How do you make your sailing event touch the widest group of people possible?

One way is to make as many spectators as possible engage through social media like Twitter or Facebook. The other way is to engage as many participants as you can. Of course, the more participants you have, the more engagement on social media you have…

The entry list for the 2011 J P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race featured 1908 boats. Assuming an average of 6 people per boat, that’s about 11,000 stories.

Some of those stories feature the current and past rock-stars of the sport, and as if that wasn’t enough to get the masses interested, other stories featured celebrities, brought in to create a story that might be interesting to someone editing the entertainment pages rather than the sports section.

Either way, the Round the Island Race exposes the sport of sailing to a huge audience, and for many of the participants, the experience of getting up early, being on the start line with thousands of other boats is unforgettable. Many of those participants are journalists – and many of those are journalists that usually write about ‘other things’.

The result, scanning Google a couple of days later is an incredible level of coverage for a sailing event. News outlets like the Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph and Eurosport have all given time and space to the 2011 Round the Island Race and many more stories will follow in journals that run to a weekly or monthly deadline.

One journalist I spoke to had only bee given 250 words to play with and given his story on the day, he could have written 5000. Another features editor had been given a bit more leeway –  5 pages of a glossy magazine to fill, and 5 pages in a magazine that never covers sailing is a big deal.

For a sponsor of the race, having 11,000 stories might seem like a very noisy media landscape to generate awareness in, however the J P Morgan Round the Island Race is actually a great exercise in micro-segmentation. Rather than treating the audience of the event as a big monolithic block of ‘sailing fans’, each brand has a constituency who are looking for something different.

Given the conditions for this year’s race, there are some guests who may never set foot on a boat again. But while they might not become participants, those people will have a much greater appreciation of the skill and character of the people who sail at the top level of the sport. There are others who reveled in the fact that this was “real sailing” – not just a cruise in the sun. These people will become (social) brand ambassadors for the sport.

It’s events like the Round the Island Race that give you confidence about the future of sailing. Unlike the cynicism, politics and posturing that sours some parts of the sport, the Round the Island Race seems to combine racing with charity, competitiveness with participation and commercialism with Corinthian ideals. Legends of the sport mingle with ‘newbies’ in the  beer tent and share stories in a manner that just doesn’t happen in many other sports.

The Round the Island Race has had 80 years to get it right. Organisers have stuck to a formula that gets better with every edition. Rather than change the ‘product’, the Island Sailing Club, its sponsors and partners, manage to educate and promote the benefits of the offer to a wider and wider group of ‘customers’. It’s a strategy that seems to work, and sailing is better for it.

Video from the media day…

Three very different female round the world sailors talk about the Round the Island Race

What is the best yacht racing event in the UK? Is it the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race or Aberdeen Asset Management Cowes Week? What are the criteria for making such a judgement? Should the two events be compared to each other?

The answers to such questions ultimately depend on your point of view, and our point of view is one that mixes competitiveness with commercial value. From where we sit, the JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, which has always been a great event, has stepped it up a notch, and in 2011 promises to be the greatest yacht racing event in the UK.

During the launch of the 80th Edition of the RTIR this week in London, promoters claimed that the race around the Isle of Wight is the largest (non-running) participation event in the UK. Comparisons with events like the London Marathon are useful because while both events draw many amateurs, raising money for charity and ‘having a go’, at the front of the field are athletes who want to win.

The Island Sailing Club and JP Morgan Asset Management have played up the human interest and charity angle of the race in recent years, but at this launch, it was nice to see the winners up on stage. As Loick Peyron said in a speech to the yacht racing industry in December; there is a difference between sailing around the world in 3 months and sailing around the world in 5 or 6 months. Similarly, those who sail around the Isle of Wight in 3 hours should be seen as a class apart from those who complete the course in 8 hours.

While the London Marathon has a million good stories, the headline is usually who won the mens and womens race. The Round the Island Race might be a race for everybody, but it is still a race and sometimes, the headlines have been about where a celebrity finished rather than who won the race, so it is great to see the winners of the Gold Roman Bowl recognised.

So the Round the Island Race is a fantastic sporting challenge as well as mechanism to raise money for charity, but it is also a pretty good deal for sponsors. Unlike Cowes Week, which spreads itself over 9 days, the RTIR is a concentrated opportunity to reach a desirable, targeted audience of over 8,000 people – and that’s just the competitors. Add some media value on top and you have a very interesting marketing proposition.

