They survey covers 21 different types of beach and boating activities and the general numbers show that there are some increases in participation, but there is no significant change in participation for small sailboat racing or yacht racing. In other words, from a participation level the sport is stagnant with no growth.

What’s even more worrying is that there is decline in participation in the 16-34 year old demographic, balanced out by slight increases in the 35-54 and 55+ age brackets. Diversity is also pretty low with the figures showing the sport to be male dominated and almost exclusively white.

The report finds

• Small sailboat racing participation rate – 0.44% (175K – 266K people) with a best guess at 218,067 participants.
• Yacht racing participation rate – 0.20% (67K – 131K people) with a best guess at 99,049 participants.

The study also shows that 60% of people involved in Yacht racing are members of clubs, but small boat racing has seen a decline in club membership from 50% several years ago to 42% in 2009.

The sport seems to be doing a pretty bad job of marketing itself. Most participants try sailing because they are introduced to it through a friend. In the world of social media, this is an opportunity for those involved in the sport to promote it and keep it alive.

The current trend of major sailing events being paid for out of tourism and travel budgets seems to be justified, with many people trying sailing for the first time on holiday. 0% of people cited seeing advertising or watching the sport on TV as a reason for taking up sailing. 1.4% cited attending an event or show as a reason for starting to participate in sailing.

The reason given for people stopping sailing are also enlightening.

Participation and viewership are not the same. Hopefully there is a larger audience for yacht racing than just the competitors. The America’s Cup should have been the sport’s Ice Hockey gold medal game, but like the participants, people have just lost interest.

For those looking to find sponsorship for UK events or sailing projects, the report has quite detailed demographic information relating to participation at a regional level around the UK.

More information can be found at www.britishmarine.co.uk

By the time this post goes out via our daily email, Australia and New Zealand will have already left 2009 and the ‘noughties’ behind. It’s been an interesting year and an even more interesting decade.

Thanks to you for reading and helping Yachtsponsorship to achieve huge growth in 2009. I am always thrilled to find out that this site is considered a ‘must read’ by many influentual people in the business, not just of sailing, but sports marketing and sponsorship.

Happy New Year. See you in 2010

Here are our top stories of 2009, determined by the number of times they were read.

1. Measuring Sports Sponsorship – ROI? ROO?
2. Two More Open 60’s Go Up for Sale.
3. Is Yacht Racing a Pretend Business?
4. The World’s Top 200 Sports Properties? Did Sailing Make it?
5. Where to Spend £10 Million… in Sailing
6. Sponsorship Value – The Commerical case for a DOG Match.
7. The Changing Face of Yacht Racing. Oman Sail Launches A100.
8. Louis Vuitton World Series Shows Promise.
9. iShares Cup 5th Man – The Best Seat in Sport?
10. Who’d Sponsor AC33?

Your top story not in the list? Let us know in the comments below which was your top story of 2009 and why.

Over the last few weeks, we have been writing up our insights from the World Yacht Racing Forum. These articles are a combination of notes made during the presentations and other relevant material from our coverage of the Yacht Racing world in 2009. Some of the articles cover an entire session and some have been broken down into smaller pieces. Some of the panel discussions are not covered. LINKS ARE IN BLUE.

Welcome and Opening Comments, Peter Gilmour Event Promoter & Pro Sailor

Keynote Opening Address, Tom Whidden, President North Marine Group

The Commercial Case for Sailing Sponsorship

Panelists include:

• Richard Moore, CEO, Capitalize
• Richard Brisius, CEO, Atlant Racing
• Karin Bäcklund, Director, Global Sponsorship and Brand Partnership, Volvo Car Corporation
• Mark Turner, CEO, OC Group

How Can Sailing deliver Economic, Financial and Branding Benefits for Host Cities and Ports?

