Conover Tuttle Pace (CTO), an award-winning
public relations and advertising agency, and the Breeders' Cup were awarded the PR News Digital Marketing Campaign Award
yesterday for their campaign promoting the 2010 Breeders’ Cup World Championship.
“Zenyatta’s Quest for Perfection” took home the prize for best campaign under
$100,000.
PR News' Digital
PR Awards is the industry's top honor in the PR/communications digital space,
recognizing outstanding digital initiatives among corporations, agencies and nonprofits. The
coveted awards set the industry benchmark for excellence across all areas of digital PR.
The Zenyatta campaign was honored by the Publicity Club of New Englan in June with the 2011 Super Bell Campaign of
the Year.
In
addition to a dedicated microsite, Zenyatta2010.com, which featured exclusive
content, the
campaign utilized “Zenyatta Takes Over Secretariat Trailer!,” a YouTube video
that built
on the popularity of the recently released Disney movie, Secretariat, and a Twitter handle
that provided fans updates and an outlet for Zenyatta to tell her story.
“We
had a once-in-a-generation horse in Zenyatta and a creative, engaging campaign
to tell that story to such a wide audience,” said Peter Rotondo, Vice President
of Media and Entertainment for Breeders’ Cup. “Conover Tuttle Pace, as well as
Zenyatta’s owners and trainer, helped us not only bring this story to life, but
also generate dramatic year-over-year increases in attendance, wagering and TV
audience.”
“We
were proud to do our part in helping the Breeders’ Cup and Team Zenyatta tell a story that transcended racing,
and crossed over sports into the worlds of pop culture and entertainment,” said
Conover Tuttle Pace partner Chip Tuttle.
The 2010 Breeders' Cup, held at
Churchill Downs for a record seventh time, was another groundbreaking event.
There was a 13% increase in wagering from the previous year and attendance for
the two days increased 18.5% from 2009.