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I am often puzzled by sponsorship in horse racing. Lots of companies spend huge amounts of money to promote their brands. Surely in most cases the return for the spend is questionable?
Has anyone on this forum purchased a bottle of Hennessy Cognac within the last ten years?
Anyone placed a bet with Digibet?
Any regular users of WBX?
Digibet seem to be sending on UK racing and football but their web site offering is virtually useless to the UK market.
How much have WBX spent on sponsorship and marketing?
Of course it is all tax deductable.
Whether by actual advertising or even by arranging a day at the races with food and drink for clients.Thomas Pink clothing boosted their brand image in a massive way when they were involved with Cheltenham.
However once they had achieved that they pulled out.Scania Life Assurance and Boss clothing spend millions on yatching by either sponsoring Cowes Week as a whole or by Boss who sponsor actual yatchs.
That is the type of image they wish to get across.On line poker companies went for a dare I say ‘lower’ but broader based image by sponsoring some football teams.
With the current High Court trial and other recent bad press that racing has received the brand marketing comanies that advise large companies on advertising would I have thought found other sporting events easier to sell to clients at present.
I am often puzzled by sponsorship in horse racing. Lots of companies spend huge amounts of money to promote their brands. Surely in most cases the return for the spend is questionable?
A fair question.
Does anyone really go to Market Rasen, see one of the many UK Hygiene-sponsored races there, and come away thinking that their life is really the poorer for not having a hot air hand drier or the right kind of bog roll at home?
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
BUILDING BRAND AWARENESS – that’s what it’s all about.
WBX – to have any hope of challenging betfair – have to market their product aggressively and that is what they have done.
A famous American industrialist, I can’t remember who for the minute, once said something along the lines of ‘half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, I just wish I knew which half’.
I’m having a new shower installed on Monday. I’m convinced it’s a subconscious reaction to watching the Faucets For Mira Showers Silver Trophy Chase at Cheltenham earlier this year.
See, it does work!
Perhaps because it’s very cheap – for example Pontins sponsor three races at Wolverhampton tomorrow evening and I’d be amazed if their contribution is more than £3,000, probably less.
For that they get their name in most national newspapers and on lots of websites – how much advertising space could they buy for three grand.
The ones that puzzle me are the companies that sponsor and leave you none the wiser as to the nature of their business – e.g who or what are IDC Freeclaim, sponsors of the first at Newcastle tomorrow?
AP
Alot of sponsorships happen because the company owner or chairman is a racing fan, The Whitbread,Mackeson and Hennessy Gold Cups over jumps and the two Derby sponsors so far, Ever Ready and Vodafone all came about this way.
And I believe that Arena (owner of Wolverhampton racecourse) and Pontins (one of their sponsors) both have Trevor Hemmings as a major, if not the major, shareholder
It is cheaper than, for example, taking a full page advert in a national paper or magazine.
It also provides an excellent opportunity to entertain clients / potential clients on the back of the sponsorship.
IDC Freeclaim’s sponsorship has also indirectly paid off as we are discussing it in this forum!!! (If anyone is interested they are one of these compensation chasing organisations – libel laws prevent me describing them any other way)
Sponsorship is also excellent vehicle for winding people up – I promised my other half that her 40th birthday, which she was trying to pretend wasn’t happening, would be in every national daily – it was, as I sponsored a race to "celebrate" the momentous day. Actually it was money well spent, she took it in good spirit and the racecourse ensured she had a great day, so it was money well spent. The only down side was the nag I had backed to get the sponsorship money back came a neck second, it would probably had won if its saddle had not slipped.
The ones that puzzle me are the companies that sponsor and leave you none the wiser as to the nature of their business – e.g who or what are IDC Freeclaim, sponsors of the first at Newcastle tomorrow?
Quite so. Without listening to the MC’s patter at the course, I’d struggle to imagine what regular Cartmel sponsor Cube247.co.uk actually does – other than perhaps provide a night-and-day delivery service of Rubiks products.
gc
Adoptive father of two. The patron saint of lower-grade fare. A gently critical friend of point-to-pointing. Kindness is a political act.
The guy from Betfair confessed that they had not insured against the possibility of their £1M bonus being won last year so had to pay out themselves.
He reckoned the publicity made it worthwhile and have done the same thing again.
Most racing sponsorship is carefully targetted.
Maybe at the local course so that a jolly for top employees and customers at a time of the year when their product is about to be high profile,
The Hennessy for example is just in time for Christmas and the Mira Showers day at Cheltenham is mid-April when the weather is starting to warm up and people traditionally start thinking home improvements.When I used to work in sports signage seasonal factors were very important.
how much advertising space could they buy for three grand.
Half a page in a mid ciruclation specialist magazine…. not a lot
Brand awareness does not immediately translate into sales of course….common misconception of advertising
But if you went to but a bottle of Brandy tomorrow, would you buy the name that you had never heard of?
I miss the Chums trousers ads on ATR. And the Ocean finance ones with all the fatties, alchies, mingers and coffin dodgers
It always makes me smile to see races such as ‘The happy 80th Birthday Uncle Albert’ stakes etc
Exactly, racing similar to any event allows companies to enhance their brand objectives. However, larger companies dedicate a sizable chunk of their promotional budget to racing because of the industries ability to meet corporate objectives thus improving corporate culture etc etc.
Where race selection is concerned, brand values and strategic fit determine what races to attach the companies brand to. Aspects such as event type, event characteristics and individual factors impact how us punters and those furthur afield percieve an event.
Racecourses then allow sponsors to leverage their sponsorship in different ways……race titles, ticket allocation, branding. The main sponsor of the meeting gets priority obviously.
Depending on the event sponsor put forward between 30% – 40% of the overall prize money. I would always have been of the opinion that benefits accruing from race sponsorship, outweigh benefits accruing from other event sponsorships, when the level of investment required is taken into consideration.
The amount contributed by the sponsor can fall within a much bigger range than that, 20% or lower if the racecourse has not managed to get a sponsor with a couple of days to go, up to 70% at high profile events such as the National Hunt Festival.
Sytems By Design who are a midlands based interior design company have built up a racing freindly image by sponsoring the Lambourn yards.
As far as I can see the only reward was to get the commision to re design some of Newbury racecourse.Jewson the builders now sponsor the Jonjo yard.
However there is no truth in the rumour that Paddy Murphy’s Irish Fiddle company have decided to sponsor the Barney Curley yard.
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