A-League to move into 21st century

A-LEAGUE clubs have begun a $1 million social media campaign, as the first step in a concerted bid to arrest years of sliding fan interest.

Aware of the damage to the brand of the competition after a lengthy battle to gain control of it, the A-League owners have sanctioned the campaign across five social media platforms to try to re-engage a younger audience and start selling the competition’s story.

It comes on the back of research conducted for club owners which they believe show there is a latent market of consumers interested in the ALeague but not currently going to games — and which may show declining TV ratings are to a large degree attributable to viewers migrating to streaming games via the internet.

It comes after persistent headline figures of fan interest that do not make palatable reading for the owners now that they have their hands on the A-League’s steering wheel. Crowds are down by 3.5 per cent on the equivalent number of rounds last season.

TV ratings have fallen more significantly or at least those watching on Fox Sports which shows all games every round — down some 24 per cent to around 39,000 a game.

The switch from Ten Bold to ABC1 as the free to air broadcaster of one game per round, at 5pm on Saturdays, has delivered a 50 per cent increase on the past few rounds of last season, though from a small base up to an average of around 53,000.

The owners are candid that the competition suffered from a lack of marketing during the bitter battle to achieve separation from Football Federation Australia, which involved FIFA and the AFC and was finally resolved a year ago.

The deal is yet to be completed, but owners are making long-promised investments in marketing and promotion.