aqha case study
TRANSCRIPT
AQHA Case Study
DeLynn Butler, Rebecca Gresham, Josi Reed,
and Leah Zadel
MCOM 3305
Background
• Founded on March 14, 1940 by Anne and James Goodwin Hall in Fort Worth, Texas.
• The American Quarter Horse Association, located in Amarillo, Texas, is the world’s largest equine breed registry and membership organization.
• AQHA has registered more than 5 million horses since its inception in 1940.
Background
• Competitions- AQHA members can enjoy the thrill and excitement of competing in the many competitive events AQHA offers, from halter to jumping and everything in between.
• Horseback Riding Program- Earn awards for the time you spend in the saddle. This program is offered exclusively for AQHA members. If you don’t own a Quarter Horse, you can enroll in the All-Breeds Horseback Riding Program.
Background
• Records- AQHA members can get all the information they need on a particular horse or competitor with AQHA’s Online Records service. Shop for a new horse, check out a stallion’s breeding performance, evaluate your showing competition and more.
• Museum- The mission of the American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum is to preserve and interpret the history and modern uses of the American Quarter Horse and cultivate future enthusiasts.
Mission
• To record and preserve the pedigree of the American Quarter Horse while maintaining the integrity of the breed and welfare of its horses.
• To provide beneficial services for its members which enhance and encourage American Quarter Horse ownership and participation.
• To develop diverse educational programs, material and curriculum that will position AQHA as the leading resource organization in the equine industry.
• To generate growth of AQHA membership via the marketing, promotion, advertising and publicity of the American Quarter Horse.
• To ensure the American Quarter Horse is treated humanely, with dignity, respect and compassion at all times.
Stakeholders
• Members
• Donors
• Corporate Sponsors
Magazines
• American Quarter Horse Journal - Serving as the voice of the American Quarter Horse industry for more than half a century, The AQHA Journal has brought its readers the greatest events, introduced them to legendary horses and people, and provided tips on riding, training, racing, management and health.
• America’s Horse Magazine - America's Horse magazine is one of the benefits of being a member. The magazine is filled with informative articles that help you make the most of your experience with horses, whether it’s keeping them healthy, correcting behavior problems or having fun on the trail.
• Q-Racing Journal- The Q-Racing Journal a monthly digital publication for the Association’s racing owners, breeders and fans. Within the magazine, you’ll find coverage of the American Quarter Horse racing industry, featuring news, history, industry topics, sales and race statistics.
• @AQHA is used mainly to drive traffic to their blog and online article posts, as well as answer customer questions and act as a public relations tool by favoriting, retweeting and replying.
• @AQHAJournal account for their flagship publication, The American Quarter Horse Journal. @AQHAJournal is used to disseminate Association news – mainly showing- and ranching-related, as well as drive traffic to blog posts and online articles, plus build their relationships with customers by favoriting, retweeting and replying.
• AQHA has other Twitter handles (@AQHARacing, @AQHYA, @AQHAnews) but they are not as prolific and generally their tweets are generated via RSS feeds.
• The Director of Online Interactive Communications and the Internet Editor manages the AQHA Facebook page (960,000 fans) as a public relations and marketing tool.
• Several of AQHAs customer service representatives handle customer service-related requests on the page’s timeline and via internal messages.
• https://www.facebook.com/aqha1
• They also have smaller AQHA-themed Facebook pages: American Quarter Horse Youth Association (40,210 fans, managed by the AQHA Online Communications and Publications intern).
• Q-Racing for Quarter Horse racing (5,300 fans, managed by the Q-Racing Journal editor).
• Quarter Horse Outfitters for our gift shop/online store (12,600 fans, managed by store staff).
• American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum (28,200 fans, managed by museum staff).
• AQHA En Espanol (11,300 fans, managed by AQHA international department).
• The Internet Editor manages the AQHA Instagram account (51,700 followers, @officialaqha).
• It is used as a public relations tool to strengthen their relationship with American Quarter Horse owners and AQHA fans via liking, commenting and regramming user posts that utilized our branded hashtags.
• The Online Communications and Publications intern does the same for the @officialaqhya account (5,354 followers).
• The Online Communications and Publications intern manages their Pinterest account (9,849 followers) with The Director of Online Interactive Communications and the Internet Editor overseeing the pins and pinning strategy.
• AQHA utilizes Pinterest as a way to drive e-commerce through Quarter Horse Outfitters, memberships and magazine subscriptions, as well as drive traffic to our blog posts and online articles.
• https://www.pinterest.com/aqha1/
Media Measurement
• AQHA measures their social media success by total page likes and account followers, but especially engagement rates.
• Their goal is to get followers from social media to their website, and from there, to move them along their
e-commerce model.
• Facebook and Google analytics are especially helpful in determining where web traffic is originating from and the success of each post. AQHA also looks at the time of day when posts were most successful.
Photographs
American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame and Museum located in Amarillo, TX.
Sources
• Primary Research:• Executive Director of Shows for AQHA• Internet Editor for AQHA
• The Director of Online Interactive Communications for AQHA
• Secondary Research:• www.aqha.com
• Photographer: Leah Zadel