Alice Larkworthy appointed Commercial Director

shirty5 said:

Barry Higson’s replacement 

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


*joke BTW

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

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 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!

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. 

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 

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.

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.

Airman Brown said:

Gone.

Quit? Repercussions? 

Never exploited Valley Express in a way that would build support and generate profit and bums on seats and spend at the Valley.
I imagine it is a rotating position, and will start again with another eager ‘sweat the asset’ young ‘un on crap wages, who will not grow the business in the most obvious way, which is help people to travel and attend matches and therefore generate income.

PaddyP17 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 stuff like queues and customer footprint is Ops rather than Commercial territory. Alice would be securing sponsorships, commercial partnerships, any ways to supplement the Club's income, and maybe think about a change from e.g. Delaware North (if necessary). There's a bit of cross-pollination but the stuff like how quickly pints are poured is an ops thing, and the Fan Zone is probably a bit of everything.

She also looks like a really decent hire for a football club of our size, and the ongoing commitment to this off the field is very good to see. I have worked on Premier League commercial director roles before and while she might be a tiny bit light for some of those, it's a really good sign that off the field we're taking such a professional approach to how we can build out our staff too.

That went well 

Henry Irving said:

DA9 said:

Airman Brown said:

Gone.

Quit? Repercussions? 

"Let go" I heard.

Whether it was fall out from the Mr Q fiasco I dont know

what MrQ fiasco Henry?

DamoNorthStand said:

gringo said:

Henry Irving said:

DA9 said:

Airman Brown said:

Gone.

Quit? Repercussions? 

"Let go" I heard.

Whether it was fall out from the Mr Q fiasco I dont know

what MrQ fiasco Henry?

Is this not common knowledge now? The sponsorship deal that was, then wasn't. 

No, other than you and a few others cryptically alluding to it around the home kit launch I think this is the first time Mr Q have been named on here