From Screens to Showrings- Inspiring Every Dog Lover to be part of Crufts

Ticket sales revenue up by six figures in the first week and an extra 15.6% in revenue overall. Beating industry norms of reducing event attendance to achieve Crufts highest attendance in over five years (94,195 tickets sold for 2026 vs 88,379 in 2025). This was the first time Crufts had been supported with a digital-only campaign.

Crufts is a household name watched by over 8 million people on TV. Key to creating a televisual spectacle worthy of global viewing is the in-person audience. The 2026 challenge was to create cut-through and emotional engagement in a saturated market when people are watching every penny.

Close collaboration between media and creative agencies and the client drove an innovative campaign that beat economic headwinds to become the only event on the ticketing platform to increase sales year-on-year.

With a static budget and new digital-only approach, this campaign shows what’s possible when combining deep audience and platform insight with emotion-led creative and media agility. “For Crufts 2026, we introduced new ticket types and pricing strategies with two key goals: to increase revenue earlier in the campaign and reduce the need to increase advertising spend closer to the event to hit targets. Smithfield delivered on both objectives with aplomb. Not only did we achieve an increase of >15%, but we also exceeded targets with a week to spare. This represents a significant shift for an event that had followed a consistent purchasing pattern for many years.” James Coulbault – Head of Crufts (Revenue & Brand)