ICONIC Swan Hill trainer Austy Coffey and local apprentice jockey Shanae O’Meara are the faces of Country Racing Victoria’s new media campaign for the spring racing season.
Country Racing Victoria media and communications manager Maggie Payne said the campaign idea was born out of the past year and the struggles the community had gone through with COVID-19 and keeping racing going. “It gives a real nod to the participants and the vast number of people who support country racing,” Ms Payne said.
Country Racing worked with creative agency Balance to launch the second phase of the campaign, with the slogan “Why We Do It”.
“We had initially planned to shoot all of the vision at the 2021 Swan Hill June carnival, but that was obviously cancelled at the last minute due to the COVID restrictions,” Ms Payne said.
“So we filmed across two days, one at Yarra Valley and the second at Swan Hill racecourse, where we captured the campaign’s stars, Austy Coffey and Shanae O’Meara.”
The campaign consists of a strong media push including press, TV, radio and outdoor advertising.
Coffey told The Guardian he didn’t think too much about new multi-media prominence.
“Country Racing have used my stable at Swan Hill for previous campaign shoots,” he said.
“The promotion of country racing is really important and its crucial to do anything we can to promote racing, particularly at the moment.
“Just come back to the races when you are allowed to come.”
O’Meara was also humble about her new-found fame.
“(It’s a) really good opportunity for the sport and I was really happy to do the campaign,” she said.
“The filming took place at night at Austy’s stables and the CRV interviews were in the morning.”
O’Meara plays a feature role on 18 campaign billboards throughout Victoria.
“I didn’t see the Swan Hill billboard in Curlewis Street for a while, but I finally went and had a look,” O’Meara said.
She said her family were unaware of the campaign and her role in it but were delighted when they saw the first television ad.
