DIGITAL MARKETING PORTFOLIO
INTRODUCTION
Before I began my Digital Marketing Apprenticeship, I had very limited knowledge to what came under the digital marketing umbrella. Throughout the course I have not only gained a thorough understand of what it means to be a digital marketer but have used these skills to implement them into my current role. My role within Weatherbys has also begun to change since I first started the course and as such I have been able to develop and demonstrate new skills, which have been both beneficial to the company and myself. Throughout this portfolio, I will take you through a variety of projects I have been apart of and overseen that are relevant to the apprenticeship. I will highlight where I have applied the learnings from the course to my current role within the business.
RACECARDS
My primary role when I began the apprenticeship was the creation of racecards, to be used on all British racetracks, as well as three in Ireland. I have also produced racecards for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and in this section will take you through their relevance to the course.
The process begins with a brief from the racecourse, outlining how they want their racecard to look as well as the feel and appeal they want it to bring. Working with multiple internal teams to bring the product to life.
Racecards/marketing and business development are all integral parts to what makes up Weatherbys Limited as a company. We play an integral part to the horse racing industry in Britain and in my particular role, I am responsible for the printed and digital racecards, which account for a large amount of our revenue, as well as working with the marketing and business development team to promote and implement new ideas both internally and externally.
In the next section I will demonstrate following a brief from start to finish and highlighting how I worked with the racecourse to produce the best possible product. I’ll then look at how we analysed the data obtained from the digital product and where best we can improve, offering some options moving forward for the next racecard.
COMPANY VALUES
We are always striving to be accountable and improve our performance and service, respecting everyone as individuals.
To uphold this, I make sure I try and go above and beyond for our customers. Making sure to work closely to deadlines with a positive attitude, as well as working well within a team.
We have a long history and trusted track record - with a determination to build upon for future generations
Putting in place comprehensive SOP’s for a variety of different processes we use, that new starts can use.
We are agile and responsive, we take on board constructive comments and will go the extra mile to ensure our business develops in the waythat best suits the needs of our customers
For instance, taking on-board comments from a few recent campaigns we ran from customers, on where we could improve and be better next time.
We develop, create and enhance our services and products to deliver our forward-thinking business and financial goals; innovation is in our DNA
Producing reports on our digital racecards in order to offer enhanced cards to improve viewer use.
We have a strong, healthy culture, our staff and our customers are at the heart of our business
Working closely with a variety of departments to create Racecard tenders. Being able to be adaptive to the current market and produce the best possible product with a large team.
We strive to ensure that all of our products, services and relationships are ofthe highest quality
Constantly produce the best possible work I can, while upholding all the other values. Understanding how important my work is from a business perspective and becoming more involved with future projects that can positively impact the business.
INITIAL BRIEF
Begins by receiving a word document from the racecourse contact, which highlights all the information that needs updating. In this case, there is a total of 19 pages as it is their biggest meeting of the year, with four days making up the Festival. I’ve picked an example page highlighting what the client would like producing, in this case a number of personalised racecards for a company on course.
Communication is done through e-mail and teams calls, mostly with the racecourse contact, with adverts and information being supplied by e-mail.
Sometimes we receive artwork that needs to be made up by our artwork team, this is true with the covers as they needed to be produced by us. Example seen on the right.
However after doing the role for a number of years, I have a good working relationship with other marketing teams who supply their content. This is done through a portal site used papermule, which is also used by the racecourse. This is shown on the right where customers can upload their artwork and communicate with me. We can also contact the racecourse using ‘contact chasee’. Having a good working relationship with the course is an essential part of the role.
Personalised racecards have proven to yield good profit margins for us, so recently I have worked on trying to educate and increase sales on these in order to increase the business profits.
CUSTOMER NEEDS
As with any project we undertake, it isn’t always easy to meet a customers needs with the funds avaliable and being able to offer alternatives and come up with solutions is a key part of the role.
York are a racecourse who try to maximise their betting turnover by including racing from other courses. This is achieved through a variety of process which can be seen to the right.
