This past week our team attended the Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event (K3DE) in Lexington, for one of the world’s premium equestrian 5* events. Our main presence at K3DE was to promote Sentinel, but we were also able to showcase Native Dog Food! Our goals for the show were to connect with horse owners, educate about extruded horse feed, expand brand awareness, capture leads, sell Sentinel AND Native, and provide a memorable experience.
Overall, the event was a huge success! We nearly tripled our lead captures over last year. Sentinel Marketing Manager, Katie Rudisill said, “The team worked hard to capture quality leads and made sure to create a memorable experience for everyone we engaged with.” We have also received numerous social media messages about how great our booth looked and some have even gone as far to say it was the best booth in Sponsor Village. Rudisill continues, “It was great to see the vision and hard work of the marketing team pay off at the event”.
Kristyn Sturken, Sentinel Product Manager said, “This year we moved to Sponsor Village from the Trade Fair at the Defender Kentucky Three Day Event and it was an incredible success! The booth traffic was excellent and we had so many great conversations about both Sentinel horse feed and Native dog food and we are already following up with them and hearing about commitments to try our products. We had tremendous brand exposure! I am looking forward to hearing about success stories and to the 2025 event.”
Pictured left to right: Back Row – Bryan Beaver, Charles Kinsolving, Hunter Moss, Wayne Dimond. Front Row – Felicia Sackett, Kristyn Sturken, Katie Rudisill, Jasmin Stocker, and Remy Nash.
Sentinel and Native’s presence at K3DE
As a sponsor, Sentinel was promoted throughout the event with banners, logo on the jumbotron, large sponsor boards, crawl on the live coverage, print ad, website, etc.
Ambassador, Ema Klugman signing autographs.
Sponsored meet and greets with Sharon White (one of our ambassadors since 2005 and a CCI5* rider and US Eventing Team member, Silver Medalist) and Ema Klugman (a new ambassador and international 5* eventing rider).
Grand drawing of a Kerrits backpack and 10 Sentinel certificates.
Daily drawings of 250 lbs. of Sentinel feed and goodie bucket.
Native was a huge hit with the attendees AND the dogs!
Our very popular Sentinel buckets that have become a hit. We gave away 450 throughout the show and had long lines every time to receive one.
The Sentinel booth hosted a wine and charcuterie social hour which resulted in a great turnout.
Sentinel branded cookies that match the different color of Sentinel bags.
Sentinel sponsored the Practical Horseman’s Jim Wofford Memorial Course Walk which was led by one of our ambassadors, Sharon White, and Karen O’Connor. We provided 100 gift bags (and ran out!) that included sunglasses and a card that participants could bring back to our booth to redeem a bag of Rounders.
The Practical Horseman’s social media coverage of the event, web articles, print, and email was also sponsored by Sentinel. The Practical Horseman posted about the event throughout its entirety and every post tagged our social media accounts.
What now? The leads captured at the event received an email after with a $10 coupon and will now be entered into our Sentinel marketing email campaign.