NZTR evolves New Zealand’s thoroughbred racing experience in festival-inspired tour via Pitchblack, Crave Global, Eleven PR and MBM

To re-invigorate a movement around horse racing, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing (NZTR) has launched its third year activating ‘The Grand Tour Racing Festival’. The aim – to drive year-on-year depth in a proposition to reimagine racing as a festival-style experience to engage and shift perceptions amongst a younger audience. Working alongside an agency village including Pitchblack Partners, Crave Global, Eleven PR and MBM, the experience is their most elaborate yet.

For the third year running, the racing industry’s largest party continues. This summer, The Grand Tour spans 12 of the country’s most iconic race days across Christchurch, Wellington, Hawkes Bay, Waikato and Auckland – injecting innovation into an event steeped in tradition whilst celebrating quintessential Kiwi racing culture. This year, the on-course experience has been dialled up to new heights to attract the young audience to the races.

“Summer is a busy time with a lot of competition for people’s attention, we wanted to disrupt racing culture as we know it and get the next generation to come down to the track with their mates to experience something new,” says Dan Smith, Head of Marketing, Communications & Wagering Partnerships.

Working in alignment with New Zealand’s premier racing clubs and in partnership with major sponsor betcha and bar-sponsor, Zeffer, cultural movement agency Crave Global have created an unmissable on-course experience to shift the perception of the next generation around racing.

“Using the highly successful wider brand and social campaign from Pitchblack, MBM and Eleven PR. The Crave Global team have helped us evolve The Grand Tour this year, to lift the energy and experience for the younger audiences on course” says Smith.

On-course research undertaken by Crave and NZTR from previous years determined that the younger audience wanted much more entertainment – and that activities would elevate their race experience. Crave, and Endeavour Live applied the interactive and artistic entertainment elements of music festivals to the races to improve the punter experience.

The younger generation are avid festival go-ers, so marrying a high standard of music and racing was a priority. Each race day boasts a festival-spec stage and sound system, with global acts Hot Dub Time Machine, Peking Duk and more to be announced set to entertain once the ponies go to bed. Not to mention a legendary line-up of local DJs.

“New Zealand has a rich history with horse racing, and it is a key part of the fabric of our culture. We wanted to ignite this passion in a younger generation, elevating the race-day experience to make the sport more accessible and exciting, building a movement around heading out to the races over the summer period.” says Georgina Otto, Director & Head of Experiential at Crave Global.

Key to NZTR and Crave’s activation and “entertain me” feedback from attendees, is The Stables – a fully curated concept designed to create a bold, colourful and exploratory activation experience made for the “gram”.

“The Stables are an interactive and stylistic take on traditional horse stables – with five unique rooms for punters to explore and immerse themselves. Creating spaces that were distinct, engaging and most importantly unexpected, was the priority.” says Otto.

A mysterious Wagering Clairvoyant Stable is one of the most popular experiences, entertaining punters with the element of calculated chance, which racing culture is built upon. A purpose-built Grand Tour Shoot Stable gives people an opportunity to show off glamorous race-day outfits in a professional photoshoot environment, while a neon-lit Rave Stable offers an electronic music haven, and the chromed-out Disco Bronco Stable featuring a metallic ride on horse surrounded by disco balls draws queues for an Instagram moment.

Hoping to engage newcomers to racing with a vibrant, high-energy experience that will make them want to spread the word that racing is one hot ticket and an event that shouldn’t be missed!

The Grand Tour kicked off on October 12th at Hawkes Bay’s virtual Livamol Classic race day at Hastings Racecourse and continued with the launch of NZ Cup Week in Christchurch. Converting more punters to the racecourse is the mission of The Grand Tour this summer!