Horse Trading

I've been home sick, which has relegated me to spending the day on the couch watching horse racing. So aside from the fever and stomach ache, it's been a great day!

Many of you probably don't watch horse racing, I'll be the first to admit that it has a niche audience that most of my friends and associates don't fall into. This is great from a research standpoint, because it means that the advertising for horse racing is very different from the advertising you would see on other television programs, and even unlike other, more popular sports. It would take a long time to go through all of the case examples, so I'll just start with a taste for now and maybe go into it a little further as the racing season continues.

(I should note here for the sake of sticklers like myself that when I say "horse racing" I'm referring to thoroughbred horse racing. I would love to comment on advertising focused towards viewers of harness, quarter-horse, or other varieties of racing, but unfortunately they don't really show those on TV. Guessing from the crowd I see around harness racing tracks, commercials would probably focus in the area of beer, farm equipment, and antidepressants. To any relatives who might be reading, just kidding!)

Say My Name

One thing I tend to see a lot of during horse racing is advertising for financial services companies. I'm not sure if that's because they assume horse racing fans would have a lot of money, or because they assume that horse racing fans would have a difficult time managing what money they have. Yes, I know -- probably a little of both.

This allowed me to get a look at the campaign for Old Mutual, which apparently is a firm offering various financial services, and not a malt liquor brand as I would have initially guessed. The campaign is apparently several months old but I haven't noticed it before (they also sponsor pro golfer Trevor Immelman, so surely they received some boost in their notoriety when he won the Masters last month). This spot ran several times during the broadcast I was watching, although the version I saw, unlike this one, had inserted a horse racing-themed bit in place of some of the other stuff.



It's always hard to say what I think when financial services companies try to be "cool". On the one hand, this is certainly more notable than any of the dozens of other horse racing-themed financial services commercials that I have seen over and over again but still for the life of me can't remember enough information about to look up on the internet. Those commercials try to draw a parallel between the pedigree and performance of top thoroughbreds and the supposed upstanding reputation of a firm with whom you are supposed to invest your money (seriously, I wanted to show you a good example but I just could not recall enough about it). This one takes a more populist approach, perhaps paralleling an attempt on the part of racing promoters to make thoroughbred racing a popular sport again.

Does it work? Well obviously they don't expect people to start using "Old Mutual" in everyday speech. At the least, they probably hope that their viewers will interpret it as a joke, and assume that the company has a sense of humor about itself, which helps to build a sense of trust with the brand. Some of their creative people might even have the delusional idea that people would start trying to use it in ironic jest, which would probably be the best outcome for the brand; unfortunately (or fortunately), this campaign will probably not be pervasive enough to be as widely recognizable as, for instance, "apply directly to the forehead."

Overall, this idea seems like a pretty solid way to build recognition for the brand, but it could potentially go wrong. For instance, viewers with a less sophisticated understanding of humor could think that the company is being arrogant in assuming its brand is important enough to be integrated into popular culture. It could also turn off viewers with a disdain for the very idea of incorporating brand names into everyday speech. There's also the very real potential that a lot of viewers simply won't get it, as the joke is not well explained. By putting its ads so prominently into a horse racing broadcast, Old Mutual assumes not only that the audience has some money (and potentially some difficulty managing it), but also that the audience is savvy enough to get that it is a joke and to go along with it. Too much to ask of a racing audience? As always, the audience will decide.

Appetizing!

Some of you might have known that the reason I was watching horse racing today was because it's Kentucky Oaks day at Churchill Downs, which traditionally occurs the day before the first Saturday in May, when the running of the Kentucky Derby occurs. The Oaks was a good race on a sloppy track, as Louisville experienced torrential downpours all afternoon. Conditions for the Derby will probably also be sloppy.

Speaking of sloppy, one of the interesting features of the Kentucky Derby coverage is that its lead sponsor is Yum! Brands, the biggest company you've probably never heard of. In case you don't know, Yum! Brands, Inc. is the unholy polymarriage of KFC (formerly Kentucky Fried Chicken), Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, A&W Hot Dogs and More, and Long John Silver's. Although the world's collective arteries harden a bit every time they proudly proclaim it, they are the largest restaurant company in the world. Those of you who have seen a KFC/Taco Bell or some similar mash-up and wondered how it came to pass, now you know. If you're like me, such conglomerations have inspired titillating thoughts of possibilities such as popcorn chicken chalupas and fish stick pizzas.

As far as I can tell, the Derby is the only thing that Yum! sponsors as a company, and since the company is based in Louisville it seems as if the Derby is simply something it makes sense for them to sponsor. On any other broadcast, at any other time of year, advertising is limited to just the component brands. So when Derby time rolls around, I always wonder, is it helping or hurting the company to advertise its own existence? Wouldn't it seem to be the conventional wisdom, in this day and age, that consumers prefer products that appear to be somewhat independent, instead of parts of large corporate conglomerates? Food products that are subsidiaries of Nestle or Coca-Cola, as most food products tend to be, don't advertise themselves as such.

So why do they do it? Well, maybe since it's just limited to one broadcast at one time, they figure it doesn't really matter. Or maybe given the reputation of the component brands, and the proliferation of the aforementioned hybrid restaurants, they figured it wouldn't be a surprise to anyone that they are part of a larger corporate entity. In fact, if it is the case that most people assume these (I hesitate to use the term) restaurants are part of a larger entity anyway, maybe promoting Yum! actually does the brands a service by providing a "face" to what is otherwise a faceless corporate mass. Furthermore, it reaffirms that these brands are not subsidiaries of McDonalds or other such insidious chains, but of an independent company that is based right in America's heartland. Can't you taste the freedom?

Mull it over while you're sipping your mint julep and nervously adjusting your wide-brimmed hat.