25 Feb Beverley Racecourse challenges Mercury to launch a new race night

One of the country’s leading and most popular racecourses has tasked a creative agency with developing and launching a new event as part of its 2010 fixtures.

Mercury Design and Marketing’s East Yorkshire office has risen to the challenge set by Beverley Racecourse and work is well underway to launch a new event at the racecourse, branded Lucky in Love, on June 17.

The brief set by Sally Iggulden, racecourse manager, and Charlotte Brader, business development and marketing executive, was to develop and deliver an idea, brand and marketing campaign for a themed race night this season, aimed at a similar, but not exclusive, market to its hugely successful Ladies Day fixture.

Kelly Todd, founding director of Mercury, has five years’ experience in event management, and will lead on the project. It’s the second event she has managed for the racecourse, with the first being a launch event to celebrate the venue’s new outside catering partnership with the region’s premier fish restaurant Cerutti’s.

The team at Mercury pitched an idea to the racecourse for the fun race night to be branded “Lucky in Love”, with every racegoer collecting either a padlock or a key on entry to the racecourse and spending the rest of the evening searching for their match.

“The event is designed to just be good fun more than anything,” explained Kelly. “Racegoers will be given either a padlock or a key on arrival and, whilst looking for the one that matches their own, it will certainly be a talking point.

“The idea isn’t that the event will be targeted at love matches either, because people might find that their lock or key matches with a new friend, potential professional associate or if indeed they are looking for love, then they might just get lucky. A team of 10 Lucky in Love girls from Mercury will be circulating at the racecourse to help people find their match and making sure all racegoers are having a fantastic time. It will be a great night for groups of ladies, gents, couples and singles.”

Racegoers who find the matching other half to their padlock or key will be in with the chance of winning some fantastic prizes, thanks to the partners Mercury is getting on board to provide prizes.

Kelly added: “The fun won’t stop when the racing ends, as we are teaming up with a number of venues in Beverley to arrange after parties and offering free coach transport into the market town.”

Sally Iggulden added: “Racing is really evolving, there is much more showmanship to it and racegoers are looking for more than just the racing itself. I had every faith that Mercury would come up with an idea for an event and marketing campaign. that would have the real ‘wow’ factor. Mercury’s creative team, which has also produced all of our 2010 literature and new look website, always steps up to a challenge and I am sure that we’re on to a real winner for racegoers with Lucky in Love.”