We were tasked with creating a series of communications for Liverpool FC's new membership proposition. The message was clear, this was about more than just membership – we were talking better seats, more tickets, more discounts...a better way to support Liverpool FC altogether!
We discovered that there were 77,000 existing members but over 500,000 registered transacting online fans with the club and an online fan base over 1.4m! The 77,000 members had mainly joined to gain access to tickets and the 2011/12 membership proposition was no different - except that the mechanic for gaining access to tickets had changed. Now, we wanted to put in place a more coherent framework for the brand to enable us to come away from pure ticket access when we got further through the season and for future campaigns.
To begin with, we devised a simple brand framework – in which Membership was positioned at the heart of the Liverpool Football Club brand. It was very much about ensuring that, as a member, I felt proud to be one. We also created a sense of 'family' – that by being a member, club and supporter were supporting each other. Only then could we produce a full range of engaging collateral – from a web page to a poster, letters to flyers and ads.
The target was to sell an additional 50,000 memberships by the end of the year. We helped Liverpool FC achieve 45,000 in the first 2 weeks alone!