Glenfarclas
Cross Country Trains
Matalan
The Sun
Market Rasen

CASE STUDIES

Glenfarclas
Glenfarclas is a family owned Speyside malt whisky, sold through the restaurant and hotel trade, and now on the cusp of breaking into mainstream retail. The brand includes whiskies of several different ages and strengths.

In recent years, the domestic market for whisky has entered something of a renaissance, with sales lifting as brands reposition themselves for a younger market. Glenfarclas recognizes it is not competing against blended whiskies like Bell’s and Johnnie Walker. Its market is a niche, where discerning consumers recognize the distinctive aromas and flavour of a malt, distilled to a secret recipe.

The Glenfarclas association with racing tracks that trend. Glenfarclas chose a unique breed of race – Cross Country – of which there are only three such events in the UK, all at Cheltenham, and combined this with guest events at Punchestown in Ireland and Pau in France to create an international series. Any horse competing in all three countries is entitled to run for twice the prize money at the final race at the Cheltenham Festival.

Glenfarclas branding of the site, to include a giant whisky bottle on the winning line, together with a series of brand prompts, helped to raise the profile of the brand in the first year, and agreement with Compass Group to train staff and stock the brand on each premises provided some consumer experience of the distinctive malt. Each of the three UK races was broadcast on Channel 4, giving access to a cumulative audience of nearly 2 million viewers. Trade competitions and premium hospitality have also cemented relationships with key outlets.

In addition, the sponsorship illustrated to retail partners the seriousness of Glenfarclas’ intent to break into the wider consumer market. Glenfarclas is now poised to recruit a major multiple retailer partner, offering shelf space, point of sale materials linked to the races, as well as delivering higher sale among its wholesale customers.

In conjunction with other activities across a broad range of sectors, Glenfarclas has lifted sales by 25% in the past 12 months. Charles Hamer, of Pol Roger, its UK distributor, comments:

“We are delighted with our relationship with Cheltenham and with the significant increase in our public profile associated with our sponsorship. This carefully selected partnership has, gratifyingly, led to excellent growth in our UK sales since the start of the race series. We are confident that the subsequent two seasons, to which we are already committed, will continue this upward trend”.

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Cross Country Trains
Covering over 1,400 route miles and over 100 stations, Cross Country Trains services the entire West Country, north to Birmingham and Manchester, and as far as Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. Cross Country took over the route from Virgin in 2008.

Cross Country Trains identified the Cheltenham Festival as a key driver to passenger numbers each March, and developed a variety of print and online prompts to its customers and to Cheltenham’s audience during the three months leading to the 2009 Festival, working in partnership with the racecourse.

According to Clare Shufflebotham, Partnership Manager for Cross Country, the results were unambiguous:

“Around 26,000 people travelled to Cheltenham Spa during the Festival race week in 2009, an increase of nearly 19,000 journeys compared to a non-race week. With the average train ticket to Cheltenham Spa costing around £10, the rail industry certainly benefits from the increased traffic driven by this event. Cross Country increased journey volumes by 1% over the 2009 Festival period year on year despite the economic downturn so the commercial benefits of working in partnership with the Racecourse are clear.”

That 1% uplift translated into over 1,600 individual journeys to Cheltenham over the four days, a significant volume for both parties.

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Matalan
Matalan is one of the UK’s leading clothing and homeware retailers. Recently value at £1.5 billion, the company has sought to increase its profile prior to a public flotation or sale. The company’s sponsorship, particularly through the Style Contest, at Aintree Racecourse is focused on speaking to potential customers and driving footfall to their stores.

Lee Pinnington, Matalan’s Head of Marketing, says:

“Racing is a lifestyle sport and there is no better marketing vehicle than word of mouth. At Aintree 70,000 racegoers in one day experience the Matalan brand. Our exposure has had a significant impact in sales across the region. From our experience, race days provide Matalan us with the ultimate shop window opportunity”.

Aintree attracts a broad socio-demographic mix and the mutually beneficial partnership offers obvious commercial opportunities for Matalan including experiential marketing, banners and course hoardings, product advertisements and sales opportunities as well as providing their customers with a fun day.

