Sometimes you have to go with your gut, even if it means defying convention.
Ellis Park (Henderson, KY), ranked 6th for best wagering by the Horseplayers Association of North America, recently selected Keller Crescent Advertising to promote its 87th season of thoroughbred horse racing.
Serious local horseplayers need little or no encouragement to show up on race day. If the horses are running, the purses attractive, a huge percentage of them will be there. Targeting this loyal group is not an efficient way to spend.
To boost attendance in 2010, Ellis Park and Keller Crescent Advertising developed a marketing strategy to attract a more diverse audience — entire families — by offering a series of special events including trick riders, camel and ostrich races, and giveaways, much of which are part of a conventional marketing program.
Where Keller Crescent Advertising has departed from the norm is in its Creative.
How so? 
Having a TV show interrupted by commercial breaks makes the experience more enjoyable, because it extends the pleasure, in the same way that eating a chocolate bar slowly seems to make it taste better, according to two new reports. “The punch line is that commercials make TV programs more enjoyable to watch. Even bad commercials,” said Leif Nelson, an assistant professor of marketing at the University of California, San Diego, and a co-author of the new research.
