Hapoel Nir Ramat Ha'Sharon FC is a small club in the Israeli football premier league with no traditional hard core fan base. It suffers from chronically empty stands – leading to low revenues and a poor public image. Before the campaign, the club had the lowest attendance of all the Premier League’s 14 clubs – averaging 1200 people.

We created a new type of subscription scheme – "The Reverse Season Ticket”. The season ticket was free, with one interesting twist: Fans who took advantage of the free subscription, would be charged for the games they missed! The desired outcome was to get as many of the fans to be as loyal as possible and also to pull in new fans. We exposed this innovative idea using a traditional press conference. The countless articles written created a buzz, targeting the fans indirectly and encouraging them to contact the club.

In fact, targeting the fans indirectly was crucial to the success of the campaign which made PR the sole tool for achieving our goal.

The campaign reached 100% exposure in the daily press and in all of the sports websites in Israel. The wide coverage gave the small club much fame, reinforcing positive perception amongst its fan base. There was a 15% annual increase in fans, with an average of 1380 core fans. Over 95% of new subscribers became loyal fans and regularly came to games.

The creative execution tackled the fact that the team had no dedicated fan base. By awarding reverse season tickets (where Fans who took advantage of the free subscription, would be charged for the games they missed) we helped bring the fans into the stands, ensured they kept coming whilst rewarding them for their commitment. The idea positioned the club as one with strong self-belief, increasing loyalty within the club.

We used our resources - free subscriptions- intelligently, transforming an under-utilized product into a platform.

We marketed the idea using only PR at a cost of zero dollars.

There was a 15% annual increase in fans, with an average of 1380 core fans. Over 95% of new subscribers became loyal fans and regularly came to games. The campaign created a ripple effect: Coverage in all major sports columns, national newspapers and online gave the small club national fame, and reinforced positive perception amongst its growing fan base. From being considered a provincial club, it was seen as innovative and confident. Due to the success, the club has turned the reverse season ticket scheme into a tradition – and will re-launch it next year to target new fans.