Alice Larkworthy appointed Commercial Director

Elthamaddick

shirty5 said:

Barry Higson’s replacement 

Tracey Leaburn replacement as well if you check out the other thread*


*joke BTW

shirty5

Elthamaddick said:

shirty5 said:

Barry Higson’s replacement 

Tracey Leaburn replacement as well if you check out the other thread*


*joke BTW

Multi tasking 

cafcfan

Seems like our Alice is up for a laugh.  
This from a few years ago. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5992043/Wholl-love-blind-date-week-Alice-31-Barry-38.html
No doubt she'll be getting a bouquet of flowers from @cabbles some time soon!

ThomasOliver3

Bedsaddick said:

JamAddick said:

What changes do we want to see?

Seen a few people mention the slow speed at bars before games and at HT, which I agree with. Not sure whether it would fit within AL’s remit, but it baffles me why they don’t pre-pour a load of beers just before half time. Get the first 30 pints served immediately and that changes everything.

anything else? I personally think the fan zone has been a great addition, so anything to improve that would be great.

The food outlets are awful , (especially in the Alan Curbishley stand and the Covered End). lack of food choice . Long queue's and uninterested staff.  I agree the Fanzone is an improvement. 

Sorry to say but she's not going to be dealing with the speed that pints are poured at. She's a commercial director so she'll be working on new and old commercial partnerships, that may include Reebok and the F&B partners but it will be at a contractual and strategy level. Sorry but she's not going to be asking them to add another menu option for Bedaddick.

ThomasOliver3

Elthamaddick said:

shirty5 said:

Barry Higson’s replacement 

Tracey Leaburn replacement as well if you check out the other thread*


*joke BTW

I believe she will be more of a replacement for Charlie and Steve who I understand were very involved in the commercial deals from my brief discussions with Methven

KiwiValley

Someone i know used to work with her and he rates her highly.

NornIrishAddick

cafcfan said:

Seems like our Alice is up for a laugh.  
This from a few years ago. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5992043/Wholl-love-blind-date-week-Alice-31-Barry-38.html
No doubt she'll be getting a bouquet of flowers from @cabbles some time soon!

Was she proving that she was lark worthy?

I fully expect to ear in my head Miranda Hart saying "What larks!" for the foreseeable future whenever I read her name.

swords_alive

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

soapy_jones

swords_alive said:

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

Reinstate pot holes... travesty!

SporadicAddick

swords_alive said:

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

I’d imagine the focus is largely (exclusively?) on revenue generation, so sponsorship, hospitality, advertising, commercial partnership development and ticket sales will all be above your list. 2 and 4 are unlikely to be near the top. 1 is fixed for the next 9 months so nothing doing there. Incrementality from 3 is unlikely to be material in the short term.

charltonkeston

AddicksAddict said:

JamAddick said:

What changes do we want to see?

Seen a few people mention the slow speed at bars before games and at HT, which I agree with. Not sure whether it would fit within AL’s remit, but it baffles me why they don’t pre-pour a load of beers just before half time. Get the first 30 pints served immediately and that changes everything.

anything else? I personally think the fan zone has been a great addition, so anything to improve that would be great.

I mentioned pre-pouring to the woman on the Fuller’s black cab stand and she said customers don’t like it, which is strange because that’s quite common for stout. 

I suspect the answer given to was straight off the top of her head. 

I don’t know how to put this without sounding condescending to the staff serving beer but it’s obvious that they haven’t a clue, nor their supervisors and they need training by people who do.
 I had nearly a full pint of black taxi Saturday, tasted fine but it wasn’t poured remotely correctly and shy of a full pint that I paid for. It’s not that hard to do but does require some knowledge. 

Gribbo

KiwiValley said:

Someone i know used to work with her and he rates her highly.

Did he tell you that over lunch?

DOUCHER

swords_alive said:

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

Some sort of response when a long standing supporter asks if there are any parking spaces available at the ground to buy to help with mobility issues ? Twice contacted the club in writing, blanked both times. Even a courtesy reply to say no sorry, would be a start 

CAFCTrev

Gillis said:

In the same way we should never sign players from Ipswich, we should never recruit executives with links to Arsenal.

Matt Holland, Darren Bent, Hermann Hreiðarsson? Dont let Ahadme taint that illustrious group. 

swords_alive

SporadicAddick said:

swords_alive said:

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

I’d imagine the focus is largely (exclusively?) on revenue generation, so sponsorship, hospitality, advertising, commercial partnership development and ticket sales will all be above your list. 2 and 4 are unlikely to be near the top. 1 is fixed for the next 9 months so nothing doing there. Incrementality from 3 is unlikely to be material in the short term.

Begs the question as to where fans fit in a commercial strategy. For instance, surely a full stadium is a factor to support other revenue streams . And ticket prices can be set at fairly short notice to help make that happen.

Crusty54

swords_alive said:

SporadicAddick said:

swords_alive said:

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

I’d imagine the focus is largely (exclusively?) on revenue generation, so sponsorship, hospitality, advertising, commercial partnership development and ticket sales will all be above your list. 2 and 4 are unlikely to be near the top. 1 is fixed for the next 9 months so nothing doing there. Incrementality from 3 is unlikely to be material in the short term.

Begs the question as to where fans fit in a commercial strategy. For instance, surely a full stadium is a factor to support other revenue streams . And ticket prices can be set at fairly short notice to help make that happen.

Not without upsetting the season ticket holders.

In any case the sponsors will be more interested in getting their identities on TV.

SporadicAddick

swords_alive said:

SporadicAddick said:

swords_alive said:

Induction probably over now, maybe a strategy under development and appointment of a team. 

So priorities from a fans perspective for the commercial team, assuming there will be one:
1. Match day prices.
2. Gather and Gather contract, the '32 minute' problem
3. Fans zone, optimisation.
4. Some means of ongoing comms with stakeholders, e.g. to listen to/manage involvement of sponsors and fans and others.

What else might a commercial director take an interest in?

I’d imagine the focus is largely (exclusively?) on revenue generation, so sponsorship, hospitality, advertising, commercial partnership development and ticket sales will all be above your list. 2 and 4 are unlikely to be near the top. 1 is fixed for the next 9 months so nothing doing there. Incrementality from 3 is unlikely to be material in the short term.

Begs the question as to where fans fit in a commercial strategy. For instance, surely a full stadium is a factor to support other revenue streams . And ticket prices can be set at fairly short notice to help make that happen.

Fair point and I think it's a fine balance, as without happy fans there is no revenue, but I think that's more driven by performance on the pitch as commercial strategy.

There is a sad fact true of many industries. I'd say +90% of the posters on this forum are legacy fans. We'll turn up whatever (varying according to performance on the pitch) and we'll buy stuff whatever.

We are decent cash cows and we are very useful is in bringing new fans via friends and relatives, but if I were a commercial director, my aim would be incremental revenue, and that isn't coming from the people already here. As I said on another thread, our kit marketing is a great example - it's not aimed at middle aged blokes that will buy the shirt whatever, it's aimed at a new audience that might not have considered us / football as something to do - our social media output is likewise targeted (how many people on here had to google "the ends" when the Anderson an Aneke videos came out?).

I'd want to be targeting advertisers for our new screen and digital advertising, and be looking for a decent slice of London football tourism. I'd want 100% occupancy in lounges and boxes, and seeing how I could get higher revenues from them. 

Fan engagement, beer queue times and the fan zone would be other peoples issues, as they are lower on the incremental revenue scale.

All of the above is supposition, I may be completely wrong and the areas you highlight, which are all critical, may absolutely be her focus, and in many ways, I wish they were.