Panelists include:

• Maria Moynihan Lee, Festival Director City of Galway
• Christian Feichtinger, CEO, PROFS
• Daniel Calero, Manager, Puerto Calero – Canaries
• Jose Antonio Muñoz, Manager of the Andalucia Sports Bureau, Ministry for Tourism, Trade & Sports of Andalucia
• William Ward, CEO, Clipper Ventures

Measuring Success – Using Practical tools to evaluate and measure Event and Sponsorship Returns, Ulrich Lacher, Managing Director, IFM Sports

Leveraging the Sponsorship Deal – How to maximise the Investment

Panelists include:

• Daniel Miles, Group Head Marketing, Puma
• Henrik Sund, Managing Director, Grow AB
• Michael Rasmussen, Chief Marketing Officer, Velux
• Nathalie Quéré, Head of Global Sponsorship, BT Global Services

Tapping into new Media audiences – The Future of Sailing on the Web, in Gaming and Television

Panelists include:

• Ian Taylor, CEO, Virtual Eye
• Richard Simmonds, Managing Director, Sunset & Vine
• Marijn Harinck, Founder, United Games
• Jean-Dominique Lauwereins CEO, Be Tomorrow
• Philippe Guigné, CEO, Many Players

Keynote Opening Address, Michel Desjoyeaux, Multi Vendee Globe Winner

Cutting Racing Costs – How to reduce costs to meet the challenges of today’s economic climate?

Panelists include:

• Knut Frostad, CEO, Volvo Ocean Race
• Ignacio Triay, Director, Audi MedCup Circuit
• Josh Hall, CEO, Portimao Global Race
• Dominique Wavre, President, IMOCA
• Riccardo Simoneschi, CEO, B Plan Marketing

Governing the Sport of Yacht Racing – What Can Sailing Learn from other Sports in improving its commercial offering?

Panelists include:

• Scott Macleod, Senior Vice President New Business Sony Ericsson WTA Tour
• Jerome Pels, Secretary General, ISAF (International Sailing Federation)
• Nick Fry, Chief Executive, Brawn GP
• Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, Chairman, Clipper Ventures

What is the Future of Multihull Racing?

Panelists include:

• Cam Lewis, Professional Sailor
• Franck David, Project Manager, MOD 70
• Mitch Booth, Tornado Olympic Gold Medallist
• Michel Desjoyeaux, Multi Vendee Globe Winner
• Herbert Dercksen, CEO, Extreme

America’s Cup Presentation by BMW ORACLE Racing, Russell Coutts, CEO and Skipper

America’s Cup Presentation by Team Alinghi, Brad Butterworth, Skipper and Vice-President

The America’s Cup, what is the future for the Challengers?

Panelists include:

• Russell Coutts, CEO and Skipper, BMW ORACLE Racing
• Brad Butterworth, Skipper and Vice-President, Team Alinghi
• Paul Cayard, Professional Sailor
• Stephan Kandler, CEO, K Challenge
• Magnus Holmberg, Skipper, Victory Challenge
• Sotoris Buseas, CEO, Greek Challenge
• Marcus Hutchinson, Director, Team Origin
• Nicolo Bastianini, Vice Chairman and legal advisor of Green Comm Challenge

First the travel and tourism angle. Tasmanian Minister for Tourism and the Arts, Michelle O’Byrne, has announced a partnership with the ‘Big Boat Racing Team’ for the 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. The partnership will give Tasmania a valuable digital presence and association with some of the biggest names in the online world. The Big Boat Racing Team is headed up by well-known yachting identity, Ludde Ingvall, a previous Sydney to Hobart race winner on two occasions.

So why are Tasmania investing promotional dollars this way?

“This exciting partnership will harness the incredible national and international interest in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, and allow Tasmania to promote itself as a vibrant and exhilarating destination to a global audience. Tasmania will have prominent online exposure through logo placement and direct links to Tourism Tasmania’s website from BigBoatRacing.com – the website that will show the live feed from Big Boat Racing Team’s yacht YuuZoo – and via other social media and networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Blogger that will carry live text feeds from the crew.

It’s not just about exposure though. As many sponsors are telling us, this is about engaging certain audiences.

“As part of the partnership, Tourism Tasmania will be giving a young Tasmanian yachtsperson the experience of a lifetime, securing them a berth aboard YuuZoo to take part in the 2009 Rolex Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race. They will be blogging during the race, providing insights about Tasmania as well as what it’s like to race in one of the best-known yacht races around the world. We have also secured a place on board for award-winning international photojournalist, David Liscio, whose credits include National Geographic, Sail and Sailing magazines, newspaper USA Today, and AP and Reuters news services.

Travel is one industry that ‘gets’ social media. At the World Travel Market this year in London, many companies realised the strong connection between the way people buy travel online and make research decisions about where to go based on peer reccomendation.

