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Sponsors Focus on Consumers At Cowes Week

Oman Sail continues to combine professional sailing with savvy marketing. This is long-term, grown-up strategy meets great execution of tactics. While Leigh McMillan was winning the Cowes Round of the Extreme Sailing Series on Muscat the Wave, the sponsors were making the most of the crowds around the corner in the main Cowes Week entertainment areas.

Cowes Week might have a reputation for being stuffy or old fashioned. Some might say that it is the epitomy of the ‘Flintstone generation’ approach to sailing. That might be true for the classes and teams sailing out of the Royal Yacht Squadron, but demographics in the Yacht Haven and the beer tent is the kind of audience that brands like Aberdeen Asset Management, Oman Air, and Talisker Whiskey want to talk to. Chances are – if you can afford a pair of Dubarry boots and the ability to take a week off to sailing, you are the kind of adventurous traveller who might want to experience travelling to somewhere like Oman.

The advantage that Cowes Week has over some other sailing events, is that the audience is a known quantity. They are not a mythical social media community or some trendy marketing segmentation – they can be well defined by their age, gender, geography and social standing. It might not be millions of (unqualified) TV eyeballs, but that’s the point – some brands don’t want to be mass market.

While the new title sponsor of Cowes Week, Aberdeen Asset Management played to their B2B VIP Guests through closed door hospitality and some flags, Oman Sail and Muscat the Wave, who have a more ‘consumer’ focus, were activating in tried and tested pavement level ways – competitions for data collection mixed with banners and other visual awareness methods which combined with good results on the water.

Oman Sail Renew Offshore Program with MOD70

The MOD70 is gaining momentum. With politics and increasing costs plauging the IMOCA 60 class, the one-design multihull is being looked at seriously by many offshore teams. Now Oman Sail has announced that the MOD70 will be part of the team’s offshore campaign.

Sidney Gavignet, who has skippered the Oman Air Extreme 40 this year will head up the MOD70 program. Sidney joined Oman Sail team in 2010 to skipper the 100 foot trimaran Oman Air Majan in the Route du Rhum. Gavignet, skipper and project manager of Oman Sail MOD70 said:

“For me the MOD70 is the most attractive boat on the water currently. The boats are quick and although I always enjoy racing around the planet, it’s better when it’s quick! Also it’s absolutely one design, similar to the Extreme 40, so racing will be extremely close amongst the six boats from New York to Brest.”

Sidney will step off of the Oman Air’s Extreme 40 after Act 5 of the Extreme Sailing Series in Cowes to manage the MOD70 project and the all important crew selection process. The team will be made up of four top international crew and two top Omani national sailors for the offshore legs with an additional international and Omani sailor joining the crew for the inshore legs. A rigorous selection process will start in October.

One of the main deciders for Oman Sail’s participation in the MOD70 circuit was the destinations the boats will visit in the World and European tours, the majority of which are key markets for Oman with direct flight routes to Muscat with the countries national airline, Oman Air. The programme will continue to promote Oman as a unique luxury tourist destination around the globe.

David Graham, CEO of Oman Sail said:

“The MOD70 will take the Oman Sail project to another level. It is a very powerful boat whose crew will need to have the skill base to perform against some of the world’s best sailors. It will be crucial to recruit the right people to the project and I know we have a number of great sailors in Oman that will earn their place onboard and make Oman proud. It is a truly inspirational project that will provide a platform for our current top sailors compete and develop their sailing skills and inspire a whole new generation of Omani’s into sailing.”

• More Sponsorship Activation News
• More Travel & Tourism News

The new deal America’s Cup, which perhaps for the first time is aiming to appeal as much to spectators as it is to team-owners, has set expectations high with regards to the communication of the event to fans via television and social media.

The entrepreneurial zeal of California is waking up, like a sleeping giant who has been landed upon by an annoying buzzing insect. The land that has ignored sailing as a professional sport while it took place on European soil is being tempted off the Corinthian bandwagon by the promise of billions of dollars of commercial opportunity. Suddenly, people who snubbed their noses at the concept of sponsorship are calling for celebrity ambassadors to promote the America’s Cup around the world.

This weekend, Formula One (F1) will start its 2011 season in Melbourne Australia. Those interested in marketing sailing as a professional sport should pay attention – not to the racing, but to the way the sponsors activate their involvement. It should also be noted that F1 is a highly technical and complicated sport that manages to appeal to a wide audience. (We’re going to revisit the argument that sailing is too complicated soon).

