The smart marketing behind the explosive launch of the Tasmania Devils
Welcome to a midweek update from Unmade. Today: The marketing success story of the Tasmania Devils; and ARN helps the Unmade Index upwards.
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The Devils incarnate
Yesterday, some 17 years after arriving in Australia, I finally chose a team.
I was one of the 100,000 Taswegians who became founding members of the Tasmania Devils in their first 24 hours.
That’s right. Some 100,000 people handed over ten bucks for the privilege of a sticker and the nebulous right to call themselves a founding member of Tasmania’s AFL team.
And by nebulous, I mean that the promise couldn’t have been more vague: “As a Founding Member your name will be represented in our training and administration home forever! We are not exactly sure how we will do it yet, but we can guarantee you your name will always be there.”
That’s 100,000 from a state with a population of not much more than half a million.
The club now launches with incredible momentum. And a million extra bucks in the bank.
The kickoff moment was Monday night’s announcement that, to the surprise of nobody, the team would indeed be called the Tasmania Devils. Man, I wish I’d bought that personalised rego when I idly looked to see whether it was available a year ago. It isn;t any more.
The momentum did not come from nowhere. Behind the overnight success came months of grassroots marketing groundwork leading up to its launch event.
The club has been building a database of supporters and creating buy-in through a series of localised consultation and launch events.
Gone, for this week at least, is the controversy over the cost of a new stadium in Hobart at the height of a cost-of-living and rent crisis, the launch became one of identity.
The team tapped into that human instinct towards tribalism. Even if one thinks that building a billion dollar (so far priced at $715m, but we’ll see) stadium is impossible to justify, state loyalty taps in. Locally at least, it’s a monoculture moment.
Another smart marketing principle in play was to create a fear of missing out. The club was vague about when it would stop accepting “founding” members, but created enough urgency to give supporters a reason to act.
But perhaps most significant, now comes the psychology of ownership. Compared to other clubs (which admittedly have the benefit of actually already being part of the AFL) that early price is low. When the club enters the tournament, the membership price will inevitably shoot up, but it’s a lot easier to persuade a consumer to upgrade than it is to make them sign up in the first place.
This database of 100,000 - now that the bandwagon is rolling, 200,000 soon, I’m sure - is a wonderful opted-in target for the marketing of merchandise, and one day, tickets.
You only get once change to launch a brand, and the Devils nailed it.
Unmade Index carried up by ARN
ARN’s upwards charge helped the Unmade Index to another day of growth on Tuesday. The index landed on 569.5 points, up 0.42%.
The likely acceptance of the ARN-led bid for Southern Cross Austereo saw the stock rise another 3.75% yesterday.
Meanwhile, Seven recovered by 2.56% after crashing below a market capitalisation of $300m for the first time since Covid. Nine and its real estate platform Domain were also both in positive territory yesterday.
Going in the other direction, Ooh Media and Southern Cross Austereo both dipped.
Time to leave you to your Wednesday.
We’ll be back tomorrow with an audio-led edition, focusing on Australia’s fastest growing industry organisation, Independent Media Agencies of Australia. Like the Devils, they’ve got a lot of momentum.
Have a great day.
Toodlepip…
Tim Burrowes
Publisher - Unmade
tim@unmade.media