Case Study
Kentucky Three-Day Event
Turning the best weekend all year into a year-round audience.
- Social Media Management
- Content Creation
- Live Event Coverage
- Sponsor & Creator Collabs
The need
The Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event is one of only seven five-star events in the world. It runs four days at the Kentucky Horse Park, draws 140+ vendors and 40+ sponsors, and crowns champions in a sport most people in its own backyard couldn't explain.
That was the problem. K3DE had an audience, but it was largely the eventing world talking to the eventing world. The social presence looked good and moved slow: strong photography, almost no video, single-image posts, no location tags, minimal collabs. Meanwhile the platforms had shifted to roughly 85% video, and the event's growth ceiling depended on reaching people who had never heard the word "dressage."
On top of that, four days of live competition across three separate events, plus a sponsor roster with contractual post obligations, is more content than any internal team can shoot, edit, caption, approve, and publish in real time.
They needed a partner who could do three things at once: speak fluently to lifelong equestrians, make the sport legible to newcomers, and cover a live five-star event without missing a beat.
What we did
We started with an audit, not a camera. We mapped what was working, what the platforms were rewarding, and where the competitive set was leaving room to run.
Then we rebuilt the content mix around video. Rider interviews at the jog. Fan interviews in the Trade Fair. Course walks and cross-country highlight mixes. Trend-forward edits for TikTok and Reels, wholesome shopping and vendor content for the crowd planning their trip. Graphics for ticket drops, sponsor activations, giveaways, and know-before-you-go. Photo carousels that gave the sport's most passionate fans something to save and share.
We ran it on a published content calendar with a client approval column, so the EEI team could review in one place instead of a dozen threads. Every asset stayed inside K3DE's brand guardrails, and we tagged Defender, MARS Equestrian, Cosequin, and Hagyard in the right places on the right properties.
During event week, we put a crew on the ground with golf carts, media credentials, and daily shot lists, publishing live across four platforms while the competition was still running.
Deliverables
Social media management, short-form video, live event coverage, rider & fan interviews, photo and video capture, graphic design, sponsor content, creator collabs, content strategy, reporting.
The event
Three competitions across four days at the Kentucky Horse Park: the CCI5*-L, the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S, and the Kentucky International CSI5*.
Client
Equestrian Events, Inc.
kentuckythreedayevent.com
Four days, covered live
Event week is where a live event either shows up or disappears. We treated the four competition days as a rolling broadcast: shooting in the morning, editing at midday, publishing while people were still on the grounds and still deciding whether to come back tomorrow.
Across the 2025 event window we published 150 posts and collaborations, covering every phase of all three competitions from the first horse inspection to Sunday's awards.
Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and X combined. April 20 – May 5, 2025.
Year over year, not just year one
Anyone can have a good week. The proof is what happens when you run the same weekend again with a smarter playbook. We increased output by roughly a third and more than doubled the reach that output earned, because the mix changed and not just the volume.
Impressions
+145%New followers
+68%Posts & collaborations
+35%A community that buys tickets
Reach only matters if it turns into people at the Horse Park. In the months leading into the event we grew the Instagram following 14% and drove more than $21,000 in tracked ticket sales straight from social.
The audience now sits above 218,000 across platforms. That's an audience that shows up in October when early-bird tickets drop, not only in April when the gates open.
Some of what we made
Post
Reel
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