For a few of their meetings, they like to include races that have a lot of runners and thus go over multiple pages, this in turn increases pagination and is more expensive for the course. They asked me to come up with a solution to which I suggested removing the form comment of the runners, in order to save space on the page and fit it into the desired pagination.
ALTERNATIVE RACECARDS
THIRD RACE 1.33 The Wilmot-Smith Memorial
3 BELLS OF UFFORD (IRE) (47) 1-054 5 11-4
Br Ch g Galileo (IRE) - Dancing Rain (IRE) Alan Johns J
O Mr S. Grys & Mr M. O’Boyle Tim Vaughan, Cowbridge T
B Godolphin Designation Limited, DragonBet, Ferments & Cultures S
TIMEFORM VIEW Tongue strap on for 1st time, fourth of 13 n novice hurdle at Southwel (15.8f, good to soft, 17/2) on hurdles bow 47 days ago. Needs to build on it over this longer distance.
TFRHHHII BHA-
4 CARAMELO RAPIDO (IRE) (15) 4-336 6 11-4
Br B g Spanish Moon (USA) - Capuccina (FR) Jamie Hamilton J
O Funky Monk Essex Ltd Mark Walford, Sheriff Hutton T B Cyril O’Hara
TIMEFORM VIEW Twice-raced maiden and first run since leaving Max Young when sixth of 8 n novice hurdle at Market Rasen 18.6f good to soft, 50/1) on hurdles bow 15 days ago. Big step forward is required. TFRHHIII BHA-
5 CAUGHTINYOURTRANCE (IRE) (52) 133-0 6 11-4
Br B g Ocovango - Loyalty Card (IRE) Charlotte Jones J
O Mr A. Horabin James Moffatt, Cartmel T
B S. J. Leahy Bloodstock Ltd
TIMEFORM VIEW Winning Irish pointer and made a promising start when placed in pair of bumpers last spring. Off 8 months before only seventh of 9 in novice hurdle at Hexham (20.1f soft) on hurdles bow 52 days ago but remains with potential with cheekpieces on for 1st time. TFRHHHII BHA-
6 FOLLOWCATO (IRE) (43) 23-45 6 11-4
Br Ch g Notnowcato - Follow The Icon Kielan Woods J O Highclere and The Followers Ben Pauling, Naunton T B Patrick McCarthy Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Ltd S
VIEW
Furthermore we also also looked at moving some racecourses to A5 from their current racecard size, in order to get more runners on a page and keep the pagination down. This also then allowed them to fit extra adverts on a page in different sizes and has been another example of how we’ve worked with the courses to produce the most cost effective product. Above is an example of Wetherby in its old
per page, compared to the A5 version, where we could now fit 12.
WHERE NEXT FOR RACECARDS
While digital cards are the obvious way forward, we are as a company know and appreciate the importance of printed products for the majority of customers.
As such, we’ve begun to work closely with external companies within the racing world to produce a more ‘simplified’ racecard for the average racegoer, who may lack the same racing knowledge as a seasoned attendee
Having it remain in the card was an essential part of the racecourse’s needs as they didn’t want to pay for a whole new racecard. We ran a pilot over the back end of last year, the conclusions of which can be seen on the right.
It was interesting to note that the official card still resonated with casual fans, which showed there wasn’t necessarily a direct need for a separate simplified racecard. Whereas the test one was significantly more unpopular with core racing fans. It was interesting to note that neither set of fans voted overly toward not wanting either card and shows a willingness to try new products.
SUMMARY
While there is a definite market for a more simplified card, a completely separate card looks to be the incorrect way to go about it. The simplified aspect did resonate with casual fans and as the study shows, increased their likelihood to bet.
The information was however sometimes lacking and people found it a bit too word focused, instead preferring numbers and a direct route to who was the ‘favourite’.
2:40 YORK (Sat 12 Oct)
1 Room Service
Jockey: TomEaves
Trainer: Kevin Ryan
2
Orazio
Jockey: Saffie Osborne
Trainer: Charles Hills
Taking the feedback on board, we worked with the racing post to produce runners in the above format, focusing on numbers and a bar system to give racing fans an idea of a horses strengths and weaknesses. It took away the sometimes confusing text based opinion on a horse for a more simplified easy to quantify metric.
