A war is on for the hearts, minds and screens of sailing fans around the world. In a few short years, the sport has gone from being almost invisible, except for the occasional record breaker and America’s Cup, to being streamed 24 hours a day in HD via the Internet.

Whether or not there is a sustainable business model for such media production is still to be seen, but people who want to watch yacht racing and the back-stories of pro sailors can choose from a multitude of YouTube channels, video aggregation sites and IPTV platforms.

The World Match Racing Tour is one of the series that is using IPTV to engage fans through video. The WMRT has created the ability for fans to download all the Tour’s latest multimedia content free from iTunes. (Make sure you are on wifi though – at 82mb per episode, you don’t want to be using your mobile network.)

World Match Racing Tour Sales Director Matt Strachan said:

“World Match Racing Tour video content will now go straight onto iTunes, giving fans worldwide access to top quality content which they can watch on the device of their choice at a time of their choice.

“It’s the next step in our IPTV strategy which we have launched this season allowing fans to watch live streaming of racing from events for two hours each day or watch it on-demand. The coverage of racing accompanies The Morning Show and The Today Show, our daily magazine programmes. The shows have proved very popular, not just with audiences but also with the sailors, the event promoters and with sponsors. It increases our digital footprint and reaffirms the World Match Racing Tour as a leader in providing multimedia content for fans.”

Unlike the new ‘America’s Cup Uncovered’ programme, which is narrated off a script by a faceless voice, the World Match Racing Tour is creating personalities out of the competitors but also the hosts of The Morning Show and The Today Show. Hannah White’s impromptu, live style is in stark contrast to some series who polish (and get sign-off on) every line before having them voiced-over after the event.

More World Match Racing Tour News

We’re very uncool at yachtsponsorship.com. We love old fashioned match racing. Part of that appreciation was built through attending Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand, an event which is far from being old-fashioned. Despite being run in the same place in the same calendar slot for the last 17 years, the event continues to be one of the most innovative sailing events anywhere.

While the America’s Cup has taken some time to climb aboard the ‘stadium sailing’ bandwagon, Match Cup Sweden could rightfully claim to be one of the first events to provide spectators with a vantage point that is close enough to touch the boats sailed by some of the best sailors in the world. The term ‘natural amplitheatre’ has become almost a cliche since ORACLE racing announced their decision to host the America’s Cup in San Francisco, but even San Francisco Bay doesn’t compare to the Marstrand racetrack. In NASCAR terms, if San Francisco is Daytona, then Marstrand is Bristol.

With regret, we couldn’t attend this year’s event in Sweden, however – by all accounts, the event continues to impress with it’s professional management and delivers for fans as well as business stakeholders.

Here’s what first time visitor Markus Pettersson thought of the event

As a first time visitor, it was interesting to visit the machine that Match Cup Sweden has become over the past years. Having worked in league sports like basketball and football for a large part of my career, it was fascinating to see the other side of the coin from within: a one time event in nature’s own arena, with equipment worth millions of dollars and an upper class crowd. I must say that it was a very impressive show. Sailing in itself was much more exciting live than I would ever have thought, and I left Marstrand feeling that this is a sport and industry I really want to get to know better. Sailing has sure had it’s 15 minutes in Swedish mainstream media 10-20 years ago, but have lost ground to the all-eating football monster since then. There’s no doubt however that the potential is there to become a major player again, especially if more cities around the country can bring sailing to arenas that are easily accessible like in Marstrand.

The greatest commercial impression I walked away with was how well several sponsorships had been activated, with the Stena group topping the chart. They owned the entire village of Marstrand, and could be seen anywhere and everywhere, no matter if you were there as a corporate visitor or a kid with your parents. There were giveaways for the kids, sailing for sponsors, cheap travel deals, a recycling crew constantly keeping the arena and surroundings fresh and clean, and what not – and more or less everybody visiting or working at the event sported attire branded by Stena. Honorable mentions also goes out to Good Year and Pelle P clothing for their activation.

