The Jockey Club
The Cheltenham Festival runs for four days every March. Culminating with the prestigious Cheltenham Gold Cup, it is regarded as the pinnacle of the jump racing season.
Considered as the race-lovers festival, Cheltenham is an annual pilgrimage for race fans across the UK and Ireland. With over 200,000 people in attendance across the duration of the festival, it's become one of racing’s most iconic events.
Challenge
Translate a rich history into a modern, aspirational brand
As part of their strategic plan to create standalone brands for their three marquee events, The Jockey Club were looking to develop a new brand for Cheltenham Festival that would build equity in the event and help drive their sponsorship ambitions.
'Four Days of Extraordinary' was a proposition that had been developed by the marketing team. Our task was to translate this idea visually and verbally into a brand that positions the festival as an unmissable sporting event.
Insight
More than racing
For race-lovers, the Cheltenham Festival is the highlight of the racing calendar. Over the years its heritage and prestige has meant it has become more than a racing event. It has transcended into a lifestyle.
The event has become synonymous with high fashion and premium brands. Tweed jackets and elaborate hats are worn across the four days, and commercial partnerships have been made with premium brands such as Boodles and Bentley.
Our idea was to elevate the brand to reflect this aspirational lifestyle and the premium cues associated with it.
Idea
Extraordinary on every level
Using the proposition 'Four Days of Extraordinary' we wanted to create a modern heritage brand that felt like it had an extraordinary element at every touch-point across the customer journey.
We needed to make the event about more than extraordinary racing and hospitality, and tell the amazing stories and history associated with the festival, all through the lens of beautifully crafted design elements and considered typography.
The language of racing
Taking inspiration from the world of race tags and pin badges, we developed a set of beautifully crafted emblems that look to put a modern spin on traditional crests. The range of badge designs represent the four unique days of the festival as well as some of the qualities that make the whole event so special.
We also worked with Chris Mitchell at Epic Icons, to develop a new logo that brings all of the badges together and acts as a timeless mark of quality for the festival.
Extraordinary moments
For the 2023 campaign we built upon the ‘Four Days of Extraordinary’ positioning and created a set of ads that all use the idea of ‘time’ to communicate a series of extraordinary moments and memories from across the event.
For many race-lovers, the Cheltenham Festival is the pinnacle of the racing calendar and a highlight of their year.
Thisaway have created a brand that captures this prestige, as well as the history of this iconic event. The craft and precision of the design matched with the passion and excitement of the copy truly lands our proposition of 'Four Days Of Extraordinary'. We're delighted with the result and we look forward to developing the brand in the years to come.
Project disciplines
Brand identity, illustration, campaigns & content, film, animation, copywriting, brand rollout, venue branding, brand guardianship.
Project collaborators
Logo crafting: Chris Mitchell
Badge crafting: Alan Levett