Heineken-owned ale John Smith’s has distributed Grand National sweepstake kits featuring ‘Smithy the Horse’, the face of John Smith’s racing, to over 7,500 pubs and clubs across the UK in advance of the race, which is running at Aintree on 10 April 2010.

The sweepstake kits, created by integrated marketing agency Space, promote John Smith’s sponsorship of the Grand National.

Half the pubs have had kits comprising John Smith’s branded promotional Grand National sweepstake material, such as posters and number strips, enabling them to run sweepstakes for their punters on the big race.

The other half have received kits containing sweepstake promotional material, as well as 100 William Hill bet vouchers to be given out with pints of John Smith’s purchased and which can be redeemed at William Hill bookmakers throughout the UK.

‘Smithy the Horse’, the face of John Smith’s racing, will feature across all of the campaign creative. ‘Smithy, the People’s Racehorse’ campaign, which ran earlier this year in the on-trade, allowed John Smith’s drinkers to have a ‘No Nonsense Share’ in a real racehorse, also created by Space.

Gareth Turner, senior brand manager at John Smith’s, says: “The work carried out by Space in the on-trade with these sweepstake kits and the promotion with William Hill will help us to leverage and add value to our sponsorship of the Grand National for consumers. It will encourage drinkers to interact with our brand in the build up to the big race itself.”