Personally, I was there to work for newspaper Göteborgs-Posten with our sponsorship of the Junior Arena together with the GKSS sailing club and Passalen. Our primary task was to help young people with and without disabilities to try sailing, and we had a blast doing it. Seeing the happy faces of all those kids was surely rewarding, and we hope to develop it even more for next year’s Match Cup. Junior Arenas at events like these are maybe what it would take for sailing to get back to where in belongs – at the top of Evereyday Joe’s mind!

The World Match Racing Tour has partnered with Swedish digital communications experts Sigma, who have used Match Cup Sweden as a platform to promote to a wide audience.

Sigma CEO Hakan Karlsson is convinced of the benefits of being involved in the event. Commenting on the World Match Racing Tour website he said:

It’s all about branding for Sigma. In the Swedish IT industry we are very bad at actually marketing ourselves, we just work, work, work, and we don’t tell the customer how good we are. To be able to bring our clients to such a stunning location and show them great brand presence, hospitality, and racing was an opportunity not to be missed.

Sailing is quite a niche market but here on the west coast of Sweden it is huge. If you look at a sport like football it is just one match but for Stena Match Cup Sweden there is a whole week of racing which brings in a huge amount of media attention. Last year we had Sigma branding on the front page of Gothenburg’s biggest newspaper three days in a row thanks to Stena Match Cup Sweden which is much more visibility than you would get from sponsoring other sports.

And while Match Cup Sweden gets Sigma national exposure, the partnership with the World Match Racing Tour helps to build awareness of Sigma around the world. Karlsson continues:

Marstrand is the biggest sailing event in Sweden and it’s vital for us because most of our clients are from Sweden. However, the World Match Racing Tour is obviously a well-known global sailing brand and it is something we at Sigma want to be associated with. Our partnership with the World Match Racing Tour is a natural progression in our global business model. We currently work in nine countries around the world and we want to expand that.

While the America’s Cup is promising a revolution in the way sailing is broadcast, elsewhere in sailing, broadcasters are working on how to best communicate and broadcast ‘old fashioned’ match racing. Rather than patronise the wider viewing public and remove ‘complications’ – the World Match Racing Tour and it’s media partners Redhanded TV are focussing on educating audiences about the match racing discipline.

As a result, Redhanded TV has been nominated for a Broadcast Digital Award for their live coverage of the Monsoon Cup in Kuala Terengganu Malaysia. The Broadcast Digital Awards, run by the respected TV industry magazine Broadcast, have been growing in significance and prestige for the last few years, as Digital and Online broadcasting has become increasingly important.

Redhanded TV is nominated against some big competitors. Other nominees include the BBC and the ITV coverage of the Tour de France.

Here at yachtsponsorship.com we fundamentally disagree with the notion that sailing needs to be simplified or dumbed down. Rather, we believe that broadcasters must work harder to educate and engage the audience and that an investment by a fan in learning the rules and intricacies of the sport will lead to a longer term commitment.

Part of what Redhanded TV is trying to achieve is to get beneath the skin of match racing on a tight schedule and to the highest standard. It’s not just about the racing rules though – it is also about raw emotion of the sailors being delivered to fans both on the shoreline and watching around the world.

The Monsoon Cup live coverage and highlights shows, leverages expert on board commentary with headcam,  in-depth analysis and interviews with the winners and losers just seconds after they’d crossed the finish line.

Redhanded TV owner and managing director Sam Usher said he was very proud to receive the nomination.

“To be nominated for such a prestigious award is a very great honour for us,” he said. “We’ve built up a young, professional and dedicated team here who are all giving 110 percent to every World Match Racing Tour Event. I’d like to pay tribute to my team for making this nomination possible thanks to their dedication and hard work. We have just completed the Korea Match Cup and are very excited as we come back just two days before the award-winners are announced. This company has come a very long way in a very short time, and we are all looking forward to more high-profile, top quality projects in the very near future.”

There’s no doubt that the Monsoon Cup is a great event and PR folks have to sell as hard as they can, but the press release makes a comparison that is hard to justify:

The Monsoon Cup is to sailing what the Monte Carlo Grand Prix is to Formula 1.