Each horse was allocated a smart view score, which was a much more popular way of scoring a horse that previously used. We were also able to directly intergate this into our existing cards, which meant the racecourses were happy as they didn’t need to pay for a new card. As well as keeping the core fans happy as they could use the official card, while casual fans could use the official card but instead use these runners to base their bets around. It has been hugely popular and we hope to continue to develop it this year.
DIGITAL RACECARDS
Just like in all industries, going digital has become an essential part of our business model.
We were tasked with how best to move our racecards online. We settled on ‘ISSUU’. which we felt met our needs for the right budget.
It also allowed us to get analysis on how the racecards were performing, using things such as ‘collect e-mail’ from which we could draw analysis and improve the cards features.
By using ISSUU, we were able to embed videos into the raceard, thus improving user experience. It allowed us to bring a new dimension and offer real time replays as a feature.
Furthermore, we were able to offer links to advertisers website, rather than typing in the URL. This increased user traffic to the site and enabled the racecourse to charge more for sponsorship.
The digital card could be sent out to owners or trainers that could not attend the meeting. This also allowed us to create a new income stream by sending the racecard out as an e-mail. As well as hosting on our website.
DIGITAL E-MAILING
When sending out digital racecards, we run a report which generates all runners are each course the following day. Dependent on which course you are looking after, you must filter the data to obtain the correct e-mail addresses for the correct course. It is essential to handle this data with care as to no break any GDPR and to make sure the correct racecard reaches the right recipient. Below is a shortened example of an average report, indicating the amount of data that needs to be correctly processed.
On the right hand side is an example of the e-mail that goes to owners. All the correct e-mails are Bcc’d, to comply with GDPR. This then allows them to access the racecard digitally
DIGITAL RACECARD ANALYSIS
Like all website, ISSUU is not without it’s disadvantages and could no doubt he improved. While mobile friendly, there needs to be more time invested into this platform to make it more compatible. It also lacks the ability to embed videos directly, instead of being taken to an external link once clicking on the video.
From the data below, we can begin to get a picture of how the racecard performed over the period and from there, I could give the racecourse some ideas on how best to improve the card moving forward.
The first thing I did was to compare two separate cards that were done by the racecourse. The first one is a standard digital card, that doesn’t have all the embed links and videos, whereas the second was the one that did. There is a clear improvement in all metrics that suggests it is well worth the extra time and money in order to improve the cards digital footprint. The most notable increase was the amount of reads, which proves how much more popular the card was. From here I could make a recommendation that it was worth doing moving forward.
DIGITAL RACECARD
Totals 2,517 68 00:00:50 0 9
DIGITAL RACECARD
Totals
6,042 1,895 00:02:10 50 51
From the devices and sources pie charts, there is clear trend toward mobile phone users and those accessing the racecard through embed codes on websites.
As I referenced before, ISSUU does have it’s limitations when it comes to mobile use, so the fact 87% people accessed it using their mobile could suggest it didn’t matter to people. However it is more likely that people accessed the card on the racecourse so therefore had their mobile to hand, so changes still need to be made to improve it’s usability.
The embed code on the website of the Curragh, clearly had the biggest amount of users but it more than likely reached a wider audience. A recommendation made is that we could send the card to a larger mailing list, to increase the amount of viewers directly from ISSUU.
RACECARD REDESIGN
While we are investing heavily in the digital racecard, that doesn’t mean to say we aren’t playing a big role in conventional racecards as well.
A recent project we undertook was to bid to the Naas racecards, which involved producing an in depth tender and working closely with multiple other departments.
We already had a good working relationship with racing bodies in Ireland, so it was about using them as a positive when dealing with Naas.
They didn’t have a direct brief for us and were quite happy for us to produce a variety of different options for them to choose from.
I worked with my team manager and the artwork team to produce a number of options for the racecourse to look at, in order for them to get an idea of the sort of things we produce.
