Goodwood Racecourse

The Love of the Sport

‘Through the Eyes’ Getting you closer to the sport’s stars

Proudly partnered by Objectives

“A great day out” – it’s the number one reason people give for coming racing*. Racecourses, Goodwood included, are doing more and more to diversify their non-racing raceday content to appeal to a wider audience, bringing new customers to enjoy a day’s racing. Whilst it’s very important that we stay relevant in a crowded, ‘experiential-led’ market place, we also need to ensure we remain true to the sport. After all, it is the sport itself that ultimately creates the “great day out” – we can never lose sight of this. For the 2017 video project (see Digital & Social Media Excellence submission) whilst achieving large numbers in terms of views and audience growth was a key metric, from the outset we wanted to ensure the sport remained at the absolute heart of what we produced.

Objective 1 – Put the viewer in the thick of the action. Give our audience an entirely new perspective of racing that they’ve never seen before. The sport encompasses a variety of individuals and it was important to highlight not only the famous faces, but also the unsung heroes who work tirelessly behind the scenes. KPI – To deliver a series of videos that showcase areas of the horseracing industry that were not immediately accessible or often seen. Objective 2 – Create a special, unique ‘moment’ for a much-loved jockey. Horseracing is a thrilling, exhilarating sport. The welfare of jockeys and horses is paramount, however, despite all precautionary measures, accidents can, and do, happen. KPI – To produce a video that not only tells a story, but also brings to light the dangers that jockeys face working in the industry, based around a rider who’s had first-hand experience of this. Objective 3 – Leverage non-racing, raceday content to showcase the personalities of jockeys. It was also a priority of ours to explore ways in which we could create videos that bring out the fun side and personalities of jockeys. Bringing jockeys into the public eye is one of the key components of increasing industry awareness and appeal of the sport. KPI – To create a selection non-racing videos that bring out the personalities of key industry influencers. 2 *RCA Insight=Growth Insight Delivery

Objective 1 – Put the viewer in the thick of the action. Helmet-cam and GoPro style footage are already very well used in racing, and whilst they give a unique perspective of the actual racing, their uses, due to having to be helmet-mounted, are limited outside of this. We wanted to take this style of first-person video to the next level. We did this by sourcing specially designed video sunglasses to create a unique series of ‘Through the Eyes’ videos. To modernise and further enhance traditional jockey-cam footage we collaborated with one of our betting partners, Matchbook, to film a first of its kind helmet-cam video in full 360-degree.

Objective 2 – Create a special, unique ‘moment’ for a much loved jockey. Following his career-ending fall at Kempton, jockey Freddy Tylicki kindly agreed to share his story with us and ITV Racing. Making use of other areas of the Goodwood Estate, we acquired a modified Jaguar F- Type, giving Freddy his first opportunity to get behind a wheel of a car again. Freddy was given the opportunity to put pedal-to-the-metal out on the track as well learning how to ‘spin & slide’. It is fair to say that he thoroughly enjoyed the experience!

Objective 3 – Leverage non-racing, raceday content to showcase the personalities of jockeys. For many sports the players are true household names and transcend the sport itself. For racing, despite having some strong personalities within it, we still suffer in being able to bring to light the personalities of our jockeys. We see them getting on and off horses and riding the track, often with very little other interaction. We noticed there was an opportunity at our August Bank Holiday fixture to utilise some of the non-racing content with a selection of the sport’s leading figures.

Our Project Manager (see Digital & Social Media Excellence submission) leveraged her contacts in order for us to be able to produce videos away from the on-track action. One of the biggest challenges was being able to find suitable time to do the filming during and in-between racing that suited all jockeys. Also, we had to overcome some trepidation from the jockeys in doing the videos, but by explaining our purpose 3 was to try and enhance the sport and bring out its personalities, it helped to overcome this. Results

Objective 1 – Put the viewer right in the thick of the action. • The ‘Through the Eyes’ series of videos saw us capture the first-person viewpoint of Frankie Dettori as he entered the racecourse, Stall Handlers, Grooms, Jockeys and even a Military Band Leader. These videos alone achieved great engagement and views of 271.2k across our social channels. • Behind-the-scenes 360-degree videos of various locations such as the Weighing Room and Parade Ring, which are not normally accessible to the public, were published to give a different vantage point to our audience. • A 360-degree course ride video with Hayley Turner was a first of its kind video, and could be viewed on social media as well as a dedicated experiential activation area on site for people to view it. • One of the rawest videos, with Oisin Murphy, really captured the sheer emotion of the sport. Objective 2 – Create a special, unique ‘moment’ for a much loved jockey. • We successfully managed to get Freddy out onto the Goodwood Motor Circuit to experience the thrills of one of our track days. • Freddy also gave an interview with ITV Racing which we got permission to use for our channels, giving our social following an insight into what the whole experience was like for Freddy. • Awareness was raised around Freddy and his injuries, which resulted in the video becoming one of our most viewed this year. This proved that there was a significant appetite and interest for human stories away from the track. Objective 3 – Leverage non-racing, raceday content to showcase the personalities of jockeys. • At our August Bank Holiday meeting we managed to get several jockeys to engage in non-racing content which allowed us to produce some fun, creative videos. • Megan Nicholls and Nicola Currie took part in a coconut shy competition which allowed us to show the competitive edge between jockeys off the track. • Jamie Spencer & Martin Dwyer took part in a ‘test your strength’ competition which was run by our partner, Grosvenor Casino, and Noel Garbutt & Ryan Powell raced on a Helter-Skelter. • We even managed to get Josephine Gordon on a donkey! 4 Supporting Information

A snapshot of some of the video content referenced in the submission is included below. There are also hyperlinks included on the results pages that can be clicked on to view the videos.

Click on the pictures below to view highlights of the content produced:

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