More World Match Racing Tour News

The World Match Racing Tour has made a strategic decision to leverage emerging sailing markets to drive growth of the tour and the sport of sailing. The Korea Match Cup is a newcomer to the tour, but has significant support from the local community and a young, leisure sailing market that will only get bigger.

Not only does the Korea Match Cup provide a sporting event that receives huge national and international coverage, there is a legacy element that trains new Korean sailors and positions Korea for the future of international sailing events like the America’s Cup.

Like many successful sailing events, the Korea Match Cup is driven by an entrepreneurial promoter. Dong-Young Kim is the kind of person that sailing needs. The World Match Racing Tour spoke to him:

WMRT: You started the Korea Match Cup back in 2008. What were your reasons for launching the event?

Dong-Young Kim: Back in 1999 I went to New Zealand when the America’s Cup was on. I was surprised at the scale of the event and how good it was. I thought that it would be great to have an event like that in Korea to develop the skill levels of sailing as well as the boat-building industry. After that I couldn’t stop dreaming about hosting a big sailing event in Korea.

WMRT: The 2008 Korea Match Cup was a success but it must have been a lot of hard work to pull off?

Dong-Young Kim: It wasn’t an easy operation at all. We didn’t have any marina here in Jeongok so it was a big challenge. To be honest I couldn’t see what the future of the event would be at that point. We just thought we would see how we got on, taking one step at a time. We put in temporary pontoons and it was a great success. After the 2009 Korea Match Cup the Government built a proper marina here, and that really cemented the future of the event. We enjoy strong support from the Government now, they are keen to see sailing develop.

WMRT: What is your role in the project?

Dong-Young Kim: I am a sailor and a boat builder. In Korea we are so far behind other countries in terms of our sailing industry so it was my belief that by hosting a major sailing event we could boost Korean sailing. I see myself as a kind of ambassador for Korean sailing, I’m doing what I can to develop it and the Korea Match Cup is the foundation of that.

WMRT: Has the Korea Match Cup had the desired impact on Korean sailing?

Dong-Young Kim: Yes absolutely. Looking back to 2008 Korea didn’t have a match racing team at all. After we hosted the 2008 Korea Match Cup sailing clubs all over the country had their own match racing teams. Thanks to this event sailing schools all over Korea are booming. After last year’s event I had about 6,000 young people coming to the sailing school here in Hwaseong City as a direct result of the Korea Match Cup.

WMRT: What is your vision for the future of the event?

Dong-Young Kim: The Korea Match Cup will get bigger and better each year. Yesterday Busan Match Team, the Korean entry at the Korea Match Cup, won their first race here which is a great achievement. For them to be able to compete against the world’s top match racers is very special and gives them a great opportunity to learn and improve. It’s also great for the young sailors who now have a dream, something to aspire to. The Korea Match Cup really is the foundation for the development of Korean sailing.

WMRT: You are now involved in the Korean ‘White Tiger’ America’s Cup project. Is that a direct result of the Korea Match Cup?

Dong-Young Kim: Definitely. The success of the Korea Match Cup has given us a starting point to think about entering a national team in the America’s Cup.

More World Match Racing Tour News

When the America’s Cup switched its format from match-racing in monohulls in favour of the more extreme catamaran event, sailors who had spent years developing core skills for the Cup were caught in a bit of no-man’s land. Skippers like Ian Williams, Torvar Mirsky and to a lesser extent, Ben Ainslie have used the World Match Racing Tour to hone their skills in a kind of unnofficial apprenticeship for later Cup chances.

When the catamaran decision was made, names like Glen Ashby and Loick Peyron moved to the top of the America’s Cup teams’ recruitment lists over the skippers on the tour, which might be part of the reason that in 2011, both Mirsky and Williams decided to have a foot in both camps, competing in both the World Match Racing Tour and the Extreme Sailing Series. The former focusses on match-racing while the latter is probably the best place to get to grips with sailing multihulls against opposition at close quarters.

After just 3 outings in the Extreme 40 for The Wave Muscat, one of the Oman Sail entries in the Extreme Sailing Series, Torvar Mirsky has done a deal to helm Venezia Challenge in the next chapter of the America’s Cup.

