For a few years now, Artemis has sponsored an event within an event at Cowes Week. The Artemis Challenge invites Open 60 yachts to sail around the Isle of Wight to win £10,000 for a chosen charity with some celebrities brought in for the day to help generate interest amongst press that otherwise might not care too much.

For sailing fans, the Artemis Challenge is a rare opportunity to see the Open 60s race in British waters and with wind in excess of 25 knots yesterday, the offshore boats were in their element.

The media center at Cowes Week, which has been relatively quiet all week, was full of photographers, for whom taking pictures of yachts was a bit novel. The reason they were there was to get something for a glossy mag – no real story – just a caption. A bit of a space filler with an ‘A-lister’ or royal in it.

The real stars, from a sailing point of view are skippers like Dee Caffari and Vincent Riou – sailors who can actually justify being called ‘the best sailors in the world’, but during the Artemis Challenge, the sailors, who could sail the Open 60 boats by themselves, take a back seat and put on their brand ambassador hats to act as chaperons for the celeb names used as  bait to bring the photographers who chase royals and film stars.

On the one hand, the presence of people like Zara Phillips and Ewan Mcgreggor, helps to raise awareness of sailing, and helps their chosen charities, but on the other hand, it can perpetuate certain stereotypes of the about the sport.

Take the article that appeared in Hello! which opens:

Newlywed Zara Phillips larks around on yacht with a friend. TV presenter Natalie Pinkham came a cropper when she tried out her sea legs and was forced to beg a helping hand off the royal.

The “article” goes on to inflate the prize-money by 10 times to £100,000 and trot out the cliche about yachts being the F1 cars of sailing.

The Daily Mail does a little better with the facts and even mentions the racing, but opens with:

Two days after retiring her beloved show-horse Toytown, newlywed Zara Phillips fled to the ocean. Despite the emotional course of events, Zara, 30, was all smiles as she was spotted aboard a 60ft yacht on the Isle of Wight this morning.

Luckily, the weather helped put on a show for those who stuck around after the smiley posed shots off the Royal Yacht Squadron at the start of the race.

There is absolutely no doubt that Artemis is a fantastic supporter of the sport of sailing. TheArtemis Offshore Academy, modeled on similar programmes in France, aims to develop British offshore sailing talent to maintain the traditions and successes of names like Ellen McArthur, Mike Golding, Sam Davies and Dee Caffari.

The eminently sponsor-able Caffari is still looking for backers to get her to the start line of the next Vendee Globe. Despite an unequalled round the  world track record, media skills and a strong support team, Caffari is yet to find a sponsor for the world famous solo round the world race.

In the meantime, Dee is working hard to build relationships through working with British charity – Toe in the Water, which is the official charity of Cowes Week and the charity that she and celebrity ring-in Zara Phillips were representing on-board the Artemis Ocean Racing Open 60 in the Artemis Challenge.

In the end, the fifth edition of the Artemis Challenge was won by the French entry PRB skippered by Vincent Riou, in a time of 4 hours, 14 minutes and 1 second, narrowly missing out on breaking the previous fastest time by just 13 seconds, set by Team Pindar (4h 13m 48s) in the 2008 Artemis Challenge.

Although the winning French boat didn’t have celebrity ring-ins on board (at least none that were promoted by Artemis), Riou still had a chosen charity which will benefit from the £10,000 prize. The Foundation Movement for Children’s Village Foundation (MVE) is a major player in child protection in France. It protects children at risk by hosting in his Children’s Villages and Households, children and adolescents entrusted by the courts.

Amongst the noise of Cowes Week, getting your story out amongst the myriad of announcements and prize givings requires something extra. Thanks to the celebrity involvement, the Artemis Challenge got column inches in major media like the BBC and was covered as far afield as Sky News Australia, but the stories do nothing to promote the sailors as world-class athletes or promote the sport in the way that the Artemis Offshore Academy does.

