BELIEVE: Riding Flano's Second Wind

[El Coconuto]

As recently as two weeks ago, a few of us gathered at te Leagues Club to discuss how much of the BELIEVE campaign we could realistically carry forward in a year where we our season was on life support. We asked questions along the lines of "Are we short selling our campaign by running it when there quite obviously is little for our fan base to be excites about?" and "Are we being too Walt Disney/fluffy about a situation that is plain dire" as well as discussing what realistically could and couldn't be done before the end of this season.

I truly believe that the early appointment of Flano has given new life for us to smash this campaign as we close this season. This is no longer about this year. It's about this year AND beyond. Now is the time for us to dig our heels in. Give our fans something to BELIEVE in and be excited about over the long and dire (but hopefully exciting) offseason.

I'd like to discuss in here what we can realistically do with this campaign to end the season on a high. I am doing a few video tweaks that will hopefully get some air time before games on the big screen like our last video. How does everyone else feel about what we can/should do before we kiss 2010 goodbye?

Also, today I realised that the BELIEVE mantra and everything it stands for will be relevant until the day we win that maiden premiership. It is a timeless call to arms and I'm glad to have been a part of it with you all So what do we all think we do to end on a high to carry into the new year?

 

[SF]

I agree totally... I will put my ideas down late tonight.

 

[Murphy]

the believers so far are coming out of this forum so far, the believe campaign has done very well,adversting the club whilst our support group is low,is the main goal of the believe campaign to attract members,this website next year should have a quicklink to our membership packages for 2011 as soon as you log on..
i believe moving forward we need to promote this website being sharksforever.com
the more people on board on this forum, the more believers we can attract,the more people we can help inspire to become members for 2011, the more members the better??
i am just dribbling here sorry for the dribble

 

[snowman]

good thinking coco.
just as long as murph doesnt nominate me to lead a cult again

 

[Murphy]

haha

 

[BUZ]

Noted and agree Coco. I'm heaps busy for the rest of this week, and tbh am a bit bereft of new ideas atm.

I'll do my best to post some suggestions here by the end of the week. If not, I'll go through some of my old posts and rehash some ideas .

 

[SF]

OK this is how I see it. While ideally we'd be trying to do something for the Warriors game, really we have run out of time to do anything useful.

So the one to aim for is still the Friday night game against the Roosters.

I want the people who are sitting at home watching the TV, at the end of the game to be thinking "damn I wish I had gone, that looked fun".

Now I still think there's a reasonable chance this game might get bumped to 9:30PM so I don't think we should be disappointed if that happens, but this is what I would like to see - and I'm trying to keep it to hard ideas.

1. CENTREPIECE

fitz had the awesome idea of creating a massive BELIEVE banner/flag for the Mermaids to unfurl. It wouldn't have the BELIEVE writing, just black, white and blue. It will mainly be sewing, but it would be a lot simpler, and we could recruit some more people to sew who wouldn't have been confident with the complex letters. To me, this is the equivalent of the TIFOs - the big set piece of the show that we will all be insanely proud of at the end! And I think it is so achievable if we start planning this before the weekend.

2. BANNERS

A one-off effort to get 10 people holding 10 banners in a group. We could probably work in conjunction with those from the Sharks Finatics who still hold the banners, at the southern end of the ground. This will mean a bit of a sacrifice of our comfy seats! But it would not have to be for now and eternity. It would be a case of try it out, and then go from there. I could get you 50 quotes from Ray Warren this year about how much he loves the banners that the fans go to the trouble of making. Let's not be the exception - in fact let's be exceptional

3. POSTERS

I'd like to see us create and distribute say 500 match promotion posters to shops around the Shire. Make them event-oriented, rather than "BELIEVE" - my thought is they should be Friday the 13th themed. This is a bit tricky, because we have the Warriors home game the previous Saturday. We could either distribute the posters in the week leading up to the game, or do a half-half poster.

4. VIDEOS

This is a tough ask Jardz, but how good would it be to have a fan-created (El Coco-created :glasses-cool video for every home game, as just part of the routine. Ideally a pump up video all the time, but some weeks we could intersperse with Sharks history. Ultimately I'd like to see this as some sort of competition where there were lots of people vying for it, and the best one got theirs showed on the big screen. For the Roosters game I'd suggest a Friday the 13th theme again.

5. FIRE UP

I think to achieve all this we would need another banner workshop. I'd suggest Wednesday or Thursday night (the 4th or 5th) next week. Invite everyone along from Facebook, the forum, the CSSC etc. Make this the only place where you can pay cash for the BELIEVE jerseys, which will bring some more along. Don't worry too much about making this a party - aim for the same feel as the last banner workshop and everyone will go home happy!