Cesare Pasotti, Venezia Challenge’s team manager says:

“It’s the best choice we could do. Torvar is young, motivated and extremely skilled, so I asked to Carlo Magna and Emanuela Pulcino to bring him on board”.

From the 14th of June, Torvar Mirsky will train in Palermo at the Club Canottieri Roggero di Lauria – Venezia Challenge’s official sailing club. In July he will move to Cascais to train on the AC45. The timing means that Torvar will not take part in the next round of the Extreme Sailing Series in Boston. His place on the Wave Muscat will be taken by Leigh McMillan.

McMillan is a British two time Olympian and has been acting in a coaching role to Muscat the Wave team in 2011, but is not new to the Extreme Sailing Series. He helmed Ecover to a third place finish in 2010 and in 2009 he took the helm on Oman Sail Masirah in the Extreme Sailing Series Asia, winning the Series.

A statement by Oman Sail said:

Oman Sail have enjoyed working with Torvar who has shown himself as such a bright star in the sport and wish him good luck in what is a great opportunity with the Venezia Challenge Team.

Mirsky is currently in Korea for the latest round of the World Match Racing Tour and it is believed he will continue to race in the WMRT for the rest of the 2011 season where it doesn’t compete with sailing the AC45. It is also believed that Muscat the Wave will continue to provide support to the Match Racing campaign.

The signing of Mirsky is a bit of a media coup for Venezia. While most of the other teams are helmed by the same old men who have campaigned for the cup over the last couple of decades, Torvar is a 20-something, blonde, Australian who has wide appeal – both for traditional sailing audiences, but also the strange, as yet unseen, animal that is the Facebook generation extreme sailing fan. In recent years on the World Match Racing Tour, Torvar has shown that he can also attract both male and female fans.

Expect to see Torvar Mirsky on an America’s Cup promo video near you shortly.

More America’s Cup news…

Changing Boat Designs for World Match Racing Tour

Does the world of yacht racing need any more designs? Perhaps a silly question – the sport of sailing is at least 50% about innovation and design and in some ‘open’ events, it doesn’t matter how good the sailor is outspent before the boat gets onto the water. But the World Match Racing Tour is not an ‘open’ event when it comes to the boats used. The format pits sailor against sailor – even swapping boats mid race to make sure that the vehicle gives no advantage to either side. So do the boats even matter?

When organisers of the America’s Cup decided to relaunch sailing to a new generation and use the catamaran to do it, match racing in monohulls was characterised by some of the sport’s most influentual people as old-fashioned and boring. Speed and excitement were chosen as the attributes to lure spectators rather than strategy. The new America’s Cup promises a jingoistic format – the world’s best sailors sailing the world’s fastest boats and with a ‘planned’ youth series, the America’s Cup has set itself head to head with a series like the World Match Racing Tour, which has traditionally been a recognised stepping stone to the Cup.

In order to retain the world’s greatest match racers, the WMRT has embarked on a plan to deliver great events and part of the responsibilities of new venues is to choose boats that deliver for sailors and fans. Existing venues will also be expected to update their fleets.

Rather than choose just one or two options, the World Match Racing Tour has unveiled 7 new boat designs.

The designers were presented with a tough brief, namely to create a robust, cost-effective boat that is capable of delivering exciting, tactical and fiercely-fought racing across a range of conditions, from variable winds to differing depths and unpredictable currents. The designers were further challenged by the fact the boats need to test performance sailors yet be versatile enough for corporate and club sailors to give venues a diversified income from them.

Terry Newby of Regatta International said:

“The World Match Racing Tour is delighted with the huge response it received to this brief and the fact it attracted some of the world’s best boat designers reflects the status of the Tour. Each finalist has shown a real understanding of the series’ strategic requirements and has produced a multipurpose design that will be an asset to both new and existing venues who invest in one of these designs. ”We expect everyone to benefit. The designers will increase their profile while the Tour’s venues will be associated with world class sailors using the very latest match racing boats. For the Tour, it will continue to affirm its position to fans, broadcast partners and sponsors as the arena for exciting, innovative and compelling match racing.”

