The Value of Jump Racing Sponsorship

For the past decade or more, there has been a huge amount of buzz around digital marketing. While that sector has grown exponentially sponsorship has also been enjoying a period of growth, capitalising on consumer fatigue with traditional advertising channels. Jump Racing is one of the sports to have benefited from this growth. Sponsorship, primarily of races, has been a growth market in Jump Racing in recent years, from an estimated £6m in 2002 to £10m in 2009–10. Despite the economic downturn, sponsorship is a significant revenue earner for the major racecourses, which also allows smaller courses to stage better funded programmes than would otherwise be the case.

Yet racing’s diverse sponsor base has never been thoroughly researched, nor its needs identified – until now. In late 2010, Jockey Club Racecourses, the UK’s leading racecourse group, whose ownership includes Cheltenham and Aintree, and Racing Enterprises Ltd engaged IFM Sports Marketing Surveys to survey attitudes and opinions among a sample of Jump Racing sponsors.

The findings of the research were expected to meet three main goals:

1. To examine how the sport can work with its sponsors in order to build the business to their mutual advantage
2. To understand more about sponsors’ decision making processes and the maturity of their approach to using sponsorship as a marketing tool
3. To demonstrate the benefit of Jump Racing sponsorship to a wide range of sponsors

Thus, this report sets out to understand what motivates sponsors to invest in Jump Racing, and how better to respond to their objectives whilst maintaining the integrity of the sport.

Methodology

An online survey was conducted amongst sponsors at a selection of major racecourses throughout the UK, namely Ascot, Cheltenham, Doncaster, Kempton Park, Newbury and Sandown Park. Decision makers within 142 separate sponsoring companies were invited by email to take part in the online research. A group of these sponsors were then interviewed by telephone to gain qualitative insight to support the online findings. A total of 51 online surveys and 14 telephone interviews were completed. The research took place during January and February 2011.

Main findings

Jump Racing is in good health on all fronts. The sport offers one of the strongest media propositions for sponsors, with high levels of terrestrial TV coverage, excellent print media exposure and a large spectator footfall. The survey found that existing sponsors are positive about their involvement in Jump Racing and it compares well to their other sponsorship activity. The particular benefits of Jump Racing are seen to be its positive attributes, potential for corporate hospitality, media exposure, audience and comparatively low entry points in terms of price. It also offers many channels through which brands can activate their sponsorship involvement, including experiential marketing, exhibition stands, and online applications.

The research also found that the market for Jump Racing sponsorship is changing, with more consumer brands becoming involved in the sport. In addition, the sport is working hard to provide more opportunities for sponsors to become involved and to develop packages that meet a sponsor’s particular communications needs.

The survey also tackled the topic of evaluation. While sponsorship is one of the longest-established marketing tools, it remains one of the least well measured and understood. This research found that many Jump Racing sponsors are trying to evaluate their involvement in Jump Racing but there is no common means of measurement and for many it is still difficult to define the exact financial contribution of their sponsorship activity. However, in this respect Jump Racing is no different from most other forms of sponsorship.