We recently announced the final three Blogger Contest finalists, and now we’re bringing you each submission from Round 2 here on Bloggers Row. We will be posting all six entries over the next few days, so be sure to check them out and leave your feedback in the comments.
All entries will be reprinted without editing for fairness’ sake. Thanks again for your support and readership, EN! We are thrilled to have such quality entries yet again this year.
Preserve the Old, but Embrace the New
Imagine you’re at Rolex and you see Michael Jung galloping around cross country with a set of golden arches on his shoulder and a saddle pad that is similar to Jimmie Johnson’s #48 Chevrolet with sponsor logos all over the quilting. Imagine Phillip Dutton, immediately after a great dressage test, takes a giant gulp of Gatorade’s just released flavor for the new ad in Sports Illustrated. Now picture the main arena at Burghley surrounded by banners from Coca-Cola, Panasonic, Heineken, Progressive and Sunoco as Andrew Nicholson has another amazing stadium round.
I feel that many of us cringe at the thought of “selling out” our sport to the corporate giants. At the same time, we wonder why there isn’t more widespread acceptance of our sport? The reality of professional sports is that corporate sponsors dump more money than one can imagine into sporting events. Companies like IHeart Media sponsor the US Figure Skating Championship. IBM is the IT sponsor for the US Open at Chambers Bay, Purina sponsors the Westminster Dog Show and Geico sponsors the Pro Bowling Association World Championship with a whopping 35 hours of television coverage on a major network.
Turning to sponsors of five of the four star events worldwide (Kentucky, Badminton, Burghley, Luhmulhen, and Adelaide), out of over 100 listed sponsors about 10 are internationally recognizable non-equine related companies. There were no beverage (i.e., Coke, Pepsi), alcohol (who drinks more than equestrians?), telecom, food service, or snack manufactures sponsoring our biggest annual events.
If our sport is to survive, thrive and increase its audience, shouldn’t we try to attract the sponsors that the everyday non-horse person can relate to? In attracting those sponsorship deals wouldn’t that make it more valuable for our sport to be broadcasted across mainstream media? Thus increasing viewership and even knowledge that Eventing (or Tri-equathlon, Equestrathon, or whatever we are going to be called) exists.
We should continue to recruit sponsors that are part of our way of life, but we should also include sponsors that the everyday person can relate to. I can get on Facebook at any time and pick 5 well-known brands that get mentioned by fellow eventers at least once a week. For example: Starbucks, Chipotle, Wal-Mart, Ram Trucks, and Home Depot are all in my news feed from just today. Shouldn’t we get these companies on board with eventing?
Sponsors want a return on investment. We need to start gathering more demographic information about our membership (see the USDF’s statistics) and the people who participate in eventing either as competitors or spectators. If we plan to attract these companies as sponsors, we must encourage attendance, aka more eyes that come with wallets that will potentially buy what they’re selling.
Here are a few ideas to get the conversation started about boosting attendance at events: partner with an A list celebrity that is passionate about horses. Wouldn’t it be cool to have Kaley Cuoco or Robert Duvall as the guest emcee of Rolex Kentucky? Even better – how about a big blow out concert after cross country in the Rolex Stadium with Bruce Springsteen, Miranda Lambert, or Maroon 5? These ideas would drive more interest from the mainstream public to attend 3-day events, increasing the visibility and popularity of our sport and driving the return on investment that big-name sponsors require.
Our sport is deeply rooted in tradition. The way we dress, the tack we use, the movements in a dressage test are all part of a historic tradition that transcends all of us. We must remember where our sport came from, but if we wish to make eventing more appetizing, engaging and understandable to the mainstream public, we must embrace the things that can help it survive and grow.
