Jermaine Jenas to head up £1.6m campaign to woo summer crowds to racecourses

Great British Racing unveiled a £1.6 million marketing and advertising campaign on Tuesday designed to attract audiences back to racecourses.

Under the banner of Everyone's Turf, the campaign is aimed squarely at a youth market which research has identified is open to the idea of trying a day at the races, although GBR chief executive Rod Street stressed it is deliberately "broad in image" so as to appeal to as many parts of society across age, gender and race as possible.

The campaign will run through the key months of July, August and September, which in the last full year of crowds on racecourses accounted for around 35 per cent of all visits to the track.

Everyone's Turf is fronted by former Nottingham Forest, Newcastle, Tottenham and England footballer Jermaine Jenas, whose subsequent BBC TV career on both the One Show and Match of the Day marks him out as having wide appeal with a large swathe of the public.

Asked how he would measure the success of the campaign, Street emphasised both crowd figures and the reach of the various promotional material as key indicators.

He said: "When we put this campaign together the initial focus was to get back to 2019 levels of attendance, which was around 5.6m visits.

"That was all pitched at the back end of 2021 and subsequent to that we've seen quite a sharp decline in attendances on some days and in some months and so I think that the refocus will be that we can stem the tide in quarter three.

"Where there's been a serious challenge on attendances because of the cost of living crisis, the massive range of competition for consumer spend as everyone comes out of Covid and the fact maybe some people have got out of the habit of going racing, the important thing is to buck that attendance trend in this period."

Rod Street: 'Racing’s total social media audience is around 26 million people, it’s got huge reach.'Credit: Edward Whitaker

Research carried out throughout the two years of the pandemic revealed interesting findings which have informed the look and feel of Everyone's Turf.

"The most compelling discovery during that time is that among 25-34-year-olds, there was increased openness to coming racing and experiencing a day at the races," Street said.

"The other demographics held up as well and so what was really pleasing over those two difficult years was we didn't seem to lose interest among any particular group. It was definitely that younger demographic who enjoy experiences and like to spend their disposable income on doing fun things that were very open to it.

"But the campaign is so broad in its image with Everyone's Turf that it doesn't exclude any demographic and it will also reach lapsed and existing fans because we want everyone to come."

The Levy Board has put up £1.35m for the development of assets and the advertising spend, while GBR is contributing £250,000 from its own budget.

ITV Racing's Chris Hughes and BBC presenter Jermaine Jenas both feature in the 'Everyone's Turf' promotional campaignCredit: Jacob_niblett

Street said a key part of the strategy is to provide racecourses and other stakeholders with bespoke media for their own websites and social media, in addition to the spots, hoardings and radio ads being run by GBR.

"Racing's total social media audience is around 26 million people, it's got huge reach," said Street. "It's really important that the assets for Everyone's Turf are being amplified by users, including any stakeholder group beyond the racecourses, in the hope of giving the campaign a real turbo boost."

The Front Runner is our latest email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, a four-time Racing Reporter of the Year award winner, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday