Breeders Cup

Since the inaugural running 25 years ago, the Breeders’ Cup has established itself as the season-ending championship of Thoroughbred racing. CTP has worked to brand and promote the championship races and, more recently, the Breeders’ Cup Challenge, a series of qualifying races held at tracks throughout the country. We've supported television, radio, print and online work with highly effective, national grass roots events during the Challenge that help build earned media coverage for the final race.

Social Media

With everyone living in the ever-changing virtual world, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships wanted to tap into its strong fan base of true horseplayers--online--leading up to the 26th running of its World Championships at Santa Anita in California. But how do you bring the sport of Thoroughbred racing, with its historic roots and timeless traditions, into the cutting-edge digital realm of social media? To solve this we implemented a strategic social media plan that provided fans compelling content, stimulated engaging conversation and activated fans offline, particularly in the Los Angeles market.

The Breeders’ Cup social media program produced a fully expanded and redesigned Facebook Fan Page and 70% increase in the number of fans, and Twitter feeds for @BreedersCup and @GregAvioli with a combined following of nearly 3,000. The implemented hashtag for the event, #BC09, and #Zenyatta became a trending topic during the two-day World Championships.

We held the Tweeters’ Cup, the first time a Tweet-Up was held onsite at a sports championship event. The event format mimicked that of traditional Tweet-Ups, but infused compelling content throughout the day designed to promote tweeting. The event drew -- a mix of horseracing enthusiasts and some of L.A.ʼs most visible tweeters in the L.A. tech scene -- with a combined Twitter following of nearly 450,000 followers. The Tweetersʼ Cup was highlighted on-air during the ESPN telecast of the Breedersʼ Cup, as well as in Sports Business Daily and in prominent blogs on the internet.

These elements from the 2009 Breeders’ Cup social media campaign solidified the Breeders’ Cup presence in the digital realm and was recognized as an award winning social media campaign.

View Selected Work:

• Print
• PR
• TV