Q&A: Ian Williams, TwinSpires.com
VP of marketing at Churchill Downsâ real-money wagering site discusses the operatorâs decision to sponsor the Breedersâ CupÂ
Q: Can you give a little insight into your decision to sponsor the Breedersâ Cup? What are the main benefits for TwinSpires?
A: The Breeders Cup deal was an interesting proposal. Their team was great to work with and very open to ideas, and we have come up with several deal elements that really make it an extremely valuable proposition to us. We know from the tracking of our efforts on the Kentucky Derby what many strategic elements are worth, and we have leveraged that learning to derive a value of the opportunity. The deal is over four years, and in short it incorporates a significant amount of TV ad spots and live reads for all Breedersâ Cup and Breedersâ Cup Challenge series, year round website presence, on-site activation benefits, several co-promotions, and database marketing and hospitality opportunities. [private]
Another big element for us is that this is an ADW exclusive category, meaning we are the only group allowed to advertise on the NBC network coverage. This covers a period from June through to the end of October which is a busy period outside of the Triple Crown season to be in front of the racing public on all the key race dates. One other benefit is the onsite presence at tracks we have traditionally been unable to work with due to ownership conflicts, so this will increase our reach within certain states to a core group of players. Having Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh racing in the challenge series and potentially going for a grand slam in the Breedersâ Cup Classic makes the deal even sweeter for us.
Q: What is the advantage of sponsorship deals over other types of marketing and advertising?
A: The deal encompasses many facets of traditional marketing and advertising, so this is less about sponsorship per se â the race sponsorship is a side benefit to the additional rights we have obtained. Due to the deal components the ROI will be easier to track than traditional race sponsorship, but itâs hard to isolate the âsponsorshipâ portion from this deal and attribute it to one particular thing.
Q: What other marketing campaigns have you got lined up for the rest of the year? Any more sponsorship deals in the pipeline?
A: The remainder of the racing year is gearing up toward Breedersâ Cup in October. Thereâs not much else left to sponsor!
Q: Does social media play a prominent role in your marketing strategy?Â
A: Yes it does, we have spent a good amount of effort specifically on Twitter and Facebook in the past six months and itâs yielding some great engagement. The horse racing segment of core players is more clued into Twitter and more traditional sites, but we are seeing some good organic growth on Instagram and Facebook also. We have a great content team who live and breathe horse racing, and social media is a great way of exposing that to the outside world.
Q: How do you turn Twitter followers into depositors?
A: I prefer to ask the question how can you turn Twitter followers into handle and revenue. I view it as an extension of our brand-based CRM communication strategy as opposed to a user acquisition vehicle, in the ADW segment we are not allowed to advertise on Twitter so we need to use it in a different manner.