The Football League's Family Football Festival campaign is well and truly underway with families up and down the country enjoying the best The League has to offer.

Launched at the end of September, the Family Football Festival encompasses 47 matches taking place from October 1 to December 17 to encourage families to attend a Football League game this Autumn.

Events are taking place on matchdays at 47 of The League's clubs throughout the period, ranging from fancy dress and face-painting to a visit from animals from the local zoo.

David Malkinson, Head of Marketing for The League, explained: "We have been working for the last five seasons on the Family Excellence Award, trying to improve the product for families at clubs, and this year is the next stage of that where we are trying to push new families along to grounds.

"That is the key aim, to attract new families to grounds and to the game, and also to engage with people who have left the game.

"If someone was a season ticket holder until they were 30, then had kids and couldn't afford a season ticket any longer, they can now come back to the game with their family.

"What we have done is introduced national campaign elements such as advertising on Absolute Radio, and all of the clubs have had personalised literature and materials so that they can use those locally.

"We have set up a Facebook page as the hub of the campaign to signpost different opportunities for clubs, and competition prizes.

"We also have a strategic partnership with Netmums where they are running advertising and e-newsletters, as well as listing fixtures on their local pages for the relevant areas.

"They have 10 main bloggers who are going to games with their kids and we have already had a few come along, which has been very positive.

"The minimum we have asked is for clubs to run half-time entertainment, fancy dress competitions and family-themed entertainment at the games.

"Bristol City also had the local zoo along with some animals for people and children to see, and Colchester United have had zorbing and other different events taking place."

Attendances across The League's 72 clubs remain healthy and in recent years a larger number of families have been visiting matches on a regular basis.

The Family Football Festival aims to build on the good work that has taken place all over the country and ensure that football is enjoyed by everyone.

Facilities for supporters have improved in that period and continue to improve, and David feels that also makes a difference to the experience of those attending grounds.

He said: "In the last few seasons the biggest growth in fans [attending games] has been in the family areas of grounds because clubs have really put an emphasis on making their family stands as approachable as possible for families and trying to counter those perceptions that football isn't a family sport.

"There are a lot of people coming along and a couple of seasons ago we had a sizeable growth in the number of families coming along to the games.

"I have worked for The Football League for five years and in that time we have put a lot of emphasis with our member clubs on making sure facilities are better, food is better, that stewarding is a lot more about customer service than the perception of traditional stewarding.

"I think every Football League club has made massive leaps in terms of making that experience as good as it can be."

The tried and tested view of football is that fans will turn up in large numbers when their team is doing well but will tend to drift away in the less successful periods.

That is something The League is aiming to get away from both for the future benefit of its clubs and supporters of all ages.

"Traditionally clubs have relied on what happens on the pitch influencing their fans," David continued.

"That is great when you are at the top of the division but when you're struggling and perhaps need that support more than ever it is important clubs have got very strong strategic plans in place to take a bit of the pressure away from the Manager in terms of making the team performance actually dictate how many people come along to games.

"The clubs that are extremely successful from a commercial perspective and in terms of engaging with their fans are the ones that have got very good plans in place off the field to make that happen whether the team is at the top of the division or struggling at the bottom."

The League's Family Football Festival goes a long way to supporting those aims and it is already evident that the events are being well-received at club level and by the fans attending games.

It is hoped that, once the success of the Family Football Festival is evaluated, there will be further opportunities in the future to build on the work so far.

"If this works, which I think it is doing and feedback from clubs so far is great, hopefully we will be able to do something in the second half of the season and something even bigger and better next season," David concluded.

Visit the Facebook page for the Family Football Festival!