This was a complex and lengthy process that involved a lot of moving parts and different teams. It had to be different enough to other tenders we have produced but still retain that traditional feel that a lot of Irish racecourses try to instil. I was responsible for delivering this to the course and talking through any questions they may have.
Ifor
RACECARD VALUES
Study Guidelines:
The team will get to know the brand, presentation style and ‘look and feel’ of Naas’ marketing material, social media output. Studying this content will help the team really understand how we can design your racecard to reflect your values, ideas and place alongside Irish racing history
Identify Standout Features:
We’ll work out how to apply the most definitive features of your guidelines to the racecard, keeping in mind traditional racecard elements and how we can compliment them with innovative new ways of presenting data and information.
Research Patterns and Colours:
Colours are the first instantly recognisable aspect of any brand. We’ll use yours and keep them at the centre of our designs and concepts, making sure their boldness is reflected and tones are used effectively to deliver the highest quality product.
Style Based on Research:
Develop a design style based on the research findings, ensuring it aligns with the guidelines. As the designer of over 3.5m racecards a year, we’re always on top of new design ideas and will work on new ways of presenting your racecard.
Racecourse Fonts:
Typeface is important – especially as most racecard content is text-based. We’ll try a few different sizes and formats of your fonts to make sure we get the most out of the content in the racecard.
Further to this, I was tasked with creating a bit of an overview of what we do and how we operate. This was done in conjunction with the tender and highlights the values and standard we hold ourselves too.
I feel as though it is clear and concise and was the best method to portray how we operate.
Research Racecourse:
The racecard is one ofthe manyways that racegoers interact withyou atthe racecourse andwewantthe productto reflect you. The racecard forms part of the racegoer experience and we’ll craft it in your image.
Generate Ideas:
Give us your ideas and we’ll bring them to life. The team will work to generate creative ideas for the design, working to the guidelines, your brand, and industry best practices. The team produce a wealth of content for feature races, and we’ll come up with ways to showcase your feature races like the Ballyhane and the Fishery Lane.
Feedback:
You’re as much of a part of this process as we are. We’ll seek feedback from your teams on what works and what doesn’t so that we can make it better for the second draft.
Second Draft:
Based on the feedback received, we’ll make the necessary revisions and refinements to create a second draft of the racecard.
FURTHER ANALYSIS INTO RACECOURSES
While racecards are a big part of my job role, they are not the only thing we offer racecourses. We also offer them various data from over the years so they can shape their marketing campaigns. We also offer valuable advice on how best to take the data and use it to their advantage.
Take the data on the right for example. Musselburgh were looking at targeting new trainers for the 24/25 season and were keen to see if there were any trends behind why trainers weren’t running their horses at the track. We provided them with a list of data of all the trainers who had a runner at the track in the previous season. From here, they were able to filter the information to total runs and see if there was any pattern. Alternatively, they could filter it to trainers who had sent plenty of runners and offer them further incentives or reward them. It’s proved to be a very useful tool for racecourses and we help to guide their digital strategy moving forward.
The data can also be useful for being able to track the current seasons results and produce leaderboards both in and out of the card. We are able to print and design multiple other things for racecourses and other external and internal parties. In this instance, Musselburgh asked us to produce a leaderboard for them to have up at the racecourse for the start of the new season. We also set up a new data stream to give us real time data from each fixture moving forward, so we could create a leaderboard table for the next season. It’s proving to be a popular service and is becoming more and more profitable as more courses become aware. As I transition toward my new role, data like this is more and more important.
WEATHERBYS CAMPAIGNS
We recently ran a campaign for our new ‘Jumpers To Follow’ publication, that we documented the sales of from start to finish. It was made available for purchase on Weatherbys Shop and Amazon but for the purpose of this I am going to focus on it’s life on Weatherbys shop
This product was designed to offer people with a list of horses to follow throughout the upcoming national hunt season. It also contains reasoning for each horses inclusion, along with guest writers and the opinions of trainers and jockeys from the national hunt sphere. We used yellow and purple as they are standout colours and tie in with the sponsor of the book ‘Hollywood Bet’ who employ these colours.
