Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Thu Sep 21, 2017 12:00 am  

I'd say its probably getting to the point where the sport in the Uk needs to take a leap forward or its just going to end up running in ever decreasing circles. Its a big 'if' but if RL could even get a sniff of American sporting dollars it would fundamentally change the economics of the sport, which right now looks like is what's needed. I've no doubt at all that if we had a competition with a couple of north american sides in it as well as London, Cats and maybe Toulouse, the value to any broadcaster would be vastly higher than SL is now.

Right now I look at a sport which is stagnating at the top level, with too few teams of not enough quality. We have a small window of opportunity to make big changes - history shows that if you don't take these chances as they arrive then they may disappear forever. It could also go Pete Tong, but TBH without a big shakeup I don't see SL doing anything other than slowly shrinking over time anyway.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Thu Sep 21, 2017 8:23 am  

j.c wrote:

How does this actually work?
Is it like, AIG, jaguar land-rover, HSBC, barclays etc want their products advertised when union is on and when league is on its a case of, bachelors, specsavers, Northern rock, ford etc?

Under the traditional system, most advertisers will use media-buying agencies. Those advertisers will tell their agencies the sorts of audiences that they want to attract (using a series of MOSAIC profile demographics, of which there are around 80 if you include the sub-segments) and it is up to the media agency to identify what those audiences are likely to be watching, and buy blocks of ad space around that content.

Where we're going is a situation where advertisers will be able to target audiences on an individual level, rather than on a demographic level. Sky is already doing this and essentially, what they say to advertisers is "we have an ad slot that we're going to show to Mr J Smith, a 52-year-old company director living in HG3 who is in the £70-80k earning bracket and regularly watches Formula 1" and they essentially auction off that particular ad slot to the highest bidder. You can imagine why a company like BMW, Mercedes or a luxury travel brand might want to target that particular person and why they might want to pay good money to do so. Similarly, there would be fewer advertisers willing to pay (or to pay much) to reach "J Bloggs, a part-time warehouse worker from LS12 who likes to watch rugby league"

Essentially, that tech will evolve to take into account things like a person's search history, or places that they regularly go to. Google and other digital ad platforms already do this, but it will eventually come to traditional media.

Re: 2 more transatlantic sides gunning for League 1 : Thu Sep 21, 2017 8:48 pm  

bramleyrhino wrote:

Essentially, that tech will evolve to take into account things like a person's search history, or places that they regularly go to. Google and other digital ad platforms already do this, but it will eventually come to traditional media.

I sold behavioral targeting solutions to the Mirror Group back in 2007 and they were late to the party. Traditional media are already using it and have been for over a decade.....as I type, the ads I am being shown by RLFANS.COM all relate to my recent search history and websites I have visited..