The hottest ticket in town – brace yourself for The Melbourne Cup

With The Mole travelling to Melbourne tomorrow as a guest of the Melbourne Convention and Visitors Bureau and The Victoria Racing Club, to learn what this classic event is all about and how it impacts on Melbourne, the city’s economy and its claimed status as the event capital of Australia, a Sydney Morning Herald report asks, how did a no-name Middle Eastern airline become synonymous with celebrity and luxury?

While a tad long, but definitely worth reading, this excellent article helps set the scene for tomorrw’s big day……….

The phone calls start dribbling in sometime in early September and reach a peak just before Derby Day.  By then Judy Romano is wasting about five hours a week fielding them, in between finalising details for the Emirates marquee at Flemington race track.

All of a sudden, friends and acquaintances inexplicably want to catch up. “I think they see someone’s invitation on the fridge,” says Romano, Emirates event manager.  “A lot of people know that I’m part of the Emirates team and they’ll ring me and you might get a bit of an invitation: ‘Oh, it’s been a while, let’s go out for dinner’.

It will take more than that, however, to score the most coveted ticket in town.

The Emirates guest list is nutted out more than three months before the Melbourne Cup Carnival and the invitations are dispatched the week after the AFL grand final, more than 80 per cent of them to Emirates’s top frequent flyers and the remainder to personalities from the corporate and entertainment arenas.

It’s all about creating the right mix, a celebrity soup of actors, athletes, socialites and CEOs: Megan Gale and Jennifer Hawkins for eye candy and Rove and Peter Hellier for comic value; James Packer and Victorian Governor Professor David de Kretser, leavened by Molly Meldrum and Myf Warhurst, as well as perennial favourites Jeff and Felicity, and Bec and Lleyton.

Each year, the chosen few sup at the well of corporate largesse in a themed marquee more lavish than the last.

This year marks Emirates’s 10th in the exclusive Birdcage enclosure and the two-storey marquee is going Venetian, complete with an exterior inspired by the Doge’s Palace, a reception featuring Murano glass, and a nine-metre-long, gondola-shaped bar.

Italian waiters will proffer exquisite Venetian-style morsels and take a la carte orders in the marquee’s ristorante, while stylists will freshen up hairdos in the powder room – the only one in the Birdcage with plumbed toilets.

“I love walking around all the marquees,” says Melbourne Cup television host Johanna Griggs, “but you reach Emirates and they go to a whole new level of decadence.”

Model-turned-crime writer Tara Moss has attended the Emirates marquee half a dozen times and says it’s “always luxurious, exotic, well-maintained and civilised – even after the last race of the day, when the rest of the Birdcage is a shambles of broken-heeled drunken revellers”.

Thanks in part to its annual tent show, Emirates has become synonymous with six-star service and over-the-top luxury.

For a Middle Eastern airline that’s been flying to Australia for barely a decade – and has only been in existence since 1985 – that’s quite a marketing coup.

Emirates obviously wants its marquee guests to enjoy themselves but that’s not the main game: “That fabulous party is not for the people at the party; it’s for the people who are going to look at the coverage and the paparazzi photos of it,” says international sponsorship expert Kim Skildum-Reid, co-author of The Sponsor’s Toolkit.

“They’ve established themselves as an elite, hip brand and that was a big ask as an airline based in the Middle East, but they’ve done it.” Much to Qantas’s chagrin, Emirates has hijacked the iconic Australian horserace right out from under the flying kangaroo’s nose.

It hasn’t come cheap. In 2004, the Dubai-based company struck a $50-million, seven-year “partnership deal” with the Victoria Racing Club, which includes naming rights to the Melbourne Cup, and runs until the Cup’s 150th anniversary in 2010.

As part of the deal, Emirates shells out $2 million a year on the marquee alone – for a mere four days of hospitality.  That roughly works out to $2800 a guest, which is a whole lotta corporate love.

