TAGS: BISCAY 2012, CHARTER, F40, MARKETING, OFFSHORE, ROYAL SOUTHERN YACHT CLUB, SPONSORSHIP, SUNSAIL RACING, TRAVEL

As the America’s Cup learns from their first World Series event in Cascais and starts to prepare for the second event in Plymouth, we’ve put together some of the news that has been published in the last week or so:

The Business Model of the America’s Cup

ORACLE Racing CEO, Russell Coutts has told Bloomberg that the 34th America’s Cup can be campaigned from between 30 – 60 million Euros. A 60 Million euro team has a chance of winning and a 30 million euro team is a budget team that is there for the experience only.

Paul Cayard, CEO of the challenger of record, Artemis Racing also told Bloomberg that the America’s Cup World Series is part of the commercial product that is the America’s Cup. That commercial product costs teams between 1.6 and 2 million euros for the first year. Cayard says that the cost of an AC45 is about 800,000 euros and the same amount needs to be spent to campaign it for a season.

And in return, the Cup is starting to release some media figures. The official site claims that the video of Russell Coutts capsizing in San Francisco has reached 1-million views on YouTube, while the full replay of Sunday’s ‘winner takes all’ fleet race is fast approaching 100,000 views.

Mitch Booth Leaves China Team

A little piece of news, that no doubt will have some more meat put on the bones in coming weeks and months. A statement from one of the America’s Cup challengers said last week:

China Team, the Chinese challenger for the 34th America’s Cup, has decided to part ways with its skipper Mitch Booth after the first AC World Series in Cascais, Portugal, last week.

China Team started the week on a strong note with many good results, notably coming 3rd in the speed trial, and had some of the mostmagic moments of the event. China Team is in the process of finalizing therecruitment of another skipper to be announced shortly.

Spinning the America’s Cup

While the America’s Cup celebrates 160 years of history today, the battle for a fanbase is playing out in many different ways. In BusinessWeek – Bernie Wilson uses phrases like ‘stodgy old regatta’ and ‘plodding monohulls’, while the following text used by a Plymouth hospitality company in a Groupon offer – to give fans 62% off an experience at the America’s Cup World Series in Plymouth – has to be read to be believed…

“The owl and the pussycat went to sea in a beautiful pea green carbon-fibre AC45 catamaran, because they were international sailing champions. Watch the copycats race cheek by owl with today’s Groupon.

…offer sea-hardened sailors and jellylegged landlubbers the chance to watch the race from the water, where they can appreciate the full glory of the day.

Groupon gunwale grippers can bring a friend or friendly parrot to watch the race with today’s deal. With a glass of bubbly in hand and a number of nibbles to nibble, Groupon spectators can board the boat to watch the Oracle-designed catamarans fly around the Sound.”

More America’s Cup Business News

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
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Before: Spectator entrance to ACWS Race Village Millbay, Plymouth

It was quite a big risk for Cascais to host the first America’s Cup World Series. While the hotel room nights would have been up thanks to an army of TV production personnel, the TV shots couldn’t seem to find many shots of fans who had made the trip to watch.

While we wait for the economic impact figures for Portugal, attention shifts to the small, but historically significant sailing town of Plymouth in the UK.

There is no doubt that Plymouth can stage great sailing events – both for participants and spectators. The start of the Artemis Transat in 2008 received wide acclaim and hundreds of boats are beginning to arrive back at the historic Barbican area as they finish the 2011 Rolex Fastnet Race.

On the face of it, Plymouth provides a better viewing experience for the land-based spectator than Cascais does. Plymouth is a card carrying member of the ‘natural amphitheater PR club’, with high cliffs that look out over an enclosed race-area, but the America’s Cup World Series might not have enough local interest to encourage fans along the coast or in London to make the trip.

Plymouth officials admit that if Ben Ainslie had been on the helm of an AC45 flying a British flag, the crowds would be bigger. They can’t say how much bigger, but without a home-team, the event is (as one local put it) – “Just a bunch of black boats”. Perhaps Spanish America’s Cup fans will get the ferry from Santander to watch Green Comm Racing.

Organisers haven’t just hyped the event to spectators, it’s pushing a totally unrealistic expectation to local businesses. One piece of literature sent to local businesses says:

“We are expecting 500,000 visitors from across the UK and Europe… They could bring £10 Million or more into the city – money they could be spending with you.”

