THE BUSINESS OF HORSE RACING AND ITS PENCHANT FOR CONTINUING TO SHOOT ITSELF IN THE FOOT.
Where horse racing keeps losing credibility is that when it’s time to pass the baton, there’s usually no one there, or if there is, it’s only a stand-in, whereas resorting to that tedious game of Pass The Buck solves nothing and only shows up corporate boo boos.
Skimming through the recent corporate hiring faux pas in the racing industry in Australia that can be classified under “Fawlty Towers”, perhaps lies a bigger problem: Just like the age old lament from racing clubs about ways of continually attracting “younger people” to the races, are they able to attract the right talent?
More importantly, do those in racing clubs KNOW who and what’s needed for their gambling propelled business model to survive and maybe even grow in a world that’s in constant change?
Having turned the weird sounding Sassy Wednesday into the Happy Wednesday brand for the Hong Kong Jockey Club when still running the Regional offices of EMI Music, where, by the way, I changed our organisation chart by deleting that waste of space known as Human Resources, it was learning how the Club operates and why.
Being from the world of advertising taught me structure and strategy and so much more when launching McDonald’s in Hong Kong and MTV Asia, and the importance of teamwork.
Though the HKJC had people with the word “marketing” in their titles, there was no Creative Director, which, at least to me, made no sense.
If “marketing” people are coming up with their own ideas and marketing these, er, where is the objectivity and who’s going to be held accountable when the customer yells out, “Where’s the beef?”
Sure, I enjoy some horse racing, and having been the online Racingbitch until tiring of the Twittering world and covering the same old cow patches with their usual suspects, what I am seeing today is one particularly fundamental flaw: The need to give horse racing a more likeable product personality to soften the “Gamble Responsibly” warning.
This is needed to attract those hesitant to be part of anything that has warning sirens going off.
It’s also a necessary carrot to use to try and bring in new sponsors and popular consumer brands with their own marketing teams.
This might mean bringing not only new thinking to the table, but also a new type of excitement and enjoyment other than what’s referred to as “the punt” and the murder of crows known as tipsters.
Frankly, most couldn’t tip a waiter and one has to wonder if time is up for this species.
In no particular order of importance, one can see opportunities to weave wonderfully engaging and creative stories about those equine champions enjoying life at Living Legends.
Living Legends in Melbourne is a fantasy world that can have its own stories appealing especially to those youngsters who would like to be working around horses.
Wouldn’t this be something worthwhile to be shown at racetracks and online platforms as short-form episodes- and perhaps even competition driven interactive videos?
During the time when the very attractive and engaging and extremely knowledgeable Francesca Cumani was hosting a ten minute programme on racing on CNN- yes, I had a mad crush on her- and Hannah Schofield who was a permanent and popular fixture at those Happy Wednesday nights, there was always something interesting happening around them.
That’s now all in the past. Today, who knows
what’s going on in what some think is looking and sounding like a worldwide old boys club made up of serial ninnies.
For horse racing to reach that as yet untapped mainstream, and perhaps even an affluent audience, there’s still time and a window of opportunity to shine a new and positive light on a sport/pastime that’s often misunderstood by governments and seen by many as adding nothing of any value to the lives of those “younger people”.
This is where with some well thought through Big Picture strategies, horse racing just might be seen as being much more than it is by being itself and without trying to be what it can never be.
In any business, this means playing to one’s strengths, ADMITTING weaknesses and working on bringing in the best marketing talent who aren’t even looking at horse racing today.
Easier said than done, but this is when the game is really going to change and without the need for more frilly bits and looking to those on the outside looking in like a one trick pony galloping through the usual smoke and mirrors.
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