There will be a lot of interesting things tried by F1 teams and their sponsors in 2011. They might not go as far as Major League Baseball who have experimented with pushing the envelope on licensing and according to Darren Rovell, CNBC’s Sports Business reporter:

(The) Best thing MLB has done for licensing $ is allow their logos to be messed with (especially on caps). Other leagues haven’t followed.

One story that has already been promoted is McLaren attempting to improve the racing experience for fans through the mobile platform and its revamped Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team website. It aims to drive deeper engagement with the team’s fans during the season and offer them an accompaniment to watching races on TV.

McLaren also has a long-term sponsorship partnership with Hugo Boss, who are at the forefront of using Social media and digital technology to communicate sailing to fans.

Sports data will be important. There will be an upgraded telemetry data facility – covering raw technical car data, such as engine revs and speed, delivered in real time – to improve the user experience.

Derek Harbinson, head of digital media at McLaren, said that changes to the site were intended to make the brand seem “warmer” online than it had in the past through its digital activity.

“We want to make sure that our digital communications match the standards we have set ourselves in everything else we do.”

As part of the strategy, McLaren is looking to bring fans closer to the team through social media. As well as increasing its levels of activity on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, the team has added a Facebook app to its site that enables fans to discuss the races in real time with friends while watching the live race and data feeds. The site is also optimised for mobile, meaning fans can watch the telemetry data on their handset for the first time.

There is no doubt that Hugo Boss will continue to benefit from their involvement in both F1 and sailing, just as Henri Lloyd has gained significant learnings from their relatively recent sponsorship deals.

So far, the America’s Cup sponsorship landscape looks a bit bare. Oracle gets their logos for ‘free’ and the only other team with a ‘title’ sponsor is Emirates Team New Zealand. Louis Vuitton have 2.1 million facebook fans, but it remains to be seen how many of those the brand can convince to be fans of the America’s Cup.

More Sponsorship Activation News…

Who does sponsorship and marketing best?

More information has been published about the new Marine Industry Awards including the categories for which awards will be given. The judging panel is yet to be announced.

There are a total of thirteen awards listed, including prizes for innovation and powerboats, but three awards should be of particular interest to readers of this site. Though the awards are being run in conjunction with the British Marine Federation, there is nothing in the rules that precludes non British entrants.

Marine Sports Event of the Year

According to the official website, this award is for a momentous sporting occasion throughout the last year.

Judges will be looking for:

• Impressive audience or participation figures
• Visitor enjoyment
• Sponsor support
• Quality of performance in the event.

It is expected that entries in this category will come from PR agencies, sponsorship firms, advertising agencies, brands, rights holders, event organizers and charities.

Marine Brand of the Year

There are some interesting criteria here that seems to be weighted in favour of entrenched players rather then innovators, particularly the requirement that the brand be dominant within the sector.

“This award is for a brand which has performed outstandingly over the past 12 months and is representative of the standards of excellence the marine industry aspires to.”

Criteria will include:

• Dominance within the sector
• Activities and performance
• Sponsor support
• Evidence of standards of excellence

Marketing Campaign of the Year

This one is a nice fit for sponsors of sailing, though could be interpreted a lot more widely. Again, there is nothing that says the campaign has to have been undertaken by a British company or that the audience has to be a UK audience. The outline of the award category is:

“This award is for a marketing campaign for a marine initiative or one that leveraged the marine industry for commercial or charitable purposes.”

It will be interesting to see how the various sponsors of sailing stack up against each other and other marine properties. The Marine Industry Award for Marketing Campaign of the Year will be judged using the following criteria.

• Relevance and appropriateness to the marine industry
• How the rights or property were researched and selected
• Clearly defined objectives
• Evidence of how successfully these objectives were met, including details of the campaign evaluation
• Demonstration of new ideas, campaign development and creative thinking
• Integration with other marketing activities
• Well-considered and presented promotional support materials

All entries should be submitted by the 1st of August 2011.

More information about the Marine Industry Awards can be found here…

Panel 1 of the 2010 World Yacht Racing Forum

Panel Chairman – Richard Moore, CEO, Capitalize. Panel Members - Andrew Pindar OBE, Group Chairman, Team Pindar, Pau Serracanta, Moto GP, Managing Director, Dorna Sports SL, Mark Turner, Executive Chairman, OC Thirdpole and the Extreme Sailing Series.