The deal to host the America’s Cup World Series is currently a one-off. Nevertheless, Plymouth hopes that by hosting the teams and their AC45s in Millbay, the city can regenerate a new part of the city. The deal is a good one for real-estate investors near the ferry terminal.

Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of Millbay’s lead developer, English Cities Fund, said:

“Millbay’s restored harbour and historic links with the USA make it the perfect venue for the Race Village. The event will provide a real taste of the future for this exciting waterside regeneration area.”

There is a lot of work to do. A disused piece of concrete dock area has to be transformed into a race village worthy of a global sports event in a few weeks and hotel staff have to get their head around the fact that the Barbican is not where the action is.

Plymouth is a bi-polar city. Away from the trendy bars and luxury waterfront apartments, this is ‘little Britain’ where people would recognize PUMA, but maybe not Louis Vuitton. Many of the larger hotels are housed in grim concrete blocks, but quaint guest-houses and B&B accommodation are plentiful if not 5 star.

Plymouth is hoping that a little bit of the glamour of the America’s Cup (World Series) brand will rub off on they city. They want people travelling down the motorway to places further south and west take a left and pop in and spend a bit of money. According to the leaflets, the eyes of the world will be focused on the city:

Estimated TV audiences from around the world of 150 million with Sky TV and Channel 4 coverage.

• More America’s Cup World Series News
• More Travel and Tourism News

If it wasn’t for the Extreme Sailing Series, the America’s Cup World Series, or America’s Cup lite might look very different. Mark Turner and OC Thirdpole have shown that sailing can be a spectator sport and they have also shown that the business model for a sailing team can be commercially viable.

Many of the ACWS ‘innovations’ have been tested by the Extreme Series and it is perhaps a tribute to the commercial savvy of OC Thirdpole that ACEA have copied best practices like the ’5th Man’ guest spot and a ‘stadium sailing’ course for their events.

The results by Emirates Team NZ and Artemis Racing in Cascais also showed that the Extreme Sailing Series is one of the best training programs available for sailors wanting to sail 40-something foot catamarans at close quarters.

In December last year, Mark Turner announced that the Extreme Sailing Series would go global. The interim media figures were released last week, and the teams and sponsors are pretty happy with the product they are getting for their money.

We caught up with Mark at the Cowes Act of the Extreme Series to get his thoughts on the success of the global expansion, the business model for live streaming video and sponsorship activation.

• More Extreme Sailing Series News
• More Sponsorship Activation News

In 2012, the Royal Southern Yacht Club will celebrate its 175th Anniversary. In a country where the average life expectancy of a business is 12 years, the Royal Southern continues to show how a yacht club can be commercial enterprise and a thriving hub of social and racing activity.

The Royal Southern yacht club is several businesses, some of which run 7 days a week, around the clock. The management team control the revenue and expenses of a restaurant, marina and event space. But in order to stage the activities planned for 2012, the club requires commercial sponsors.

Sponsorship is something that yacht clubs around the world are coming to terms with as an essential part of their business model. The subject was the topic of discussion at a recent Conference of the International Council of Yacht Clubs (ICOYC), which will hold their 2012 conference at the Royal Southern Yacht Club.

At an event at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, the Royal Southern Yacht Club Commodore, Mark Inkster introduced some of the companies that will partner with the club to support the calendar of events including a new race.

Royal Southern Yacht Club 175 partners will include sailing apparel company Gaastra, Piper-Heidsieck Champagne, Swarovski Optik, and Sunsail Racing. The deal with Sunsail is particularly clever and is good for the club, but also for the sport of sailing.

Sunsail Racing will be the technical partner for the new Biscay 2012 Race, with a new fleet of Sunsail F40 performance cruiser/racers, built by Beneteau, constituting the largest part of the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s inaugural Biscay 2012 race fleet. Sailors looking to get into offshore racing will be able to charter the yachts at a reasonable cost, lowering barriers to entry for top level sailing.

Sam Davies, an honorary member of the Royal Southern Yacht Club will also be an ambassador for the new race. She said:

“Any sailing initiative that helps encourage a wider audience to participate in some competitive offshore racing has to be a good thing. Being able to encourage the Club’s racing members to sign up to this but also open it up to a wider sailing fraternity to enter Biscay 2012 is very welcomed. The Royal Southern’s Race Management is superlative and Biscay 2012 couldn’t be in better hands. Congratulations to you all and thanks again for inviting me to be a part of it.”

