Building the next generation of Swans fans

A priority of Swan Districts strategy is creating a new generation of Swans fans to follow the path of the club’s very loyal and generational supporters.

“Like any successful brand, you need to continually focus on your next generation of customers”, said club Chief Executive Jeff Dennis.

“You need to identify who they are and allocate the resources required to engage them.”

“To do this, they must see the club brand, product offering and engagement strategy being relevant to them.”

“One can argue that we’ve been asleep at the wheel since the establishment of the expanded VFL/AFL. We haven’t changed the way we do business and the way we present ourselves fast enough to keep pace with a rapidly changing world.”

“We can’t apportion blame to others, like the media for not covering us like they did in days gone. We must take the lead.”

“We’ve spent considerable funding on this strategy over recent years, and the results to date don’t yet reciprocate the investment. But we understand that generational change is a long game.”  

The club delivers a range of fan acquisition strategies including:

School and club clinics

This season, as of the end of July our WAFL and WAFLW players visited 6,631 children in 284 classes and junior football teams in over 30 local schools and 7 junior football clubs. Swans players leave a bag of footies from club sponsor Sullivan Logistics at every school and junior club visit.

All participants received free entry to a Swans WAFL or WAFLW home game for them and their parents, a free sausage sizzle and soft drink, the chance to receive one of over 20 free footies handed out by our players, and free player cards and team posters to be signed by players at the end of the game.

So far this season 411 match tickets have been booked by students and 1,390 by junior football players.

Family friendly match days

The club continues to invest heavily in its family focussed game day proposition. There’s free games, activities and competitions for kids at every Swans WAFL home game including laser tag, giant slide, Spider Mountain tower and climbing wall, bungee tramps, bouncy castles and face painting in the Swans Play Zone.

Everyone can also join in kick to kick with the Swans players at quarter time and win a cash prize in Bin It to Win It at half time at both WAFL and WAFLW games.

At WAFL games the little kids can also win prizes in the Swans Dance off at quarter time and Chase the Swan at three quarter time. And of course parents can relax in comfort on a picnic rug or seats watching their kids be entertained and run free in a fun, safe and secure environment.

Social media

This season the club created six different social media video posts showcasing its WAFL and WAFLW home game experiences to a new audience. The last 4 week campaign reached over 150,000 people, of which 84,000 engaged with the post and 5,532 connected to the club webste to find more match day information.

Junior Parade Day

Every year the club invites all local junior football clubs to a WAFL home game wearing their club colours. This season 13 clubs and 589 players and parents attended the game against West Perth in May.

Auskick Gala Day

In July the club held an Auskick gala day at Steel Blue Oval with 14 local junior clubs, 36 teams and over 300 players 5 – 7 years of age with around 270 parents and family members watching on.

Youth programs

The club’s growing metropolitan and regional community outreach programs also help connect with a new audience. Swans commitment to building community and delivering personal social impact creates a stronger reciprocal sense of belonging between the club and community. Club staff and players work hard to deliver early childcare, young people, social enterprise, cultural engagement and all ability programs in Onslow, Roebourne and the metropolitan area. The club recently launched the Bassendean Youth Hub helping kids connect with their community through the football club.  

This season, with one game remaining, the club’s WAFL average home game attendance increased by 25%, from 1,929 in 2023 to 2,420.