Out of the Box versus Magical Thinking
By Roger Bill
The Provincial government’s decision to sponsor a bottom-rung British soccer team surprised many including some of the sponsors of other clubs in the league. For example, John Lea says, “There is obviously a very good reason” why the Newfoundland provincial government would spend $171,000 to sponsor Barrow AFC, but the sponsor of one of Barrow’s competitors “can’t imagine what that is.”
Lea is the Managing Director of Mornflake, a centuries old British breakfast cereal company that has been the sponsor of Crewe Alexandra AFC, another Tier-4 team, for 20 years.
Apart from being puzzled by the Newfoundland government’s shirt sponsorship deal, Lea says the $171,000 two-year price tag, “looks to be very cheap.”
A second Barrow AFC competitor agrees. David Greenleaf, the Managing Director of Pure Vans and sponsor of Newport County AFC, says the $171,000 deal is at the low end of the scale for front shirt sponsorships in the league.
Greenleaf, whose Pure Vans business is commercial vehicle sales, is also intrigued by the Newfoundland government’s motive in sponsoring Barrow AFC. “My only thoughts of why they would do it would be that they are looking to export a product to the U.K., and this is their target demographic or tourism,” he says.
Of course, the Newfoundland government’s former immigration minister Gerry Byrne said the department’s motives are neither exporting products nor tourism.
The Marketing Target
Byrne recently told the Toronto Star the marketing target is “temporary residents in the U.K. and across Europe . . . They don’t know if they’re going to have to be relocated or where their future lies. This is where we need to tap into. We need to make these individuals aware that Newfoundland and Labrador could be that choice for them.”
A Toronto-based sociologist specializing in migration told the Toronto Star she is doubtful that the strategy will succeed. If the temporary residents in the U.K. are from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh they are “big on cricket,” she says, and “I’m not sure they’re necessarily soccer fans.”
A strategy that makes more sense, the sociologist suggests, is for Newfoundland to target temporary residents in other parts of Canada, rather than looking abroad.
What are the marketing targets of shirt sponsors of other teams on the bottom-rung of the English Football League?
When league play begins next month, Barrow AFC will face teams sponsored by a spring water company, a ventilation company, a plumbing company, a company that sells digital services to parking garages, and a manufacturer of renewable home energy products.
Home Awaits
In addition to displaying a maple leaf and the name of this province, the Barrow AFC jersey will include the internet address, HomeAwaits.ca. The provincial immigration department has launched the new website to coincide with the shirt sponsorship deal and the site opens with the promise that “Here, happiness can be forever.”
The immigration department website has the look and feel of a tourism site beckoning visitors to a place where “you can live your dreams.” Visitors to the site are encouraged to choose the “Happiest Province in Canada” where you’ll find “affordable housing and free access to public education and high-quality health care.” The site leaves out the part about the number of individuals in the province who do not have a family doctor. According to the Newfoundland and Labrador Medical Association, that number has increased from 105,000 in 2021 to 175,000 this year.
“We have to use our imagination to think outside the box,” Byrne told the Toronto Star.
Uh, didn’t Premier Brian Peckford say something like that in 1987 about growing cucumbers in a greenhouse in Mount Pearl?