• Gojumpracing.com shortlisted in ‘Best Promotion of a Sport by a Governing Body category
• ‘Raceday for Schools’ initiative shortlisted in ‘Best Digital Sport Marketing Campaign’.
Two of the British Horseracing Authority’s promotional campaigns have been shortlisted for the prestigious Sport Industry Awards 2009. The Awards will be presented on 30th April in London in front of 1400 sports industry attendees.
This is not the first time the Authority’s (or its predecessor’s) work has been shortlisted, after careersinracing.com was shortlisted twice and the BHB’s Spirit Of Racing competition was shortlisted in the best promotion category.
Gojumpracing.com, designed by HRSM Ltd and overseen by the Authority’s website editor Robin Mounsey, was set up with funding from Racing Enterprises to provide a showcase for the winter game. It is designed to decode the often confusing jump racing fixture list with its handy colour-coded racing calendar, and provide fantastic promotions and discounts on many racing meetings. It is also packed with news, features and a beginner’s guide to racing, and aims to bring new faces to the sport by making going jump racing as easy and affordable as possible. It faces tough opposition up against high profile campaigns by the ECB, FA and the USA’s basketball promoters, the NBA, but to achieve a nomination in this highly competitive category off a very small budget is a testament to the success of the initiative so far.
The ‘Raceday for Schools’ initiative is run by the Authority’s Recruitment & Training department led by Sara Hay-Jahans, and it provides an exciting, engaging and interactive web-based resource which aims to extend learning in a number of areas related to Enterprise education within the context of British horseracing. The resource is aimed at 11–16 year olds, and covers the learning objectives to create a range of activities that offer students an exciting and innovative enterprise experience through the context of the British horseracing industry. Through the window of a raceday, the students get the knowledge and skills of marketing, operations management, decision-making, leadership and financial management.
Nic Coward, Chief Executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said:
“These nominations are fantastic news for racing as a whole. The work we do to promote the sport to a new audience and to showcase what skills children can pick up from the sport are being recognised by a worldwide sports industry audience and we will continue to make sure racing has an impact on that scene.
“Whilst budgets are tight in all areas, for gojumpracing.com it is a great example of providing good return on investment and positively raising the profile of the sport not only amongst consumers, but within the sports industry as a whole. We’re up there with the marketing strength of the likes of adidas, Nike, the FA and NBA with what we do for the sport and these two initiatives are a great credit to the teams here. As Britain’s biggest sporting employer, it’s where we deserve to be.
“I also congratulate Hayley Turner who is shortlisted in the last three and fighting racing’s corner in the prestigious Sunday Times’ Sportswoman of the Year Award.”
More information about the awards, including a full list of judges and categories, can be found at www.sportindustry.biz.
3rd February 2009