This was the first discussion for the 2010 World Yacht Racing Forum. It’s always an interesting subject to compare sports against each other to see the relative values and how they can be used to achieve sponsor’s objectives. Coming just a few weeks after the Future of Sponsorship Conference, also presented by Richard Moore of Capitalize, the session began with some trend numbers.

Global sport sponsorship revenues are coming back. Growth is estimated at about 4% with banks and financial institutions returning to the market. 8 of the top 50 deals were financed from BRIC markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China) and mega-deals are also being done. (Bud Light have done a $200million dollar deal over 6 years with NFL and J.P. Morgan have sponsored Madison Square Garden for $30 a year)

Other trends include more properties trying to raise funds through crowd-sourced sponsorships – lots of small contributions adding up to the total required.

Pau Serracanta from Dorna, the rights-holders and promoters for MotoGP gave a lot of sailing people a lot to think about.

Dorna has a long term contract to deliver the sport. The deal lasts until 2031, which gives sponsors a real sense of longevity and security. Investments can be made for the long term. The long term nature of the deal also guarantees calendar consistency – something that the Sydney Hobart Race enjoys, but other sailing events struggle with.

Having a race start at 2pm on Sunday and knowing that June is the Netherlands, helps planning for sponsors, teams, manufacturers and others to reach consensus on other elements of the sport.

The sport of MotoGP is lucky to have an international star in Valentino Rossi, but finding these stars is not left to luck. One of the insights that Dorna gave to the conference is that the race organisers identified a risk in Australia, which had produced several World Champions and created a fan-base. Without anyone to follow after the retirement of Mick Doohan, Dorna needed to find a new star for Australian fans to support. Through talent scouting, the rights-holder found Casey Stoner.

As MotoGP moves to an Indian round, they are also looking to find local talent for fans to support there. There will be an Indian rider in the 125 class when the event goes to India in 2012.

Sailing on the other hand does not have this structure. Andrew Pindar admits that talent is not organised, but according to Mark Turner from OC Thirdpole, this can be a pro and a con.

Turner says that sailing is flexible, which makes it hard to define the product, though the value to a sponsor can also be customised. The challenge is to convey the structural chaos in a way that makes sense to sponsors. Outside bubble of sailing, the distinction between mono-hull and multi-hull doesn’t makes any sense.

Mark Turner also believes that sailing’s reliance on private funding has held back the sport from a media point of view. His argument is that sailors being paid as mercenaries to win races for wealthy owners have no imperative to communicate with the media. Once they have done their job to win, standing in front of a camera is not important.

Andrew Pindar is convinced that he gets Return on Investment (ROI) from sponsorship of sailing. The sailing sponsorship deal with GAC stemmed from the fact that Pindar had an established sailing programme.

In the Extreme Sailing Series, the presence of the 5th Man VIP spot is an important part of the value that sponsors get. Pindar’s business is about building business relationships and the platforms of the World Match Racing Tour and Extreme Series deliver.

Pindar believes that more could be done to bring sponsors closer together and allow them to do more business. He remembers the Challenge Business Club that Chay Blythe pioneered for the BT challenge and says it produced real results.

Dring questions, the panel discussed some rule of thumb ratios for activation. Richard Moore reminded the audience that sponsorship is not Venture Capital for a sailing project. There is further investment required.

Activation can be 3/1 or 2/1 – that is for every dollar of sponsorship, there is another 2 or 3 to be spent to get the best value and return, but sailing is less expensive to activate than some other sports. Team sponsorships come with a boat which is a great platform to activate – the experiential element means that activation can be lower.

So sailing still needs to be smarter. Pitches need to be customised and people looking for sponsorship need to realise that sponsors have hundreds of choices of clean global sports to choose from.

The money is increasingly out there though, and for those who are professional about their sailing sponsorship campaigns, there are brands who are willing to invest.

More World Yacht Racing Forum Updates.

‘bluQube v. bluQube’

Sometimes the association between sport and sponsorship is not obvious, but with a bit of lateral thinking and good activation, sponsorship can provide some great content for promotion that really differentiates you from the competition.

