The Royal Southern Yacht Club recently announced a calendar of events to celebrate their 175th Anniversary, including a new offshore race – the Biscay 2012. One of the sponsors of the race will be Sunsail – more specifically, Sunsail Racing – and the tie-up is a clever one.

As Sunsail rolls out its new fleets of Sunsail F40s, they are creating one of the largest identically matched fleets in the world. One design racing has a huge fan base as sailors love to know how good they are against their competition given the same boat and budget – it’s one of the reasons that the MOD70 is gaining ground over other classes that are ‘open’.

Sponsorship of Biscay 2012, doesn’t just give Sunsail Racing a good platform to help re-position the brand as a racing product, it also gives sailors a reason to charter – not just for the race itself, but for practice.

Simon Conder; Sunsail UK Head of Marketing said;

“This is a great partnership for Sunsail, the Royal Southern Yacht Club is a prestigious sailing club and the new fleet of F40s are the perfect boats for this challenging and exciting race. The Biscay 2012 is a great addition to the Sunsail Racing Events Calendar and will challenge crews, whilst allowing fantastic stop-over locations.”

The deal is win-win – Royal Southern gets the prospect of 40 extra boats on the start line of the new race. Sunsail get to show racing sailors that they have changed – that the boats were built with racing in mind and they also get to tempt offshore sailors who want to compete in a big offshore race, the chance to do so without having their own boat.

Sponsorship seekers are still sometimes not very scientific with the way they prospect. They may see a brand sponsoring another sport and think – ‘well if they sponsor them, perhaps they will sponsor us too..’ Others target broadly by industry – reasoning that financial services seem to have a lot of money so they would be a good place to start.

A little bit of thinking about what the sponsor might want out of the deal helps to create deals that work. Sailing is increasingly used as a mechanism to drive travel and tourism, but apart from the government backed destination marketing budgets, there are relatively few travel and tourism sponsors in the sport.

There are of course some recognizable brands, like Emirates Airlines, The Wave Muscat and W Hotels, and smaller events often have local hotel partners, however – brands that stand to gain from increased direct revenue rather than some magical media value number can often be the best sponsorship partners.

So how does Sunsail Racing make more money out of sponsoring a race in Europe in 2012? Well as the press release says:

Competitors for Biscay 2012 are able to build their racing miles in the F40s in the Sunsail Racing Programme in the Canary Islands this winter and in the UK next year. The four Regattas in the Royal Southern Yacht Club’s 2012 summer racing programme will also count towards crew qualification for the Biscay 2012 race.

A good deal for brand, event organiser and sailors….

• More Travel & Tourism news.

As entrepreneurial promoters fight to own the world market for competitive yacht racing, one organisation already has a presence in more countries than the America’s Cup, World Match Racing Tour, Extreme Sailing Series and Volvo Ocean Race combined. ISAF is involved with all parts of the sport, and taking advantage of this global presence is Atlantis WeatherGear, which has been selected as the World Governing Body’s “Officials Clothing Sponsor.”

Whether the phrase “Officials Clothing Sponsor” is a typo or a brilliant piece of marketing, it made us smile.

The partnership between Atlantis and ISAF  is for four years and umpires and officials will get a kit including polo shirts, baseball cap, watership hat and dry bags. ISAF’s Race Officials will be also be offered a selection of branded items from the Atlantis range.

ISAF has over 700 volunteer race officials based around the world performing the roles of international judges, race officers, measurers and umpires at sailing events worldwide. Providing them with clothing is no simple task, so ISAF will be drawing on Atlantis’ experience and expertise to manage an on-line ordering system and delivery as well as offering high quality products that are proven to be fit for purpose.

Atlantis’ head of marketing Bill Lynn said:

“We’re thrilled that ISAF has selected Atlantis as their clothing partner. This relationship will help us gain visibility for our brand at the world’s premiere sailing events while putting ISAF’s influential race officials in gear that they will love.”

The sailing clothing and apparel sector is becoming increasingly competitive with brands from all over the world searching for ways to stay relevant for hard-core racers, cruising sailors and non-sailors who want a marine inspired look.

Partnering with the people who make and interpret the rules, could have a slightly negative conotation – it’s not as cool as being the clothes worn by the rock-star athletes, but then again, endorsement from the world governing body of the sport is something that will resonate with audiences in places where ISAF events take place that have never heard of some of the other series.