As well as JP Morgan Asset Management, the race is sponsored by Volvo, Raymarine and Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Paul Kerr, CEO of SLH says:

This is a perfect fit for our audience. Our guests have boats and the people who sail in this race are like-minded people that we see in our hotels around the world. It’s also personal – I sail and the charitable element is a bonus too.

Round the Island 80th Anniversary Photo Exhibition

2011 marks the 80th year of the Round the Island Race. The message is that the more things change, the more they stay the same and the history of the race has been brought together in a stunning photographic exhibition to mark the occasion.

Photos from Frank and Keith Beken, Alistair Black and Eileen Ramsay who captured the Race from the 1930s through to the 1960s up to the more recent work of Ken Beken, Peter Mumford, Rick Tomlinson, Thierry Martinez, Hamo Thornycroft, Paul Wyeth, Patrick Eden, Mark Lloyd, Cristel Clear and onEdition are included.

But the exhibition is not just about the history of the Round the Island Race. The photos capture the changes in boat design and photographic techniques.

The Exhibition will be shown on the Isle of Wight at the Quay Arts Gallery (14-19 June) and in the Race Village, Cowes Yacht Haven (24-26 June) over the Race weekend. Exhibition images are available for purchase, with proceeds being donated to the Official Race Charity, the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust.

More JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race News.

Henri Lloyd Sign as Official Clothing Partner for J P Morgan Round The Island Race.

The Island Sailing Club, organisers of the J P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race, have announced that Henri Lloyd will be the race’s official clothing partner for the next two editions.

Henri Lloyd have a long time association with Ben Ainslie who is also sponsored by the race’s title sponsor.

The new deal will include merchandise for the Race and the provision of sailing kit for for race officials, the management team and volunteers. Competitors will also be able to obtain clothing with the special 80th anniversary logo.

Island Sailing Club Secretary, Lea Bennett, said at the London Boat Show:

“This is a really exciting piece of news for everyone involved in the Race, especially as we celebrate our 80th Anniversary year in 2011. Having a clothing partner join us as Race Partner is a first for us and we’re absolutely delighted to welcome Henri Lloyd to the fold.”

In response, Paul Strzelecki, joint Managing Director of Henri Lloyd, said:

“I am delighted to announce our support of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race by becoming their Official Clothing Partner. We are proud to have the Henri Lloyd brand associated with one of the largest and most popular yacht races in the world and look forward to working with the Island Sailing Club over the next two years to ensure the event goes from strength to strength.

Henri Lloyd partners with British Youth sailing squad.

The RYA will also benefit from the support of Henri Lloyd in the form of a new clothing deal for Junior and Youth sailing squads.

The partnership, launched at the London Boat Show on Friday, will see Henri Lloyd exclusively supply clothing to the RYA Junior and Youth squads as well as RYA supported International Teams attending major International regattas around the World.

RYA Youth Racing Manager Duncan Truswell said:

“We are delighted to start what we hope will be a long and strengthening relationship with Henri Lloyd. They were closely associated with the RYA Youth Squads in the mid-late 90’s and I have very fond memories of wearing my Henri-Lloyd Laser National Youth Squad jacket with pride. I hope that the Youth sailors of today will feel the same about wearing Henri Lloyd gear when they are representing RYA Team GBR either domestically or abroad, they [Henri Lloyd] have a great product range for an array of Technical functions which we hope will enable our sailors to be more comfortable afloat and ashore, and thereby enable them to perform better.”

Paul Strzelecki, Henri Lloyd’s joint Managing Director, joined Truswell and RYA Racing Manager John Derbyshire during a press reception on Henri Lloyd’s stand where he spoke of the organisation’s delight in forming the new relationship.   He said:

“We are pleased to once again support the RYA Youth and Junior Programme.  We hope that the emerging UK sailing talent can benefit from our innovative performance clothing. We are extremely proud to add this sponsorship to our existing support for the very successful RYA OnBoard programme which we have done since its inception. We look forward to a long and fruitful association.”

More Sailing Apparel News…

The J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is primarily about participation and raising money for charity. As such, commerical return and media value for supporting sponsors is a secondary benefit.

Nevertheless, as one of the UK’s top sporting events in terms of paticipants, the 2010 Round the Island Race makes good TV. Like many mass-participation sporting challenges, watching 1600+ boats cross the line after 8 hours of racing would be quite tedious, but as a highlights package, this event has everything sports TV should have – competitition, high performance, a bit of techno-lust, but most importantly, human interest and thousands of stories to be told.