Take bluQube, the accounting software package that has been a long time supporter of UK sailor Katie Miller. Of course the boat gets coverage while racing, but between races, it is also a great asset to utilise. The company is activating the sponsorship in a new series of videos that challenge the sportswoman to beat the accounting software in 3 challenges.

The videos were filmed in the Solent and show that you don’t need expensive production budgets to get across your message. The objective of the challenges was to demonstrate whether Katie can finish a number of sailing tasks faster than it takes the bluQube user to complete a range of key accounting procedures such as sending out invoices, creating monthly payment runs or distributing financial reports.

bluQube’s Marketing Manager, Mat Kirby, explains the thinking behind the campaign:

“We wanted potential customers to understand both the simplicity and powerful capabilities of bluQube accounting software and felt that this would be a novel yet exciting approach to promote the benefits to our target audience. We have a long tradition of sailing sponsorship, a sport particularly popular amongst financial directors, so the concept of using some fun challenges that showcase both our bluQube sailing boat and our software at the same time was a perfect fit. The fact that the bluQube user was able to complete the accounting tasks via a laptop whilst aboard a moving boat, was also crucial in showing how flexible the browser-based software is.”

The three challenges include:-

Challenge # 1: Katie has to remove sail cover, attached head of sail to mast and hoist mainsail weighing 40kgs while bluQube user, Rob has to create 62 invoices and email same invoices to recipients

Challenge # 2: Katie has to Sail 3.5 nautical mile trip in the Solent while bluQube user, Rob has to enter Month end journals, Generate debt letters, Create Monthly payment Run

Challenge # 3: Katie has to Sail 5 nautical mile trip in the Solent while bluQube user, Rob has to produce monthly, quarterly and YTD performance, Cash & Debtors Position, Income Breakdown, Plan v. Actual and email to the board.

More Sailing Sponsorship activation News..

There are certain sponsors who really make a difference to a sport. When Skandia sponsored Cowes Week, they did it properly, adding a level of professionalism and commercialism that the regatta has struggled to replace. Last week, the investment company backed the 2nd annual Sail For Gold regatta in Weymouth as part of their sailing based promotional campaign.

Now the brand is going to use sailing in a consumer campaign. According to Marketing Week, Skandia is to ramp up its consumer marketing activity to promote its “fresh approach to investment” and take on higher profile rivals Aviva and Standard Life. Skandia will use press advertisements and a possible television push this year and next year in a bid to push its investment solutions platform, which offers consumers risk assessment tools designed to put the customer in control of their investments.

Jo Gilbey, head of communications at Skandia UK, says the company is extending its marketing effort beyond trade press to “help with pull through” for financial advisers.

“We want to raise awareness of who we are and what we do.”

The strategy is similar to the one employed by Artemis, who sell through financial advisors but require a certain level of awareness to ‘drip-down’ to the end customer, however Artemis’s sponsorship campaign won’t be including TV any time soon.

Aviva, who Skandia is competing against in this campaign, have scaled back their use of sailing in favour of Rugby and athletics.

Skandia recently reported that it generated net inflows of £1.9bn over the six months to 30 June, up 171% on 2009. Total net client cashflows increased by 225% to £1.3bn in the first half, leading to a 3.5% increase in total funds under management to £29.2bn.

While America’s Cup defender BMW ORACLE tries to crowdsource video production techniques from Generation Y, Skandia’s agency – St Luke’s, has created a film that is visually exciting and manages to communicate the technical nature of sailing. If the graphic overlay could be added over live sailing it would revolutionise the way sailing is broadcast.

More Skandia Sailing Sponsorship News…

Sailing could make more of the ‘Brand Ambassador’ concept. For the most part, sailors are well educated, can speak to media and represent a brand in a way that delivers real value. And it’s not just Olympic stars like Ben Ainslie or legends like Paul Cayard that can be matched with brands. UK sailor Hannah White has announced on her website that she will become a brand ambassador for Wight Vodka with a title that plays on the positioning and heritage of the product.

White says:

“How cool is to be Wight Vodka’s Brand Czar for the next year? Very cool. Let’s face the facts! When Ritu and I worked together last year on the OSTAR, I knew we were onto something special. Wight Vodka has such a fabulous focus on the yachting lifestyle that I love so much, that the White and Wight partnership was destined to mature. This is just one more step in a long partnership together!”

