Case Study - Brisbane Racing Club

The client

An 160 year old organisation steeped in tradition and a commitment to delivering world-class racing experiences, Brisbane Racing Club (BRC) has earned its place as an icon of Brisbane’s sporting and social scene. Home to two prestigious racecourses, Doomben and Eagle Farm, BRC has been a hub of excitement and elegance for generations.

Context

Co.gency first engaged with BRC in early 2020 to undertake a digital marketing project that quickly evolved into a full digital transformation project covering data warehousing, ticketing, CRM, membership management, eCommerce, marketing automation, and analytics.

Within the initial scoping of the project, it was clear that the existing ERP platform was not up to the task. We developed a deep and detailed understanding of BRCs operation and every customer cohort;

What we discovered was a sophisticated, multifaceted hospitality business, hiding behind the veneer of a racing-focused member organisation. While racing is clearly the central focus of BRC, it is encased by a hospitality offering with breadth from fine to casual dining, diverse entertainment and unique member events.

HubSpot was naturally selected as the platform that would unify a single view and source of truth of fans, members, and visitors.

Challenge

With Membership being at the heart of BRC’s business they required a quality management system to enhance the member experience, manage member accounts, and process membership fees, which we observed were inhibited by the following:

Poor membership renewal experience

The existing platform had duplicated membership details as well as a poor online payment system that had functional issues.

Team burn out

During membership renewal, the team were under unsustainable pressure as a lack of system integration led to excessive hours and huge service demand on the membership team

Siloed systems

Duplicated data was locked away in multiple platforms, and manual extraction of data for marketing purposes was inefficient and often inaccurate.

No loyalty integration

The current loyalty system for members was a repurposed gaming platform that had no integrations and only worked with manual manipulation of data.

Multiple ticketing solutions

Membership and general admission were running on two ticketing systems, making reporting and processes for entry into the club inefficient and often inaccurate.

Hindering growth

The poor online experience and handling of data resulted in a lack of confidence in growing membership. Solving this would lead to renewed growth in membership.

A single view of their members

A smooth and seamless way to sell and renew membership

A way to reward member loyalty

Woocommerce ecommerce site

HubSpot CMS membership activation

HubSpot renewal, welcome and ticketing email integration

Moshtix third party ticketing platform integration with HubSpot

Third party dispatch report for physical membership packs

Gatelink software to track Member attendance in HubSpot

Stripe payment integration with HubSpot and Woocommerce

MLS loyalty app integration with HubSpot

Seamless Experience

We investigated the different ways that domestic and international racing clubs were administering membership and discovered that many used a walled platform, behind a member login, that restricted members to viewing a single membership type. The advantage of this approach for the clubs was each member was clearly identified and attached to their membership, allowing for accurate capture of information.

However, our analysis of the BRC membership base showed that many of our members had multiple memberships in their family (or group) and had to make multiple separate payments to renew and buy membership. In addition, members also purchased merchandise from the bricks and mortar store throughout the season. Our solution was focused on giving members a better omni channel experience, allowing for a single translation for multiple membership and merchandise in one.

Buying and Activating Membership

Our solution took inspiration from our team's telecommunications and software sales experiences by decoupling the sale from the activation. We used the Woocommerce store integrated with Stripe to sell membership and merchandise, and then issued product keys (similar to software sales) that can then be activated in HubSpot.

Buying and Activating Membership

Issuing Member Ticketing & Membership Cards

Once the membership is activated, we use a further integration with the third party ticketing provider (Moshtix) to issue the barcode and create the membership record in the ticketing platform. Cogency integrated HubSpot with the with the Moshtix Event Ticketing API to issue a call to their platform and request a membership barcode for the required membership category. This data was then stored in a membership table created in a custom object in HubSpot. We then employed workflows to email the member issuing a digital membership ticket and welcome message.

Linking Membership Loyalty

BRC made the transition from a gaming loyalty platform to utilising the loyalty competency in their POS system (MSL). BRC had several use cases that required HubSpot to be integrated with their POS system including;

Creating a Member account in MSL
Adding a $10 credit to Member account in MSL on Membership activation
Adding a $50 credit to Member account in MSL on fifth visit to the club

Co.gency built a two way integration with HubSpot and MSL to facilitate this functionality. Workflows in HubSpot triggered the API call on activation of membership, created an account in MSL and added the credit to the balance of the account. In order to trigger the credit balance on the firth visit we brought in the Gatelink member scanned data from the turnstiles and used this data to build a further workflow to trigger an API call to MSL and add the $50 credit to the balance of the members account.

The Results

A faster and more efficient process for membership renewal

Curation of lists in HubSpot allowed each membership category to receive tailored and personalised communication to renew their membership. The integration with WooCommerce and HubSpot allowed for follow-up reminders and curation of task for the Membership team to follow up. The end result highlighted in the red line below, shows that membership revenue exceeded last year's target 9 months earlier.

Membership growth

The capability and trust of the new system saved countless hours and allowed the membership and marketing team to reinvest resource into implementing campaigns to win new members, resulting in over 900 net new members (~20%) over the season.

Increasing average visitation

The new loyalty program and integration with HubSpot allowed BRC to use HubSpot automations to trigger workflows and remind customers that they would get $50 F&B credit added to their account on their 5th visit. Across the membership base visitation lifted from 3.6 visits per season to 4.5, in turn increasing revenue at POS in member bars and functions.

Over 600 staff hours saved in admin time

Historical adding of loyalty balances was a manual process done on renewal. The new integration allowed the team to save over 600 hours of staff time which is over $30,000 in labour savings alone.

An enhanced membership experience

By analysing the membership NPS across our main carnival period, Stradbroke Season, we saw a year-on-year increase in NPS of 28.8 points.

Conclusion

By leveraging HubSpot as a transformative tool for customer management and implementing a data-driven approach, we’ve helped BRC revolutionise its membership program, enhancing the member experience, driving growth, and optimising operational efficiency.

"HubSpot and the integration work Co.gency has done with ticketing and loyalty has given us data that not only improves the member experience, but has also driven additional revenue benefits for BRC through better understanding of our members' engagement with the club."

Kylie Hannah, General Manager Membership, Brisbane Racing Club