Channel 4 will broadcast a two-part documentary this month, that will give sailing a rare outing on terrestrial TV. 7:30am on a Saturday morning is not-exactly primetime, but the program should be popular with video recorders of all formats.

Part 1 will air Saturday 13th November 2010, at 7.30am on Channel 4 and Part 2 goes out on Saturday 20th November 2010, at 7.30am on Channel 4.

Produced by Sunset+Vine|APP in association with Channel 4, the stories of four very different personalities are followed. Each had special reasons to compete in the 2010 race. The first part of the documentary takes the viewer into the day-to-day world of each of the four sailors, as they prepare for the fourth largest participation sporting event in the UK. The second part is filmed during the race itself with onboard cameras showing the highs and the lows as they compete against a fleet of some 1,700 boats.

As this is a Sunset+Vine production you need to read the next paragraph with Richard Simmonds voice in your head.

“The first to feature is a professional multihull sailor, Loick Peyron. He is skippering the boat that crossed the finish line first in 2009. The team from OMAN SAIL are back to try and make it two in a row, racing one of the world’s fastest sailboats. Can Loick repeat the team’s success? The pressure is on!”

Other stories followed include; Welsh surgeon Paul Rhys-Davies, Cowes-based designer Jo Richards and Dennise Shepherd who is recovering from breast cancer.

More UK sailing stories…

Marine electronics brand Raymarine will sponsor the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race for a further two years after signing a deal with organisers; the Island Sailing Club.

Raymarine has been a partner of the hugely successful yacht race since 2003.

Fiona Pankhurst, Head of Corporate Marketing and PR for Raymarine explained that their sponsorship commitment goes beyond financial support and branding of the event. The essential pre-race weather briefing is also part of the deal.

“Raymarine has developed this all-important weather briefing over the years to make it easily accessible for the majority of the Race competitors to share, even if they are unable to attend the briefing in person. We relay the briefing via SMS messaging and also use a dedicated microsite to host the weather briefing online. This event is appreciated and recognised as a useful addition to the pre-race preparation, especially as the information is prepared and presented by expert marine weather authorities, such as Chris Tibbs and Libby Greenhalgh.”

Lea Bennett, Island Sailing Club Secretary whose year-round responsibilities include looking after the sponsorship and marketing of this most famous of yacht races said:

“We would like to thank Raymarine and all our valued Race Partners for their continuing commitment to ensuring the future of this unique sporting event and for their confidence in us as the organisers and hosts. The Island Sailing Club has been going since 1889 and as the organisers of this great race which is about to enter its 80th year, we are doing everything we can to ensure that we deliver the very best race to our 1,700 plus competitors, our title sponsor, J.P. Morgan Asset Management and our family of Race Partners. We’ve plenty to celebrate!”

The continued and growing success of the J.P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race may be one of the reasons that Cowes Week is finding it difficult to attract sponsorship. The one day event attracts the same sailors and corporate guests as the more traditional regatta in a spectacular and photogenic event that is concentrated over 72 hours rather than 7 days.

Next year’s 80th Anniversary Race is being held on Saturday 25th June and the first gun is at 0600hrs.

More UK sailing business news…

This weekend. I competed alongside 16,000 other participants in the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race aboard Volvo Team For Life, a TP52 racing yacht helmed by British Olympic medallist Shirley Robertson. Volvo Cars UK are a partner of the race, and the involvement is an important part of a larger commitment to British sailing.

The best sponsorship campaigns are those which are activated through long term commitment. This means building a portfolio of activities that are complimentary and in a world of social networking, build links between brands, ambassadors and the target audience.

Volvo Cars UK have supported British Sailing for a long time and the programme has touchpoints with the whole of the sport, from grass-roots beginners through to elite Olympic athletes. The Round the Island Race is important to the overall campaign because of its inclusiveness. Professional racing teams make up a fraction of the participants in the event, however at the end of the race, the shared experience brings the community together.

This sense of community extends to the companies and brands that support the event and the sport. While Volvo Team For Life ambassadors like Shirley Robertson, Ben Ainslie and Paul Goodison are seasoned media campaigners, there is a sense that they are truly grateful for Volvo’s support – it’s not just a contractual arrangement, but a partnership that works for everyone.

