By BrianC
August 31 2005

The Craic has secured an interview with one of the key back office figures at London Irish, Jon Salinger Marketing manager. Those of us who have been supporters for some time will be aware just how much the communication between the club and supporters has improved in the last year or so.

Indeed it is easy for us to forget just how much improvement there has been. Reading Jons replies brought home to me just how much has happened in such a short time.

1.  You started at LI over two years ago.  How would you describe the set up you found then, was it very different to Saracens?

When I joined LI, it was a very different set-up to Saracens.  The first thing that I noticed was that the Commercial Team was much smaller than the Saracens operation.   The other thing that I noticed was the sense that London Irish was a ‘family’ club, with a very ‘Irish’ feel to it. 

To start with, the Commercial Operation was split between Reading and Sunbury.  Some of the Commercial Team worked out of Sunbury, while Kelly and myself worked from Reading (sometimes feeling that we were not part of the team).  This however changed when it was decided to move the whole Commercial operation to Reading, and then subsequently a year later moving back to Sunbury.  I will admit that working at Sunbury has helped the business as it means that communication between all departments has greatly improved.

I worked at Saracens for 5 ½ years, and saw the business grow from a team of 4, to a team of 20 people.  It was great fun working for Saracens, as we decided to take the ‘bull by the horns’ and really tackle the issue of professional rugby.  Saracens have been successful in the past but now all of the other clubs have caught up and some have even overtaken their achievements.

2.  What did you set about changing?  What was the rationale behind these changes?

When I joined London Irish my first project was to look at Season Tickets and Match Ticket pricing.  While looking at these, it became very clear that communication to the supporters was very poor and sometimes inaccurate.  This was mainly down to ways of communication (old website was very poor).

At my time at Saracens, the philosophy was to get people in to the ground by whatever means and whatever the result, they would come back for more.   In the past London Irish’s ticket prices, I felt, were too expensive and did not give people choice (one price for the whole stadium).  The decision was made to radically change the pricing and create a tiered pricing structure.  Due to the one price, most of the London Irish supporters chose to sit in the West Lower, therefore creating what looked like an empty stadium.  By introducing the cheaper seats in the East Stand, this now meant that the Stadium was starting to look more balanced on match days.

Looking back at that first presentation, I would not have guessed that 2 years on we would have had two near sell-outs and an increase of 48% in our average attendance.

One of the other responsibilities is to manage the relationship with the Madejski Stadium Ticket Office.  In the past the relationship with the Ticket Office was very fragile and this needed to be repaired and wrapped in cotton wool.

Communication with the London Irish supporters was also very key, and I decided that there should be more of this by whatever means.  To start with, this was by direct mail, but then eventually led to communication by e-mail.  The introduction of ‘The Blarney’ was a first for London Irish and we started out with 4,000 e-mail addresses; we now have over 10,000!!

3.  Of the initiatives you have taken which do you feel have been the most successful?

There are 4 initiatives that I feel over the past two years have been the most successful.

a.   £99 Season Ticket – the reason was that we had a very good take-up of this offer and it was warmly welcomed by the London Irish supporters

b.   ‘The Blarney’ E-Zine – to see it grow from 4,000 to 10,000 e-mail addresses means that people find this a very useful tool

c.   ‘Kids Go Free’ Ticket Offer – when it was suggested, there were a lot of people that felt that this was going to have an impact on our revenue; it had the complete opposite and helped us achieve two of the highest attendances in the Zurich Premiership

d.   London Irish Official Website – it was identified early on that the website was very poor and needed changing.  During last summer a lot of time was spent on researching all other sports websites and launched on 1^st August.  It has now become one of our most important communication tools.

4.  Is there anything that, with hindsight, you would not have done?

The simple answer to that is No.  I don’t believe that there is anything that has been done over the past two years that I would not do again.  You need to try something to see if it works.  If it doesn’t, then you need to find out the reason why and try and amend it.

5.  What’s the best part of your job?

The best part of my job is working within sport.  I have been doing this for 8 years and if I didn’t enjoy it then I would not be doing it.  There are not many places you can work where you have so many highs and lows.