Denmark Out. New Host Cities ready to replace them.

Like many sports that are trying to compete for sponsorship dollars, media and fans, the World Match Racing Tour is changing the mix of events that are part of the tour and raising standards. Like Formula One, which has embraced new host cities and new tracks at the expense of some older, more traditional circuits, the World Match Racing Tour now expects that each event meets certain criteria to be part of the tour.

The WMRT has announced that the Danish Open, which has been on the calendar for a while, will not go ahead in 2011 due to promoters not being able to fulfill their obligations.  The contract has been terminated and the event has been officially cancelled.

Terry Newby says that there are a large number of cities ready to take the place of Denmark and the additional slots that the tour plans to add going forwards.

“With the number of potential host cities growing all the time, I expect the bidding for the available spots to be hard fought. It is also pleasing to see the level of interest from other outstanding venues which are planning ahead past the 2012 and 2013 seasons.”

More World Match Racing Tour News

The World Match Racing Tour has begun its 2011 season with Match Race France in Marseilles. Having visited in 2009, we returned to see how the event stacked up against the statements of vision of the tour and against other world class events.

To make comparison easier, we are developing a scorecard that we plan to use for events visited in 2011 and beyond. Areas that will be measured include – media output, marketing, hospitality options, fan experience, management & logistics and an overall score.

The success of an event like Match Race France has to be measured differently from different points of view. The experience of a fan with access to high speed internet is very different to one who travels to watch the event live. In 2011, that was even more so.

You should have been here yesterday – but here’s one I prepared earlier.

One of the stated reasons that the America’s Cup has changed its format is to allow for an event that can be broadcast by live TV without missing its window. If the breeze is too light or too strong, then racing can’t take place.

Faced with the prospect of a 45 knot Mistral wind in Marseille on the final Sunday, the race committee decided to accelerate the program for Match Race France. This meant that by Friday night, Semi-Finals were already underway. By Saturday night, after a long day, the final was decided.

On Sunday, the wind did indeed reach speeds that would have made racing almost impossible for anything but a windsurfer. The Mistral reached speeds that would have been way outside the wind-range specified for the new America’s Cup boats and even if the competitors had braved the seas – the umpire and media boats would not have been able to operate.

So the race committee got a result, but the prize was awarded 24 hours earlier than advertised. Fine for those watching via computer screen, but not so good for anyone who had planned to see racing on Sunday. Had the event been ticketed, there would be plenty of refunds to issue.

In the end, for an event like Match Race France, it doesn’t matter much because very few people turn up to watch anyway.

The Greatest Unwatched Show on Earth.

Had there been tickets for the Saturday at Match Race France, fans would have received more than their money’s worth. The day featured semi-finals, a sponsor race and the finals as well as the prize giving ceremony. The hastily arranged final even included two French sailors. But despite banners on the side of the road and posters in shop windows, spectators have to really want to watch Match Race France.

The event website invites the general public to visit, but the Yacht Club base of the event is tucked away from the road and once the boats leave for the races, the club is almost deserted.

Watching from the water is the only way to really follow the action, but getting onto a boat can be a mission (even for media).

If you do get onto the water, then you have to be a match racing expert to follow what is going on. While the Internet audience get real-time commentary, fans on the shore, or on a boat, have no elegant way of knowing what is happening. You can tune into the live-blog or tweet stream via a smart-phone, but that’s is not really recommended for anyone visiting from outside France unless they want to face hideous data roaming bills.

This got us thinking about radio – which is something Le Mans has been using to keep fans informed for years. It’s an overlooked technology – and something we’ll return to in a different article.

I Want My IPTV

The World Match Racing Tour is investing heavily in media. Much of the action from Match Race France was streamed live via the internet, complete with live commentary from on and off the water. Alongside the video coverage was the live text blog, Twitter updates and other social media.

A global fan, with a fast connection, an HDMI lead, a big screen TV or perhaps a Roku Box, would have had a better spectator experience than someone who had made the journey for the event. Given the lack of event atmosphere, there is no benefit to actually being there.

