Stratstone Land Rover Cheltenham had identified horse sports as one of two routes to generate fresh sales leads. Based in between Cheltenham and Gloucester, the dealership sells around 750 vehicles each year. The leading sports in the county are rugby and horse racing, although equestrian sport as a whole features heavily. Stratstone supports the Land Rover brand's involvement with Gatcombe Horse Trials, so sought some alternatives for other times of year.

The key objectives were to generate brand awareness for the dealership, and use this to generate fresh sales leads from amidst the audience, using Point-to-Point racing. Point-to-Point racing is the amateur division of Jump racing such as you see at Cheltenham or Aintree. It represents the traditional heartland of the sport, populated by landowners, farmers, rural business owners and professionals and their families. Recent research indicated a 40% ownership of a 4WD vehicle in this customer base.

Stratstone Land Rover became "Official Vehicle of Andoversford Races", covering two well-attended Point-to-Point racemeetings at Andoversford, less than 10 miles from the dealership, and on the edge of the conurbations of Cheltenham and Gloucester. The package included a prominent display area at each event, reaching over 7,000 spectators within the catchment, supported by print, online and outdoor media exposure. Stratstone also sponsored a race for which photo captions were supplied to local county publications. Tickets were supplied to local customers to attend.

Across the two events, Stratstone reached over 7,000 potential customers, from within its catchment area. This local event was well targeted; there was minimal wastage on attendees from outside the dealership territory. Some 25 sales leads were generated, at least 4 of which led to sales appointments. At the time of writing, 2 vehicles had actually been sold as a result of the promotion.

The event programme required a promotional unit, which was available from the manufacturer. The location of this unit was critical, and success was predicated upon its best placing. Stratstone had looked at events with a higher footfall, but decided against as these often provided leads the dealership could not follow up. In previous larger regional events, marketing investment had been wasted on lead generation from outside the territory footprint whereas this was very focused. Stratstone is looking to expand the volume of similar events.