Mad Men in the 21st Century? Horse Racing Advertisers Forget Their Largest Audience. - Saratoga Horse Racing Blog: f!llies 'n mares By The Alpha Mare Marion Altieri

On Kentucky Derby Day, I arrived at Lenny and Patti’s house, ready to rock.

I plopped down onto their comfy sofa, sipped from my Coke, and jumped into the lively pre-Derby conversation. OTB tickets distributed, we three launched ourselves into the fray. Ah, the camaraderie of Derby Day, whether you’re on Millionaires’ Row or Lenny’s couch. We could feel the vibe in Louisville, all the way up here.

The joy of anticipation quickly dissipated as the advertisements took stage on NBC Sports Network’s pre-Derby show.

The first ad I saw was for Stella Artois. Nice ad. Stella’s a beer, and their ads are stylish. Respectful of women. I love their marketing genius, to suggest strongly that imbibers consume their beer from a chalice–as opposed to a glass. Brilliant. Their ads always feature a woman and a man, drinking Stella Artois from chalices in a graceful environment.

Nice.

I smiled during this ad, thinking about the brilliance of the person who conceived of this marketing strategy–and of the intelligence of the honchos who gave it the nod.

My pre-Derby reverie immediately went downhill after Stella.

The next ad was crammed into my eyeballs--in 53,” high-def, full-color, violent, full-assault mode–and utterly freaked me out. From my retinae, horribly enough, it burned forever into my memory.

You see, the next ad was for a razor. But not just any razor: it seems that some men are overly concerned about body hair. And this electronic, hand-held lawn mower has one job in its miserable existence: to rid men of unwanted body hair. Of course, the only bits shown by the ad were of men scraping hair off their chests and backs–but OH, GOOD GOD.

I don’t want to see that–no one does. (A show of hands, please, for those who think that watching a man groom himself is entertainment.)

No one wants to see that–except the “hot,” barely-clad, young babes in the ad. You recognize those young women who thank God every day, that they’re not smart. (Because when a woman is smart it causes trouble, for everyone.) Apparently these single-digit-IQ’d chicklets want their men to be smooth as glass, and fake.

Isn’t this device the sort of thing that should be marketed by Word-of-Mouth, via BzzAgent.com, or some other man-to-man medium? How about magazines directed at men? Surely, they’d love to host ads for a product that will mow down even the most-hirsute of male bodies.

But the Kentucky Derby? Who–why–how–did anyone think that this ad was appropriate?

Shortly after the 60-second horror show, I realized something even more obscene and inappropriate:

Whoever made the decisions about advertising…thinks that women don’t watch the Kentucky Derby. Or know, love or participate in horse racing.

This is a problem…

Just a few ads into the broadcast, I had the revelation that the majority of ads during the Derby broadcast were geared toward men.

There were several gender-neutral ads that day, by enlightened companies run by people who think like the brewers of Stella Artois. ScotTrade and Crown Royal come to mind. Although I may have seen one Crown Royal ad that featured unnecessary womanflesh, my memory recalls that generally their ads are gender-neutral. Enjoyable by everyone, regardless of gender.

The Longines ad was by far the most beautiful commercial I’ve ever seen for a product. Any product, in any venue.

(An aside: the Bessemer Trust ads always make me cry. Featuring a mare and her baby in a field, I always tear up. “Cue the Irish music,” says my friend, Karen, as she laughs at me weeping during Bessemer Trust ads.)

But this year, Longines beat even the Phipps-owned wealth management firm for beauty, style, class and absolutely knowing their target audience.

Longines pulled out all the stops, and showed the world that–not only do they know about horse racing–the company lives and breathes it. Longines understands horse racing and that historic elegance is our birthright.

Dubai-based horse racing lifestyle magazine, Al Badia —for which I write occasionally–features a Longines’ ad on the back cover–usually of actor, Simon Baker and a gorgeous horse.

The ad reads simply, “Elegance is an attitude.”

No need or desire for screaming guitars, naked women or boys with curled lips and tats.

Just one very classy gentleman, a horse and a watch.

Smart people get the message.

And Longines knows that smart people–smart, rich people, those who can afford their timepieces and want The Best–come in both genders.

(In case you were in a coma on Saturday, or went to refresh your Mint Julep during the ads–here’s the URL to the Longines’ videos page. Click on the video, At the heart of passion:

http://www.longines.com/watches/films )

Gender-neutral advertising. I’m all about it. It makes everyone in my gender feel welcome to the Consumption Party. (“Come on in, everyone–test our product, and buy-buy-buy!”)

Believe me, I would buy a gorgeous, precise Longines’ watch, were it within my means–if for no other reasons than that they have class, and they don’t discriminate against women in their advertising.

I started making a list on Derby Day, of all the ads–but there were so many that I couldn’t keep up. To the best of my ability, I identified three categories:

* Gender-neutral (a few)

* Children (“The Despicables” film–one ad that I saw for little ones.)

* Male-oriented (98%, I’d say.)

And not a single ad–not a nod, a wink, a nudge–not a single ad aimed at women.

Read that again. To the best of my recollection–and I was watching, intently–there was not one ad aimed at women as consumers.

This is stupid. I don’t mean that as an opinion, I mean that–to omit at least 51% of your audience–is idiotic. (Whether that decision or omission was made by Churchill Downs; the Kentucky Derby administrators or NBC Sports Network–it was a stupid business decision.)

I don’t think that it was stupid, I simply identify it as such, and am passing on the fact to you.

