What’s your name and position within the organisation?
My name is Paul Dermody and I am the CEO of HRI Racecourse Division, which is a subsidiary of Horse Racing Ireland. The racecourse division is comprised of four racecourses – Leopardstown, Fairyhouse, Navan & Tipperary.
I am also Commercial & Marketing Director for Horse Racing Ireland, the parent company to the racecourse division. From a sponsorship perspective this dual responsibility has definite advantages as we have the opportunity to blend national / international rights & assets with specific race days / festivals to suit sponsor needs.
Give us a brief overview of Horse Racing Ireland as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically?
Racing is in the DNA of Irish people, it’s a sport that we excel in on the global stage and attracts the second biggest attendance of any sport in Ireland each year (1.3m attendees last year and growing year on year). Horse Racing Ireland’s (HRI) mission is to develop and promote Ireland as a global centre of excellence for horse racing and breeding. From a commercial perspective the key areas include maximizing the value of Irish racing’s media rights, nurturing the brand of Irish racing to drive ever higher interest / profile and maximizing attendances at 26 racecourses nationwide.
Sponsorship is a valuable (€6 million p/a) and valued part of our business with naming rights to specific races / festivals a traditional partnership that has served the sport well. Our partnerships with the likes of Microsoft, KPMG and Ryanair blend well with the incredible industry support we get from stud farms and equine / Agri sectors. Longines (the Longines Irish Champions Weekend) is an example a premium international brand connecting our premier flat racing festival to a series of iconic flat racing festivals across the world (Ascot, Longchamp, Breeders Cup etc).
What approach differentiates Horse Racing Ireland and makes your sponsorship strategy unique?
Over the last two years we have invested significantly in building the foundations to a sustainable and market leading sponsorship model, so there is an opportunity for potential sponsors to leverage that investment to deliver in new and innovative ways for their brands. We have overhauled the brand positioning of Irish racing with a new identity and focus (‘Every Racing Moment’) and we have built a robust data & insights platform that will ensure best in class fan engagement from HRI / racecourses / our partners.
Looking forward to Q4 2020 we will be launching a new sponsorship / partnership model for Irish racing which we are incredibly excited about and we have partnered with fellow ESA members Onside for this project. We will be leveraging a combination of traditional race day rights & assets with new & bespoke rights tailored to specific industry sectors / brands. We have made significant investments in data & insights (partnering with Two Circles) and have rolled out free Wi-Fi to all 26 racecourses in recent months to allow us introduce a new suite of digital innovations to our sponsors in the future.
We are also going to introduce sponsors to existing campaigns and programmes that we have run successfully for several years at specific target markets such as primary school (Racing Juniors programme), young adult (HRI Racing25) and others. There is great potential to work with sponsors on mutually beneficial objectives that help us grow interest and appeal of the sport in the long term.
How has your approach to sponsorship changed during Covid-19? Have you created any new initiatives or altered your operations to reach sponsors and audiences in new ways?
The nature of race day has changed completely due to CV19 but thankfully we were in a position to return to racing – albeit behind closed doors – before all other sports. That presented a significant opportunity to showcase our sport to casual and new fans via free to air TV. We agreed a one-off blitz of prime-time live racing on RTE (national broadcaster) every Friday, Saturday & Sunday across June & July. With the quality of racing on show and renewed interest from RTE, ITV and others we were able to retain most of our key sponsor partners. Like other sports and clubs, we successfully moved some activations online to protect the value of our partnerships.
What are the current trends within sports sponsorship, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?
I think disruption on the scale of COVID-19 will present significant opportunities for innovation in sport sponsorship. Some traditional assets may not be as valuable as before – certainly in the short term – while new assets and rights will emerge with progressive rights holders that will harness the changes brought about by COVID-19. For example, I can see a greater integration of sponsorship and media rights in the future to bring sport to new audiences delivered via digital media.
I also believe there is greater understanding of sports potential to deliver on a wide spectrum of brand objectives – for example community connection and CSR are two growth areas in sponsorship globally and there is no doubt that sport sponsorship (and racing in particular!) can play a lead role in delivering in these areas. This also allows rightsholders carve out activation platforms that are specific to individual sponsors, something we focused a lot of effort on in my previous role for example (Commercial Director at Leinster Rugby).
How has sponsorship changed for Horse Racing Ireland over the past few years? And what predictions can you make about how it is going to change in the next five years?
I think HRI / Irish racecourses have evolved the sponsorship offering in recent years to take advantage of the unique nature of a racing partnership versus other sports / entertainment properties. We have a blend of sport / entertainment / fashion / community / experiential layers that can be moulded to suit very different brand objectives. Our summer series of music and racing at Leopardstown is a great example of that – high class racing, with an eclectic musical after show from the likes of All Saints, Coolio or Aslan.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Racing across the world has demonstrated an ability to sit at the intersection of sport, fashion, food, music and much more … that versatility is an opportunity for sponsors to leverage the innate passion that sport brings, while activating specific brand objectives. The value of having engaged and innovative sponsor partners for us as rightsholders can never be underestimated.