For Aintree, the John Smith’s Grand National Meeting is promoted in the local high street stores, and to Matalan’s customer database of 12 million. Aintree works with the retailer to drive footfall to the event. The key message is to buy an outfit from Matalan and go to Ladies’ Day. In addition, many of Matalan’s 203 stores and 18,000 employees now entertain or are entertained at Aintree throughout the year at a variety of events. This offers incremental business to Aintree across its range of businesses.

Lee Pinnington continues,

“Our involvement with Aintree has significantly increased awareness of Matalan in the region and has improved perception of our brand and product. Initially we concentrated on the Grand National Meeting but Aintree also presented fantastic year long opportunities enabling us to also engage with our customers and staff. The buzz from staff and the local community spirit engendered has resonated a real passion.”

The raceday Style competition, Style 2009 enabled Matalan to stage a high profile pre-event Fashion Show in store, hosted by Jeff Banks and starring the 2008 contest winner, Anna Perez, which generated outstanding press coverage. On the day the Fashion First Aid area saw over 15,000 giveaway bags handed out in return for data capture. This exercise provides a very measurable return on investment.

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The Sun
Jump racing has tremendous popular appeal and has been a particular focus of Sun investment over recent years.

The Sun’s industry-leading Saturday racing pullout The Favourite has become a central plank of the newspaper’s weekend offering and without doubt contributes extra sale on a key publication day for all papers.

The Sun has been able to leverage its strong brand presence within the sport by adding midweek supplements at the Festival, and at other major meetings such as Aintree for the John Smith’s Grand National.

Executive Editor, Fergus Shanahan, comments:

“We would not be making these investments without proof that they are commercially very effective. We measure that success not only in terms of sales, which always rise during the big race events, but by the extra advertising – for example from bookmakers, food and beverage companies and the travel industry – that comes on board.”

There are additional revenue opportunities through premium phone line and internet racing services, where The Sun is very much at the cutting end of a growing market.

And there are, of course, synergies between newspapers and TV: coverage of meetings such as Cheltenham on television and radio helps create the sense of excitement that has spectators and racing fans reaching for newspapers that support and enhance that excitement.

All this underscores the huge importance of racing to national newspapers. In terms of overall coverage and investment it comes second only to football.

Fergus reports again:

“Why the particular attraction of Jump racing? Look back at the most-loved horses of recent years: Desert Orchid, Best Mate, Kauto Star – these are the stuff of romantic legends and carry the dreams and bets of millions of Sun readers. And as for the 100-1 outsider, Norton’s Coin, trained by a Welsh dairy farmer – you just couldn’t have made it up! There is a magic about Jump racing that makes it an unmissable commercial opportunity."

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Market Rasen
A location mid-way between Lincoln and Grimsby would be an unlikely first choice location for a racecourse.

But here you’ll find Market Rasen Racecourse, founded in 1923, and thriving, despite its rural location, distance from major conurbations, transport links and imperfect soil structure. All these factors should count against this popular venue in the delivery of large crowds, a busy sponsorship client base, and runners from all the top stables and owners. Yet the reality is something different. Among small courses, Market Rasen stands out as an ongoing success story, offering exciting racing and a great variety of fixtures to appeal to spectators, commercial partners, owners, trainers and riders, and winning several awards along the way, including the ROA Gold Standard, East Midlands in Bloom, and frequent Racegoers Club Awards.

Pioneers of Summer Jumping, staging the valuable tote Summer Plate in July and the Blue Square Equinox meeting in September, this popular course has consistently improved its racing standard, adding Listed races to those meetings and catering for a crowd 12,000 strong on Boxing Day each Christmas time. In the most recent season, close to 65,000 visitors passed through the Lincolnshire course’s turnstiles.

Managing Director, Pip Kirkby, explains:

“Hard work has something to do with it, but understanding your market is equally important. The racecourse is an active member of the local community, and a first choice for social and business gatherings, both during and away from race days. That way, we ensure a grass roots support as well as attracting racing spectators from further afield. Undoubtedly in the sponsorship market, delivering value for money to our local businesses is key to driving footfall.”

Although many small courses use their high prize money race days as a promotional showcase to ensure volume footfall rather than directly for profit, Market Rasen’s varied programme and innovative marketing has also delivered bottom line profit too. Ebitda has increased 58% over 5 years to £640k, to become one of the top flight courses among those not blessed with the big set piece racing events that attract terrestrial TV coverage.

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