More Cowes Week News

Last week, we were off taking a look at sailing from the other side of the Atlantic. As well as catching up with a few of our fans in Boston at the Extreme Sailing Series, we also talked to some of the top sports marketing people in the US about sailing and its place in 2011. More of that later, but in the mean time, there are a couple of stories that we need to catch up on.

Some positive news for the IMOCA 60 Class and the Vendee Globe with the announcement that UK sailor Mike Golding has secured sponsorship from wind energy technology company Gamesa.

Sailing and wind energy seems to be a pretty obvious tie-up, and with the renewable energy sector becoming increasingly competitive – sponsorship is one way to create awareness and build momentum in both home and new markets. Previous energy sponsorships have included Iberdrola’s backing of the Amercia’s Cup and TP52 campaigns and the 34th America’s Cup may also feature a team with significant sponsorship from an energy brand.

Mike Golding is one of several UK sailors who are looking for budget to compete in the next Vendee Globe. The announcement that he has secured the money to compete in the race might help other sailors like Dee Caffari in their quest to be on the start line in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, on 10 November 2012.

According to Gamesa’s website – in 2010, Gamesa’s consolidated revenues amounted to more than 2,764 million euro and the net profit was 50 million euro. International markets accounted for almost 93% of whole sales.

While Gamesa is a Spanish company, it will have a significant UK offshore operation in the next few years. The company is working to launch two offshore platforms and plans to invest over €150 million in this activity by 2014. Gamesa’s offshore business will be headquartered in London. The announcement about The Gamesa Sailing Team was made to 135 of the company’s top global executives at their annual convention in Windsor, England.

Jorge Calvet, Chairman and Chief Executive of Gamesa commented on the synergies between the company and Mike Golding’s offshore campaign:

“This sponsorship comes at an important time for Gamesa and our planned programme of expansion into the offshore market in UK. The sea and the wind are similarly part of the Gamesa challenge and there are synergies between Mike’s Vendée Globe campaign and our own activities in the wind power market in the UK and globally. We have a vigorous business plan over the coming years with many common values, including innovation, teamwork, leadership and passion for our customers, and we look forward to working with Mike and his team to achieve both our goals and his.”

Mike Golding said:

“This is obviously fantastic for us to be able to formally announce our partnership with Gamesa. With Gamesa’s support and our existing infrastructure we are now certain to be able to mount a very competitive campaign for the 2012 Vendée Globe – which is simply wonderful news. Having enjoyed enormous success in the sport of sailing, the Vendee Globe remains ‘the event’ I would most love to win.”

“Furthermore, having spent the past decade championing environmental products and issues, it is really exiting that Gamesa’s core business is in renewable energy – an area increasingly critical to performance in competitive round the world yacht racing.”

More Open 60 and Vendee Globe News

Times are tough in IMOCA land. Despite a ‘full grid’ for the recent Barcelona World Race, the budgets to be competitive in the Open 60 class get bigger and bigger. Even with the advances in offshore communications and the development of multiplayer games that engage tens of thousands of people, the list of companies with cheque-books is dwindling. With the ultimate Open 60 race – the Vendee Globe on the horizon, many sailors are struggling to find the money to get to the start-line – let alone be in a position to win.

Now The Transat™ has been dropped from the pre Vendee Globe calendar by its promoters OC Thirdpole.

The release says that the race has “been rescheduled away from its habitual 2012 slot.” Ordinarily, the event has been organised every four years since its inception, but it is not the first time the event has struggled.

The race was “Rescued at the last minute” for the 2004 edition by current promoters – OC ThirdPole and in 2008 the event became a monohull only race with a strong commitment made to the 60-foot monohull IMOCA Class tothe exclusion of all multihulls.

Having Artemis as title sponsor enabled the event to rebuild, and the event’s success, including a very well attended pre-start village in Plymouth, the historical ‘home’ of the event, probably had a lot to do with Plymouth’s successful bid to host a round of the America’s Cup World Series.