At some point on Saturday, the live blog was being viewed by about 250 people. We don’t have any numbers yet on the live streaming, but even if there were 150 people watching, it was about 100 more than were watching from the shores of Plage de la Pointe Rouge in Marseille.

This mix of digital fans versus physical fans has an impact on the ROI of the event. If local sponsors and partners have signed up knowing that they may gain awareness of people watching via computer on the other side of the world in Malaysia, then that’s great. But if they have signed up because they are expecting an upturn in hotel room nights, inbound flights or local restaurant trade then Match Race France is not delivering.

Of course there is a small influx of athletes, officials and media, but this is not enough to raise sponsorship on the back of.

One World Tour – Some Not so World Class Events.

It’s important to remember that the history of the World Match Racing Tour has been to bring together existing, separate events under an umbrella brand. The future vision of the World Match Racing tour is to create a world class, global sporting event that can deliver to all stakeholders - including sponsors, athletes, media and fans.

It would be a good bet that Match Race France is not one of the events that WMRT is using as a model for future host ports or promoters of World Match Racing Tour slots.

While the best sailors on the 2011 tour provided great racing action, the race officials did a fantastic job of making hard decisions to make the most of the weather and Red Handed TV’s new lineup delivered a polished product to online fans – the event doesn’t cater very well for anyone who turns up expecting to experience a World Tour event.

Just as F1 has a couple of events (fewer each year) who are there for legacy reasons, the WMRT in 2011 still has some events that have their place on the tour for historical reasons. As new events are announced, and modeled along the lines of Match Cup Sweden or the Monsoon Cup, events like Match Race France will have to improve significantly to maintain their spot on the WMRT calendar.

Scores

Scoring takes account of over 40 scoring items in 5 groups, from the point of view of different stakeholders.

• Marketing –  1.8/5
• Visiting Fan Experience – 0.8/5
• Remote Fan Experience – 3.2/5
• VIP Experience – 2.3/5
• Other Factors – 2.5/5

Overall –  2.1/5

More World Match Racing Tour News

When Mick Doohan retired from MotoGP, with 5 World Motorcycle Championships under his belt, the rights holders of the championship – Dorna – went looking for a new Australian star. They found Casey Stoner, and in doing so, kept thousands of Australian fans interested in the event.

Meanwhile, in sailing. Some of the sports biggest potential ‘rock-stars’ are funding their own campaigns, sleeping on mates couches and flying budget airlines to compete in some of the world’s most elite events.

It’s a shame that Australian brands, looking to compete internationally, haven’t discovered Torvar Mirsky. Mirsky, who turns 25 later this month, has shown that he can beat the world’s best sailors and position himself as a future America’s Cup skipper. But Australian brand’s loss is Oman’s gain and The Wave Muscat will become title sponsor of the team that has a very good chance of being the World Match Racing champions in 2011.

2011 is perhaps Mirsky’s best chance to win the World Match Racing Tour. Some of his biggest rivals have stepped away from the series – Ben Ainslie to focus on the Olympics and Adam Minoprio to compete in the Volvo Ocean Race. Previously, Torvar’s team has come close, with a 2nd in 2009 and 3rd in 2010.

Sponsorship, even in a one-design competition, can be the difference between winning and losing. Knowing that  the bills are paid and that there is some money in the pot for training, allows a sailor to concentrate on winning. Torvar says:

“Traditionally our team has done everything off our own backs and as cheap as possible like staying in backpackers and relying on friends for support to live away from Australia. The support of The Wave, Muscat means that we can now put a campaign together that we allow us to take part at the level required to win the WMRT, for example we are hoping to have a coach at some events. We really appreciate the support and of The Wave Muscat and it will make such a big difference to our campaign this year.”

“This year we are out to win. We’ve done a lot of sailing this year already, but it has been six months since the last WMRT finished so we have had a big break from match racing and there are a few nerves and lot of excitement about starting up again. We need to get back in the rhythm as we want to be sailing at a high level. We know we will be a little bit rusty at the first event but we are excited about getting back into it.”

