Justin McDonald brings nearly 30 years of marketing experience to his role at the Breeders' Cup, where he oversees strategy for brand management, ticketing, broadcast and media, wagering, digital and social marketing, advertising, consumer research, customer relationship management, public relations and promotional programs. As attention turns to the Breeders' Cup, McDonald discussed how his organization markets the championship.Q: This is the 43rd Breeders' Cup since its inception in 1984. How has it evolved since you joined the organization in 2012?The racing product has always been extraordinary from day one, so what we try to do is invest more significantly in the experience around it – from enhanced hospitality, elevated food and beverage offerings, and just the overall fan and participant experience. We want to make sure everything surrounding the racing feels just as amazing as the product on the track and be worthy of a world championship.We've also become a little more sophisticated in the way we build and engage an audience. When I started, marketing was much more concentrated around the two-day championship event. Social and digital have changed a lot in that same period, so it's really given us the tools to cover Challenge Series races more deeply and connect them to the championships by telling some of those stories.And we've become a much more global property. This year, [Challenge Series] races were held in 14 countries. We're attracting much more international participation. That allows us to distribute our content to more audiences globally. Q: Forever Young's victory in the Classic last year was a win for the Japan market. How much of a priority is international to your strategy?It's near the top. Our marketing efforts start with the horse. If we can get the best horses from around the world to participate, everything else can build from there.Forever Young, just look at his journey last year and even this year: Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup both years, and Jockey Club Gold Cup this year. All Challenge Races leading to Breeders' Cup Classic. Then he went to the Dubai World Cup. He didn't win them all, but he's still establishing his pathway to the Breeders' Cup. So that allows us to wrap our arms around it on social, start telling the stories. And then that gets international markets like Japan more interested in broadcasting it, making it accessible locally, and then giving those fans a genuine rooting interest in the World Championship. Q: Your annual report boasts that you're reaching more people through social media. What content has the most appeal for people who don't follow racing regularly?I think this is probably true for a lot of sports, but it's personality, it's emotion, it's access. Obviously, the competition.Take [viewers] inside the paddock, or back to the barn to introduce them to the equine athletes that are our stars, and also the jockeys who have great stories behind that we want to try to tell. Giving people a connection and a rooting interest through personality and emotion.We're also increasingly working with creators, because they introduce us to a whole new audience that might not come across us through our own channels or through traditional racing media. And the key there is authenticity. We're not trying to make the creator suddenly be a racing expert. We're allowing them to take what we have, which we believe is something special, and then tell that story in their own voice across their channels. And then, hopefully, once we get someone interested, we have the opportunity to take them down the marketing funnel from there. Q: What international championship events do you look to as aspirational models or benchmarks?There's not one property we're trying to copy. We take different lessons from different sports. Formula 1, they've done an extraordinary job creating year-round global storytelling and cultural relevancy.Then you have the Masters and Wimbledon, who demonstrate that an event can be incredibly premium and scarce on site but still reach massive audiences off-site. And then, the Ryder Cup and somewhat the Olympics. They show the power of international rooting interests.We as a sport and particularly at the Breeders' Cup have all those elements. Our opportunity is to build on what's unique about us, rather than trying to copy somebody else. Q: Regarding your premium ticketing strategy, in 2024, you cut general admission ticketing in half to create a less-crowded experience for patrons. Last year's event at Del Mar was the least attended in 20 years (excluding Covid years). Did the exclusivity go too far?I don't think so. I mean, look, we have the best horses in the world, and we want to match that with the experience. We could pack in the small tracks fairly easily, but we don't believe it's going to provide the experience that our fans want.I think there's a fine balance in there, to your point. We've got to find the right mix of what is scarce and what is premium, and what's still going to allow people to have access to the Breeders' Cup. Ultimately, we want the experience to work for everybody: the serious racing fan, the bettor, the owner, and the participant, or someone attending the Breeders' Cup for the first time. Q: What marketing considerations go into host track selection, like raising the sport's profile in host markets?First and foremost, it has to be a world-class racing venue capable of hosting the World Championships, from the racing surfaces to stabling capacity, safety and operations. They all have to meet that standard.Then we look at the fan experience, the hospitality, the ticketing capacity, local market hotel inventory, transportation, what's the experience going to be like getting in and out.And then the ability of the host community to support an event of our scale. We also want to make sure the venue can contribute to the growth of our brand and the Breeders' Cup to feel special wherever it goes. Q: How does your partnership with NBC work? Your annual report says your marketing spending on television was cut last year to save on costs.I can't talk about the specifics of our contract, but NBC is a valuable partner to us. And that partnership is much more than just a t.v. rights relationship. NBC broadcasted the first Breeders' Cup in 1984. They've been our home for 36 of our 42 events, and they've been great partners.This year, we'll have ten-and-a-half hours of coverage, with all 14 races shown live, across NBC or USA. And then we'll have our continuous streaming coverage on Peacock.Then there's the promotional support that they provide, which is incredibly invaluable. In the week leading up to the Breeders' Cup, they're promoting us across some of the biggest sports properties in the country, including Football Night in America, Big Ten Saturday Night, the NBA, and the Premier League. So that's millions of dollars of national promotional value and puts us in front of sports fans who might not be considering watching the Breeders' Cup.We've changed our broadcast strategy to be more of a distribution strategy. We're able to stream our live races across social media, and that really allows us to meet the fans where they're consuming content. And NBC has been incredibly supportive of that broader multi-platform strategy. Q: How do you leverage the Challenge Series to develop storylines that build interest for the main event?We now have 95 races around the world that lead to the Breeders' Cup. That gives us more of an opportunity to tell stories and engage fans throughout the year.We work with NBC and our friends at NYRA and FOX to see what available windows we have each year to put Challenge Series races on TV. It's an ever-changing scheduling discussion.The tracks are helping us promote their Challenge Series races and connect them to the World Championships, but then we're promoting their races. It's a two-way partnership.Our social team is at pretty much every major Challenge race throughout the year. They're getting behind-the-scenes content in the barns in the days leading up, whether it's to be on FOX or NBC or FanDuel, making sure people know where to watch that weekend, to tell those stories of these horses and the journey that they're on to the World Championships. Q: This year's event falls on Halloween. Last year's event competed with Game 7 of the World Series. Will you alter your future schedule? I don't think we've found a material issue with running the event on Halloween. All major sports are running on that day. You have college football, you have NHL, you have the NBA, potentially Game 7 of the World Series will be on Halloween this year.From a national sports landscape and consumption standpoint, it's certainly something we think about, but there are a lot of other factors that come into play when our dates are set.The post Q&A with Justin McDonald, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Breeders’ Cup appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.