Meadowlands piecing together excitement for Pace 50
by Debbie Little
Depending on the year, the Meadowlands Pace can seem like a puzzle, and for this year’s 50th edition, the ladies of The Big M’s marketing department are embracing that concept.
According to Meadowlands director of marketing and event operations, Rachel Ryan, she and assistant general manager Marianne Rotella, graphic designer Kathy Estes, office manager Lisa Smoter, and internet gaming/players club/social media manager Kayla O’Connor, with the blessing of chief operating officer/general manager Jason Settlemoir, come up with a yearly design for the commemorative T-shirt that’s given away on Pace Night.
“It kind of was like a no-brainer, doing something around soccer, since we have the eight FIFA games here for the World Cup,” Ryan said. “And so, I said to Jason, ‘Kathy is going to do a special logo, and we’re going to make it the soccer kit style.’ And he said, ‘Oh yeah, that makes sense. That’s great.’”
Since this is the 50th anniversary of the track’s signature event, Ryan said they were thinking outside the box, or perhaps in this case, ball, when it came to how to reveal this year’s design.
“Kayla wanted to do something with the influencers, because we’ve partnered with a number of influencers this year for all our events, since we brought advertising in house,” Ryan said. “We worked with one of them, jessknowsthedeal [Jessica McGrath], last year on an event or two, and we expanded that program this year, so [Kayla] wanted to bring them in and kind of create excitement for the Meadowlands Pace.
“So, after Kathy and I came up with the soccer jersey design, she wanted to do a countdown to the release, to make the hype a little bigger surrounding the 50th Pace and get some additional eyeballs on it being the 50th. And so, [Kayla] came up with the idea of doing the puzzle pieces with the influencers.”
Last weekend, on Saturday night (May 2), Settlemoir got the ball rolling, so to speak, as the first piece to the Pace T-shirt puzzle was placed on the Meadowlands simulcast show.
In addition to track ambassador McGrath, who is also doing how to bet tutorials starting this week, influencers Lauren Spiechowski (@thehungrysw) and Stacey H. (@staceyakawannabefoodie) will also be there this Saturday night (May 9) for the Best Burger Battle and next Saturday for Beerfest because the puzzle piece perception pairs perfectly with The Big M’s especial events.
Spiechowski announced on Instagram earlier this week that she will have the honor of placing the second piece on the board this weekend in The Meadowlands’ version of the picture reveal game.
“They are actually enthusiastic about coming out,” Ryan said of the influencers. “A lot of times, their friends come out to the same events, so you get the extra push there. And in partnership with them, we’ve seen a growth in our social media, not only in our followers, but also in the likes and the comments and the posts. So, they’ve certainly been a positive influence, especially on our social media side.”
The final Pace piece will be placed on Saturday (June 6), the night of Wiener Dog Derby, revealing the image of the shirt that will be given away on Meadowlands Pace Night (July 11).
Settlemoir said he couldn’t be prouder of the exceptional effort turned in yearly by the staff at The Big M.
“It just made perfect sense to do something with the World Cup right in our own backyard,” Settlemoir said. “They spend hours coming up with some of these ideas and designs. People don’t understand, they don’t realize the different things that go into everything. They think, ‘Oh, that’s a cool T-shirt.’ And they take it, and they don’t think about how it came about. They spend a lot of time working together and coming up with these designs and different promotions, and what everything’s going to look like, and the detail to it right down to the stitching on the shirt.
“The Meadowlands Pace means quite a bit to not just the Meadowlands Racetrack, but to the industry as a whole. It’s a classic event, and we always have a lot of great family fun activities that are here, that Rachel comes up with and does each year. And this year will be no different, along with the T-shirt giveaway, and we’ve got a great card that night, and it’ll be on FOX Sports as well. I’m finally glad that we’re into the stakes season. This has been a brutal winter and spring, and you can quote that in bold.”
Settlemoir knows better than most about the quality of this year’s shirt since he has already acquired one.
“I immediately stole the first T-shirt,” Settlemoir said.
Ryan added with a laugh, “We made sure it was in his size, because that’s usually what happens. So, then I had to order another sample to use for photographs.”
In addition to mentioning that people have already started to make reservations for Pace Night and that all information for the event can be found on The Meadowlands’ website here, Ryan also shared that she knows that all of their ideas and everything they do may not be everyone’s cup of tea.
“And we understand they’re not for everybody,” Ryan said. “It’s not designed to attract the hardcore gambler or the people that are already coming. This is to bring in the novice race fan or people that just like going to events. And, you know, we’re still catering to our everyday customers and to our players club people, but this is just trying to attract and get other people to come out that normally wouldn’t.”
Settlemoir added, “We like to share the love.”
