Rupert Pratt, Managing Director of Generate Sponsorship profiles the challenges and opportunities within Equestrian sport – featured in this month’s Platform magazine
Equestrian sport is steeped in tradition and in recent years has developed into a multi-billion pound industry attracting a wealth of sponsors to each of its varying disciplines.
In this article we will review the sponsorship landscape of polo, equestrian and horse racing. We will look at why brands get involved and evaluate the benefits of building a marketing platform around each sport.
Polo
Polo has long been associated with the top echelons of society and thinking of the sport conjures up the image of royals on horseback and ladies in the champagne tent. With the highest AB audience of any sport (around 72% of its patrons and players) polo offers an ideal platform for luxury brands to target high net worth individuals.
According to recent figures from market research group Ledbury*, 25,000 people in the UK earning more than £100,000 will attend a polo event in a year. So it’s not difficult to see what the pull is for brands such as Veuve Cliquot, Harrods, Audi and Mint, who all sponsor the Hurlingham Club’s Polo in the Park.
Cartier has hosted the annual Cartier International Polo day for the past 25 years, an event which targets not only a wealthy crowd but also reaches a wider audience and generates media coverage outside of traditional equestrian press and Hello magazine.
Polo is growing in popularity and has once again become fashionable. The number of clubs in Britain has more than doubled in the past 10 years, and plans have recently been revealed for three new England youth teams to keep up with the number of children playing the sport. However, although it is growing and becoming somewhat more accessible polo is still very much, and always will be, an elite sport.
There are a number of challenges for potential sponsors. Polo has a very small audience compared to other sports and there is limited media value. However, those brands involved are less worried about the size of audience and far more concerned about providing high quality VIP hospitality to a small but very wealthy audience. It would be wrong to compare this to another sporting property as the attendees are not limited to sports fans – it is about sponsoring a social event in a similar vein to the arts or a fashion event.
Equestrian
2010 has been an important year for equestrian sport. This summer saw more than half a million people from 58 different countries attend the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky, the biggest sports event to take place in the USA since the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. Sponsors included Alltech, Pespi and Landrover.
In recent years the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI), led by its recently re-elected President HRH Princess Haya, has been making an effort to commercialise the sport. According to Alex McLin, Secretary General at the FEI commercial revenues have grown from around $4.5m in 2005 to just over $12m in 2009 with commercial activity such as sponsorship licensing increasing from 29% to 49% in the same period.
Equestrian provides its sponsors such as HSBC, Rolex and Meydan with an opportunity to target a high audience demographic and to reach emerging markets. Unlike other sports it has a higher female audience and it is unique in that men and women compete on equal terms. The FEI is slowly beginning to make the sport more accessible, and with three Olympic events – dressage, show jumping and eventing its profile will undoubtedly grow in the build up to London 2012.
As with polo, it has a fairly niche audience, limited media reach compared to more mainstream sports and it can be perceived as somewhat old-fashioned and elitist. However, it is this exclusivity that is attractive to luxury brands looking for the opportunity to find wealthy buyers and with higher participation and interest you can understand why the FEI is growing its sponsor base.
Horse Racing
Horse racing provides an alternative offering for sponsors, with a more mass market appeal and predominantly male audience. According to a recent study by Deloitte**, horse racing is the second biggest sport in Britain after football in terms of revenue and attendance. In 2008 racing had four of the top eight attended sporting events in the UK and a total attendances of 5.7m.
Whilst many sports are struggling with declining attendances due to the recession attendances are rising each year for horse racing’s main showcase meetings e.g. the Cheltenham Festival, the Grand National and the Derby.
The industry is working hard to boost the popularity of the sport and reach new audiences. Earlier this year the Racing for Change free racing campaign attracted thousands of new racegoers to the sport.
Figures such as these illustrate the appeal for brands such as John Smiths, Ryanair, Hennessey and Investec. Another benefit for sponsors is the high volume of terrestrial television coverage across Channel 4 and the BBC.
However, horse racing sponsorship is not without its issues. A high level of clutter means brands have to activate harder to build awareness and achieve brand recall. Cut-through is likely to become even more difficult with the newly created British Champions Series. Also, although attendances are on the up this is largely restricted to the big ticket events and not the smaller race meetings, therefore the return is limited to the supporters of the flagship events.
Why sponsor equestrian sport?
Interestingly the different disciplines provide a sponsor with a number of entry points. Horse racing delivers mass market appeal, a male biased audience, good quality hospitality and terrestrial television coverage. Polo offers access and engagement to a highly targeted audience, VVIP hospitality, prestige and glamour. Interestingly, although still elite, equestrian seems more balanced between the two.
What does the future look like for equestrian sport?
Horse racing has realised it needs to innovate in order to maintain profile and interest levels and activities such as introducing live music to events have helped attracted new younger audiences. When evaluated, there is tremendous volume in horse racing and harnessing this across the sport is a huge opportunity. It also needs to offer sponsors cut-through and ownership beyond the trophy events, a depth and breadth of inventory that can deliver on a broad range of sponsors’ business requirements, and offers more than just branding and hospitality. I still feel there is a tremendous amount of untapped potential in horse racing.
Polo must stick to its values or risk diluting its appeal. Polo is not a mass participation sport. By becoming more mainstream it risks alienating its core audience and therefore its commercial attraction. Less is more and the sport should focus on quality not quantity.
Equestrian sport has London 2012 on the agenda, an opportunity to further raise its profile. TV friendly, with a recent history of success, it is the most accessible of all the equestrian sports and there is real growth potential. There is also a tremendous dynamic between the rider and horse. This unique relationship on and off the course is a story that needs to be told in the media. Given all of the above, I can expect to see more sponsors enter the marketplace ahead of London 2012.
*Ledbury Market Research Group, 2010
**Deloitte, The Impact of British Racing, 2009