When sports events were cancelled during the corona pandemic, Sweden found a new hobby - trotting. While horses kept running this quirky thing became cool, #trott (Swedish: #trav) trended on Twitter and spread in new circles.

Each year, at the end of May, one of the world's greatest horse racing events, Elitloppet, takes place. The challenge was to create an appreciated and engaging experience among the thousands of new trotting enthusiasts, without a physical event at the course.

The current broadcast was difficult for a rookie, who didn't consume trotting media. We had to adapt the experience and create awareness beyond trotting contexts.

Trotting TV is rather difficult to understand and to engage a broader audience we had to give trotting a relevant context and quite frankly some coolness. We needed to capture the interest of our new enthusiasts, on the biggest trotting weekend of the year tapping into their newly found curiosity and interest.

With Jinders Trotting Show we created an engaging format as well as an educational experience, inviting new enthusiasts to take part of the trotting movement. By combining compelling content with unexpected guests, we wanted to make trotting accessible for all.

This show, completely adapted for rookies, had an unexpected enthusiast as host - Swedish indie pop-queen Little Jinder. Her interest was genuine, and the program was more reminiscent of entertainment youth-tv than trotting television. It was real.

Everything from content, to guests and the host herself, was chosen to create engagement and PR beyond trotting contexts.

The initiative was aimed at people who may have seen or heard of trotting during the spring, but who have never experienced the joy and commitment around the event of Elitloppet. To create the feeling of Elitloppet as something for everyone, popular cultural media also became an important target group.

Our strategy with Jinders Trotting Show was to:

-Get the attention of new trotting enthusiasts

-By reaching them in contexts they are used to

-Using Swedish indie pop-queen Little Jinder to draw their attention

All content created as well as invited guests was designed to create:

-Engagement and PR effect

-Getting the attention of our aimed target group tapping into popular culture

-Becoming a reference point in their new sport interest

Carefully selecting our unexpected enthusiast, Swedish indie pop-queen Little Jinder, as host was key in the execution following the actual live broadcast.

In Jinders Trotting Show, Jinder together with Julia Björklund (trotting expert at Expressen, one of Sweden's biggest newspapers) guided the Swedes through Elitloppet. In the almost 5 hour long live broadcast, more than just actual races were shown. They had a betting school, called up drivers, popped quizzes, discussed the fascination of trot with hardcore fans and celebrity profiles – all guests selected, with a huge trotting interest, to find out what makes trotting so popular.

With Jinders Trotting Show we created an engaging format as well as an educational experience that reached 600 000 viewers and over 13 million in earned reach. Getting the attention of our new enthusiast creating a relationship for the future. Furthermore, becoming a part of Swedish popular culture.

600 000 views live on YouTube and Expressen (native collaboration) For rights reasons races were not shown on Expressen and viewers were directed to see the races on ATG.se. The result: 40% more viewers than the year before.

The campaign's PR reach was 13 million, according to Retriever.

Clear standout reaching outside typical trotting media, including entertainment (eg Gaffa, Nöjesguiden, Swedish Radio)

Great reviews from expert-community for example trotting journalist and ATG critic Rickard Hansson wrote in a column:

- Jinders Trotting Corner. An ATG stunt that does not turn to me. Still I could not stop watching… As far as I know, no rating has been given to themselves after this initiative. I can do it for you: Success. Five out of five.

In connection with Elitloppet 2020, 45% of ATG's customers stated ATG as entertaining an increase of 10 percentage points compared to previous year.