Now obviously nobody has to agree with all of that above, and we can change any of it. But just like Flanagan has the next six games to warm up for next year, I feel we should be taking the same approach to what we do. Consider it a time where we can try things as still a small group, work towards getting routines (e.g. regular events), and importantly have some fun in doing it!

If we are to do any of this I think the latest we can decide on it is this Wednesday - gives a week to put out invites and be prepared for the banner workshop.

</rant>

P.S. Aren't we up to the third wind now?

 

[fitz]

My greatest priority with all of this is to develop a raft of promotional tools, strategies and engagements so that we can collectively build up to Season 2011.

There's no point in pointing howitzers if all you've got is dirty laundry as your ammunition.

We need to have the online engagement side of all of this as flash as a rat with a gold tooth. We need to have the Children's Activity Book printed, distributed and online integrated before the first ball is kicked next season.

There's heaps to do.

We need to write out a proper to-do list and resolve and action plan and schedule for each.

We also need a wake to finally put to rest all of the crap we've had to endure.

 

[SF]

Permission to speak freely?

For me personally, activity begets activity, and inactivity begets inactivity. I'm probably not long-term and patient enough, but personally I feel like I've been doing nothing useful since the Dragons game. I know I could be initiating stuff myself, but I'd prefer the group direction.

Since the Dragons game we've had the BELIEVE jerseys project, sharks67.com, the Matty Johns segment and a lot of gnome work, and they're all awesome efforts. But... I just feel there's people out there waiting to help more, and more we can be doing for the games. The Ricky Stuart situation was a good reason to postpone... but now Flano has come in I honestly think he needs all the help he can get over the next 6 weeks.

I believe we can think and plan long-term and short-term simultaneously. I really don't want to see the Roosters game go by, and think we passed up one of the few live Friday games we've had in the past (and maybe next) 2 years. We've got all off-season to plan for next year, but only 2/1/2 weeks to plan for the Friday night game. Basically we can fire the Howitzer... and if it doesn't work out perfectly, we have 6 months to reload it! But if it does work, and we can help the team to a win on that Friday night, how good would that be.

Anyway, sorry if that sounds really argumentative. You should know my tone though when I'm posting here, it's all with a smile! :glasses-cool:

 

[fitz]

Mate, not poo-pooing anyone with ideas and energy... and yes we do need to move on all of this and get some results. We just need to make sure we keep on track, on target and on budget.

In all honesty I've been a bit slack with my level of commitment over the last 2 weeks - insane workload and some family issues. Anyway, will be getting on top of all of that and fighting the blaze again soon.

 

[IronShark]

I think we definitely need to get more banners into the crowd - preferably the CSSC. It's where the camera's automatically go for crowd reaction. We should have another banner workshop like the last one. Following the theme of Fitzy's giant flag that the Mermaids pull out onto the field, we should just make up a heap of smaller replicas, maybe 1 metre wide of so, on a single flagpole that every single member of The Cage could hold up and wave simultaneously. How good would that look?

These would need no writing or anything, just the sky blue with the twin black stripes and white in the middle, ala our classic hoop jersey. These would be very quick to make, I reckon. Should be able to sew up 50 or so in an hour with a couple of skilled sewing machine operators going at it like last time.

Also, without giving too much away, I am just about to put some awesome finishing touches on Jaws that will, for once ond for all, make it the ultimate Sharks mobile. Wait 'til you see it, it will be awesome. I spoke to Jarrod about using it at games and he said he was very keen so it could add to the pre-match/half time atmosphere.

I have been driving it around the Shire quite a bit on the weekend and the reactions I have been getting have been inspiring. Everyone is giving me the thumbs up, or beeping their horn and waving. One lady pulled up alongside me at the lights, beeping her horn very enthusiastically and waving. She then pulled a Sharks Flag out and flew it out the window as she drove off! Everyone around had a smile from ear to ear- especially me!

Anyway the point is, anything we do will be well received by Sharks fans with littel to smile about, we just have to keep up the momentum!:cheers

 

[El Coconuto]

4. VIDEOS

This is a tough ask Jardz, but how good would it be to have a fan-created (El Coco-created :glasses-cool video for every home game, as just part of the routine. Ideally a pump up video all the time, but some weeks we could intersperse with Sharks history. Ultimately I'd like to see this as some sort of competition where there were lots of people vying for it, and the best one got theirs showed on the big screen. For the Roosters game I'd suggest a Friday the 13th theme again.

Done and done.

These would need no writing or anything, just the sky blue with the twin black stripes and white in the middle, ala our classic hoop jersey. These would be very quick to make, I reckon. Should be able to sew up 50 or so in an hour with a couple of skilled sewing machine operators going at it like last time.

