Darley

Promoting Darley USA’s top stallion, Medaglia d’Oro

The client

Darley is one of the world’s biggest and most prestigious equine breeding businesses. Founded by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai, it stands stallions in six countries around the world including at Jonabell Farm, Kentucky, in the United States. Its headquarters is at Dalham Hall Stud, Newmarket – the global home of horseracing.

The challenge

The Darley team in Kentucky, USA, saw an opportunity in autumn 2021 to promote their top stallion Medaglia d’Oro given that his progeny were well fancied in upcoming high-profile races. Jim Cox, head of marketing for Darley America, said: “We were pretty confident that Medaglia would fill his 100-plus mare book at $100,000 per nomination [the cost to breed with a mare] but we saw a real chance to get him over the line early with those races. So I spoke to CPL…”

The solution

Working with Darley’s creative director, CPL fashioned a multi-media campaign within a matter of days, ready for the races. This included print and online advertising, a video and social media messaging, all promoting Medaglia’s proven worth. When his progeny duly won two key races, CPL was ready with a series of confident adverts to reinforce the power of this supersire. “What did we tell you?” was the bold headline on an advert as Dream Lith won the G2 Golden Rod, becoming the second juvenile horse from Medaglia d’Oro’s stellar 2019 crop to win a Graded Stakes race in November 2021. As our advert for Darley said: “He’s the proven supersire who’s still upwardly mobile.”

 

The results

41

The number of nominations (sales) for Medaglia d’Oro before our campaign

98

The number of nominations (sales) for Medaglia d’Oro achieved within weeks of our campaign

$5 million

The amount of extra income that could be generated as a result of the uplift in nominations

I cannot remember a campaign that has had such an amazing impact. The Nominations Team are delighted.

Dan Pride
Chief operating officer, Darley America

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