You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. We’ve grown up and grown old hearing this truism.
Now that times have changed and the shoe is on the other foot with many of us being the old dogs, mindsets have changed just as has the huge paradigm shift that has affected the world.
The above was part of a discussion I had the other day with a friend in Hong Kong who, though hardly a rabid gambler, follows horse racing in the city religiously.
He is a dyed in the wool racing fan, and like others in Hong Kong cut from the same cloth, enjoys taking selfies with jockeys, posting these on Facebook and enjoys getting lost in the moment of these times.
He’s also a great guy- Hong Kong Chinese, eager to improve his English, and someone with plenty of questions for a foreigner about things like why more younger people in Hong Kong are not drawn to the pastime like he was.
After explaining to him that this isn’t the Eighties, what the “Woke Generation” is, and how, over the decades, there has been worldwide criticism of how animals are treated in circuses and zoos, and wherever animals are trained for the entertainment of humans, horse racing, saddled with its gambling albatross, will never have an ally with the mainstream media.
There’s no point fighting this. What’s needed is a strategic and ongoing communications campaign that’s honest, relevant and which can change perceptions keeping the pastime in the Dark Ages.
There’s gambling involved in every sport. Yet...
I introduced my friend to the work of mindset coach Ben Crowe, who, ironically enough, worked for the Hong Kong Jockey Club around two decades ago.
Exactly what he did at the Club is sketchy, but knowing who he worked under, it’s no surprise that his stay was brief...
During these times of the Zero Covid mandate from China that’s resulted in the “racing bubble” and fried minds with chow fan, it’s made me wonder why there couldn’t have been a workshop via Zoom with a professional on mindsets for these crazy times like Ben Crowe. It might have helped...
Meanwhile, horse racing as “entertainment” is easy to say, but how exactly? It really depends on how one defines “entertainment” in 2022.
How does this term become credible and not just corporate speak by those who work for racing clubs and see it only as their “job responsibilities” and meeting KPIs?
Is there any emotional attachment between “entertainment” and the racing game?
One can discuss this subject until the swallows come back from Capistrano, but, at least in a Hong Kong going through many different changes in line with the demands of China, horse racing, is at the moment, something for mainly two different sets of racing uncles with a few wannabes behind the velvet rope.
One group is richer than the other, and for both, it’s some downtime to have a respite from the very real problems afflicting them and a city trying to understand what’s really going on and how to be “on side”.
To this day, only the Happy Wednesday brand from the Hong Kong Jockey Club succeeded in positioning racing as something that was part of the bigger world of this thing called “entertainment”.
How? It wasn’t anything contrived, there weren’t decisions by committee and negative intrusion was outlawed.
It was about creating a fun atmosphere and marketing this without any fear of failure.
Having worked on this brand after leaving EMI Music, those Happy Wednesday nights happened organically and attracted thousands of a younger and more international crowd through a combination of the right ‘live’ music, creatively themed nights that were, well, fun with this same fun being the key driver.
Where did wagering fit in? It didn’t. That would have been an unnecessary intrusion. It would have had nothing to do with having fun.
Then the protests of 2019 happened which morphed into Medusa and this is where we find ourselves today.
Where exactly are we? It’s dependent on who’s asking the question and if those providing the answers are doing this as honestly as possible.
Having been in advertising, marketing and a journalist, and still very much a writer and keen observer of life, what is termed “the racing media” adds nothing to the subject it’s reporting about.
It’s hardly The New Journalism that Tom Wolfe wrote about.
Some might say that giving horse racing the Big Picture it needs is the job of those marketing the pastime- but how good are these hires at marketing- and who hired them and why?
What were their qualifications? A firm handshake, good hair and a smile?
Don? What do you think?
Being “good” on some place like Twitter is hardly a job responsibility and neither is having had experience flying in “influencers” from overseas to tweet their observations about, let’s say, one of the most important dates of the racing calendar. That’s just goofy and flatulent. But it’s happened.
Goofiness like this has nothing to do with ageism. It’s to do with lacking marketing smarts.
This is where there’s a need to learn from the self confidence of Don Draper, and seeing where there’s an opening for the pastime amongst all the other clutter heaped on us on a daily basis.
In every industry, we’re all looking for something, but often unsure what this is nor realising the importance of the medium for the message.
One size doesn’t fit all and neither is posting like millions of others do on social media with the “right” hashtags.
Horse racing needing to reinvent itself is something that’s been chanted for decades- mainly on Twitter- and nothing has changed.
Maybe the corporate “approval system” doesn’t wish to see this happen?
More pertinent: How many can actually MAKE this happen?
It’s often about letting sleeping dogs lie and allowing things to just carry on and retaining that primary and ageing customer base of wealthy horse owners and those with the ka-ching ka-ching ka-ching to “play the ponies”.
Maybe it’s also knowing that many up the totem pole are not going to be around to see any changes, so, unlike what the Hues Corporation once sang about, it comes down to don’t rock the boat, baby. Just keep on keeping on with more of the same old same old, and just ensure that the wagering numbers are ticking over and pension plans are secure.
Horse racing executives can learn so much from Sir Paul McCartney, who at 80 years young, is constantly evolving, continuing to inspire generations and being as young as he feels by being ageless and timeless and just so important to this world we live in today.
There’s an emotional attachment with him and his music going back five decades.
Horse racing? It’s Eleanor Rigby and always on the back foot and perhaps happy to be behind the eight ball.
It seemingly only knows how to get back to where it once belonged- and stay there. Like Old Yeller. And some should know what happened to that good ol’ dog.
Having said this, it only takes one person with the vision to break away from the herd at Jurassic Park, remove the blinkers, take off the hood, cut through all the ancient crap and welcome what is known as horse racing to today’s world.
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