More Sailing Sponsorship News

In December 2010, the Extreme Sailing Series announced that it would expand to become a global tour of events. Taking the ‘stadium sailing’ format out of Europe and into new markets, some with immense populations starved of sailing content, had to lead to an increase in the media value for sponsors and partners.

As the Extreme Sailing Series continues to test their business models with regards to media, streaming the Cowes round live to the internet, organisers OC Thirdpole have released an independent interim media evaluation report covering the first three events (Muscat, Qingdao and Istanbul) of the 9-Act global 2011 tour.

Commissioning such reports is expensive, but it is vital that sponsors and media analysts have independent research to base decisions on. There is still too much hyperbole in the industry about the real size of the audience for sailing – no matter what format.

Mark Turner, Executive Chairman of OC ThirdPole recognises that the PR headline figure is worthless to anyone serious about sailing as a commercial enterprise and says:

“First and foremost, we aim to be totally transparent with our methodology and results – and we’ve been using the same quite harsh methodology for three years now. We want our figures to be as realistic as possible, therefore no talk of ‘reach’ to billions of households – even if we are very happy with our expanded global TV footprint. Media evaluation figures are always treated with a level of scepticism – the most important thing for us is the continued strong progession of our global media results.

Compared with the first part of last year’s series, the coverage has increased by nearly 90%. Havas Sponsorship Insights project that the series will generate €23m of media value for the full year – nearly two and a half times the 2010 result. This number is considered conservative and discounts exceptional ‘one-off’ coverage of Act 2 in China, where capsizes generated significant interest.

Coverage included in this report includes over six hours of live television coverage across Turkey and the Balkans on the national broadcaster TRT which followed coverage of the Monaco F1 Grand Prix.

Alastair Macdonald, Director of Sponsorship Insights at Havas commented:

“This interim media evaluation report for the Extreme Sailing Series 2011, illustrates the level of media coverage the series has gained after the first three events. There has been a significant increase in the volume of coverage compared to the first three events of the 2010 series, including some outstanding exposure in Asia. We have used the amount of coverage gained so far this year to make a projection for exposure for the full nine-event series, and the value that this media coverage may deliver.

Mark Turner commented on the results:

“We are pleased with this continued upward progression in the level of media coverage achieved by the circuit. It’s obviously only one measure of the value of the event for sponsors and host venues, but it remains an important one for us to deliver ever increasing returns on investment for our different stakeholders.”

• More Sailing Media News
• More Extreme Sailing Series News

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

To stream live or not to stream live – that is the question that sailing rights holders are asking themselves in 2011. The Volvo Ocean Race has streamed in-port races, the World Match Racing Tour is streaming up to 2 hours of live racing per day, the America’s Cup is promising a mind-altering sports spectacular live on the internet, and the Audi Med Cup has also proved popular with internet audiences.

Now the Extreme Sailing Series is adding streaming offers to fans. After the Istanbul round was broadcast live on Turkish and Balkan television, the concept of streaming was tested in Boston where ‘On the Water Anarchy’ provided coverage, and now the Cowes round of the event for Extreme 40s will also be able to be watched live.

But what is the value of the live product versus a highlights package? The Extreme Sailing Series produces a 6 part series that is broadcast widely on channels such as CNBC, Eurosport, Channel 4 (terrestrial UK), Bloomberg, TRT, Starhub (Asia) and Sport+ (France), but with a very similar product going head-to-head with the series on the same dates, a live streaming offer helps keep the Extreme 40s in mind with the internet audience.

The Extreme Sailing Series would be the first to admit that they don’t have the TV budget that the America’s Cup has. The costs of the television production for the America’s Cup World Series are perhaps higher than any other sailing event in history and some believe the TV costs of a single event like Cascais are larger than a Major Golf tournament.

Nevertheless, the Extreme Sailing Series does have the TV production facilities on site to produce the highlight shows, so the marginal cost of streaming is relatively low. The two live products in place for Act 5, WEBcam and LiveTV, are part of a continuous development strategy by the Organisers to discover the most cost-effective way to bring the action to the competing teams’ worldwide fanbase.