Like title sponsor JP Morgan Asset Management, Volvo Cars UK has big-picture positioning reasoning for being involved with sailing. Duncan Forrester, Head of Public Relations, Events & Sponsorship says:

“We believe sailing’s inherent use of natural resources fits perfectly with Volvo’s environmental values. At Volvo we believe our commitment to the environment does not mean compromising on state of the art technology, comfort or style. Our DRIVe range is leading the way in creating cars which will have zero impact on the environment reflecting our aim to be the car of choice for the sailing community. Our environmental credentials have gone a long way in helping us achieve this.”

But positioning is only part of the story. The Round the Island experience is an unforgettable hospitality platform. Many of the automotive and motorsport journalists aboard had never been on a boat before, let alone a purpose built racing yacht. Waking someone up at 3am in the morning, putting them aboard a boat with an Olympic gold medallist and making them get involved as the spinnaker is hoisted on the start-line jostling for position with 1700 other boats is not something that can be replicated by inviting them to a tent at a race-track.

In the past, this might be the end of it. A great weekend and perhaps a better feeling about the brand that may or may not translate into more sales, but like many automotive brands, Volvo are embracing a more conversational, relationship based marketing approach. The Volvo Team for Life Facebook page is part of a strategy that hopes to develop deeper, more long term relationships between the brand and customers, which must ultimately lead to greater loyalty and long term customer value.

The J P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race is perhaps the most important sailing event in the UK. Certainly the strapline – ‘Britain’s Favourite Yacht Race’ can be justified based on the huge numbers of competitors who take part each year. In 2010, over 16,000 people were on the water in yachts ranging from over 100 ft to 3 person dinghies, but 1 competitor drew more attention than others.

On Friday, the day before the race, we sat down with Roger Thompson, Head of JP Morgan Asset Management in the UK to talk about the company’s title sponsorship of the event and return on investment. Since that interview, the race has received a lot more coverage than it otherwise might have and the debate about the impact of that coverage will go on for a while yet. The old adage of ‘all publicity is good publicity’ probably holds true, as many of the media outlets that focused on the participation of BP CEO Tony Hayward would not have otherwise run any story at all.

Like many firms that sponsor sailing, JP Morgan are not too concerned about mass-market coverage. The company began its partnership with the Island Sailing Club 6 years ago and until that time the Round the Island Race had never been sponsored before. Sailing fits with the JP Morgan brand – associations of teamwork, a clean image and of course an overlap between participants and the audience that the company wants to reach.

Although Thompson is from Gosport and is a self-confessed sailing fan, he says that the sponsorship opportunity was brought to him by his marketing department and the investment makes sense despite his personal interest in the sport. He’s convinced that the company gets a return on investment from the partnership, but admits that it’s hard to measure.

As well as the JP Morgan Asset Management logo being stuck to the bow of over 1700 yachts in the Solent, and other visual display benefits of title sponsorship, the event allows the company to engage in internal and external relationship building. In 2010, 28 matched Beneteau 40.7 yachts were entered by the company creating a race within a race for employees, partners and clients. Spaces on the boats were tied to internal charity initiatives for the company’s official charity the Ellen McArthur Trust.

The charity angle also drives much of the publicity surrounding the event, with sailing celebrities and other ambassadors taking part throughout the weekend. In 2010, the race had four official charities – Breast Cancer Care, Macmillan Cancer Support, Ellen McArthur Trust and Prostate UK. JP Morgan hope to raise £1 Million by 2012 which is something that will not go unnoticed by those who matter and contributes to the long term value of the company’s support of the race.

As well as the Round the Island Race, JP Morgan also sponsor British Olympic champion Ben Ainslie. Ainslie competed on Saturday as an ambassador not just for JP Morgan, but also the Princes Trust alongside Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry. The company has backed grass-roots sailing, the Winter Series and also supported an extreme 40 campaign, but sailing is not the only sport where JP Morgan are using sponsorship as a promotional tool.

The J.P. Morgan Asset Management Premiership Rugby 7s Series was recently announced –  a new Friday evening summer 7s series, to take place in July and August and be broadcast live and exclusively on ESPN. The innovative tournament, which will involve all 12 Premiership Rugby clubs, is designed to attract a new audience to the game and create a thrilling new opportunity for existing rugby fans to watch their favourite clubs play during the summer.

Thompson said at the launch of that campaign in early June:

“The Premiership Rugby Sevens is a hugely exciting development for rugby in the UK. We’re delighted to be at the forefront of innovation in sport with Premiership Rugby. It’s intelligent, fast and furious – a tremendous game to watch. We intend to do all we can to open up rugby sevens to as wide an audience as possible. We are delighted that ESPN will attract an even broader audience to J.P. Morgan Asset Management. As the structure of our industry changes it is vital that we continue to adapt our strategy and find new ways to engage with our customers.”

