Lessons learned at the 2019 Irish Racecourse
Seminar
How often have you heard from a
successful business owner, leader, elite athlete or coach on how they excel in
their field and thought … ‘that is so simple’ or ‘that is common sense’ … yet
why is it such common sense is not that common!?
Last week in the Lyrath Hotel
in Kilkenny representatives of all 26 Irish racecourses gathered for an annual
seminar entitled ‘Growing Irish Racing Together’. Although focused on the key
issues facing racecourses in growing attendances and enhancing the race day
experience, the take-aways from the day are equally applicable to any sports or
entertainment venue.
What gets measured gets done
There is a lot to be excited
about in Irish racing right now. Our horses, jockeys, trainers, owners and
breeders are revered for the scale of their achievements in a global sport and
industry. Of course there are challenges, not least Brexit, but there is a lot
to be enthusiastic about as we look to the next five years. From a commercial
and marketing perspective Horse Racing Ireland is responsible for nurturing
the brand of Irish racing, telling the story, maximising Irish racing’s reach
and collaborating with all Irish racecourses in driving ever higher attendances
and experiences around our sport. Over the next five years HRI have set out
ambitious growth targets:
- 1.Increase
the profile of Irish racing among the general population. We’ll do that by increasing
interest levels in the general population – currently 24% of Irish people have
an interest in racing; we will raise that to a minimum of 30% within 5 years.
That equates to another c. 290,000 people.
- 2.Enhance
the experience of going racing. Working in collaboration with racecourses we
will ensure customer experience is a core metric of success for all race days
in the future.
- 3.Grow
attendances from 1.3m per annum to 1.5m per annum within five years. Optimising
the customer journey to purchase tickets on the back of increased profile of
our sport and enhanced experience of going racing will no doubt produce higher
attendances and higher revenues.
These strategic priorities (and
metrics) formed the context of the racecourse seminar and influenced the
agenda, theme and speakers we chose for the event. Here are the key take-outs
from those key note speakers:
Hamilton Racecourse – ‘Being the Best We Can Be’
Hamilton Park CEO Vivien Currie
and Operations Manager John Currie kicked off the day with impactful
and insightful presentation on the secret formula behind their achievement in
being named Racecourse of the Year in the UK 2018. Except of course there is no
secret formula … simply a customer-centric commercial strategy built on solid
principles.
Here is a racecourse run as a
business first and foremost. There is a clear understanding of the four core
target markets in attendance (general admission / hospitality customers /
owners & trainers / sponsors) and there is a strategy for maximising the
race day experience for each individual target market. Hamilton Park
demonstrated a clear understanding of the needs of these very different
customer groups but what is common across the board is outstanding attention to
detail and a willingness to allocate the right resource to managing these
customers (‘aces in spaces’ as Vivien put it); I particularly liked the idea of
a employing a maitre d for the Owners
& Trainers restaurant. As a critical stakeholder in race day and
fundamental to the long term growth of our sport it is critical that Owners
& Trainers have the best possible experience. Two Circles were
referenced a number of times by Hamilton Park in assisting them put in place a
coherent customer sales strategy and align digital and marketing investment to
maximise ticket sales …
Data Driven Sport
So it was only fitting that we
brought in Max Dickman & Michael White of Two Circles to elaborate
further on the essence of ‘data driven sport’ for racecourses. Irish
racecourses on average have some ground to make up on other major sports venues
when it comes to advance sales as a percentage of total attendances. It is a
critically important objective for us all to change that ratio significantly in
the coming years. A pilot project run with Two Circles around the Longines
Irish Champions Weekend in 2018 demonstrated the impact such a strategy can
have on marketing investment, digital engagement and ultimately attendances.
Golden rules gleaned from this pilot project included:
- Earlier is bigger: kick starting the sales curve
earlier works!
- More accurate predictor of attendance is
possible
- Mitigate the uncontrollable (such as weather)
- Gets money in the bank earlier
- Significantly amplifies awareness through word
of mouth
- Opportunity to upsell other tickets /
experiences
- Helps all future races / fixtures as you grow
customer database
The far reaching impact of
getting ticketing right is obvious. It drives better practices in pricing,
understanding your value proposition, marketing, sales and digital engagement
and customer experiences.
Give People Purpose
Continuing on the theme of
understanding how to deliver a great customer experience to different customer
types, Matt Lynch of Moonshot really impressed on the audience how front
line staff have enormous responsibility for delivering on experience. Drawing
on experiences in Disney, Atlanta Braves, Wembley and many others Matt
discussed the value of giving these front line staff ‘purpose’ in their role …
there is a big difference between role (security guard at venue entrance) to
purpose (ensure racegoers go home happy). How many times have we said or heard
‘I need 5 bodies …’ for a particular purpose on match day / race day … if we
are giving people purpose then we need a lot more than bodies!
Wrapping up the day and bringing
his own fascinating insight into the role of purpose in a high-performance
sport setting, Gary Keegan shared the journey of the Irish boxers from
humble beginnings to Olympic glory. Setting the vision, committing to
delivering it (‘’intention drives attention’’) and attention to detail in your
preparation are equally applicable to the Olympic athlete as they are to a
sporting or entertainment venue and tied neatly back to the presentations
throughout the day.
Paul Dermody | Commercial and Marketing Director at Horse Racing Ireland
Published: 31st January 2019