Here comes Da ZacStar and the New Happy Ride.

Yes, jockey Zac Purton is all about horse racing and winning on horses- but this doesn’t mean that he is a one trick pony.

Here’s a relatively young racing personality about to be inducted into the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame, breaking horse racing records with great regularity, and, no doubt, counting down the days when he partners champion Hong Kong sprinter Ka Ying Rising in the million dollar race in Sydney known as The Everest- and which he will win for himself, trainer David Hayes, the owners and for Hong Kong.

Will he then stay in Australia with his family, pick and choose what he wants to do next, keep riding around the world or take out a trainer’s license in Hong Kong, and keep being the champion drawcard for racing that he’s become through damn hard work, fierce self belief and realising the importance of being a brand and marketing this brand?

Who wins? Everyone.

Being in marketing and learning much about structure, strategic thinking and the importance of a USP, and how to reach that business ROI from the invaluable years spent working on the Creative product for the McDonald’s business, apart from being friends with Zac, I see him as an invaluable asset for the world of horse racing.

It’s a world that’s changing every nano second, and being in sync with it means making the time to understand and attract today’s customer, especially those in the 28-50 age group, who aren’t as yet looking at what you’re selling- and this includes horse racing.

Those who have already invested in and bought into the rather expensive pastime are a captive and aging audience that racing clubs need to retain until starting to see The After Life.

The potential newbies to racing are very important extra gravy, and winning them over isn’t going to happen overnight. Anyone who thinks so are playing with the fairies while blindly working to their timetables and not finding nor guiding racing’s future leaders and introducing them to what they might be inheriting- and knowing whether they can improve it or might even want it.

This post pandemic world has changed everything forever.

In Hong Kong, once the land of milk and honey and soya sauce, we have recently seen two of the city’s biggest property giants fall from grace along with “Wipe Out” playing for a retail sector that’s no longer around or been asleep at the wheel.

Horse racing is not immune to these changes because the pastime is inextricably linked to wealth and helping to maintain that very important Chinese thing known as “Face”.

The pastime desperately needs a LOUD and quick Wake Up Call as opposed to slow dancing on Remote and thinking that what’s happening and not happening in the here and now is all that matters.

Even Elon Musk learned that kumbaya moments have a very short shelf life. 

Everything and everyone in every industry is disposable and the objective is to be intuitively creative and relevant enough to make new things happen by being able to offer value.

From where I sit and think about the life around me and wonder, “Why not?”, I might be half joking when I say that Zac Purton could be Da ZacStar and change the face and sound of the moribund Hong Kong music scene- AND, through this, shine a new light on horse racing- globally. 

Like horses need trainers and jockeys and those millionaire and billionaire owners to keep everything ticking along nicely, it’s always been about business partnerships, and not about the lonely sound of one hand clapping.

It’s also not about governments talking up things like “surges in tourism” when these type of tourists might come to Hong Kong from Shenzhen in droves, but don’t have two bobs to rub together.

As the guy who gave Hong Kong music the term Canto Pop- not exactly my greatest moment- and very successfully ran the International Divisions of Universal Music and EMI Music, wrote hit songs for some of the leading Chinese artists, and created the Happy Wednesday brand for the HKJC, this was when Hong Kong was actually full of happiness.

It’s not what it is today- a rickety and often depressed city being fed intravenously on a drip.

Having said this, someone like Zac Purton could play a small, but not insignificant role in bringing something new to the old Hong Kong.

Depending on how intelligently communications are used and the most effective medium for the message, Zac is news.

Apart from his Instagram world where he and wife Nicole are often feasting on the six star meals prepared by Michelin star chefs, gargling with the most expensive Bordeaux wines, shown riding camels somewhere or another- it’s still only horse racing news for those who read it.

This is because of the same pigeon hole he finds himself in along with what remains of the rather frail looking world of horse racing.

Like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, there could, however, be ways in which horse racing might be inspired enough to make changes that don’t need 3-5 years of planning.

For example, why not “miniaturise” the Close Encounters type colossus that is the totalisator board and is double Dutch to newcomers to racing?

Understand the future of streaming content, and how lifestyle content around the paddock parade area and shown via banks of television monitors can help those thirty plodding minutes between races make the time at the races appear to move faster and become part and parcel of entertainment.

Couldn’t those racing jurisdictions that have 24/7 racing and sports radio channels offer their dead hours to music marketing companies to stream playlists and interact with younger listeners who don’t go to sleep at 9pm? 

Wouldn’t this or having its own version of Spotify help communicate with a new audience when those hardcore punters are dreaming of their next win?

There’s then Da ZacStar. 

Imagine associating this new player/playa to The Lost World of music and sports entertainment by associating him with names like Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre, Lewis Hamilton, Black Pink, Lizzo and a YouTuber like IShowSpeed.

Add to that this what’s really taking off today in China- commercial Hip Hop about the world needing Bling Bling Happiness.

Too difficult an undertaking? Not really. 

The global economy is in free fall and tanking, everyone somewhere in the world needs a gig and every papa MUST have a brand new and positive bag. 

Think about this: Even the much hyped Eras Tour for Swifties seems like it happened eons ago. 

Same with the conga line of artists who have recently performed in Hong Kong, but not exactly brought much of interest to the table.

Remember the 3-4 performances in Hong Kong by Coldplay? Mind gone blank? Thought so.

Recently, however, there was short time buzz around a hip hop track and accompanying music video by the relatively unknown Chinese tribe known as Skai IsYourGod with Zac Purton dancing in the middle of it all like a small version of Will Farrell?

Even if you never saw the video, there’s a communications story and marketing strategy here that could definitely be the introduction of Zac Purton’s alter ego called Da ZacStar and his Bizzy Unit comprising very different business streams and cool merch for that younger demographic.

It’s a random idea that just might not be that random after all and could even wake up horse racing from its marketing siesta.

It could have those who wouldn’t know Zac Efron from Zac Purton think to themselves, “How f***ing weird is what we just saw?”

Weird is good. It gets people and products noticed by a new audience waiting to see what’s next?

This paves the way for whatever else is being cooked up rather than warming up and serving more leftovers from another era and a different world order.

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