The rescheduling of the Transat allows another IMOCA event, also starved of entries, to be run before the next Vendee Globe. The Istanbul Europa Race had been due to start in July, but insufficient entries forced its cancellation. OC ThirdPole says that their actions to postpone the Transat will help solve a difficult position for Istanbul Europa Race organisers – Olay Nautic.

OC ThirdPole understands IMOCA better than most. They have been involved at an event and team level and their involvement and support includes the creation of the Barcelona World Race, the organisation of the Artemis Challenge, as well as management of numerous IMOCA campaigns including Kingfisher, Skandia, Estrella Damm, BT, and Artemis Ocean Racing.

But OC Thirdpole is also a commercial organisation where yacht racing is not just an activity for its own sake.  It’s not just the America’s Cup that is having a hard time reinventing itself as a commerically sustainable sporting event – OC Thirdpole’s statement suggests that IMOCA needs to revisit how the class stays relevant:

OC ThirdPole hope that IMOCA will now work on a much needed long term strategic marketing plan and vision, in order that the Class can once again attract new sponsors at both team and event level.

In terns of the Transat – OC ThirdPole will now re-evaluate, along with its partners, the future timing and format of the race. One plan is for a biennial event, alternating between the historical solo and duo formats, supporting IMOCA’s key pillars of a round the world race every two years (Vendée Globe, Barcelona World Race).

More IMOCA news

As the IMOCA Open 60 fleet finish the Barcelona World Race, attention is being focussed on the next edition of the Vendée Globe. While several British skippers are finding the task of raising sponsorship difficult, French brands are investing in proven stars. The concept of the sailing ‘super-team’ which leverages sponsorship of the sport across multiple events and disciplines, seems to be working well for brands like French bank Banque Populaire.

The company, perhaps best known in recent years for its backing of the record breaking trimaran, has just announced that it will sponsor Armel Le Cléac’h in an IMOCA Open 60 for the next solo, round the world race.

Chantal Petrachi, Head of Communications for Banque Populaire said:

“The Vendée Globe is the only major offshore race that Banque Populaire has not yet taken part in. It was only normal that we attempt this new challenge which bears the very same human values that Banque Populaire has always been attached to: courage, pushing back the limits, the conquering spirit and adventure.For this new project we have chosen Armel Le Cléac’h, whose talent is well known and who has had a lot of experience on this type of boat. Second in the last Vendée Globe and the Route du Rhum, he has had an exemplary career and always shown his determination.”

Armel Le Cléac’h, the skipper of the Banque Populaire VI monohull said:

‘I’m very pleased. It’s a surprise for me to be joining Team Banque Populaire. They are one of the sailing world’s top sponsors. I have just finished with one sponsor who had been with me for five years and I’m proud to have been chosen. With all the skills you find in this team and around this fleet of boats, I believe this is an ideal situation.’

My goals are clear. I will be taking part in a full programme leading up to the ultimate goal of the Vendée Globe 2012-2013. For the 2011 season, I shall be training to begin with from the start of June, before taking part in the Artemis Challenge and the Fastnet in August. In November, I shall be lining up at the start of the Transat Jacques Vabre for which I haven’t yet chosen my co-skipper, even if I do have a good idea.

The long term commitment to the sport of sailing by sponsors such as Banque Populaire, Groupama, Telefonica, Hugo Boss and Fonica shows that there is real ROI from this kind of activity, and it should help others to raise campaign budgets.

More Open 60 News

The Solo Racing Festival took place recently at the Royal Southern Yacht Club in Hamble, UK. After a welcome from Commodore Mark Inkster, British Offshore legend, Mike Golding spoke the crowd about what inspires him and what the sport needs to to to inspire others.

Golding’s passion for sailing was driven 100% by the people who went before him. His impressions of the sport were born of adventurers like Chay Blyth, Sir Robin Knox Johnston and Chichester. Later there were French sailors like Eric Tabarly who inspired a whole nation to become the best in the world at offshore sailing. These people make the Vendee Globe more than sport.

