There’s something about Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival that touches everyone. With an all-round uplifting feel, it’s not a stretch for lots of brands to get on board.
Racing season can be easily introduced in conversation, so you just need to find the common ground. You need to talk to your audience and think about what ‘need’ your service or product offers, then tailor it to make it relevant.
Department stores, gaming groups and supermarkets are already ingrained in the culture of the event, so it’s a big opportunity for bumper sales.
Other businesses and industries need not be locked out of the action though. From food providers to airlines, insurance groups, telcoms and transport, plenty of opportunities emerge following a little lateral thinking. There’s not a food and beverage brand out there that couldn’t utilise something in that space.
Think about people doing their own hampers and recipe tips. Meat and Livestock Australia do whole spring lamb campaigns around fashion and food. Virgin Australia is a prime example of a brand linking to the Spring Racing Carnival through an understanding of their customers. On their blog they have some great useful tips about travelling to spring racing, like measuring your hatbox for check-in luggage. It’s about tailored information. You need to find that common ground between what people need, and what you offer.
Products and services around travel arrangements, transport and communication are also important to race-goers. Real estate agents can look at doing something around getting to auctions and inspections and getting to races on time.
Telcos can suggest tips about staying connected at the grounds, or getting the results quickly if you’re not attending. Everybody needs information about what’s happening at the races, they need transport and they want to eat. There aren’t many industries that don’t touch on it in some way.
Other brands such as health group Swisse and insurer AAMI connect with the event through promotions, campaigns and giveaways. These are big brands that are not intrinsically linked with spring racing but are aligning themselves.
There’s a real opportunity for brands to get creative. As long as it’s not too much of a stretch and you’re being true to your audience base. For small independent businesses it should be easy to integrate this because they can look at best practice and aren’t burdened by the past or by old alignments.
You don’t need to wait until next year’s Spring Racing Carnival either. Melbourne has these very seasonal points in the year where the whole city comes to life, so brands can definitely leverage that. Nearly half the year is taken up by sport, where whole months are taken over by different events. That’s the benefit of having such a culturally diverse city that embraces arts and sports.
Written by Damian Hinks
Amelia Cheung