Lou Newlands, Media & Communications Director, said:

“We will have two versions of live online coverage during Act 5 – WEBcam and LiveTV – our event is a purely commercially funded one, so we have to choose carefully how to use our constrained budgets and have decided for this Act to take this two-level approach.

“In essence, where we have live TV broadcast in place in territory, we take their feed and broadcast it live over the internet, with multiple cameras, graphics, video inserts and a full commentary team. In territories where we don’t have a broadcast partner or the rights aren’t available, we’ll revert to the simpler form of live video streaming (‘WEBcam’) which is a single camera production, tracking the racing, combined with our onsite expert commentary team.”

The commentary team is the x-factor. There has been no public statement by the America’s Cup as to who will ‘anchor’ the ‘revolutionary’ sports TV from Cascais, but the Extreme Sailing Series has Seb Destremeau, Andy Green and Hannah White lined up for their Cowes event.

In Cowes, from Sunday – Tuesday (7, 8 & 9 August), a multi-camera LiveTV production will be in place, with this coverage streaming live on the official website and other web portals and made available to TV broadcasters. In co-operation with Sail TV, the live output will also broadcast sailing websites that carry the Sail TV player. In addition via the Sail TV set top box the coverage can be seen on TV screens in many establishments throughout Cowes as well as bars and yacht clubs throughout the world.

The Extreme WEBcam will run on the Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (6, 10, 11, 12 August) with live pictures and an audio feed taken directly from the race village commentary.

Watch the Extreme Sailing Series in Cowes Live on the Internet

LiveTV : Sunday to Tuesday (7, 8, 9 August)

Programme starts at 1415 British Summer Time (BST, 1 hour ahead of GMT) with 49er and windsurfing action ahead of the Extreme 40 racing starting at 1500 BST

WEBcam : Saturday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (6, 10, 11 & 12 August)

WEBcam starts at 1415 BST on Saturday with Extreme 40 racing from 1500.

*WEBcam starts from 1500 BST, with Extreme 40 racing coming back in to the ‘Stadium’ once Cowes Week racing has cleared the area, and not before 1500 BST at the earliest.

More Extreme Sailing Series News

Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week has a new website, and it’s pretty good. The site is simple, clean, easy to navigate and most importantly is designed to understand that the event has multiple stakeholders and audiences.

Title sponsorship of Cowes Week has been missing from the event in recent years, and as a result, money has been spent in other areas. With the support of Aberdeen Asset Management, the web presence of the regatta has been given a much needed face-lift.

Organisers have also created a mobile site which is intended to give instant access to results, news, start times, courses and entertainment schedules during the regatta, but using an Android powered Samsung Galaxy II S, we can’t find it yet.

The site also links to the required social media platforms including Twitter and Facebook. So far, 2260 people like the facebook page, which is almost the same as Emirates Team NZ. The social media element is not mentioned in the press release directly, although the site is refferred to as anonline presence which is a trendy digital marketing term that alludes to a brand’s web footprint being more than just its website.

And for those sailors who want to take their expensive smartphones sailing, and have enough battery to keep the GPS on throughout racing, Aberdeen Asset Management have funded a new tracking system trial.

The ‘ngTrack’ system uses competitors’ own smartphones instead of expensive dedicated tracking devices to monitor the locations of boats taking part. Position data is transmitted in real-time to regatta HQ and is available to view online through a simple, easy-to-use viewer. The system is being trialed with the IRC Class 0, Dragon and Multihull classes this year, but Aberdeen hope to extend the facility to the wider Cowes Week fleet in 2012.

Commenting on this year’s tracking trial, CWL Chief Executive, Stuart Quarrie said:

”I have been keen to secure a tracking solution for the regatta for some time and this trial bodes well for a total solution in future years. Being able to track the fleet will be a huge bonus from both a spectator and race management viewpoint”.

Martin Gilbert, Chief Executive of Aberdeen Asset Management said:

“The new tracking system is something we’re really pleased to have been able to support in our first year at Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week. At Aberdeen we are aiming to help enhance the event and hopefully this cutting-edge GPS tracking system trial will do just that for all those taking part. We are very much looking forward to receiving feedback from these initial trials to find out if this initiative has been the success we all hope it will be so that we can look to extend it to the whole fleet in 2012.”

The Aberdeen Asset Management sponsored Extreme 40 has also taken to the water off Cowes. The team will compete in the UK round of the Extreme Sailing Series, which takes place during Cowes Week.

More Cowes Week News