“The digital opportunity this partnership presents for Tasmania is significant and fits very well with our digital marketing strategy for 2010,” Ms O’Byrne said. Social media interaction is a key component of our digital strategy, and for our industry it is vital that we have a channel to provide direct access to information and online bookings for travel to the state, and this partnership delivers that.

The team has done a deal with YouTube to live stream the race fromm the boat. Working with YouTube, and supported by co-sponsors such as Dell, HTC and Logitech,  Maxi-Yacht YuuZoo is aiming to reach 500,000 viewers.

For sailors, the PR is a little confusing. The team aims to “set the record for the world’s largest ‘crew’ in a sailing event by bringing a non-spectator sport into the palm of your hand and to living rooms around the world.” The word crew implies that those watching the various feeds will have some kind of active part in the sailing of the boat, but as far as we can tell, those in the digital world will just be along for the ride.

The team’s facebook page is here…

The dedicated YouTube page is here…

One of the main themes of day one of the 2009 World Yacht Racing Forum was that different sponsors are looking for different things and therefore measurement of return on investment is not standard. A B2B company wants different outcomes to a B2C company. Then of course there is B2G (Business to Government) which has a totally different sales approach and cycle.

It was interesting then to compare stories from PUMA, Velux and BT – each of whom have chosen different platforms within sailing to target their particular audience and communicate different messages.

We’ve been big fans of PUMA since they arrived on the sailing scene. They have some advantages over other sponsors – they are business to consumer. They are selling a sailing related item. They have lots of sports marketing experience from outside the yacht racing world and they can leverage activity in other sectors like fashion and music.

The tone of everything PUMA does in sailing is different. The soundtrack is rock music, not classical. The soundbites are raw, with the real feelings of competitors laid bare, not rehearsed and massaged PR pieces.

Daniel Miles, Group Head Marketing, PUMA  presented to the forum some of the ways in which the company set out to win the race from a sponsorship point of view. The strategy included owning the boat, showcasing the gear, picking the right team (on and off the water), PUMA city and working hard on media.

The campaign leveraged the wow factor of PUMA’s biggest selling sneaker through the boat livery, incorporating an element of ‘sex sells’ by introducing fashion shows and playing on cultural differences. The activation of the PUMA campaign was just as important as the race – the ideal to get the sailing clothes out of the confines of the chandlery. The company estimates that through activities not connected to the race over 44,000 members of the general public connected with the PUMA brand.

PUMA also decided to work with other non-competing companies. This is a practise that happens a lot in other sports. Many rights holders create ‘business clubs’ that allow sponsors and partners to do business with each other as well as external customers. Often the relationships developed in the race village can deliver real returns. The example cited by PUMA is getting together with ‘competing’ sponsor Ericsson to develop ways to use mobile as a platform for communication.

Puma also understood, that while getting the best sailors together to try and win the race was important, the supporting team also needed to be the best in class. Many in sport subscribe to the idea: “if it doesn’t make the car/boat go faster, then why should I spend money on it.” The smart sponsors realise that to win the media race costs money.

The afternoon started with another outsider’s point of view. Ulrich Lacher, Managing Director, IFM Sports began his presentation by restating the size of the sponsorship market. From his point of view it’s worth about $US 45 billion of which 88% is devoted to sport. Sailing makes up about 1% of that. Those sponsoring sport are thinking twive about it though and media value is not enough any more.

Even though only 1/3 of (German) football sponsors can be recalled, sponsors feel safe with large, well understood sports. There are several things that Ulrich identified that hinder yacht racing’s ability to lure sponsorship away from other sports. One of the key issues is that a sponsor has to choose from 50-60 events that have no hierachy. It’s difficult for sponsors to know where exactly to invest.

One solution offered to rights holders would be to link up with non-sailing events to offer joint pitches. This might take a while. It’s hard enough for sailing rights holders to team up with each other, let alone other events.

The calendar is also important. Annual events held on the same date every year help storytelling consistency.

Sponsors in 2010 are looking for individual systems, tailored to their requirements. This means that sponsorship hunting becomes harder, as every presentation needs to be bespoke. Gone are the days of printing 200 presentations, changing the name and mailing them out in hope.

