Our brief was to create a general style for the campaign which could be carried across a variety of media. It had to be visually striking while appealing to horse racing fans.
So ‘charging ahead at full tilt’ we had the ‘bit between our teeth’ we didn’t want our idea to be an ‘Also-ran’, . (ok enough of the puns, you can only imagine how much fun we had with this brief!)
<!–more–>What we wanted to achieve is the sense of intensity and excitement of the race. The grass kicking up, the horses bundled together charging towards the finish line. We wanted to try and incorporate all this to build an atmosphere that in some way represents the anticipation of the person cheering on their horse.
After a good bit of research and drawing out some initial ideas, we had a concept that we were happy answered the brief. Horses galloping down the track towards the camera, on their final charge to the finish line. We wanted to try and marry in the wait for your pint to settle, with the last sprint to the finish line, so the moment of victory would be your horse winning vs your pint being ready to drink. We wanted the atmosphere of the poster to be dark and moody, really highlighting the bright colours of the jockeys jerseys. We used dimmed lighting, and even steam coming from the railings to create the feeling the viewer is literally stood at the finish line shouting their horse on.
The whole concept was finally tied together including a pint of Beamish that sits at the front of the poster and also at the finish line of the race course. A great way to celebrate!
We’re very excited to see how this looks when the campaign is run out, we’re hoping it’ll be everyone’s ‘odds-on favourite’