Hospitality Doctor
Max Hitchins
How to SLIPSTREAM on the Melbourne Cup
Because the Melbourne Cup has been around for so long people like to ‘associate’ with it in some way. My Mother-in-law (God bless her) always wanted to be able to say “I backed the winner of the Melbourne Cup.” And she always did! To achieve this she had a dollar each way on every horse in the Cup! So how can YOU capitalise on this ‘product’ that has been around since 1861 and slipstream behind it? We did it very effectively when we owned ‘Billy The Pig’s Pub’ in Bondi Junction in Sydney. It was so effective we turned the month of October into our busiest month of the year.
Definition: Slipstreaming (especially in motor racing) is following closely behind another vehicle, travelling in its’ slipstream, awaiting opportunities. Each year hospitality businesses are offered a wonderful opportunity to get in the ‘slipstream’ behind the Melbourne Cup. Millions of dollars have been spent making the Melbourne Cup what it is today. Every one of your customers knows something about the Melbourne Cup. Before continuing I should tell you I am a Melbourne Cup devotee. So much so, I have memorised the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place-getters for the last 100 Melbourne Cups. I have been tested on ‘live TV’ about this claim. You can check it out at: https://www.pickthecupwinner. com.au/pages/interviews. Each year I record a series of short videos about horses likely to run in the Melbourne Cup. You can check these out at: https://www.pickthecupwinner.com.au/pages/ max-watch The really beautiful part about the Melbourne Cup is that many people become racing experts at this time! It has always been so. In 1995 I recall reading an article in the Adelaide Advertiser – it is one of my favourite Melbourne Cup stories. It was written by Lance Campbell on the morning of the 1995 Melbourne Cup. I quote from it: “Watch and hear this morning how everyone is an instant Melbourne Cup expert. Born idiots who would otherwise know only of Bullwinkle (a runner in the 1995 Cup) as a cartoon moose, will, with frightening gravity, point out that it can run out the 3200 metres, or that Yes Indeed (another 1995 Cup runner) was second over 3200 metres in Wellington. “The knowledge is passed on with such seriousness” Lance continued, “that you can’t say that they don’t know what they are talking about, because you don’t know what you are talking about!”
We recognised the possibilities and opportunities the Melbourne Cup offered. Instead of just ‘being busy’ on Melbourne Cup Day we actively searched for ways to get 4-5 weeks of ‘activity’ out of the Cup. The reason it worked was we were slipstreaming on an event that has been ‘marketed’ to Aussies for over 150 years. During October we had daily competitions and rewarded the winners. We had fashion parades. We had hat parades. We had predictions parades. We gave away Mystery Trifectas. We had interviews.We had celebrities. We had the actual Melbourne Cups proudly on display and available to be photographed while holding the Cup. We had owners happily being interviewed telling of their experience in being a Melbourne Cup owner.
48 Tasmanian Hospitality Review Oct/Nov Edition
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