NO, I don’t think that women’s personal products should have taken front-and-center, any more than I think that the body-hair-razor should have been shown. But I DO know that women buy cars. How about an ad for Mercedes that features a woman driving that new Benz with the great safety features? Yes, we women buy cars. And according to statistics, we buy a lot of them.

Women buy horses. If your ad campaign to sell horses isn’t gender-neutral, you might consider marketing to females.

Women buy houses, and farms. How about real estate ads directed at women in the horse racing industry?

Women buy items in virtually every product category in the world. So why are not more advertisers aiming their ads at us?

Racing never will grow healthily into this Century and beyond until those who run the marketing and ad campaigns recognize that women are the backbone of horse racing.

The flip side of this coin is that, even though we’re almost halfway through the 14th year of this Millennium–most advertisers who sponsor horse racing have yet to recognize that females are the majority of the fan base–and of potential fans, customers and clients.

Many people over the years have accused me of hallucinating, of creating statistics that don’t exist, when I cite this fact. I’d read it in a report several years ago, a report sponsored by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers’ Association. Try as I might, I cannot find that report or the specific pages about horse racing online. It appears that when the SGMA changed its name to Sporting & Fitness Industry Association in 2012, all their previous reports went flying off into Cyberspace, along with the old website.

This seeming lack of evidence might confirm the beliefs of the naysayers who believe that the stats I quote and insistence that women are the majority of the fans in horse racing–are just-so-much hooey.

Not to despair! I’m not crazy, or rabid: Scarborough Sports Marketing, a company out of Chicago and New York, generated a press release in–get this–2004, reporting the results of a comprehensive study they’d conducted. The headline and intro paragraph read thus:

WHEN IT COMES TO LOYAL HORSE RACING FANS, WOMEN ARE A SURE BET FOR MARKETERS, ACCORDING TO
SCARBOROUGH SPORTS MARKETING

NEW YORK (October 26, 2004) – Scarborough Sports
Marketing released an analysis that finds that horse racing is attracting
female consumers. Fifty-two percent of Loyal* Horse Racing Fans are women. The
only other sport out of the 23 measured by Scarborough where a higher percentage of Loyal Fans
are female is the WNBA. Fifty-seven percent of Loyal WNBA Fans are women.

In case 2004 is too far-back for you, consider this statistic: May 4, 2013: Nielson, the company that can tell who’s watching what, down to a fraction–reported that 52% of the viewing audience of the Kentucky Derby in 2013 was female. And viewership rose 16% from 2012, to 16.2 million viewers. Translated: over 8,424,000 of the viewers of the Kentucky Derby were women–and not a single ad was aimed at coaxing the money of those women out of our purses to buy stuff.

Isn’t that silly?

It appears that the people who plan advertising for horse racing–such as producers for TV broadcasts–don’t have a clue: they’re still aiming 99% of the ads on horse racing shows at the 48%.

Isn’t it bad planning, to sell ads for items that the majority of your viewers probably won’t buy because the majority of those ads exploit their gender?

(Ummmmm…YES, little Johnny, an ad that features a scantily-clad woman, draped across a Camaro, or bouncing around a golf course IS exploitation of women.)

But let’s give them some credit: perhaps they just didn’t understand that we’re the foundation of the fan base. But now they know, the truth is Our There: henceforth, ignorance of the fact is no excuse to exclude us.

I would write, “I rest my case,” but I don’t. Not yet.

The same evening that I went berserk because of the apparent No Women Ads Zone on Derby broadcasting, I found a link. Through Fast Company, I found this article:

Fastcodesign.com: “Women Dominate the Global
Marketplace: Here are 5 Keys to Reaching
Them” by Susan Fabry*

I’m going to give you a couple of brilliant points contained herein, but I suggest strongly that you read the entire article. Especially if you’re a person who has a product or service for which you buy advertising:

The nutshell, the five ways to reach us:

1. Acknowledge her influence.
2. Join her circle.
3. Understand her similarities.
4. Respect her differences.
5. Grow with her.

And WHY is it that businesspeople with products and services to sell should advertise to we women?

Because, according to Ms. Fabry:

“Women control 65 percent of global spending and more than 80 percent of U.S. spending. By 2014, the World Bank predicts that the global income of women will grow by more than $5 trillion.”

THAT’s why.

So, girls and boys, let’s put on our thinking caps: The past is the past. The person in charge of advertising sales for the Kentucky Derby screwed up, but it’s not too late. That person may have thought that s/he was targeting the right market, but they were oh-so-wrong.

Citing Scarborough Sports Marketing, Nielson and Susan Fabry, simply put:

Women are the majority of the fan base of horse racing and

Women control global spending.

The natural conclusion seems to be impossible to miss: advertise to US:

We love horses.

We love horse racing.

We buy stuff.

If you’re looking to put your advertising dollars where they’ll produce the most bang for your buck–please consider investing your dollars in entities that appreciate and understand these statistics.

Do some research–find out which media are woman-friendly. Find out which are woman-run. Find out which horse racing media cater to the majority–and who offer advertising that will reach We Womenfolk.

Get creative with your ad team, and make the switcheroo: if you sell cars, don’t make ads that feature bikini-clad girls draped across the hood of a car. Instead, create ads with smart, savvy women at the wheel of your Mercedes.

The chick draped across the car can’t even spell, “car,” never mind–buy one.

The woman in the Mercedes ad may be your next customer.

That’s all she wrote.

NOTES:

* http://www.fastcodesign.com/1663594/women-dominate-the-global-market-place-here-are-5-keys-to-reaching-them*

* And while you’re shopping for venues for your ads–perhaps you’ll drop me a line and ask about advertising in f!lly Magazine. 🙂

Related Posts