Industry Shorts: Royal Ascot, Premier League
Royal Ascot has launched a new cinematic brand campaign ahead of the 2020 British flat racing season.
The “Netflix-Style campaign” aims to solidify Royal Ascot as one of the “must-attend” events of the summer as well as positioning it as “the greatest, and possibly the longest running, costume drama on the planet.”
Each year, the event – known for its attendees’ dedication to fashion and pageantry – attracts 300,000 racegoers per year.
The video-led campaign, created by independent creative agency isobel, features cinematography and powerful music as it plays on flat racing’s similarity to period drama. It tells the story of two racegoers who meet at one of the highlight events in the annual social calendar and invites racing fans to ‘Be Part Of The Drama’.
Premier League CEO Richard Masters has confirmed that the organisation is developing plans to create its own OTT platform.
The league has been “building [its] expertise and capacity in direct-to-consumer” during the last rights cycle, according to Masters.
Plans to launch an OTT product may not be in the works for some time, having just recently sold the first rights of the new cycle to Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT) to cover Sweden, Finland, Denmark and also in Norway, where NENT will replace TV2 as the Premier League broadcaster from 2022.
The Rugby League World Cup 2021 has launched a formal tender process for agency partners to support the integrated marketing communications strategy and delivery ahead of the tournament.
Covering the areas of marketing, campaign and media planning; communications / PR and content, and digital and social media, tournament organisers say they want to integrate these services and work with an agency or group of agencies to deliver marketing communications to “engage current and new fans alike.”
The allocated budget is £2.5 million.
The International Paralympic Committee will open a temporary Paralympic Museum in Tokyo ahead of the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.
Operating from 25th August to late September, and showcase the history and growth of the Paralympic Movement, visitors will be able to learn about the history of the Paralympics and how the event has evolved in the last 60 years as it aims to drive social inclusion.
McLaren has announced a partnership with data company Splunk ahead of the 2020 Formula 1 season.
The deal will see the company capture data with a view to developing performance, while Splunk will receive branding on the 2020 McLaren car.
The ATP says its digital channels have seen record numbers in January thanks to fans engaging with the Australian Open and the inaugural ATP Cup, as well as compelling storylines at ATP 250 tournaments.
The tour says its social media interactions hit an all-time high in the month, with 2.39m Facebook interactions and 11.5m on Instagram.
In addition, across TennisTV and ATP channels, a total of 192m video views were recorded.
Eurosport has also revealed growing viewing figures for its Australian Open coverage.
The broadcaster says it recorded an 18% growth in UK audience figures on Eurosport 1’s coverage of the tournament, while it also experienced a 35% uplift in unique visitors to its website and app, with UK traffic growing by 29%.
Limelight Sports, a sports marketing agency specialising in participation, has brought in Marc Hope Consulting to work on the sponsorship acquisition programme for the agency’s owned campaigns, which include the London Duathlon, London Triathlon, Blenheim Triathlon and Etape Caledonia.
Marc Hope Consulting will report into Limelight Sports’ Chief Commercial Officer, James Robinson.
