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This award submission demonstrates how a carefully tailored Public Relations programme managed to engage for the first time large untapped sectors of a local community with a national sporting event. The project resulted in Cheltenham’s town-centre retailers reversing traditional trading dips during Cheltenham Racecourse’s busiest festival day by stimulating race-themed promotions and alerting the local population to the fact that, contrary to public perception, the town-centre was still very much open for business. The Festival itself generates approximately £40m for the local economy however the majority of that spending is in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry and not in the retail sector.
Cheltenham Racecourse commissioned Montpellier to improve community relations around this popular racing event which traditionally attracts thousands of people to the Cotswold town.
• To build on and foster excellent community relations locally
• To provide a mechanism for local retailers to overcome traditional trading dips
The Cheltenham Festival is a key racing event in the National Hunt calendar and the second largest sporting event in the UK after Wimbledon. Each year, in March, it attracts thousands of visitors to the town and is a high point for those individuals in the hospitality, tourism and catering industries. On average, the Cheltenham Festival generates £40m for the local economy.
However for local retailers, the Festival has not been as popular because, wrongly, shoppers have believed that the town-centre is jam-packed and difficult to get into during the week, and as a result retailers have traditionally experienced a dip in trade over the four days of this iconic Festival taking place. Meanwhile, local racegoers themselves are at the racecourse during the day so are not spending their hard-earned cash in the stores.
Cheltenham Racecourse commissioned Montpellier Marketing Communications to put together a robust PR campaign to help reverse perceptions amongst shoppers whilst building on Cheltenham Racecourse’s community relations.
Montpellier Marketing Communications carried out extensive research into how other iconic sporting venues improved community relations.
It was highlighted that Galway Races in Ireland excelled in this area and as a result Montpellier arranged a fact finding mission to ascertain what lessons might be applicable to Cheltenham. The group included representatives from
Montpellier, the Managing Director of the racecourse, key members of the town centre management, the business editor from The Gloucestershire Citizen and Echo and the station controller from Cheltenham’s commercial radio station Star FM.
During the trip, meetings were held with representatives from Tourism Ireland, Galway Racecourse, local media outlets and town centre management.
Galway revealed that retailers thrived in the weeks leading up to their festival because local race goers were spending significant money on buying outfits and on hair and beauty. This was not the case in Cheltenham. Coupled with that, there was historically a greater dilution of emphasis on fashion at Cheltenham.
Montpellier saw the need to inject an additional focus to the Cheltenham Festival which in turn could feed through to retailers who might benefit (dress shops, shoes shops, milliners, hairdressers, and so on.) Thus, the Cheltenham Festival ‘Ladies Day’ concept was conceived.
It was decided to make the Thursday of The Festival ‘Cheltenham Ladies Day’ to give the marginally quietest day of the festival an additional focus in the hope of, eventually, directly increasing advanced ticket sales, attendance in addition to the prime aim of building the community relations.
As a way to announce the concept and its benefits to Cheltenham retailers, a launch event was held in November at the newest town centre based venue, Revolution.
The evening was attended by over 100 retailers and race goers who were presented with the Ladies Day objectives from guest speakers and committee members. The event attracted great media coverage and galvanised the retailers’ enthusiasm for engaging in the ladies day concept, each seeking to drive sales of fashion and beauty merchandise on the back of it. The launch touched upon the fashion awards which would be held at the Festival itself to seek out and judge the best dressed women.
The event also presented a number of other ideas to retailers including information about the inaugural fashion show, involving the M&S Per Una range, which would be held at the Racecourse in the run up to the Festival. No less than eighteen major retailers chose to get involved in this.
Posters aiming to attract consumers to the event were displayed around the town centre, in stores and arcades as well as advertising appearing in the Gloucestershire Echo.
There was also a regional media push through Star FM and Severn Sound who ran competitions to win tickets to the event, Cotswold Life, The Oracle and the Gloucestershire Echo who ran regular features as did BBC Radio Gloucestershire, Western Daily Press and Sunday Mercury (Birmingham).
With a lot of anticipation building up following a successful pre-event PR campaign, on 15th March 2007 Cheltenham held its first Ladies Day.
As race goers entered the course on the morning of Ladies Day, they were spotted by scouts and invited to take part in the competition via a postcard invitation. Photographs were taken courtesy of Art Portraits and a panel of judges, Channelle McCoy, George Davies and Gemma Lambert awarded overall best dressed, best coat, best shoes and best accessories.
Themed as a celebration of ladies in racing, the day saw not only the first ‘Best Dressed Lady’ being selected but an award for Outstanding Contribution also being presented.
Over a period of three months the public voted for the lady who they felt had made an outstanding contribution to the sport of jump racing. The shortlist was then judged by Miss Zara Philips, racing commentator Claire Balding and the ‘face of Ladies Day’ Chanelle McCoy. The finalists included Dinah Nicholson, Henrietta Knight and Venetia Williams to name just a few. However the winner was Heather Atkinson, who was a Jockey Nurse. Her win commanded great media attention and full page spreads were achieved in publications such as the Gloucestershire Echo and Horse and Hound Magazine.
For its first year, Cheltenham Ladies Day was a great success. Wide ranging media coverage was achieved which resulted in great awareness of the event itself.
Retailer relationships flourished during this period and many commented on how great it was to be invited to be involved with the Festival. Moreover, Marks & Spencer’s head office confirmed that Cheltenham’s M&S branch was singularly the country’s largest seller of the Per Una range that spring.
Over 100 people attended the pre-Festival fashion event which was far above the clients expectations. This event assisted in creating the hype surrounding the day itself.
Attendance figures at the Cheltenham Festival are steadily increasing. In 2004, the Festival attracted 193,111 visitors compared to 2007 when total attendance registered at 226,811. Festival organisers believe that it is initiatives like Ladies Day that are adding an extra dimension to the event which is resulting in increased attendance levels.
The client described Montpellier’s vision of implementing Ladies Day as ‘outstanding’. Given the iconic stature of the Cheltenham brand, it was important that Ladies Day reflected its core values. The client said the project results did just that and enhanced the Festival without having an overpowering impact on the racing. The 2007 event provided a great footing for future Ladies Days and Montpellier has since been appointed by Cheltenham Racecourse to oversee the management of Ladies Day 2008.
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