Kentucky Three-Day Event

Website | Digital Advertising | Traditional Advertising | Social Media | SEO & Blogging

The Need

While the Kentucky Three-Day Event (K3DE) is one of only seven five-star events in the world and has been held at the Kentucky Horse Park for over 45 years, it went unknown and unnoticed by many in the Lexington area. The K3DE team needed a trusted marketing partner to put them on the map in the digital world and boost local awareness. Internally, they were juggling the management of over a dozen marketing contractors, which took away precious time from their day-to-day responsibilities.

The Solution

We first worked on the Kentucky Three-Day Event's website where we did a complete overhaul, organizing and optimizing content for search engines. When it was time to start planning for 2024, the K3DE team entrusted us with the entirety of their marketing efforts. We handled everything from social media, digital advertising, and local advertising to blogging, emailing, and social media management.

With the time we gave them back, the K3DE team was able to focus on key industry partnerships while running their event. We unified the K3DE’s marketing efforts with one cohesive voice across all channels and created a buzz around the event. During our time marketing the 2024 Kentucky Three-Day Event, we saw record growth in areas like social media and increased brand awareness across the board, setting the Kentucky Three-Day Event up for success for years to come.

Click here to visit the Kentucky Three-Day Event's site.

Deliverables

Pro Website, Social Advertising, SEM, TV Advertising, Radio Advertising, Social Media Management, Graphic Design, SEO & Blogging, Hosting

Industry

Equestrian Eventing

Year

2023-2024

THE NUMBERS

Website Transformation

After an internal audit of the K3DE website, we found it hard to navigate, outdated, and overloaded with information. In our discussions with the K3DE team, we learned about the complex requirements they had to meet from industry partners, sponsors, and external contracts. On top of this, the site needed to teach newcomers what equestrian eventing was while simultaneously serving the experts of the sport.

In order to write copy that would convert, we dove into the eventing world and learned to speak their language. We developed a new site map and added clear calls to action so users could find exactly what they were looking for as quickly as possible. Through expert website design and a dedicated team of marketing professionals, the K3DE website was transformed into an organized, user-friendly hub that continues to perform. The new site was able to produce 24% more sessions and invite 30% more users than the previous year.

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Total Sessions

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Total Users

THE NUMBERS

Social Media Frenzy

Before working with Bolt, the Kentucky Three-Day Event was present on social media, but lacked the excitement in feeds that brings in new followers. Through our social media tactics, we created a buzz around the event that drew in crowds and created raving fans out of them.

Over the course of the event season (Oct-May), we promoted the event in new ways online and millions of people saw and interacted with K3DE content. We set the stage around The Best Weekend All Year and had followers engaging with the K3DE before, during, and after the event. A new online community was built and we believe they'll show up in ticket sales year after year.

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Reach

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Impressions

Followers

Check out some of our work on social

THE NUMBERS

Advertising Accomplished

In previous years, the Kentucky Three-Day Event ran ads close to the event and around key dates in their calendar like early bird ticket sales. They didn't run extensive campaigns regularly and needed a partner to pull all of their advertising efforts together and allocate their spend appropriately across channels.

The Bolt team devised a robust digital advertising strategy that included social media, search engine, and display ads. Through targeting and retargeting the right audiences, choosing optimal keywords, and designing eye-catching creative, advertising dollars turned into revenue.