Leveraging The Melbourne Cup: Activation Highlights From The Race That Stops A Nation

Australian brands of all shapes and sizes are activating around the 2016 Melbourne Cup Day as they aim to leverage the country’s attention on ‘the race that stops a nation’.

From official partners such as title sponsor Emirates, insurer AAMI and fashion brand Myer, to ambushers and, of course, the big book brands, Australian marketers are tapping into the national zeitgeist with a range of race day marketing initiatives.

Social was a particularly popular activation platform – perhaps partly driven by the fact that the 2016 Melbourne Cup marked the first time Twitter live streaming the race to a global, social audience.

As well as the title sponsor Emirates’ activation (which saw the airline’s logo plastered across almost every aspect and element of the race and, according to Nielsen, gives the carrier a 26% brand sponsorship awareness amongst horse racing fans), among the more interesting sponsor campaigns (most of which straddled both traditional at-track hospitality with digital/social marketing strands), was the initiative from mid/upmarket Australian department store and clothes business Myer.

Its core hospitality-led activation focused on its main marquee at Flemington track which also hosted a daily women’s race wear competition,

Well done to today's #myerFOTF Women's Racewear finalists! #myerspringracing pic.twitter.com/Ldnjtn6lJ1

— MYER (@myer) November 1, 2016

Winners! @myer fashion on the fields at #derbyday today. congratulations from @vogueaustralia pic.twitter.com/EctUlcmbuN

— Vogue Australia (@vogueaustralia) October 29, 2016

while its online work was spearheaded by a sponsored Snapchat filter which enabled snapchatters to wear a flower crown or metal headdress under an adorned archway.

Have you checked out our #cupday Snapchat lens yet?! Jump on Snapchat now to try it out – quick, it's for one day only!!: @elyseknowlzy #melbcupcarnival #myermarquee

A photo posted by MYER (@myer) on Oct 31, 2016 at 10:53pm PDT

Fellow race sponsor AAMI Insurance

Fancy a posh day at the #MelbourneCup? #AAMILuckyClub has tickets to our premium lounge https://t.co/u1O0WDqDW0 pic.twitter.com/caTYWGeoCI

— AAMI Insurance (@AAMI) September 30, 2016

hosted an at-race ‘Lucky Club’ hospitality space and ran a VIP race day experience competition.

Love horses? Love style? WIN a #DerbyDay experience worth $25K & be a part of racing history https://t.co/TSm0xBXS2N pic.twitter.com/7ruMsbu96R

— AAMI Insurance (@AAMI) September 30, 2016

‘This audience is engaged and our research shows that major sponsors of The Melbourne Cup – such as Emirates and AAMI – generate significant media exposure value through the millions of people watching on televisions in or outside of homes, via internet or mobile streams and now on the twitter steam,’ says Nielsen Sports MD Shane Mattiske.

Amongst the bookmakers using social media to cash in on the country’s biggest annual betting bonanza (with around AU$6m gambled on the big race), two of the most notable campaigns came from UBET and SportsBet.

UBET’s campaign called on the Queen herself to give all Australians a day off for the big race with both video

and supporting social assets and executions pleading for a national holiday.

Last year Browny asked Big Mal to make Cup Day a national holiday. This year he’s going over the PM’s head…#UBETWECAN pic.twitter.com/eo8ptgkkLP

— UBET (@UBET) October 26, 2016

Hey @mikebairdMP @AnnastaciaMP What about the rest of us?!?! #UBETWECAN. pic.twitter.com/rbs3gAgxky

— UBET (@UBET) October 26, 2016

An open letter to her Majesty the Queen, from @JBrown! #UBETWECAN @RoyalFamily pic.twitter.com/hpBKYzHZ9X

— UBET (@UBET) October 27, 2016

While rival Sportsbet ran a twin-pronged marketing programme led by two distinct creative strands: one revolved around its patented a new form guide that will help punters pick a horse based on the types of undies they’re wearing,