Still, Emirates insists it isn’t a mindless splashing of cash but rather a calculated marketing move – part of an international sponsorship portfolio that includes the FIFA World Cup and the Arsenal and Collingwood football clubs.

“When we first started flying to Australia (in 1996) no one knew us,” says Boutros Boutros, the airline’s senior vice-president in charge of media relations, sponsorship and events. Since then Emirates has run up a local sponsorship bill of $70 million, which includes other sports and arts sponsorships, and the number of passengers travelling between Australia and Dubai has quadrupled.

“We’re doing very well,” he says. “That tells us we’re doing the right thing.”

Boutros actually deserves the credit (or blame, depending on how you look at it) for the new competitive era of the Birdcage.

When he came to Emirates’s first Melbourne Cup marquee in 1998 he couldn’t understand why the guests couldn’t see the horses; that prompted Romano to elevate the marquee the following year to see over the fence, and Saab, Moet & Chandon and Myer followed suit. A marquee arms race was born.

“That was the turning point of the Birdcage,” says Romano, as she cruises through the exclusive trackside enclosure in her sleek black Mercedes.

When she started working on the Cup marquees in 1993, there were only three – Saab, Louis Vuitton and Lloyd Williams’s – and the Birdcage was a muddy members’ car park where the social set ate chicken sandwiches from the back of their Range Rovers.

Eventually more sponsors wanted in to the Birdcage and the VRC made it a marquee-only area in the late ’90s. It was a lucrative move.

“That was a great decision because lots of companies want to go into the Birdcage but it’s exclusive to sponsors and members,” says VRC general manager of sponsorship and corporate development, Brendan Ford.

(Members can still be part of the enclosure but they have to buy one of the 16 unbranded 6m x 6m member “chalets”, which cost up to $33,000 for the day.) “A lot of companies will sponsor, but one of the key motivations is to be able to secure a marquee site in the Birdcage.”

The size of their site is directly proportional to their level of sponsorship, with most of the 54 Birdcage marquee spots costing at least $150,000 and the nine on so-called Millionaire’s Row alongside the track commanding more than $300,000, some north of half a million.

And that’s just for the plot of dirt; catering, design and construction cost extra. Ford estimates that corporate investment in the Cup carnival would total $50 million. “We’ve probably created a monster,” he admits.

For Emirates, the Melbourne Cup not only televises its brand name to 700 million viewers around the world, it allows the company to connect with its most valued passengers, generating goodwill and loyalty in the process.

“When you invite them to the Melbourne Cup they feel important, they feel different,” explains Boutros. “That’s enough justification.”

The sport is also perfectly structured for corporate hospitality: a race only comes along every 40 minutes, which gives company executives plenty of time to work the room.

“You’ve got your clients for seven hours and they can be entertained, they can bring their partners out, you can talk to them,” says Romano.

“You can’t build relationships at the Grand Prix or the tennis because you can’t talk or you can’t hear. And if they win money it just makes it more memorable.”

Emirates, which is probably the biggest horseracing sponsor in the world, has a long-standing connection with the sport: the airline’s chairman, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, is the brother of Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whose horses (At Talaq in 1986 and Jeune in 1994) have won two Melbourne Cups.

But to reach the full spectrum of potential passengers, the airline has also put its name on Collingwood Football Club and the Melbourne, Sydney and Western Australian symphony orchestras.

The airline is selective with its sponsorships, says Boutros, careful not to come across as a Middle Eastern airline throwing its money all over the place. “You could flood the whole market,” he says, “but people would get sick of it.”

The company’s rivals already are. Qantas has argued that Emirates has an unfair advantage, claiming the Arab airline is heavily subsidised by its government owner. (Dubai, which is the second-largest of the United Arab Emirates’s seven sheikdoms after Abu Dhabi, is due to run out of oil within a few years but the mega-rich Al Maktoum family that rules it has been on a campaign for the past two decades to turn the emirate into a major business and travel hub.)

According to Shaw Stockbroking airlines analyst Brent Mitchell, Qantas views Emirates as a threat “because [Emirates] can afford to promote themselves without the same responsibility to shareholders”.