The graph above demonstrates the impressions vs sales over the course of the campaign. What we can take from this is the clear increase in sales as the jump season begins around the middle of September This also coincided with when we ran a discounted price, which further increased sales. It gives a good overview of the campaign before we move onto the in-depth analysis below.
CAMPAIGN ANALYSIS
Below is the results from a campaign we ran for our ‘Jumpers to Follow’ Publication.
We opted to use a variety of methods to push sales of the publication. Google Ads served as a useful way to promote the book but we did have some issues initially getting it up and running. Once fully implemented we saw an increase in sales, when combining with the segmented approach to brand and generic key words, allowing the campaign to become optimised to the right audience.
Meta also played a pivotal role in the channel mix - engaging users through a variety of ad formats. The visual nature of the platform was a definite bonus for driving sales.
Although trying to promote the publication in Ireland, we didn’t see the volume we hoped for. This is a new market that as a company we were trying to invest in and we believe it to be the case that Weatherbys as a brand isn’t as widely known about in Ireland. Also, the book is mainly British focused, so we may look at changing the content next year.
CAMPAIGNS COMPARED
It is important to look back at previous campaigns and highlight where improvements have happened or alternatively, where strategies haven’t quote worked. We ran a Christmas campaign to promote our personalised gifts range from the 6th November16th December, which we were able to compare against our 2023 campaign.
We placed an emphasis on strong keywords and bidding optimisation as well as AIBased tweaks within the campaign, along with introduction of both Shopping and Meta Campaigns.
We saw a dramatic increase of 448% conversions compared to 2023, with a 290% increase in revenue and a 116% higher return, for just 80% more spend.
Our focus on key words was highlighted by the top performing terms, like ‘horse racing gifts’ and ‘horse racing presents’
We saw a spike on the final due to an increase in daily spend due to it being the last day when shipping would be there in time for Christmas. In future this is a good day to push as there is a natural increase in customers looking to buy.
RECOMMENDATION FOR FUTURE CAMPAIGNS
From the graph on the left, we can see quite a high CPA for the early weeks for google. This is more than likely due to the campaign not being correctly advertised and was to be expected in the first week. The important trend to note with the CPA is that it is trending downwards, which shows the tweaks being made have the desired effect. It’s lowest point was during week six, which is when the revenue was at its highest, which correlates with an increased conversion rate around this time.
We can also see a good variety in the channel mix and in future may look at diversifying further, potentially with something like performance max.
The graph on the left further supports the spike in sales saw on the final day. There is clearly a higher market appetitie than was originally thought and a higher budget for this period could well see an increased amount of revenue. Next year we would look at weighting the campaign toward this period rather than early - mid November
We also saw that products with a green background saw the most sales. Weatherbys main branding is green, so it may have been the case people resonated with this colour as loyal customers. This may be something to lean toward for future campaigns. Also recommended was the use of video ads.
RESPONDING TO CUSTOMERS
Highlighted are a few examples concerning our tipping services and digital updates. In each example, I have shown a professional attitude and in each case the customer has been happy with the outcome and level of service. There are three examples shown on twitter, two direct messages and one where I have shown an active role to live requests on the bettrends timeline. I’ve also shown two examples of e-mail requests which have been dealt with in a timely and professional manner.
BUILDING AND MAINTAINING RELATIONSHIPS
Recently my role has began to change as I look to take on new responsibilites within the company. I’ve stepped into relationship management, putting use my already well established relationships with a variety of racecourses.
With a primary focus on educating the racecourses on a variety of different products we offer, that they may have previously not known about. I’ve also worked with our business development executive, in how best to offer our full range of products and am looking at developing a brochure, that shows what we as a company can do.
We’ve recently had conversations with Newton Abbott and their new general manager about the various services we offer. To the right is an example of a print that could be sent out to winning owners of their winning horses. It features pedigrees, all their previous wins and a nice picture, with their silks.
We’ve also looked at doing a bit of a rebrand for them to move their card into the 21st century and give it a bit more of a modern look. In some of the slides above, examples are given as to some of the things we offer. Building up new and exisisiting relationships is something I’ve found to enjoy, this was only furthered while undertaking the course.
