Aintree Racecourse - Ladies Day at the Grand National Festival

Rebuilding the iconic race day

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Challenge: 2013 was a turning point in the history of Ladies Day at the Grand National Festival – the customer experience had declined to such a degree that it was driving its core loyalists away, guest numbers had dropped by 20% in 3 years and the premium hospitality guests had become disillusioned. Brand Vista was briefed to help the Aintree team get under the skin of the issues and support them in rebuilding this once iconic race day.

Actions:

(1) A comprehensive Exploring approach saw us working with the lapsed loyalists and potential future guests to really understand the root causes of the decline, their changing attitudes and behaviours and the opportunities to regain their trust and loyalty.

(2) From this 360° insight we were able to create a new vision for the brand, develop highly targeted audience personas and map a new and inspiring customer experience journey.

(3) We used the new CX map to walkthrough the experience and create a completely new customer journey which had the brand vision hardwired throughout. Working with the Aintree team we identified the core actions and activities we needed to deliver for the guests and through engaging the wider team, which included 3rd party experience providers such as security, from the very start of their journeys to long after the day was over.

Results: - The crowd grew by over 5,000 over the first 2 years and has maintained a sell out volume of 50,000 attending the day through to 2019. - Hospitality volume grew by 12% and has continued to maintain an early sell out.

- Over the first 2 years the profitability of the day increased by 20% on the back of a £200,000 increase of admission revenue.

- The re-generation has stimulated additional partners to come on board and has shown a 10% per annum growth.

- Not wanting to sit still we are now looking at how the changes in society have effected the day and its positioning so another round of Exploring will be taking place after the 2020 Ladies Day at The Grand National Festival.