Qantas was furious when the VRC didn’t renew its sponsorship of Derby Day’s Wakeful Stakes last year, but even that didn’t stop the then-Qantas chairman Margaret Jackson from accepting an invitation from Emirates.  She was seen enjoying their hospitality at Oaks Day and no doubt her successor, Leigh Clifford, will receive an invitation this year too.

“Every year we invite (Qantas) and we mean it,” says Boutros, “because we exist together whether they like it or we like it.”

Boutros shrugs off criticisms as sour grapes. He says Emirates spends $US85 million a year on sponsorship – which represents just 1 percent of total group revenue.

As well as horseracing, that figure covers yacht racing, rugby union, golf, cricket and Formula One events all over the world. “People don’t believe that; even our (FIFA World Cup) partner sponsors like Coca-Cola … think we spend $300 or $400 million,” says Boutros.

“We don’t really overspend; we are very smart on how we spend it.”

Earlier this year, despite bitter opposition from Qantas, the federal government allowed Emirates to boost its Australian services from 49 to 84 flights a week by 2011.

Already the world’s third most profitable airline, Emirates plans to more than double its size by 2012.

Within the industry, says Mitchell, Emirates is seen as an aggressive marketer attracting customers with image rather than affordability.

“You want to fly (Emirates) because it’s Emirates, not because it’s cheap,” says Mitchell. While it’s impossible to quantify the return from sponsoring events such as the Melbourne Cup, Mitchell says the strategy has certainly raised brand awareness for Emirates – and when the airline starts receiving its order of 55 A380s (the double-decker super-jumbos) next year it will need all the new passengers it can muster.

Planning for the Emirates marquee begins in January when Dubai declares the theme and the designer swings into action (Venice is a new Emirates destination, hence this year’s motif).

Caroline Ryan, who has designed the Emirates marquees since 2002, researches the food, furniture, art, architecture and lifestyle of the designated city and then comes up with a concept that’s not amusement-park tacky but still distinctive.

“You don’t want to be so subtle that people don’t understand where they’re supposed to be,” she says.

So everything this year, from the wrought-iron gateway to the black-and-white-striped gondolier-style uniforms, is in keeping with the Venetian theme.

“You want people to walk in and feel something,” says Ryan, who taught herself marquee design seven years ago and founded the “brand experience” company 2Fish.

“It doesn’t work unless you have an emotional reaction. You want them to get that tickle of butterflies you get when you’re getting on a plane to go on holiday, that element of expectation: ‘What else am I going to see when I walk around the corner?'”

In 2005, Emirates set the bar for the Birdcage with its exotic Moroccan-themed marquee – complete with Moorish archways, hookah pipes and a henna tattoo artist imported from Dubai – and followed up last year with its mock Versailles, featuring painted cherubs on the ceiling, crepes made to order and a French garden terrace with lawn laid daily for a fresh onslaught of stilettos.

This year, the Emirates marquee is its largest ever at 31 metres by 18 metres, incorporating a sit-down, a la carte restaurant (“I just have a thing about people queuing for food,” says Romano) and a seven-metre-deep balcony overlooking the track.

The main level is elevated two-and-a-half metres off the ground and has a cloakroom, media office and bathrooms underneath.

The term “marquee” hardly seems adequate for a structure that takes six weeks to build, but the organisers are mindful that the space is temporary. After its stint at Flemington, the marquee is rebuilt in Sydney for the autumn carnival at Randwick but then the bits and pieces are sold off, donated to charity or reused the following year.

“Emirates isn’t a silly company – there’s no point in spending millions of dollars on something that’s there for a week,” says Ryan.

“The hardest part is trying to create something that looks like you don’t have a budget at all.” During the carnival, Ryan arrives by 8am each day to check for spots the cleaners may have missed overnight, to fluff the pillows and perhaps burn some scented oil. “It’s the initial impression that’s really important,” she says. “[The guests] probably don’t notice – ‘gosh, it smells nice’ – but all those details subconsciously have an effect … that this space is special.”

