Marketing 101 · 12.11.08

Ray Paulick has an interesting article at ESPN.com, about this week’s Asian Racing Federation conference in Tokyo. Among other things, conference delegates are all trying to address horse racing’s basic demographic problem: how to counter-act the negative effects of an aging fan-base by attracting new fans to the sport?

One approach has been to attract more young women to the track. Racetracks in Australia are using sex and glamour to attract the attention of young single females (“That’s not a whip!”). By contrast, Japanese marketers are targeting young married women by appealing to sentiment, loyalty, and their love of animals. As Japanese housewives traditionally have control of household finances (i.e. husband brings paycheque home to wife, wife gives husband allowance and spends/saves/invests the rest), that is probably a smart marketing move.

Would that approach work in North America? It depends, writes Paulick:

Of course, racing associations must have the appropriate atmosphere and facilities to back up their marketing and advertising campaigns. A select number of American tracks (Keeneland, Saratoga, Del Mar among them) could deliver on the promises that the Melbourne and Sydney carnivals make, but try running that ad for Pimlico, Aqueduct or Golden Gate Fields and you’ll get an unhappy result.
Promote racing as an uplifting sport for females or young mothers at Arlington Park and you’ll do fine. Try that same message for Hawthorne, however, and your pitch will fall on deaf ears.

As for my local track, as previously reported Hastings began to see the results of a bigger promotional push this year: more young people are coming out to make a day (or night) of it. The focus so far has been to promote the new casino — I have yet to see any billboards or bus advertisements promoting horses and racing, as opposed to slots — but I am optimistic that will change in 2009. Further upgrades hinted at by GCGC CEO Ross McLeod should support such marketing initiatives.

Again, to quote Ray Paulick:

Show me a place with lots of young women mixed in with an exciting sport you can bet on, and I’ll show you a place where men are likely to follow.

What’s the word I’m looking for? Oh yeah: DUH!

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What do you think?

  1. The race tracks are missing the point: ONCE you get them there, you have to promote an understanding of WINNING the game or they will not come back. Vegas has “learning tables” for just this problem, showing patrons the ins and outs of winning. Racing has been miserable in this regard. I often go through the crowd, pretending to be a rookie and ask a simple question: “Could you show me where the eight pole is on the race course as I know it is where the stretch call is made?” BLANK STARES are all I see.

    — Dr. Timothy Yatcak · Nov 13, 09:35 AM · #

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