Stewart Ramsay writes in the Sporting Post Mailbag that he notes the contents of Ignatius Fourie’s comment published in the Sprint this week with interest.
Please click on the image below – it’s on page 60
Mr Ramsay writes that for any marketing strategy to be successful it has to have a communication strategy that ensures the required message reaches the correct and targeted audience.
Without such a communication strategy even the best marketing plans will be unless.
Horse racing’s communication strategies are present a major part of its problems.
At present the marketing of horse racing is totally misdirected and requires a complete professional restructure.
The reason for that is that all horse racing marketing is aimed inwards and not outwards.
In other words all marketing is aimed at people that already participate in horse racing and no marketing is aimed at people who are not involved in racing – either as owners or punters.
In turn that problem is caused by the choice of media structures that are utilised to market racing.
To start with Tellytrack.
For those that participate in racing Tellytrack is excellent. It provides the opportunity to watch racing 24/7 where ever you are.
But as a marketing tool for racing Tellytrack is about as much use as a parachute to a deep sea diver.
Tellytrack is only viewed by people that already have an in depth involvement and or understanding of racing.
For that reason it has no value as a marketing platform to attract new people into racing.
Another problem with Tellytrack is that it is screened on DSTV which has the lowest viewership of any of the major channels.
To provide an example here are the viewership figures of the top viewed programmes on each major channel.
- SABC 1 – 8 531 000
- SABC 2 – 4 689 125
- E TV – 5 268 943
- DSTV – 1 851 414
As can be seen the viewership of the other channels is four times greater and in some cases eight times greater that of DSTV.
So racing needs a major presence on the high viewership channels listed above if it wants to get to new markets.
Now print media.
Image for illustration purposes only
For years racing in every province had an association with the major daily newspaper in the Cape – Gauteng and KwaZulu- Natal – the so called main stream media.
That association where and if it still exists is now virtually worthless.
The circulation of what where once main stream major newspapers has collapsed.
To provide an example here are the latest daily circulation figures of the so called main stream daily newspapers in the Cape – Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
- Cape Times (Cape) 8926
- Cape Argus (Cape) 7761
- Star (Gauteng) 14931
- Pretoria News (Gauteng) 1839
- Business Day (Gauteng) 11830
- Natal Mercury (KZN) 10019
- Daily News (KZN) 7624
- Natal Witness (KZN) 7520
Based on the above figures it means that these so called main stream newspapers are read by under one percent of the population in which they circulate.
Based in that fact their value as a tool with which to market racing is minimal – in fact virtually nil.
The key to a successful print marketing strategy is to use the regional free knock and drop newspapers in each province.
Here are statistics to demonstrate how the regional knock and drop newspapers are vastly superior to the old so called main stream daily newspapers:
Gauteng:
- Randburg Sun 59 558
- Star 14 931
Randburg Sun circulation is 44 627 higher than the Star.
KwaZulu Natal:
- Highway Mail 54 243
- Daily News 7624
Highway Mail circulation is 46 619 higher than The Daily News.
Western Cape:
- False Bay Echo 30 879
- Cape Argus 7761
False Bay Echo circulation is 23 118 higher than the Cape Argus.
As can be seen in each of the provinces listed above the circulation of a single regional knock and drop newspaper totally exceeds the circulation of the old so called main stream daily newspaper of that province.
Added to that there are up to 10 free knock and drop newspapers in these provinces.
So the reach of the regional free knock and drop newspapers is substantial.
It demonstrates beyond dispute that the regional free knock and drop newspapers should form the print element of any racing marketing strategy.
Taking all the above into account the way forward is simple.
Racing needs to form a professional marketing/publication relations structure.
The members of this structure need to understand the media as it is today – not as it was 10 years ago.
They need to be experts in creating and implementing a marketing/public relations strategy.
The target market of the strategy should be people who are not associated with racing either as punters or owners.
The strategy should be based on all the marketing and public relations material generated being published and screened in regional newspapers – SABC 1 and 2 and E TV.
With regard to TV the Tellytrack facilities can be utilised to produced short concise news clips that can be issued free to the major TV networks for screening in their news programmes.
To ensure a favourable acceptance of all issued material the new structure should also source the contact details of the relevant editors news editors and sports editors of the regional newspapers and TV stations and establish on going communication with such editors.
All material produced and issued should not be based on hard racing information but should be material with which non racing people can associate and understand.
As a starting point a master strategy based on all the above should be formulated.
There may be other elements that can be added to the above and any suggestions must be considered.
But the above provides a broad outline and starting point to rectify the inadequacies of the present communication strategies of horseracing.