• More Sailing Clothing News
• More ISAF News

Oman Sail has given the rest of the Yacht Racing world a lesson in how to win (Facebook) friends and influence people this month, adding over 6,000 likes in the last 30 days – an increase of 55%. The first America’s Cup World Series event in Cascais gained only 4,000 likes for the brand – a 38% increase on the month before.

The Volvo Ocean Race maintains its place on top of our chart of yacht racing Facebook properties. Facebook likes for the Volvo Ocean Race were up 5.4% with 2,432 new likes in August.

Yacht Racing Facebook Top 10

Click here for the Top 30 Yacht Racing Brands on Facebook.

Activity on the water is one of the biggest drivers for attracting new ‘likes’  - with properties like Royal Ocean Racing Club, organisers of the Rolex Fastnet Race this month gaining fans. Emirates Team NZ, who have been told that they have to use the Official America’s Cup website for all their online activity, have started their journey to “live in social” with good results in Cascais leading to new Facebook Fans.

The Top 10 growing properties, by likes

The table above only includes properties in the 52 that we monitor. Other brands may have achieved more Facebook likes in the period.

America’s Cup Mission to Appeal to the Facebook Generation

It should have been inevitable that the first America’s Cup World Series event would help to drive the social media numbers that the ACEA are desperately hoping for. But while the crowd at the event was claimed to be in the region of 150,000 and the online viewers also in the hundreds of thousands, this hasn’t translated into big social numbers.

While the Youtube channel views are up to 425,000 (most of which can be attributed to the Coutts capsize) – there are only 5,120 subscribers, which lines up with the Official America’s Cup Twitter feed which has 5,070 followers.

This suggests that the new product is yet to go viral with the intended young, social-savvy, extreme sports loving audience that is being sought after. One might expect that the series media feeds are not as popular as the team feeds – after all, fans don’t follow NASCAR, they follow Jimmie Johnson.

The AC’s Jimmy – Jimmy Spithill has a long way to go. Spithills’ Facebook page (which seems to be a cloned feed of the official America’s Cup news site) has 490 likes. Jimmie Johnson? Well he has 538, 594 likes.

America’s Cup Teams on Facebook

The Full Top 30 Facebook Chart

Competitive yacht racing, as opposed to sailing, appeals to quite a small number of people. There is an argument by some, that motorsport attracts a bigger audience than yacht racing because most people can relate to driving a car, but can’t relate to sailing – but this doesn’t seem to apply to golf, where participation is high, but not as high as the number of people watching.

A game like Real Golf for the Ipad appeals not just to hard-core golfers, but to the wider audience who like gaming for gaming’s sake. Sailing games are a way of introducing sailing to an audience that might not otherwise experience it. Gaming also has the advantage of teaching the rules of yacht racing to novices without being patronising. All games are the same – from pacman to farmville – the people who understand how the game is played, do best.

The Global Ocean Race has emerged, after a troubled start, as the prefferred round the world race for the popular Class 40 yacht. The race will begin in September, and gamers can play along thanks to the online game being hosted by United Games.

Gamers won’t be just playing the online sailing game for glory, Accounting software firm, and Global Ocean Race sponsor bluQube will be providing prizes for the virtual sailing race.

bluQube Marketing Manager, Matthew Kirby says:

“Our involvement in the virtual race complements our sponsorship perfectly and gives us the ideal platform to encourage both our staff and customers to experience what it’s like to take part in what will be both an exciting and gruelling competition. Asking players to join our own bluQube ‘friends’ community gives us the opportunity to build a branded virtual community and at the same time we can contribute to a really worthy cause.”

Winners of the sailing game can win; a mini-break for two in Palma, Mallorca including flights, accommodation and a day’s sailing with veteran sailor and GOR Race Director, Josh Hall. Winners of the 5 individual legs will be given the chance to sail in a Class 40 boat with the Phesheya Team (adopted by bluQube during the GOR), after the race has finished in July next year.

While the Global Ocean Race is a small event compared to the Vendee Globe and Volvo Ocean Race, the race will benefit from an audience of gamers that is far larger than the audience for yacht racing. UnitedGames serves 100 million players worldwide – and GOR organiser Josh Hall is hoping for 0.15% of those to take part – which would give the Global Ocean Race Online game 150,000 players.

