By Cliff Williams, ContributorTODAY marks the first anniversary of the sponsorship of a major racemeet by Digicel, a company that provides mobile phone services and whose directorship has a certain confidence in the racing product as a viable marketing tool for its portfolio of investments.
According to Harry Smith, marketing director of Digicel the principals of the company are entirely happy with last year's promotion and given the positive feedback and response generally, the sponsorship has now been extended to cover this weekend's two-day racing carnival, this depending on the involvement of the enterprise with the promoting company.
The fact of the matter is that, despite the problems in the industry the racing product continues to enjoy the confidence of several major producers of goods and services. Caymanas Track Ltd (CTL) has been well served by its marketing personnel and raceday sponsorship is now being viewed as major social events by many of the clients of the promoting company.
Development of the marketing of the sport has to be considered truly remarkable when viewed against the background of an industry that has too many unsolved problems for comfort as well as infrastructure that is badly in need of modernisation.
Important entities in corporate Jamaica have been prepared to overlook the problems which the major industry players see as inimical to the advancement and development of the sport/business. Continued sponsorship of major racedays demonstrate in no uncertain terms that the popularity and integrity of the racing product remains intact. With sponsors having been given more confidence by an unwritten agreement that likely action is no longer a threat to major promotions there is a lot more trust on both sides making negotiations easier for CTL's marketers.
For a long time, elsewhere in the world, the horse racing product has enjoyed huge popularity amongst corporations with goods and services to market. In England major insurance companies and banks have been a part of the sponsorship landscape, such is the reality there of the sports position as a viable marketing proposition for any type of goods or services.
Speaking of banks and insurance companies, given the conservative nature of the operators it is hardly likely that raceday sponsorship by any of these entities would even be the subject of a discussion in Jamaica with the promoting company about the possibilities. Yet it would provide these financial institutions with invaluable exposure as is the case in Great Britain. Such is the appeal of this sport locally.
There is no getting away from the fact that the racing product in Jamaica is not nearly as a attractive as it ought to be, given the circumstance that the island does not possess a truly competitive top class and the 43 year old racing plant has ceased to be an attractive venue. Correction of these two problems would probably result in potential major sponsors beating a path to the door of the promoting company.
To my mind the most worrying aspect of the unsatisfactory state of the racing industry is that there is no plan that I am aware of, currently being designed by the government, for its development and modernisation.
In fact from a revenue intake that is now exceeding $400 million annually between the bookmaking industry and CTL there has been no serious re-investment by the government, and the infrastructure continues to remain in hardly a desirable state. As things stand the industry is badly in need of new investors, but nothing is likely to materialise until a new racing policy emerges from the corridors of political power.