The marquee entertains no more than 180 people at a time and 100 double invitations go out for each of the four days of the week-long carnival. The acceptance rate always tops 90 per cent.

“The only reason people would say no,” says Emirates publicist Kate Keane, “is if they’re not in the country.”

Channel 7 newsreader Jennifer Keyte was one of the few last year who wasn’t thrilled to receive her invitation.  With a young family, says Keyte, time is precious and going to the races takes effort. “There’s a lot of hype – it’s the marquee – but I’m not a huge race-goer,” she says.  “I thought, ‘Boy, do I have to do this?’ But it delivered. They do it very, very well.” Keyte intended to put in an appearance then leave, but ended up drinking Moet in the rose-filled Emirates marquee all Oaks Day.  “There was a great buzz,” she says. “It was a fantasy land. You’re looked after and it’s very stylish and you feel special. You feel like, ‘We’re very lucky to be here.'”

From the warmed, vanilla-scented hand towels to the hairstylists in the powder room, “it’s so far from most people’s reality,” says Johanna Griggs.

Some Emirates guests score more than just a free lunch; ask Megan Gale and one-time Cleo Bachelor of the Year Andy Lee. Romance blossomed between the comic and the glamazon last year when Lee and radio partner Hamish Blake were holding court in the Emirates marquee on Derby Day and the David Jones model joined the duo’s crowd of acolytes.

Four years earlier, Tara Moss also found the marquee a fruitful mating ground when she met her future husband (from whom she has since split), film producer Mark Pennell.

Others have more professional goals in mind. Emirates marquee regular Eddie McGuire is apparently a thing to behold.  Last year Griggs saw him in action: “He seemed to know 90 per cent of the tent,” she recalls. “You watched him working the marquee from one side to the other.”

For wheeling and dealing – lubricated by alcohol and atmosphere – there’s no better place to be. “It’s become the epicentre for networking,” says Dancing with the Stars’ Sonia Kruger.  “Most television presenters would definitely want to be in that marquee because you have network executives floating around.”

In recent years, invitees have ranged from Geoffrey Rush and Rachel Griffiths to Steve Bracks and Lindsay Fox. It helps if you’re hot right now but don’t expect an invitation if you’re known for misbehaving.

The organisers are after well-mannered minglers. “We want to know that if a celebrity comes in and one of our other guests wants to talk to them, they’ll be nice and not think they’re all fabulous,” says Romano, “because that creates special moments for people: ‘Oh, I met Nicole Kidman and she was really nice’. You don’t want people to go, ‘That such-and-such was up herself.'”

Over four days, guests in the Emirates marquee will down some 4200 glasses of Moet & Chandon champagne and graze on a menu of Venetian-style dishes researched and created by two of Epicure Catering’s Italian head chefs.

“Nothing should be sloppy and wet or too large,” explains the company’s executive manager, Michael Milburn.  “Canapes should be two, two-and-a-half bites. You don’t want people spilling your food on expensive outfits or rejecting it because it looks too difficult to eat.”

The canape menu will include green olive ice cream on crostini and savoury ricotta fritters flavoured with chrysanthemum, while sit-down diners will choose from dishes such as gnocchi rotolo filled with roasted butternut pumpkin and ricotta with pine nut and brown butter sauce.

No wonder the uninvited clamour each year to get in. Emirates’s veteran door people have heard every line imaginable, and no, your invitation did not get lost in the mail, and nor can you come in for five minutes “for a look”, no matter what name you drop.

Reality TV stars from Australian Idol and The Biggest Loser have turned up at the entrance asking to come in with an entourage of half a dozen people behind them.

Others, says Romano, have tried to bribe their way in: “I’ve had people say to me, ‘Judy Romano said I could come in.’ That’s great: ‘Oh, what does she look like? Can you see her in there? Why don’t you call her and get her to come out and she’ll get you in, doll.’

