Magic Millions (MM) in Qld. If you want to study the 'marketing mix' you could do worse than dedicate some time to monitoring what this thoroughbred auction company do and how they do it.

One of their tools is their effective use of the PR machine, particularly in relation to their web marketing efforts. For those unfamiliar with using press releases in the Web medium, it is one of the most powerful and cost effective forms of advertising currently available. Why? Well, websites need loads of relevant and 'to-the'minute' content to produce "stickiness". In layman's terms what this means is that website managers are under constant pressure to produce timely and compelling stories to drive people back to their sites on a continual basis (as this ultimately attracts advertisers as well as business therefore additional profit opportunities). They are therefore (particularly if they don't have full time writers on staff) heavily reliant on content (via press releases) from their advertisers/potential advertisers to fulfill this need. If a company produces good targeted content that will appeal to the website audience then the web team are happy, they are more likely to read future press releases from you- and your company has a higher than average chance of getting itself some free publicity (occasionally you will have to pay for media placements but if you're writing the content, the headline is catchy and your copy is well edited then it's usually not a lot - if anything).

Anyway, back to MM.

For the marketing students what we're looking for in the following is a strategy whereby MM:

1. Chooses the right website to release its content to. This will be decided by:

• the type of information on the site
• the traffic volume [proven by the number of 'hits'/page views on the site per day etc]
• the relevance of the information on the site to their clients
• the number of clients (existing and potential) who access the site [this will normally be proven by surveys]
• whether the site content is free or subscription-based
• how often the site content is updated
• Existing advertisers

2. They will then need to target their press release to maximise the appeal to readers who are MM clients (existing and potential) to maximise future revenue streams for the company

3. To achieve this a good press release will need to incorporate the following:

• Differentiators. We see it in the first line re domination of the two-year old races and the fact that this morning's results were achieved even WITHOUT a sale in the State in which the trials were held (a nice statistical 'dig' at the competition)
• Return on investment for buyers. This is a matter of some interest to the people who buy horses given the costs of buying them and then training them - so, ditto re 2 year old results.
• Return on investment for vendors. If horses sell well and go on to perform on the track and owners/trainers [the buyers] associate these two factors with MM having the "best horses" then the argument follows that more vendors will want to use MM to sell their horses (as more potential buyers will be attracted to the sales working on a demand/supply analysis) rather than the competition.
• We want to see some name dropping to ensure people associate MM with the big industry players. We see this in both the pedigrees of the horses and also the trainers that are discussed.
• Legitimacy. Let's face it - we're talking about a trial not a Group 1 race. Thus the author leans on the fact that the trial is a city one (Randwick) to add legitimacy to his argument.
• Branding opportunities. Make no mistake - this is a strong ad for MM under the guise of an article. Note that the press release cleverly DOESN'T mention the fact that MM has a major sale coming up in the next few weeks (October Breeze Up Sale) to ensure the audience aren't seeing it as a sales pitch. The branding is, however, successful - the MM name is out there and people have seen it attached to a few success stories (albeit trial heats which, whilst certainly a guide to future performance, are not in any way definitive).
  
  It's a good example of how to "use" the PR machine (and shows that writing a good press release is no simple matter)
  
  The PR release I've analysed was written by Mark Smith and appears on RaceNet (15/9/04) (www.racenet.com.au) under the title Millions Juveniles Dominate Sydney Trials. Full text as follows:
  
  "If today's Sydney juvenile trial results are any indication, the recent domination by Magic Millions graduates in the country's leading two-year-old races looks set to continue during the new racing season.
  
  REDOUTE'S CHOICE had two impressive trial winners. Eight of the nine two-year-old heats were won by graduates of Magic Millions - a staggering fact considering Australia's best performing thoroughbred sales company doesn't conduct a yearling sale in Sydney.
  
  Randwick's Kensington (inner) track was the scene of today's heats .
  
  The first heat (won by the Bob Thomsen-trained Media[Gilded Time (USA) - Valourina]) was the first major juvenile trials held in Sydney for the newest crop of two-year-olds the only one of the day's nine divisions not to fall to a Magic Millions graduate - although the performance of the third placegetter Pegasus Queen (Fusaichi Pegasus-Imperatrice - $200,000, Gold Coast) was full of merit.
  
  Things really got into swing by the second heat when the Graeme Rogerson prepared Al Samer (Redoute's Choice-My Lady's Key - $290,000, Gold Coast) cruised to a three length win - and half a second quicker than the first heat. A short time later the beautifully bred Dahleah (Flying Spur-Soda Watch - $200,000, Gold Coast) won the third heat of the day for the Garry Frazer and Grant Buckley combination. She is a half sister to the former flying filly Camena. Catbird and Danbird's full brother Longhorn (Danehill-Fitting - $800,000, Gold Coast) showed he's inherited plenty of class from his regal family when he scored the easiest win of the day - by nearly four lengths in smart time. The blue blooded son of Danehill is trained by John Hawkes. Power of Destiny - another Gold Coast graduate by Danehill - was a nice third.
  
  Well bred filly Flying Dansino (Fusaichi Pegasus-Dansino - $300,000, Gold Coast) cruised to a three length win in the next heat for Larry Cassidy and Graeme Rogerson. She ran 50.3 seconds for the 850 metres. The sixth heat of the session was captured by Gai Waterhouse's Banished (Snippets-Black List - $180,000, Gold Coast) in good style. A member of Snippets' final crop, he was an easy two and a half length victor.
  
  Lucky Jockey (Desert Prince-Sculpture's Blue - $70,000, Gold Coast) gave David Payne and Scott Pollard a heat victory when the promising filly proved too naturally speedy for Arisma and Dama de Lago (Encosta de Lago-Lady Inti - $60,000, Adelaide). Heat eight provided the closest finish for the session when Gold Coast graduates Bradbury's Luck (Redoute's Choice-Skating - $225,000, Gold Coast) and Stratum (Redoute's Choice-Bourgeois - $320,000 Gold Coast) galloped side by side for much of the 850 metres with the former holding a narrow head break at the finish. The time of 49.41 seconds was the fastest of the day.
  
  The last of nine heats saw John O'Shea's filly Mimidae (Catbird-Sufuf - $120,000, Gold Coast) prove a length too good for her rivals. The Stratheden Stud bred and sold filly stopped the clock at 49.97 seconds - the fastest of the heats for fillies."