Arsenal and Spurs are on your doorstep cannot be underestimated. Add that to the fact until last season we were playing in Watford which is a truly horrible ground, and its easy to see why we struggle. We didn't sell out our semi final against Quins this year but sold out plenty of league games. Why? Simply because Arsenal were playing in the FA Cup final that day. So we have to try all these things to get bums on seats. Think of the other clubs with big support - Bath, Leicester, Gloucester, yourselves - they either don't have football teams or their football teams aren't a pinch on the pulling power of Arsenal or Tottenham. Look at the other teams that struggle for attendance - Sale and Newcastle. Common denominator?
Not every club is as lucky as yours to not have a world class football team round the corner and to have had a ground around which to build a supporter base for who knows how long.
Team Ethos
Who knows? All the bonding trips seem to work. No senior player has left Saracens for a very long time. That is certainly not how it used to be when we were just a feeder club for bigger and stronger teams. Only Richard Hill and Kieran Bracken stayed. Now no one leaves.
Buying a team
Here's the big one everyone pokes us for. It's something I find quite funny because when the England squad is announced suddenly all our 'big name big money stars' are all rubbish and should never play at all, but come premiership time they're world class and shows Saracens must be cheating.
You recon Barritt commands a better salary than Burrell? Fraser commands a better salary than Wood? Mako commands a better salary than Corbisiero? Botha commands a better salary than Lawes? Oh well, get them into the England side as soon as possible if they are good enough to demand more money, right?
And I'm sure George North - probably the biggest star in the Premiership - plays for peanuts. Corbisiero and Fotouali'i rocked up at the same time, probably for free right?.
Have you questioned Gloucester yet? A year after signing Morgan and Kvesic they've run off and got Afoa, Hibbard, Laidlaw. Or Bath? With their signings of everyone.
We get unneccesary stick for this. If you look at the signings we make, only ONE has been a really really big name - Ashton (thanks by the way, he's been very good). JJ is reputedly playing for £500 more than he was at Quins, but we helped him set up his pie business so he came here. It's well known Billy came to play with his brother, not for money.
We sign washed up international players (Hodgson, Wigglesworth, Borthwick, Strettle, Stevens), players from lower leagues (Vunipola, Barrington), have an excellent academy (Kruis, Fraser, Farrell, Goode) and others who no one has heard of until we sign them (Brits, Barritt, Botha - who was removing asbestos until we gave him a go). I think the misconception of us buying a group of superstars is very silly. Especially from a group of fans whose club splash the cash as much as anyone - and good luck to you for doing so. If you have it, why not spend it. I certainly don't begrudge you George North.
Anyway sorry that's so long. Just thought St Andy and the wag who created this post needed an education. See you on Saturday.
Top of the League 2014-2015 Season
And whilst I'd agree the post from StA was a touch over the top in context of the banter I really can't see what you're getting to upset about in the original article, or do you think you're above being parodied?
Seems its a case of of someone thinking oh what a wizard wheeze, lets nick Saints tagline giggle giggle, but when thats flipped and the micky taken back its then all, how very dare you say that about us!!! Lighten up...

Cheers
Rick
@W2APS on twitter, the chap with the banners and flags.
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Sarries are a different club, with a different history and approach and coming from a different place in terms of culture and self.
No better, no worse, god knows it would be boring if all clubs looked the same and acted the same. It is the variety that makes the Premiership interesting.
To be honest Sarries can do whatever they want in the run up to the game, that is their prerogative. All I care about is what Saints do, that is my team, that is my concernt. It is when my U13s are preparing to play a game and half of them are looking at the opposition .... don't worry about them, don't think about them, what matters is us, we believe we can win, that is all that matters.
Once a scrum half .... always a scrum half
Funny you seem to have read a lot of things into my posting re expenditure that is quite clearly not there.I chose my words carefully regards this and at no point did I mention;
I did not say that Northampton or anybody else is not spending a lot of money.
All I said is that Saracens are clearly spending a more than nearly everyone else to illustrate the following.
You spend more money ,you get better players, you win more games applies to also to Saints, Leicester, Bath etc. Thus this being the reason NOT some special bond no other club can muster. I wonder why you got the wrong end of the stick?
You illustrate it yourself in your team ethos paragraph that you used to lose players, You say it yourself, you used to see yourself as a feeder for bigger clubs, that is no longer the case, so as players can get the money and medals they want at Saracens they do not need to leave. If however the money ran out would all those players remain because of the team ethos. Doubt it. Same applies at Saints.
As for the marketing as has been stated, the club can do as they like but the marching on grounds, and particularly the parodying the Ulster song and taking of the Saints tag line. All allowed but mildly disrespectful in my opinion.
So please don't say I haven't thought through my points because I had, and you have no idea what I thought.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:27:12:30:26 by St. Andy.
Lets not have any fun whatsoever
Lets allow the pinching of our ideas without comment
Lets just shut the site and go home
GET A LIFE!!!!
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2014:05:27:12:33:52 by St. Andy.
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously

If saints win,
open top bus through Northampton
If Sarries win
open top bus through ?

QUIN KONG

BTW I recall that Bath were very disappointed when having assured Matt Stevens he had his old job back, he effed off to us at Saracens. He was, I'm sure, very content with less money.
~ You never knowingly let the facts get in the way of the story. ~

Quote:The eye of a needle?Deesaint
open top bus through
David L
What if there were no hypothetical questions?
- Live wrong and preposterously
I can't tell if you'd look at the open-top thread that was on ours (it might not have been a Sarries fan who started it actually) - we came to the conclusion that a brief trip round allianz would suffice.
As said, give us a few years yet (and obliterate some of this wendyball nonsense)
Hilarious article that cuts to the quick! Well done. Now go and win your first (can't believe that) Premiership title!!