In addition to the web client, UnitedGames will make the virtual sailing game available on iPhone, iPad and Android-based smartphones enabling player-access to their game 24/7. To provide players with an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the game-controls and the behavior of the boats, a trial virtual GOR race of around 1,000 miles will be launched shortly before the GOR’s start in Palma, Mallorca, on the 25th September.

• More Sailing Games News
• More Class 40 News
• More Sponsorship Activation News

When the MOD70 was announced, we were slightly sceptical about plans for yet another class of offshore yacht – no matter how many hulls. The world of professional sailing already has calendar clashes and multiple promoters competing for the attention of a relatively small audience. TheMOD70 though, has slowly but surely been sticking to its plan and some of the world’s best offshore sailors and teams are signed up to take part.

One of the biggest advantages that the MOD70 has is in the name – it is a one design. One design racing provides lots of reasons for teams, sailors, fans (and sponsors) to be more interested in the event including:

• Cost control
• Closer racing
• Less focus on the platform and more focus on the sailors

Desjoyeaux said:

I’ve always said that multihulls are the finest race machines in ocean racing. I focused my attentions on another objective for a while, with the Vendée Globe 2008-2009, but my real passion has always been the multihull… The creation of the MOD70 circuit was an opportunity and a half and Foncia and I were one of the first to announce our intention to take part in it. They are fantastic machines.

Truly battling it out on an equal footing is deeply satisfying on a purely competitive level. It places greater emphasis on the sailors themselves, so man is back at the heart of the action. The difference will be made as regards how the machine is used.”

Franck David said:

“Each of our launches is a special moment, which marks the end of a build and fit-out for our team and the start of the on-the-water adventure for the team who receive their MOD70. Today, it’s the turn of Foncia and MOD70 No.03. We wish Michel Desjoyeaux and all his team a smooth handover and a great deal of enjoyment on the water aboard their new trimaran! Indeed this won’t be long in coming because in just a month and half, during the Krys Match, we’ll have the pleasure of seeing the first three MOD70s sailing together alongside Sébastien Josse and his crew, who will receive their MOD70 No.4, Edmond de Rothschild Group, just a few weeks later.”

The rules of the MOD70 limit the number of competitors from any one country to 4. Unsurprisingly, France already has 3 teams flying the flag. Despite the large number of British sailors who competed in the last Vendee Globe, there are no UK teams announced yet for the MOD70 series.

Admittedly, the series is still a little bit of a gamble for a sponsor. There hasn’t been a race yet which is a very different sell than the Vendee Globe which can guarantee a huge audience and return on investment. But given that the MOD70 organisers have delivered on almost every milestone they said they would, it is an event that is certainly worth watching.

Sailing has become a popular platform to promote travel destinations in recent years. On one side of the deal, promoters of events like the Volvo Ocean Race, Extreme Sailing Series and even Clipper Race bring teams, media and spectators to a venue and showcase it to a targeted audience. On the other side, destinations activate their involvement in the event, promoting it and integrating it into their marketing campaigns. This might even include sponsorship of a team within the event.

It’s a model that works nicely, but some destinations do the activation and promotion bit better than others. Just as PUMA woke up the sailing market with it’s approach to activating sponsorship in the last Volvo Ocean Race, Abu Dhabi are showing other destinations just how sailing and travel and tourism go together.

Last week, at the newly titled Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week, several brands upped the game when it came to cross-promotion and activation. Both Abu Dhabi and Oman were promoting their involvement in sailing, but also their travel products.

As the Abu Dhabi sponsored Volvo 70 Azzam charged up and down the Solent in strong winds, on shore spectators were being educated about the destination, the culture and of course the Volvo Ocean Race stopover.

This was smart activation – models of the race village at the center and sailing related sail raising competitions, but other activities to inspire and educate. Queues lined up to have their names etched in calligraphy (in Arabic) while others waited to have henna designs applied to their hands.

And if that wasn’t enough, Fern and Ying – two peregrine falcons captured the imagination of old and young, male and female.

And while some of the visitors will walk away with a keepsake or a great photo, others will have been engaged via social media.

The Volvo Ocean Race is more than a competition on the water. There is also competition for the hearts, minds and disposable income of fans. So far, Abu Dhabi is well ahead in the latter race.

• More Abu Dhabi Sailing News
• More Sponsorship Activation News