The Wave Muscat has a knack for spotting great sailing talent. The lifestyle development has used the Extreme Sailing Series to successfully promote itself to a desirable, global audience and in 2010 sponsored Paul Campbell-Jones to the top of the podium.  Sponsorship of Torvar Mirsky in the World Match Racing Tour is a no-brainer. The marginal cost is minimal and the brand gets an additional nine events to promote to.

David Stafford Vice President of Sales and Marketing at The Wave, Muscat said:

“We are delighted to be supporting Torvar and the Mirsky Racing Team in this year’s World Match Racing Tour. With Torvar also skippering The Wave, Muscat in the Extreme Sailing Series this year we were eager to extend our support of someone we believe will be a sailing superstar for many years to come.

“The Wave, Muscat’s premier 400-berth Marina ensures our country’s proud maritime heritage sits at the heart of the Muscat tourist experience. Through our support of world class sailing we hope to promote Oman as a new and exciting sailing destination. We wish the Mirsky Racing Team all the very best for the forthcoming season.”

As well as their WMRT commitments this year, Mirsky and two of his Mirsky Racing teammates, Kyle Langford and Kinley Fowler, are also racing in the Extreme Sailing Series. Mirsky is skippering the reigning champion boat, The Wave, Muscat, with Langford as tactician while Fowler is calling tactics aboard Oman Sail’s second entry, Oman Air.

The Wave Muscat Sailing Team will begin their campaign to win the World Match Racing Tour in Marseille – starting today.

More World Match Racing Tour News

In the last few years, the phrase lies, damn lies and sponsorship measurement statistics seemed to be appropriate for some sports promoters, so it is pleasing to see that some of the organisers at the commercial end of sailing are being more realistic with their annual media value reports.  Nobody wins if the numbers are too big to be believed, so while the PR firms might pick the ‘billion’ numbers for headlines, the commercial teams are making the most of the independent reviews of media value.

The World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) has released the results of an external audit into the 2010 season by REPUBCOM which uses their media evaluation model to determine a media equivalency based on similar advertising or CPT rates applied to the actual viewing audience. REPUBCOM values sporting value of events like The Ryder Cup and the Rugby Football Union. It’s great to see the World Match Racing Tour organisers invest in these independent reports (because they aren’t cheap).

Jim O’Toole, CEO of the World Match Racing Tour, said:

“REPUCOM’s globally recognised measurement and evaluation tools have taken the credibility of our sponsor friendly media platform to a new level. A branded presence with WMRT clearly offers an excellent return. We look forward to working with the REPUCOM team in analysing future results from the WMRT.”

The headline number shows that the Tour delivered a media return of USD46m from its global TV, print and digital output last season.

2010 was a rebuilding year for the Tour, with new approaches to media being implemented by new ownership and management. The tour is restructuring the venues it visits and the way media is delivered to traditional audiences and new.

Even though the numbers are more realistic, there is still some PR spin that causes LOL (that’s Laugh Out Loud for those readers who don’t text) moments. Our favourite quote from the tour in relation to the media value report is:

REPUCOM positions the World Match Racing Tour (WMRT) as a profound voice in the realms of broadcasting media.

Commenting on the landscape of sports rights ownership and the investment potential within it, Danny Townsend, President of EMEA & South Asia at REPUCOM International told us what we have known for a while. People who watch sailing are desirable for people wanting to sell high-end products:

“After completing an extensive study of the 2010 WMRT season, REPUCOM has built a significant amount of data to support the expansive media output of the Tour. The WMRT has delivered a significant media platform for its commercial stakeholders both from an aggregated media perspective but importantly to a high socio-economic viewership base that supports sailing. Sailing delivers a unique proposition which ultimately connects brands with an individual with an attractive demographic profile.”

The Tour is one of the first sailing events to align the venues for their events with markets that can also deliver Live TV. Part of the rise in the media value of the tour is due to live broadcasts on CNBC, Sky NZ, Eurosport Asia Pacific, ESPN Star Sports and CNN. News coverage also gets big weighting in media value models, often because coverage can be gained on networks that don’t support advertising. The WMRT news coverage  included Al Jazeera Sport, BBC News, CNN, Reuters, Sky Sports News and SNTV.

