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| Juliet Slot |
Ascot Racecourse announced earlier this week that it has appointed IMG as its licensing representative in a multi-year deal. As part of the agreement, IMG will create a year-round licensing portfolio that includes Ascot and its prestigious race meet, Royal Ascot, across a range of products, including apparel, bags, leather goods, stationery, housewares and memorabilia. Additionally, IMG will manage on-site retailing beginning in '17.
Juliet Slot, Ascot commercial director, answered some questions from SBD Global about how the agreement came about and what Ascot hopes to accomplish.
Q: I understand this is Ascot's first outside licensing representative. Why did Ascot executives feel now is the right time to hire an outside agency?
Juliet Slot: Ascot actually had a licensing arrangement with The Licensing Company prior to the building of the new grandstand over 10 years ago. It was decided to end this arrangement for many reasons which are not relevant now.
We have been undergoing a review of our brand and a clear vision of how we want to position ourselves both in the U.K. and internationally. With this clarity of vision, values and our brand promise, we felt it was the right time to engage with a licensing and retail program. We are able to share our vision and values with partners and to evaluate the products and distribution in line with a clear brand strategy. In addition, we are at the beginning of a re-brand which involves an upgrade to our current logo. This new branding will be used on all our licensed and retail products and will be rolled out on our site from 2017 onwards.
We turn to external agencies when we feel we don't have the expertise and scale of resource in house. Our ambition is to develop a long term strategic plan in partnership with IMG, and to grow our licensing and on-site retail from a manageable base, but with ambition for the future. IMG demonstrated their ability and desire to work with us on this basis and to be able to scale their resource accordingly both here and internationally.
Our relationship is very much a partnership and we will work as if one team, so I prefer to call IMG our partners not our agency.
Q: How many agencies did you consider? What was your process in reviewing outside agencies?
Slot: We ran a detailed tender process and invited four agencies to partake in this. From the initial briefing, presentations and commercial proposals we narrowed the field down to agreeing terms with IMG. It was a very competitive process which was exciting for us, as we were given a sense of the opportunity by the interest in our program from four excellent and successful agencies.
Q: Why did you select IMG?
Slot: IMG, who have for over 20 years run both the retail and licensing program for Wimbledon, demonstrated their expertise and ability to do both with equal skill. They are a global brand with fantastic, experienced operators on both fronts. With Jean Cooke and Simon Gresswell heading up our relationship we were assured of the expert advice to hold our hand through a very important brand project.
Q: How can IMG help your licensing business? How can IMG help your onsite sales?
Slot: Firstly, we are in the process of finalizing a very clear, long-term strategy -- the importance of which cannot be understated. Our agreement to work together for a year prior to any launch in both retail and licensing demonstrates the commitment we have both made to making this long-term relationship work. We believe that a mutually agreed strategy is the basis for success, and IMG have demonstrated through the pitch process and subsequent time since we started working together an excellent team to discuss and devise our strategy.
IMG have run Wimbledon and the British Open event retail operations for many years. They clearly have great expertise on product range development and operationally how to deliver the best customer service for our customers.
Q: Was Ascot conducting this business in-house? How does hiring IMG help Ascot to expand its business? What can IMG do that Ascot cannot?
Slot: Our Head of Marketing Chris Bevan will be managing this relationship from an in-house perspective. We have been working with Joe Turner to run the retail shop for the past five years. From 2017, IMG will take on this management and we thank Joe for his support in establishing retail as a part of the Ascot experience.
IMG brings experience of management of a larger retail offering, scale for product sourcing and development and the ability to co-ordinate our licensing program into the retail program. The two programs run hand in hand, and will help us grow our business significantly over time.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to say about this new business agreement?
Slot: We are excited to give customers on and off site the opportunity to engage with and share some of the Ascot brand promise. Licensed product offers the opportunity to take Ascot and Royal Ascot to new customers both in the U.K. and internationally, which is exciting for our brand development. This marks a new chapter in our brand development and we are looking forward to raising the standard in every way in what we do.