I really like this idea. No words. Just colours. Black. White. Blue. (Beautiful!)

:good::Yes:

 

[gando2230]

I liked fitz idea about the black white & blue Flanno shirts, it would look cool everyone in the crowd wearing a flanno showing support to our new coach and maybe a sponsorship from lowes?

 

[BUZ]

Not sure if this is the appropriate thread, but

GO BACK TO THE 80S AT LEICHHARDT OVAL THIS SATURDAY NIGHT
26/07/2010 5:10:54 PM

Wests Tigers plan to take supporters back to the 80s at Leichhardt Oval this Saturday night for the clash against the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks.

A fun night of activities have been planned as part of the entertainment for the round 21 Telstra Premiership match.

No 80s night is complete without a trip back down memory lane. Wests Tigers will be offering a prize for the ‘Fashions On The Hill’ competition whereby supporters are encouraged to dress up in clothes from the 80s.

There also will be a Famous 80s League Legend Look-a-like, so if you or a mate look like a player from the 80s, then you too can win a great prize. Perhaps you look like Balmain 80s legends Paul Sironen, Kerry Hemsley, Wayne Pearce or Steve Roach? If you do, join in the fun!

<snip>

Any of the CSSC crew want to get in on this and dress up as some Sharkies from the 80's, or start with wearing the flannos at this game?

 

[SF]

I think we definitely need to get more banners into the crowd - preferably the CSSC. It's where the camera's automatically go for crowd reaction. We should have another banner workshop like the last one. Following the theme of Fitzy's giant flag that the Mermaids pull out onto the field, we should just make up a heap of smaller replicas, maybe 1 metre wide of so, on a single flagpole that every single member of The Cage could hold up and wave simultaneously. How good would that look?

These would need no writing or anything, just the sky blue with the twin black stripes and white in the middle, ala our classic hoop jersey. These would be very quick to make, I reckon. Should be able to sew up 50 or so in an hour with a couple of skilled sewing machine operators going at it like last time.

Also, without giving too much away, I am just about to put some awesome finishing touches on Jaws that will, for once ond for all, make it the ultimate Sharks mobile. Wait 'til you see it, it will be awesome. I spoke to Jarrod about using it at games and he said he was very keen so it could add to the pre-match/half time atmosphere.

I have been driving it around the Shire quite a bit on the weekend and the reactions I have been getting have been inspiring. Everyone is giving me the thumbs up, or beeping their horn and waving. One lady pulled up alongside me at the lights, beeping her horn very enthusiastically and waving. She then pulled a Sharks Flag out and flew it out the window as she drove off! Everyone around had a smile from ear to ear- especially me!

Anyway the point is, anything we do will be well received by Sharks fans with littel to smile about, we just have to keep up the momentum!:cheers

Did you stick a Shark fin on the top??? Looking forward to seeing it. I think this would be a perfect part of the pre-game/half-time on the Friday night. You could get some real star former Sharks in there hanging out the windows. Channel Nine would lap it up.

With the flags, didn't we all get a flag voucher with our season tickets? I never redeemed mine, so I don't know what the flag was like. May be simpler than making the flags... though again sometimes this campaign is about the means not the ends.

 

[El Coconuto]

I'm pretty sure the members flags were made to go one round. Nearly everyone I know had their flags capitulate within an hour of picking them up. Hehe they were great for the kids though.

 

[gando2230]

Yeah i got a flag voucher in my "pencil case" membership when i went to receive it at the first game v the Storm, they said they had given them all out and never heard any more about it.

 

[El Coconuto]

Just out of curiosity, how many more times will the tifo be unfurled this season?

 

[SF]

Hmmm I guess I think we should make a decision either way soon.

Either we decide to aim for the Roosters game and have a Fire Up event beforehand, or we make a clear decision not to and instead concentrate on next year.

I'd prefer not to leave it until the decision is made by time running out.

I'd suggest we need at least a week of notification before we could have a successful Fire Up event (N.B. I'm thinking along the lines of 20-30 people again, not a massive party). If we did go ahead, we'd have to make sure to spread the load around more in organising it this time.

Wed Jul 28: Today
Sat Jul 31: Tigers game (A)
Thu Aug 5: Fire Up possibility (1 weeks notice)
Sat Aug 7: Warriors game (H)
Sun Aug 8: Banner Day possibility (1.5 weeks notice)
Wed Aug 11: Fire Up possibility (2 weeks notice)
Fri Aug 13: Roosters game (H)

Thoughts?

 

[Gil]

I like the centre piece idea..

With Fitz's idea of the big centre piece, what are your thoughts on seeing if a sponsor
(Hisense), put there logo on the white part of the centre piece to help cover the cost for material.

Not bad advertisement.

Just an Idea.