TV is also part of the Round the Island Race. After the opportunistic stories have died down, the brand will be able to promote the stories that matter most to them from the Round the Island Race in two 30 minute documentaries to be shown on Channel 4 later in the year.

More Videos…

Photo by Mark Lloyd

The SportBusiness New Media conference in Manchester yesterday, like many sports events in the UK, was heavily biassed towards ball sports. The problem with ball-sports is that they don’t have the same challenges experienced by other sports – the kind of challenges that lead to innovation.

There is probably not a lot of point using GPS for a game of football. The stadium is a confined space and there are a limited number of players on the pitch. Coverage of mass participation sports is quite a different matter – take the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race for example.

An estimated 1700 or so boats compete in this event every year. With an average crew size of 5, that’s around 8,000 competitors, making the race one of the UK’s biggest participatory events. There are not two teams in this race, but 1700, so how do you manage to cater for the spectators who are following one boat or another?

The Island Sailing Club and title sponsor J.P. Morgan Asset Management have announced that they will be introducing live GPS tracking for all boats taking part in the 2010 Round the Island Race on Saturday 19th June. Many GPS enabled phones have the ability to provide real-time tracking to the internet via downloadable applications. Several boats competing in the 2009 race set up their own live feeds but in 2010, the Round the Island project will attempt to collect all the boat tracking feeds into a single place, viewable on the internet.

Competitors with compatible equipment will be able to download a small piece of software that will allow their mobile phone or laptop to become a real-time GPS tracking device. The device’s position will be periodically transmitted to the official Race website, where a simple, easy-to-use race viewer will allow visitors to monitor the progress of individual boats throughout the race.

The tracking solution has been developed by the Race Technology Partner, Next Generation Results and funded by J.P. Morgan Asset Management. It will be one of the largest GPS event tracking initiatives ever undertaken with mobile phone technology.

The cost of GPS tracking has tumbled in recent years. Once only available to the most well-funded teams, now anyone can provide live tracking information live to the internet with readily available mobile phone handsets. Unlimited mobile data plans have also helped reduce the cost of tracking via this method, though it relies on having a mobile phone signal.

The challenge for race organisers will be getting all the signals into one place and providing the information in a way that spectators online can find the boat they are looking for. Website spectators will be able to search and select up to 10 boats that they want to follow at any one time through the Race Viewer. Boats will be searchable via their name and class. Each boat tracked will show its elapsed time from the race start and current GPS co-ordinates.

The competitors also benefit from this tracking technology as they will be able to replay their race and compare their performance with their rivals to see where they got it right – or wrong!

The technology has application for many sports including Rally, Mountain Biking, Triathlon etc. It’s a great example of how sailing is at the cutting edge of media technology and live sport content delivery.

More details of supported equipment and how to register for the service will be available on the race website at http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk

We tend to focus on the big-business end of the sport of sailing on this site, but yacht racing as a platform can be used for all kinds of ends. It’s nice then to be able to report on a sailing project that promotes the benefits of yacht racing over and above pure financial ROI or relentless mercenary greed for a piece of silverware.

TOE IN THE WATER is a non-profit organisation which uses sailing as a vehicle to re-inspire injured servicemen and women, many of whom have been wounded in active service in Afghanistan and Iraq, and who are currently being treated at Headley Court, the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre.

The aim of the initiative is simple; to provide injured servicemen and women with a challenging, demanding environment in which they can compete on an equal footing with their peers. Yacht racing provides one of the few arenas in which people with traumatic injuries can compete against and alongside able-bodied people. It is ideal, not least because there is a wide range of different roles onboard, providing different physical and mental challenges.

TOE IN THE WATER recieved worldwide attention when Steve White received much needed backing for his Vendee Globe campaign in return for promoting the charity.

Chairman, Major General Mike von Bertele OBE has launched the charity’s 2010 racing programme. Racing in 2010 will build on the success of the first two years of operation, during which more than fifty profoundly and traumatically injured service personnel were inspired through competitive sailing.

TOE IN THE WATER will be entering eight events in 2010. The programme comprises the RORC Easter Regatta, the J80 National Championships, the J-Cup, the JP Morgan Round the Island Race, Sailing for Heroes Regatta, Cowes Week, the Jersey Regatta and the J80 Autumn Championships.