However, in the UK, despite there being a rather long list of world-class sailors, times are tough and finding the ever increasing budgets to compete in the Vendee Globe is hard.

It’s not just the Vendee Globe. According to Golding, there is a great British Volvo Ocean Race Team, who will sail under the flag of Abu Dhabi due to having to look for money outside of the UK. The raw talent that wins gold medals doesn’t translate into the big sponsorship deals that happen just 60 miles away in France.

Mike Golding says that when he thinks about how he was inspired, he believes that:

Someone has to go out and win races.

Before Eric Tabarly, the French didn’t care so much about the Vendee Globe. Now it is more than sport. The race village, which opens three weeks before the start of the race is crowded with thousands of people who come to see boats, tied to the dock, with or without sailors. Some people say that the crowd is bigger than that of the Tour de France and the EVA is $1.73 billion.

Golding is still motivated to compete in the Vendee Globe and believes he can win it. He says that if he didn’t think he could win, he wouldn’t do it and part of that rationale is that to inspire the next generation (and the sponsors).

The next Vendee Globe starts in November 2012. Golding and others with Vendee aspirations like Sam Davies, Dee Caffari and Steve White have 18 months to raise budgets in the region of £2 million per year for 2 year campaigns. According to Golding, a new Open 60 costs about £3 million, but the cost of the boat is not really a big deal.

More Vendee Globe and Open 60 News.

The Yachtsponsorship.com Facebook League Table has been updated and this month show’s who is serious about talking to the Facebook generation and who isn’t.

Readers around the world continue to lobby for their property to be included, but for the time being we are keeping the list at the top 30. To get into the top 30 now requires 1716 fans.

New into the list are the Route du Rhum with 12.708 fans, SailTV with 5438 fans and Esimit Europa with 4641 fans.

Alex Thomson Racing, have increased their ‘likes’ from 2,657 to 10,380 (290%) with the help of a few free Hugo Boss watch giveaways. The Open 60 Team is aggressively acquiring Facebook followers off the back of a strategy that obviously values them highly.

There is increasing evidence that people who ‘like’ a brand on Facebook, spend more than those who don’t. With a cost of acquisition that is less than $1 and sometimes considerably less, this platform will become more and more important.

Where are you on the Facebook Chart?

Despite Android passing iPhone as the most used smartphone in the world this week, developers are still making apps for the Apple fanboys (and girls). Just in case you can’t get to your computer and you really want to catch up with the latest from the HUGO BOSS Open 60, you can do it via the new app.

HUGO BOSS, one of the 12 boats still participating in the Barcelona World Race out of the original 14, are currently racing non stop for three months, across the most challenging seas on the planet. You can follow co-skippers Andy Meiklejohn & Wouter Verbraak onboard HUGO BOSS on your iPhone.

HUGO BOSS is the only team in the Barcelona World Race to have launched an App for the race, which is compatible with the iPhone and iPad. By downloading the free iPhone and iPad App you can track the boat’s progress wherever you are, as well as keeping up to date with the latest news, pictures and videos as the race unfolds.

Yvonne Fletcher, Alex Thomson Racing Marketing Manager said:

“With modern technology you can really get close to the race and see what’s happening on board. It’s incredible to think that you can sit on your way to work and see what’s happening in the Southern Ocean, one of the most remote places on the planet, right in the palm of your hand”

Although racing without skipper Alex Thomson after he suffered appendicitis just two days before the race start, the HUGO BOSS team of Andy Meiklejohn and Alex’s substitute Wouter Verbraak continue to race in this three month epic.

Alex Thomson racing is being quite aggressive with social media. The team was the fastest growing yacht racing brand on Facebook last month, with fan numbers increasing 32%.

Fans can follow the team on Facebook and keep up to date with their daily blogs from the boat.

