Racing’s Ad Campaign Is on the Right Track

An intense young woman, clad in black, is pacing at trackside as horses break from the starting gate. Clutching a parimutuel ticket, she leaps, she backpedals, she runs alongside the rail, exhorting her horse, “Go, baby, go! Go, baby, go!” Almost maniacally she implores, “Come on! Come on! Come on!”

She explains to viewers the ethos of the racetrack: “When you are here, you will be expected to conduct yourself in a manner befitting the occasion: You will not remain seated. You will not keep it down. You will not proceed with caution.” She advises: “Inhibitions? Leave ‘em in the car. ... Go, baby, go!”

These are some of the images and sounds from thoroughbred racing’s multimillion-dollar national advertising campaign that begins this month. When the outline of this campaign was announced months ago, many people within the industry thought the “Go, baby, go!” slogan was silly. I dismissed the notion that racing’s deep-seated problems can be rectified with advertising -- and I still don’t think they can.

But when the 30-second television spots were unveiled last week, I was surprised that I liked the campaign -- more for what it isn’t than what it is. It doesn’t revolve around the cliches of racetrack advertising, such as thundering hooves and flashing silks. The actress in the ads, Lori Petty (whose credits include “A League of Their Own”) is a hip, offbeat character. Racing doesn’t attract many young women to its audience, but if it did, they would probably be unconventional types like her. At least the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), which is funding the campaign, is trying something new.

The NTRA was created last year through an alliance of the major forces in the industry. Racetrack owners, horsemen and breeders have many conflicting agendas, but they share an almost mystical belief in the power of marketing and look enviously on the success of other sports that have grown with the help of snappy advertising (such as pro basketball’s “I love this game!”). So the NTRA’s first important act was to invite ad agencies to make proposals for a campaign.

One of the agency executives working on such a proposal was Steve Bowen of the New York firm Merkley Newman Harty. He had some innovative ideas, but a few days before his scheduled presentation he called a consultant to the NTRA and asked: “I know everybody says the sport needs a new approach. But in their hearts do they really want that?” The consultant replied: “No, not really.”

So Bowen prepared a spot with the thundering hooves and flashing silks -- the sort of ad that racetrack marketers have been using forever. At the end appeared on the screen a quote attributed to Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and not expecting the same result.” Following this was a statistic detailing the number of fans that racing has lost in the last few years. Then Bowen launched his pitch for the “Go, baby, go!” campaign -- and convinced the leaders of a tradition-bound business to do something different.

The agency conducted extensive market research into racing’s customers, its image and its appeal, and decided to sell racing as an exciting, escapist participatory experience. Bowen was conscious of trying to make an appeal that applied not only to the glamour tracks but also was relevant to Laurel Park on a midweek winter card, too. “The excitement -- the ‘Go, baby, go’ appeal -- exists whether or not it’s a gorgeous track,” he said. “We’re not selling racing for something it isn’t.”

The problem with all of this is that luring a newcomer to a racetrack isn’t like bringing him to an NBA game. Once a fan is in a basketball arena, he’ll be immediately engaged by the hoopla, action and energy. But going to a racetrack for the first time can be a forbidding experience. A new fan will be confused, at best, and few tracks will do much to help him. The newcomer might be appalled -- if, for example, he walks into the Pimlico grandstand, surveys the deplorable physical conditions and samples the concessions. Turning a neophyte into an enthusiast almost certainly requires him to get immersed in the nuances of handicapping and betting, a process that can take months or years. Is a jazzy ad campaign going to have any measurable effects?

Bowen is realistic about what “Go, baby, go!” can accomplish in the near term. “You have to begin to change people’s attitudes, and associate racing with glamour,” he said. “You can create conditions that will lead to moving it from an off-trend to an on-trend sport.” Even if “Go, baby, go!” succeeds in altering horse racing’s image, the sport will still have a lot of ground to make up.