A LEADING sports marketing expert has congratulated Carlton for its provocative new membership campaign, but warned it could backfire if the club fails to deliver on-field results in 2010.

Andrew Hughes, a lecturer at the Australian National University's School of Management, Marketing and International Business, applauds the bold approach the Blues have taken with their 'Can you smell what the Blues are cooking' slogan, but adds there are always risks inherent when you dare to be different. 

"You've got to be very careful because if you over-promise and then under-deliver you've got a situation where there's a lot of pressure on on-field performance," Hughes says.

"If you've come out and said 'we are going to win these matches' and 'we're going to boil the Pies and the Bombers' so to speak, then the coach is in trouble if that doesn't happen.

"If they don't perform people will get a sour taste in the mouth and we know through marketing theory they'll leave and they won't come back again."

But while there are risks involved, Hughes believes the upside of such an 'in your face' approach is significant.

"They're leading the way because they're putting their marketing out there a little bit more than what most other clubs would," Hughes says.

"It really takes a leap into the market, but now they've got to deliver on what they've said to the market. That's the tricky thing because in sports you never know what's going to happen.

"If they pull it off their membership will jump significantly and maybe even hit the magical 50,000 mark. I wouldn't be surprised if that was their aim internally, but then the task is to keep them. 

"The other clubs will sit up and take notice. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them had thought of a similar concept."

The slogan is fairly transparently borrowed from former WWE wrestler The Rock, but Hughes says the connection with such a symbol of strength and athletic prowess isn't such a bad thing. 

As for the smirking blue caricatures of star quartet Chris Judd, Matthew Kreuzer, Bryce Gibbs and Marc Murphy standing over the boiling cauldron/premiership cup, Hughes feels the 'Harry Potter-esque' imagery sits well with the cheeky slogan designed to break new ground for one of the AFL's oldest clubs. 

The derision the campaign has been greeted with from other clubs' supporters is to be expected, but it seems the Blues faithful aren't entirely on board either.

A poll on fan site Talking Carlton has the approval rating at just 29 per cent. Almost half dislike it with the rest willing to give it some time. But that's okay, Hughes argues.

"The clubs aren't going after their core markets so much any more; they're going after secondary markets," he says.

"The core members will always sign up year in, year out whether they're 16th or first on the ladder.

"That doesn't change a lot, but what does change is those people who will push the membership numbers up by an additional five or ten thousand to make the club very profitable."

Striking a cord with that segment of the community isn't easy, but Hughes believes the Blues have read the modern sporting landscape better than most of their counterparts with their latest bid to engage a wider audience.

"I think Carlton realises that they're not just about AFL, they're not just about sport; they're about entertainment too.

"The big 'e' word in marketing at the moment is excitement. How can we excite the consumer?

"Sports clubs are not immune to that. They have to get their members - their consumers - excited about their brand.

"That's based around experiences which, in turn, are about entertainment. The entertaining part for fans is watching the Pies get done or the Bombers get flogged in this example.

"I give Carlton credit for recognising that. I think it's going to be very successful."