More News from the Barcelona World Race

If Cowes Week is ever to be a world class event again, then it needs to attract sponsors who bring more than cash to the table. Usually, it is the event that helps position a brand, but in the case of the oldest regatta in the world, Cowes Week needs sponsors whose cool-factor can position the event to the right audience.

Cowes Week Limited, the organisers of the event have named BOSS Watches as the ‘Official Watch’ partner of Cowes Week 2011. Hugo Boss Racing is known for getting media attention, even when not performing in competition, and if anyone can make Cowes Week more interesting, its the people who have produced some of the most memorable sailing related photos of recent times.

BOSS have been actively involved with sailing since 2003, when the brand started its international sponsorship of Alex Thomson and AT Racing. Speaking recently at the World Yacht Racing Forum, Stewart Hosford, CEO, Hugo Boss Sailing said that they even put a media value on their Facebook fans. (Cowes Week have 1673 facebook fans while Alex Thomsson Racing has 1976).

Michelle Warner, Sales & Marketing Director for Cowes Week Limited, said:

“The HUGO BOSS brand has enjoyed a fantastic association with sailing in recent years and we’re very much looking forward to working with BOSS Watches to showcase their versatile range of timepieces as the ‘Official Watch’ of Cowes Week this year”.

MGS Distribution, Sales Director, Steve Brydon said:

“We look forward to activating a consumer outreach programme at the event and hosting some of our nationwide retail partners, bringing them closer to both the BOSS Watches brand and the spectacular action guaranteed by an event of this world-class calibre.”

More Cowes Week News

Loick Peyron, Veteran Global Ocean Racer and Multihull Skipper

It’s difficult to do justice to the speech that Loick Peyron gave to the delegates of the World Yacht Racing Forum to open day 2 in Estoril. The performance was one that showed the sport of sailing does indeed have personalities to rival any other. The speech was full of wisdom from years of being in the industry including an interesting mountain-climbing analogy.

For Loick Peyron, sailing different kinds of boats is the thing that keeps him in the sport. Whether it be monohulls or multihulls, sailing around the cans or offshore alone in the southern ocean, the diversity is something that informs his view of the sport. The lesson he draws from this diverse experience is that the best way to look to the future is to respect the past.

From where he sits, Loick Peyron observes that the yacht racing industry is worried about the future. He can feel it. He doesn’t have the answer to the question ‘What is going to happen to my business?’ but he has some thoughts about the challenges the industry faces.

Peyron says that we live in a funny little village. Sailing is not the same as Formula 1 for a simple reason. He says:

“You can talk to someone and they will say – oh you are a sailor – I have a boat too. People don’t see an F1 pilote and a car driver as the same thing. There is a huge difference, but in sailing the professionals mix with the amateurs all the time.”

Coupled with a lack of a single ranking system, this is a problem. We know the world champions of football, and we know the world champion of F1, but it is difficult to convey the same level of achievement of sailors to the general public. There is no World champion of driving – the more generic description of the activity undertaken by the professional race drivers.

Offshore racing faces a similar problem of conveying the achievements of the best in the world. While the first sailor across the line in the Vendee Globe is given a heroes welcome, so too is the last sailor – who may cross the line months later. The problem with this is that the guy who comes last is just a sailor who has been around the world. The sport is failing to differentiate how difficult it is and how much talent is required to sail FAST.

To continue the argument, Peyron uses an analogy to mountain climbing. He compares the various premier events to 8000 metre peaks. There are 12 or so, all the same level, but some have more light shining on the summit than others.

The America’s Cup has so much light that it sends people blind, but the others are just as high, just as much of an achievement. The Vendee Globe might be a peak with a single steep face and a longer more simple route around the back to the summit. The winner climbs the hard face, but the person who takes the longer, simpler route still reaches the 8000 metre mark – the same level.

This problem of perception leads to situations where countries have well known people who are awful sailors. But sailing needs these people because they fill a wider need than can be delivered purely by the sport. The sport is not very interesting without the people and the stories and we need to respect all facets of the business.

