Asian Racing Conference - Cape Town

The ARC is one of the largest Thoroughbred racing conferences in the world and provides a forum for international leaders within racing to discuss and address issues which the global industry faces. This February over 550 delegates came together in Cape Town for the 38th edition of the conference and Aly was invited to speak as part of one of the plenary sessions, Fan Engagement through Media, Marketing, Data and Sponsorship….

Fan engagement was examined from all angles. Different strategies, employed globally in all sports, were looked at with a focus on ways for horse racing to unlock its potential through the creation of media content, new products and harnessing of data, with the goal of reaching new audiences, deepen fan engagement and attract new sponsors.

Aly spoke of television remaining “the most powerful way of engaging fans”. She focused on CNN’s acclaimed Winning Post slot, which she has presented since 2016.

“The show now has a bigger emphasis on style and travel and has been renamed CNN Winning Post An Elegant Life. The show’s reach has been broadened through cross promotion on other CNN platforms such as CNN.style and CNN.travel which both have massive audience figures.” she said.

Her CNN remit includes celebrities, raceday fashion, culture, travel, style, food, drink and betting. The world’s most beautiful racecourses were one of her most watched broadcasts last year, while that program also topped the list of those accessed through cnn.com, while five of the top 10 on the website concerned Royal Ascot.

See Aly's full presentation including slides, HERE.

Below...Aly alongside her fellow speakers (L to R), Mr. Giles Morgan, Independent Consultant and formerly Global Head of Sponsorship for HSBC, Mr. Nick Goggans, Founder & CEO of PumpJack Dataworks, Aly, Mr. Greg Nichols, Chairman, Racing Australia, and Director, Racing Victoria, Mr. Andrew Catterall, Chief Executive Officer, racing.com.