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John Smith Space

John Smith's campaign and website developed around racehorse Smithy

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

October 21, 2010 | 2 min read

A new marketing campaign and website has been developed around John Smith’s racehorse; Smithy, the People’s Racehorse as the central focus.

This is the second year that the Ale brand has focused a marketing campaign around the four-year-old gelding, and will include advertising, national media partnerships, digital, mobile, on-and-off trade promotions and race-course activity during the racing calendar.

Overseen by Space, the campaign will roll out over the 2010-2011 Jumps season and aims to increase the number of Smithy shareholders through promotions, events and offers, as well as dedicated on-pack communication and on-trade promotion leveraging the 2011 John Smith’s Grand National in April.

Smithy, who became the face of the brand in an on-trade campaign that resulted in thousands of John Smith’s drinkers owning a share of the racehorse simply by ‘buying a pint’ of John Smith’s, also has his own website, designed to widen engagement and dialogue with users through live racing updates, video footage, guest blogs and competitions.

Gareth Turner, senior brand manager at John Smith’s, explained: “Back by popular demand, Smithy is here to stay! Last season’s shareholders loved the concept and research told us they want more opportunities to get involved with Smithy and the racing world. With that in mind, we’ve built a whole range of additional engagement opportunities into this season’s programme which shareholders can access via the new website, on their mobile and on-pack. We’re upping the ante and encouraging consumers to get involved with Smithy and John Smith’s by increasing the campaign’s profile in supermarkets, pubs and clubs.”

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