Loick Peyron was also part of the America’s Cup Session at the World Yacht Racing Forum.

World Yacht Racing Forum Panel Discussion.

This forum session was chaired by Scott Macleod, CEO, Force 10 Marketing. Panel members included:

• Karin Bäcklund, Director, Global Sponsorship and Brand Partnership, Volvo Car Corporation
• Stewart Hosford, CEO, Hugo Boss Sailing
• Andrew Pindar, Pindar

One of the most interesting things about this session at the World Yacht Racing Forum was the lack of sailors represented. Brand partnerships are not about sailing, sailing is just the platform that allows brand partnerships to be developed.

In 2009, Karin Bäcklund gave some great insight into why the Volvo Ocean Race is important to Volvo Cars. Although Volvo is most widely recognised as a B2C brand, the VIP experience is something that the company has paid a lot of attention to. But why do Volvo go sailing?

Sailing Sponsorship is more than a sticker on the side of a boat.

For Volvo, the race is about incremental business. The company wants to ‘emotionalise’ the brand, but it also wants the race to be a part of customer relations and also to build pride amongst employees.

The challenge for Volvo Cars is to move the brand perceptions. Volvo is seen as rational, while much of the purchasing decision for a car is emotional. The Volvo Ocean Race allows the company to overlay themes of excitement, adventure, drama and inspiration to the communication.

The race though can’t communicate these themes if they do not exist within the product. There needs to be a match between core values of the race and the car. These values include; safety, design technology, performance and teamwork.

Volvo’s activation and communication is not just to consumers though and they realise that people touch the brand through an integrated marketing plan. The message then needs to be consistent across CRM, After sales, Internal communications, dealer point of sale, merchandising and even purchasing.

The experience for guests is not just sending a couple of tickets in the mail. Volvo pay a lot of attention to making sure that every last detail is thought about. This includes the choice of hotel for guests and restaurants as well as the specific models of cars that are used for courtesy pick-ups and transportation.

Delegates of the forum were shown a video that showed just how far some of the sailing industry has to go. It’s worth remembering where you guest’s journey begins and where it ends.

The movement of brand perception is a difficult thing to measure, but Volvo are starting to hear the messages they are sending out being played back to them.

How Much is a Facebook Fan Worth?

Stewart Hosford, CEO, Hugo Boss Sailing comes from a different world. Making purchasing decisions for an international bank is about as far away from racing an Open 60 around the world as you can get – or is it?

At Yachtsponsorship.com we get a few sponsorship proposals across our desk that stop with the money. Once the boat is branded up, there is not a lot of thought given to what value is achieved from a floating billboard.

Hugo Boss Sailing has activated in some unique ways over the last few years, but that have they gained out of it? Have they achieved their objectives? What are their objectives?

Well one of the objectives is “to sell shitloads of suits.” But there are other objectives too.

Hosford has a system which attaches a number to everything. From being shown for a second in the background of the golf to a Facebook fan. He also has a clever way of sense-checking these numbers – he asks the sponsor what he thinks they are worth to them.

While some in the audience may dismiss the value of a Facebook Fan, Hugo Boss place more value on such a metric than a piece of press. Think about that for a minute. Most people working in PR in sailing have not grasped this concept yet (there are notable exceptions – most of whom read this column). Why is a Facebook Fan worth more than a piece of press? Because today’s newspapers are tomorrow’s bin-liners whereas a fan on Facebook is a connection with demographics attached and a mechanism for engagement over a long period of time.

For the panellists, there can be a direct impact of sponsorship on the bottom line. Andrew Pindar can point to business booked as a direct response to sailing sponsorships. While Volvo can’t measure all the cars sold as a result of the Volvo Ocean Race, they can directly measure sales of exclusive race editions, which last race were in excess of 10,000 units.

More Yacht Racing Forum Insights.