The role will make Hannah the face of the brand in several activation campaigns throughout the year.

I’ll be marketing and promoting the Wight Vodka brand everywhere I travel. If you’re a bar or yacht club on the Atlantic or Pacific coast that I’ll be visiting over the coming year, you better have Wight Vodka on the top shelf! I’m also launching a news service to the yachting fraternity through a series of Podcasts over the coming 12 months, with a deeper insight into the sailor’s competitive and somewhat hectic lifestyle than previously seen. We’re calling these Vodcasts in recognition of Wight Vodka’s support. I’ll also be carrying the Wight Vodka branding on the boat and our kit.

Ritu Manocha, owner of 50 North, the company behind Wight Vodka says:

“This is a significant step forward for the White and Wight brand alliance. We knew from working with Hannah on her fabulous trans-Atlantic success in the 2009 OSTAR that we wanted to continue with our relationship. ‘White and Wight’ is such an obviously superb pairing. The hardest part of this relationship was figuring out what to call Hannah: Brand Ambassador? Emissary? Brand Agent (or Secret Agent)? Special Envoy? We went for Brand Czar because it sounded right with just a little edge to it!”

More Sailing Sponsorship News…

As part of Artemis’ commitment to British sailing announced a few weeks back, the investment company has devoted part of it’s support to Cowes Week. In return for stickers on competing boats, Artemis have given some cash to Cowes Week organisers to ensure the event can pay for the ‘Red Arrows’ air display. Artemis is also involved with two other events during the regatta.

The Artemis Challenge

The annual IMOCA 60 sprint round the Isle of Wight, has this year attracted an impressive line up of entries from across Europe. The event will combine celebrity guests with some of the biggest names in ocean racing to compete for a £10,000 charity prize fund.

Artemis still own their Open 60, despite it being phased out of their sailing portfolio and ‘Artemis Ocean Racing’ will be helmed by double Olympic medallist Simon Hiscocks. Steve White, who has announced an ambitious round the world record attempt will compete aboard ‘Toe in the Water’ and Dee Caffari will compete in ‘Gaes Centros Auditivos’ having recently joined the Spanish-based team.

Up against the British contingent will be Roland Jourdain on Veolia Environment, Arnaud Boissières skippering Akena Verandas and Ryan Breymaier and Boris Herrmann, who will later this year compete in the Barcelona World Race aboard VE1.

The event, now in its fourth year, will take place on Tuesday 3rd August. It provides weekend and semi-pro sailors the chance to see these incredible professional machines and their skippers up close in UK waters.

The Artemis Even Keel Challenge

A fleet of six Simon Rogers-designed Artemis 20 keelboats, helmed by qualified UKSA skippers and crewed by 12 novice sailors from a mixed background of disability or disadvantage, will compete for the inaugural Artemis Even Keel Challenge Trophy over two days at Cowes Week. The race winners from Day 1 will then be joined by some of the leading names in sailing for what is set to be a highly competitive Pro-Am finale on Day 2. Each celebrity sailor will guest helm on the final race.

This new series is the brainchild of the Even Keel Project and its partners UKSA and is being mounted with the full backing and support of its primary sponsor Artemis Investment Management. The Artemis Even Keel Challenge has been put in place to help promote sailing as a ‘sport for all’ to Cowes Week’s massive audience of sailors, media and spectators.

The Challenge series kicks off on Sunday 1st August at 5.30pm over a set course off Princes Green, between the Royal Yacht Squadron and Egypt Point. They will race under the official rules of racing and the watchful eye of a Race Officer and each race will last around 30 minutes. The top three sailors from each race qualify for the final on Day 2, Monday 2nd August at 5.30pm. Spectators will then enjoy watching a host of top-flight sailors and their crew fighting it out to win the inaugural Even Keel Challenge Trophy that will be presented by a VIP guest at a prize giving ceremony after racing is completed.

Speaking on behalf of The Even Keel Project, Managing Director Dave Rutter said:

“Since the start of the Artemis Even Keel Project at UKSA, it has been both humbling and invigorating to see so many people sign up to use the project from such a wide range of disabilities and backgrounds many of whom had never sailed before. Watching them signing up for more sailing having caught the bug is simply fantastic. To now have the support of some of the world’s best sailors is quite simply adding icing on the cake.”

More Cowes Week News…