The 2009 Season saw TOE IN THE WATER ambassadors Brian Thompson and Dee Caffari join the Toe crews at Cowes Week and the Dartmouth Regatta. Caffari said after Dartmouth:

“Sailing with the TOE IN THE WATER crew was a unique experience for me and one I hope I will repeat in the future. These guys will give everything to be at the front of the fleet. It was true competitive racing at its best.”

Multiple world record holder Brian Thompson, who has been involved with the initiative since the outset, said:

“Every time I have gone out with TOE IN THE WATER I have been blown away by their talent and aptitude for sailing and their super positive attitude. The TOE IN THE WATER team is dynamic, energetic and making its mark on sailing regattas all over the UK. The charity has brought fun and competition to both the injured servicemen and women, and the volunteers who love to be involved. I am looking forward to racing with them again in 2010.”

Lloyd Hamilton is the Director of Racing said:

“From a sailing perspective it has cemented the fact that it really is a sport for anyone from the novice to the expert to enjoy. It also instils a firm belief in team work and the importance of it. Everyone who has served in the forces will understand that at some point in a military career you will rely upon your comrades alongside you. This initiative and the results our teams achieve show just how important this factor is.”

TOE IN THE WATER is holding a selection weekend to recruit experienced able-bodied racers to its Core Crew. Volunteers are asked to commit to two events in the upcoming season and are invited to ‘try out’ for a place by attending the weekend (6-7 March 2010). Anyone interested in getting involved in the Core Crew or in fundraising for TOE IN THE WATER should contact info@toeinthewater.org.

One of the UK’s largest participatory sporting events, the J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race has announced that the title sponsorship is secure for another 3 years. The annual race provides a huge economic benefit to Cowes and the surrounding area, with over 8000 competitors taking part. During the recent London Boat Show, the Island Sailing Club who organise the race announced that J.P. Morgan Asset Management would continue to support the event in 2010.

J.P. Morgan Asset Management also announced their continued sponsorship of Ben Ainslie, Britain’s most successful Olympic sailor of all time. The company has been Ben’s title sponsor since 2007 and backed his gold medal campaign at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Despite the sponsorship giving the event an impractically long name (try and fit J.P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 2010 into a tweet with space left over), the renewed sponsorships are good news for UK sailing. With many of the country’s top competitors and the traditional cornerstone of yacht racing, Cowes Week, looking for commercial support, it’s great to see deals being done.

Jasper Berens, Head of UK Sales, J.P. Morgan Asset Management said:

“J.P. Morgan Asset Management thought it was exactly the right time to extend both sponsorships. We are now entering our sixth year sponsoring the Round the Island Race and have committed to sponsoring the event for a further 3 years, It’s been a very tough economic climate not just for banks and asset managers but for everyone, however over the last 5 years it has become clear to us that the Round the Island race sponsorship works incredibly well for J.P. Morgan Asset Management both in a brand and in a corporate hospitality perspective – we looked very closely at the sponsorship and the exact right thing for us to do was continue the sponsorship. One of the key aspects for us is the is the charitable fundraising, more than £350,000 has been raised over the last three years and we hope the total can reach £500,000 in 2010.”

Ben Ainslie is one of the most recognised sailors in the world and therefore a great ambassador for a brand like J.P. Morgan Asset Management. For a sailor, sponsorship gives the ability to concentrate on sailing rather than wondering how to fund being a ‘pro’. Those with secure deals are able to train harder and prepare better, increasing the chances of winning on the water. The Triple Olympic gold and silver medallist said:

“The J.P. Morgan Asset Management sponsorship enables me to go about my Olympic campaign in the right manner to be successful. For example I can now start working full time with my coach David Howlett enabling me to test technical equipment and hopefully have my sailing program in place well in advance of the qualifying events for London 2012., having David’s support is very important as my other sailing commitments will take up much of my time this year.”

Ainslie also understands that the key to successful sponsorships is giving back to the brand and organisation. Many sailors still have a mindset that corporate partners will write a cheque and not expect anything more than to see their decal on the side of the boat or sewn into a crew-shirt. Despite sponsor responsibilities taking time away from sailing, they are fundamental to creating long lasting commercial relationships. Ben continues:

“The other important part of the J.P. Morgan Asset Management partnership is the support I have received from their internal staff, since Beijing I have been involved with a number of staff and client activities, it was great how they make me feel part of the brand. I now look forward to celebrate continued success together”

Online Entries for this year’s J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race will be open from Thursday 21st January. The Notice of Race and Entry Form go live on the updated Race website at http://www.roundtheisland.org.uk