We’ve said it over and over again, but there is a concept that seems to be gaining ground, even amongst the measurement community. It’s an important concept that people writing sponsorship pitches need to understand….

“Household distribution is not the same as the actual audience.”

In other words, the fact that there are 400 million televisions sets that potentially could have tuned into your show because they have a subscription to a channel does not mean that anyone saw it.

Sponsors are increasingly using a ‘balanced scorecard’ approach to evaluate promotional options. These scorecards are individual and go against some in the industy who are calling for a standardised approach. If everyone is trying to achieve a different goal with a different audience, then the evaluation can’t be standardised across the board.

The key words for rights holders and those looking for sponsorship: Partner, Accountability, Flexibility and Transparency.

The summary from Ulrich Lacher,

• Understand your product and offer.
• Understand your partner requirements.
• Tailor your package based on your partner requirements.
• Monetise all areas.

If you haven’t been in Sydney on Boxing Day, it’s hard to imagine the importance of the race to the Australian summer sporting psyche. Boxing Day is a day for eating Christmas lunch leftovers and watching the Boxing day test match (Cricket) and the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race start.

While there will be 116 boats on the start line, most of the attention will be on the Super Maxis – the race to the ‘heads’ and the right hand turn south.

As sponsorships go, the naming rights for these super-maxi yachts is pretty good value. Using the old fashioned ‘equivalent media value’ measures, the names of the brands are mentioned over and over again during coverage of the start and the race and coupled with huge spinnakers gives great recall and recognition. Think of ICAP Leopard, Wild Oats, Alfa Romeo and Australian Skandia.

But before there was Skandia, there was Wild Thing and since the financial services company changed ownership in Australia, the company has pulled out of sponsoring ‘Geelong Week’ and Grant Wharington’s Super Maxi.

Wharington though, has an interesting concept for finding a new title sponsor. A raffle – where every $AUD 10,000 ticket could win a chance of naming rights for the boat including the Sydney Hobart Race.

Here’s how it works.

Step 1: You buy a Wild Thing Corporate Sailing package on the 100 footer for $10,000 and you get to take 25 people out sailing on the boat for the ride of their life in your choice of location: Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart, Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Stephens.

Step 2: For that same $10,000, you also go into the draw for your company and your brand to win the naming rights of the boat until mid 2010 – the launch of which will be the start of the Rolex Sydney to Hobart on Boxing Day – the great race that attracts huge national and international exposure.

Wharington says:

“The Wild Thing Yachting team has always had incredible support in the wider community, and it’s that support we’d love to underpin the new future of the boat and the crew” he said.

“We don’t have the million dollar budgets of our competitors, and never will have…we run a Corinthian sailing team where everyone commits to getting the yacht to the start line on Boxing Day – but without some corporate support, it’s really tough to compete at this level…”

“It’s a great opportunity to join the Wild Thing team, in the pursuit of one of Australia’s most sought after sporting trophies. I can’t guarantee you that we will be first to Hobart, BUT, I can tell you that as always we will bust our guts trying “

The draw for the new Naming Rights sponsor of Wild Thing will be conducted under the strict supervision of the President of Yachting Australia Mr Andrew Plympton , on the 8th of December, live on 3AW Breakfast program with Ross Stevenson and John Burns and streamed live on the 3AW website.

For more information contact Jody O’Brien on +61 416 222 899

Pantaenius (UK) Ltd announced at the Southampton Boat Show yesterday that they will be sponsoring the YJA Yachtsman of the Year and YJA Young Sailor of the Year Awards for the next three years. The awards were previously sponsorsed by Raymarine. The sponsorship is believed to be worth £75,000 over 3 years.

The Yachtsman of the Year Award was initiated in 1955 by the late Sir Max Aitken, Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot, chairman of Express Newspapers and himself a leading yachtsman in both sail and power. He subsequently won the award in 1977 in recognition of his services to the sport. He commissioned the Yachtsman of the Year trophy which now bears the names of the greatest achievers in British yachting over the past five decades.

As a result of the the backing, the awards will become the YJA Pantaenius Yachtsman of the Year Award and the YJA Pantaenius Young Sailor of the Year Award.

The partnership will include a tie-up at the PSP Southampton Boat Show with nominations for the awards open at the Pantaenius stand E010.