To ensure a repeat appearance on next year’s Emirates guest list, the smart celebrities send thank-you cards – and not just dashed-off notes.

“It’s the whole bloody Gone with the Wind novel,” says Romano, “‘I loved the crepe suzette, the cabin crew were really helpful …'”

Mel and Kochie, in particular, score bonus points for their handwritten missives. But when it comes to gauging the marquee’s success the organisers are their own worst critics. “The vibe, the special moments … we can tell,” says Romano. “We always think it could be better.”

Super A list

The international celebrities, sports stars and business leaders most in demand at corporate marquees at this year’s Spring Racing Carnival*
James and Erica Packer (1) – Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe (2) – Cate Blanchett (3) – Hugh Jackman and Deborra-Lee Furness (4) – Rachel Griffiths (5) – Delta Goodrem (6) – footballer Chris Judd and girlfriend Rebecca Twigley (7) – actress Rose Byrne (8) – footballer David Beckham and wife Victoria – Lachlan and Sarah Murdoch – Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban – actress Radha Mitchell – singers Natalie Imbruglia and Daniel Johns – Justin Timberlake (in Melbourne on tour) – the Minogue sisters – Russell Crowe – Eric Bana – actress Abbie Cornish – Geoffrey Rush – Shane Warne – Simone Warne – Molly Meldrum – Kath & Kim’s Jane Turner and Gina Riley – Eddie McGuire – comedian Adam Hills – Sigrid Thornton – Richard and Jeanne Pratt – Lindsay Fox and family
* Based on lists of invitations and supplied anonymously by marquee organiser.

The A list

Solid performers who can expect to receive several invites to this year’s top marquees

Rove McManus (1) – Andy Lee and Megan Gale (2) – Nathan and Tania Buckley (3) – Sonia Kruger (4) – Kate Ceberano (5) – Jennifer Keyte (6) – model Jennifer Hawkins (7) – Jeff and Felicity Kennett (8) Hamish Blake – Spicks and Specks’ Adam Hills and Myf Warhurst – Vince Colosimo – Peter Hellier – TV presenter Kerri-Anne Kennerley – socialite Lillian Frank – Sunrise presenters Melissa Doyle and David Koch – actor Lisa McCune – the Van Haandel family (Stokehouse, Circa) – Michael and Lindy Klim – TV presenter Livinia Nixon – TV chef Cindy Sargon – actors Shane Bourne, Daniel MacPherson, Aaron Pederson (City Homicide) – Opposition Leader Ted Baillieu – Premier John Brumby – Michael Gudinski – businessman Daniel Besen – Andrew and Penne Peacock – fashion designer Collette Dinnigan – Lord Mayor John So – actor Daniella Farinacci

The B list

Stars on the rise, stars on the wane, wildcards, slightly troublesome celebs and deserving mere mortals
Rhonda Birchmore (1) – fashion designer Toni Maticevski (2) – The Jammed’s Emma Lung (3) – Lleyton and Bec Hewitt (4) – fashion designer Alannah Hill (5) – Summer Heights High’s Chris Lilley (6) – Australian Idol’s Kyle Sandilands (7) – actor Saskia Burmeister (8) – Sam Newman – Catriona Rowntree – Gary Ablett Junior and girlfriend Lauren Phillips – Steve Bracks – TV presenter Sophie Falkiner – Eileen Bond – Coxy’s Big Break Kellie Landry – Getaway’s Jules Lund – actor Gary Sweet – TV presenter Alyce Platt – designer and Mimco founder Amanda Briskin – architect Randall Marsh – model Gus Kennett – restaurateur Jacques Reymond – Stephanie Alexander – Carla Zampatti – comic Ryan Shelton – singer Jade MacRae – Antique dealer Graham Geddes – Racing driver James Dutton – fashion designer Josh Goot – chef Luke Mangan.

The Mole will be reporting from The Melbourne Cup in TravelMole on Wedneday – no Mole tomorrow though!

A Special Melbourne Cup Report by The Mole from The Sydney Morning Herald