ANNUAL REPORT 2011 - Horse Racing Ireland

MARKETING REVIEWHorse Racing Ireland’s (HRI) marketing departmentwelcomed the return in growth to Irish racing in 2011.Racecourse attendances were up by 40,000 at 1.24mcompared to 1.20m in 2010. The average attendance at racemeetings in 2011 was 3,684, up 3% from 3,587.However, the task of marketing racing still faced clearchallenges. Owners, betting people, horse followers,commercial customers, sports fans and the leisuremarket were still in retreat due to the recession and itwas recognised that an economic recovery may not solvematters fully because fundamental changes remain – theinterest level in horse racing among the public needed to bedeveloped. To that end, the Strategic Marketing Group (SMG),established by the Board of Horse Racing Ireland and chairedby Jim Nicholson, was set up to report on ways to improveattendances at Irish race meetings.The group carried out market research to find the levelof interest in racing compared to other sports. They alsoidentified what drives interest in racing and what the barriersto participation are. All major racing industry sectors wereinvolved in stakeholder meetings during the preparation ofthe report including the Racegoers Consultative Forum and aRacecourse Marketing Group established by the Association ofIrish Racecourses (AIR).Launched in May 2011, the report identified three key goals:• Create a customer-focused racing product• Restore and grow the levels of attendance by the bettingcustomer at the racecourse• Grow the fan base by increasing levels of interest inthe sport.The report also made clear the central role of betting inattracting and retaining fans and recommended the creationof a broad forum to include HRI, the racecourses, on-courseand off-course bookmakers and suppliers of online bettingand exchange products.The UK market is very important for HRI Marketing andCheltenham’s Festival plays a key part in our overseasmarketing. Once again, St Patrick’s Day fell during thefestival. In conjunction with Cheltenham Racecourse andTourism Ireland, HRI rolled out the ‘Go Racing in Ireland forFree’ campaign. This ticket offered free racing at eight Irishrace meetings. This campaign was targeted at 40,000 UKracegoers through a direct mail campaign to Cheltenham’sdatabase of UK racegoers. We also developed an ‘Irish Racingpackages’ brochure, outlining various accommodation andracing offers at various racecourses around Ireland. Thiswas also distributed as direct mail via the UK edition of theRacing Post – approximately 60,000 copies on St Patrick’sDay. In addition, HRI marketing also co-ordinated the ‘GoRacing in Ireland’ trade stand for the four days of the festival,distributing free literature on Irish racing, and hosted the IrishRacing Focus Press Conference on the first day of the festival.Another important remit of HRI marketing is to demonstratethe success and, more importantly, the value of the racingindustry to the Irish economy. So, on the back of theIrish success at the Cheltenham Festival, HRI marketingorganised that all of the 13 Irish Cheltenham winners paradeat Fairyhouse on Easter Sunday to acknowledge theirrecord-breaking performance at the Festival, at which therewas a record 13 Irish-trained, 15 Irish-bred and 22 Irishriddenwinners. The unprecedented Irish success was alsohighlighted by Willie Mullins, Ruby Walsh and GigginstownHouse Stud capturing the leading trainer, jockey and ownertitles respectively.As the National Hunt season wound down, HRI marketingannounced apprentice jockeys Gary Carroll, Ben Curtis andJoseph O’Brien as our ‘Rising Stars of Flat Racing’. The triowere an automatic choice following the exciting finish to the2010 Flat season in Dundalk in December.The objective of the ‘Rising Stars’ initiative was to increasethe profile of Flat racing and to allow racing fans and thegeneral public to get to know more about the work andlifestyle of these up and coming jockeys. A key part of theirrole was to give an inside view of their daily routine and theirgeneral take on life, inside and outside racing. This campaignwas executed through TV, press and social media.With the Strategic Marketing Report recommendations inmind, ‘Stars go Racing’, a reality series, in association withHRI, was aired on RTE One in July for 6 weeks. Six wellknownIrish personalities – Linda Martin, Francis Brennan,Jean Byrne, Alan Quinlan, Ella McSweeney and Mike Denver –were recruited and paired with some of Ireland’s top trainersto learn the business of horse training and to compete witheach other at a series of race meetings nationwide. Theseries was extremely successful, with an average viewershipof 348,600 adults and approximately 28% share.The Strategic Marketing Report also influenced significantproduct development to the 2012 Fixture List, which wasannounced at the Galway Festival in July. The 2012 fixturelist featured many changes to meet our customers’ habitsand requirements. The key changes were:• The Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby to be run on a Saturday aspart of a late afternoon card• The Red Mills Irish Champion Stakes will also be run aspart of a late afternoon card on a Saturday• A new top class weekend of Flat racing has been createdon September 8th/9th featuring the Red Mills IrishChampion Stakes at Leopardstown on the Saturday andthe Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh on the SundayThe success of the Tote Go Racing Club (TGRC) and the GoRacing Kids Club continued in 2011. The TGRC held 34 eventsthroughout the year which attracted over 5,000 through10 Horse Racing Ireland Annual Report 2011