6.  How would you describe your style of working? Describe a typical day to us.

What is a typical day?  Every day is different and you have to deal with the situation as and when it arises.  From the first e-mail to the first phone call, each day is different.  Some days can be quite stressful and other days can be very quiet.

The way that I work depends on the job that I am involved in.  For example, when I am doing the planning for Season Tickets I have to be quite focused.

7.  Despite largely indifferent results on field the growth of crowds over the past five years has been spectacular.  What do you attribute this to?

This is down to a combination of things.  I believe that one of the major reasons is the London Irish supporters!  How?  Without your support and belief, London Irish would not be where we are today and one of the top 4 supported clubs in the Zurich Premiership.  With the supporters help, we have been able to promote matches using posters (we have a database of some 200 people we send to) and more importantly by ‘word of mouth’.

As I have already mentioned, at Saracens, it was decided to get people into the ground by whatever means and get them to enjoy themselves, and therefore they return for more (irrespective of what happens on the pitch).    The change in ticket pricing and the introduction of choice has meant that more people are willing to give it a try.  We have also done other things to spread the word of London Irish.

• Working closely with Local Businesses, using their intranet
• Working closely with both Reading 107fm and 210FM radio stations
• Working closely with local newspapers running competitions
• Providing ticket offers to Season Ticket holders
• Running the ‘Rugby Virgins’ ticket promotion with the Daily Express
• Working with our Sponsors, in particular Guinness and their contacts

London Irish has made the match day an enjoyable experience, and that has been commented by visiting supporters.  We are also getting more visiting supporters coming to the matches, as they enjoy the day and also the facilities.

I also believe that the facilities we have at the Madejski Stadium are also a major factor.

8.  How do you see marketing activity developing in the coming years, more of the same; new initiatives; cashback?

We will obviously repeat the marketing activities that have worked in the past, possibly adapting them slightly, i.e. we will definitely run ‘Kids Go Free’ again.  We have a few things in the pipeline but you will have to wait and see.

We will not be reintroducing the CashBack Scheme.  Most of the clubs have stopped doing this as the administration is too time consuming.  However, we are looking into a Group Ticket scheme.

9.  Rugby and LI aside, tell us a bit about you. 

• Age - 31
• Married – Yes, will be three years in November.  My wife, Susie, is from Navan in County Meath.  Been back and forth for the past 11 years, and waiting to be invited to become an Irish citizen!
• Children – One.  Proud to say that I am the father of Molly, a beautiful 4 month old baby girl, manage to get through the sleepless nights unscathed
• Where do I live? – I live in London Colney, St Albans in Hertfordshire.  Yes, I travel to Sunbury every day.  The journey can take me anything from 45 minutes to 3 hours!!!
• Hobbies – I love watching sport.  I am a Manchester United supporter (and yes I do go and watch them; Dad has two season tickets for Old Trafford), taking my dog for a walk and spending time with my family.
• Best Moment in my life – There are actually 5; being at the birth of my daughter (and not fainting!); marrying Susie in Ireland in November 2001; watching Manchester United winning the treble in 1999 (in particular being in Barcelona for the Champions League final); being involved with Saracens when they won the Tetley’s Bitter Cup Final in 1998; and being involved with London Irish when they won the Powergen Cup Final in 2002.
• Claim to fame – Appear on the Manchester United video ‘Champions of Europe’.  Towards the end of the video, there were about 15 of us that went out to Barcelona for the Champions League Final in 1999, and you can see me singing with them, towards the end of the video.  Singing badly, mind you!

10.         You’ve told me that you read The Craic website, what do you think of us?

I do enjoy reading the message board.  We do recognise that the unofficial site is a sounding board for the supporters but from time to time we do take on board some of the suggestions and criticisms.

With regard to the London Irish supporters, I think that they are the best in the Premiership (not saying that to be biased).  I have watched a lot of matches over the past 8 years and I have to say that the London Irish supporters will always enjoy themselves.  I think that is what makes London Irish so unique!  Don’t ever change.