REVEALED: Racing body’s starting orders for inf luencers
HRI’s instructions on how to behave at the races
HORSE Racing’s governing body advised RTÉ presenter Doireann Garrihy to say how ‘excited’ she was to attend the Dublin Racing Festival and what she would wear at it.
Documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) detail briefings by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for ‘influencers’ paid to promote the sport.
HRI spent close to €200,000 paying influencers to help market racing over a five-year period with campaigns involving Ms Garrihy, her fellow 2FM presenters The 2 Johnnies and former rugby player Rob Kearney. In a briefing for Ms Garrihy,
HRI said it was not looking for a ‘huge output’ from her, and that it would love her input on creating content ‘that will speak to her audiences… and she knows them best’.
In a creative plan, HRI said they would like her to announce to her followers that she would attend the Dublin Racing Festival last year, but advised her post should not come across as ‘a sales message’.
The brief said: ‘She’s excited to go, what should she wear [Outfit] A or Outfit B.’
It said possible content would include a skit with a ‘fake reporter’, a tipster challenge, and ‘quick-fire questions’ with trainers and jockeys.
The brief added: ‘We would love [Doireann] to “Story” the full day at the races and then cut into a reel from the day to sit on her channel.’
In a briefing for TV pundit Rob Kearney, the former rugby international was asked to talk about the care given to horses, at a time when concerns were being raised over animal welfare and the sport.
It said: ‘Rob has been to Jessica’s [Harrington] yard and seen the unbelievable care and attention the horses are given, from their exercise plans, facilities, vets, farriers, horse physios etc. No stone is left unturned.’
Mr Kearney was also asked to highlight how he recently bought a horse for jumps racing. But because he was being asked to help promote a flat meeting, the brief said ‘it would be best not to mention that The Very Man [Kearney’s horse] is a jumps horse’.
Stylist Courtney Smith was also enlisted for a campaign involving young designers.
A creative brief said the key messages should be that the Irish Champions Weekend event was ‘synonymous with style and elegance’.
In another Instagram campaign, Horse Racing Ireland asked influencers to attend the races with two or three of their friends. They would then ‘post three or four stories of them enjoying the day – show the food, drink, horses, fun with friends and live music’.
For each campaign, influencers were asked to make clear the activity was sponsored, using hashtags of #ad or #sp [sponsored post] on all content.
A HRI guide for using influencers noted it was essential partnerships felt ‘genuine, natural, and authentic’. It added: ‘It is important not only to identify the right partnership, but we need to engage correctly, educating partners about our sport, turning them into advocates and ensuring they feel valued and aligned with the campaign.’
HRI declined to provide detail of how much any influencer was paid, claiming the information is commercially sensitive.
However, in response to a parliamentary question from Social Democrats TD and deputy chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Catherine Murphy, this summer, HRI confirmed €194,400 – excluding VAT – had been spent on 23 separate deals between 2018 and the end of last year.
Asked about briefings to influencers released under FOI, a spokesperson for HRI said they had nothing to add.
‘She’s excited. What should she wear?’
‘Synonomous with style and elegance’