Saratoga Springs &

American Pharoah

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Welcome to #Pharoahtoga

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If you know Saratoga Springs, you know horse racing and the oldest thoroughbred race in America; The Travers Stakes.

 

In July of 2015, NYRA (The New York Racing Association) needed help creating an initiative to bring Triple Crown winner American Pharaoh. I worked with NYRA and came up with #Pharoahtoga, and NYRA really ran with it.

 

NYRA began using #Pharoahtoga on a variety of social channels, tweeting out the potential for American Pharoah to race in Travers.  The news broke late Sunday, August 23rd, that American Pharoah was confirmed to race in the 146th Travers Stakes. #Pharoahtoga had around 400 mentions before the news broke, then quadrupled once Justin Zayat shared the great news.

 

#Pharoahtoga was officially happening. American Pharoah was going to race the Travers in Saratoga Springs.

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The hashtag picked up over 6,000 mentions during the days leading up to Travers and picked up over 2,600 mentions on race day alone. Major news outlets were using #Pharoahtoga including NBC Sports and NBCSN, horse racing outlets like Racing Post, Breeders’ Cup and the Kentucky Derby were extremely active on Twitter and helped fuel the social fire. Their engagement with the content boosted the reach from 8 million to close to 20 million. This was no longer a regional campaign; it was global.

 

People all over the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom had their eyes on Travers, American Pharoah and town of Saratoga Springs. All of this activity lead to #Pharoahtoga becoming a trending topic in the United States during the race.

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