As the World Match Racing Tour embarks on a project to attract new host venues and promotional partners, the media value numbers are an important tool to show how the brand can pull in crowds, attract inward investment and boost tourism. Existing promoters can also measure the success of their event through these figures.

In 2010, the Portimao Portugal Match Cup achieved $2,173,537 in rated media value. This was the result of detailed activation of sponsorships on boats, and at the event. The Mayor of Portimao, Manuel da Luz, commented:

“We are talking about a well known event in the international sailing competition scene with strong media coverage. As such, Algarve gains importance both as a tourist destination and as such a region with excellent natural conditions with good nautical substructures to host international competitions. I hope the impact reaches two levels, namely the projection of Portimao as a chosen destination for some of the most important national and international nautical events and no less important more assets brought to the local economy leading to greater tourist offers and to more tourists coming to Portimao.”

One of the Tour’s best known events,  Stena Match Cup Sweden have used a long term association with the Tour to attract 55 sponsors including Stena and Audi. In 2010 Stena Match Cup Sweden saw a 200% growth on rated media value from 2009 with an approximate 30 million Euro media value. Of this, 18% was national media value and 82% international.

Stena Match Cup Sweden Event Promoter Martin Sohtell said:

“The growth has essentially been on the international media markets which have already emphasised the opening of the event to international brands. We can see indications that our local entity is receiving more exposure and getting a greater value on the international market. This is off course an exciting development and we welcome more strong international brands to get a piece of the media value of Stena Match Cup Sweden in Marstrand. The event is also creating outstanding value in brand awareness due to it being one of the only sports events that gives the boat sponsor the control of the graphics and branding on the actual tool of the sportsman. The brand awareness figures for one of the ten boat sponsor at Stena Match Cup Sweden lies in the proximity of an events title sponsor at the ATP Tour in tennis or at the European Golf Tour.”

More World Match Racing Tour news

Sigma has been a long term sponsor and partner of Match Cup Sweden, which was the blueprint event for the World Match Racing Tour. Now the Swedish company will partner with the global match racing series to provide a digital communications platform that will include “better integration with social media networks”.

A website is not enough anymore. A couple of pages that are updated at the beginning of the season and push information to visitors is not what an international sporting property needs to be delivering. And the World Match Racing Tour is looking to make the most of the huge quantities of new and historical media they have available to them.

Communication with fans has become a growing obsession with professional sailing events over the last few years. Rather than exist for sailors, the sport is becoming more aware of the need to provide a product that gives sponsorship partners the best value, and that requires developing an appreciative audience. While mass market TV might not be available in all territories to all events, social media and other technological advances – like internet based TV give all sporting promoters the ability to engage with multiple audiences on multiple levels on multiple devices

The partnership with Sigma will ensure that all media are provided with a world-class digital media center. The one-stop information service will supply the sailing media with the latest must-have information including press packs, a wealth of video content, analysis, statistics, archive information and photography, all of which will enable them to deliver coverage of WMRT to a new and improved level.

Real sports, with real sports fans have statistics, and the World Match Racing Tour with Sigma’s help, will make more of the data that is available, both real-time and historic.

Key Account Manager at Sigma, Per Kündig, said:

“We are honoured to have been chosen as a digital partner to The World Match Racing Tour. Sigma´s team is developing a world class website that will attract the Tour’s various target groups and be a natural platform for the professionals using the website as a tool on a daily basis.”

WMRT CEO Jim O’Toole said

“As a premier international sailing series we are continually looking to improve all areas of our activities and in particular our communications – whether it is how we communicate with fans or the media, or how we deliver new platforms for our partners to have a voice in the international market place. The partnership with Sigma will take WMRT’s communications to a new level, and while the first stages of the new platform will be in place ahead of our first race of the 2011 season, we will be looking to constantly develop and evolve our offering as the relationship develops.”

The first World Match Racing Tour event will take place in Marseilles, France in May.