Jessica Watson Australia’s No. 1 Sailor.
August 19, 2010 by admin
Filed under Australia, Business, Other, Record Attempts
While some in the sailing world have grumbled about Jessica Watson’s record attempt, the young Australian has managed to do something that no other professional sailor has managed for a long time – become a household name.
While the Defender of the America’s Cup trials monohulls against catamarans and mounts cameras at funny angles to try and make sailing more exciting. The public don’t care. The general public want stories about people. If sailing really wants to become a mass-market sport, then it will have to create rock-stars. Not technically brilliant athletes who scurry away from the media or begrudgingly do a piece to camera for the benefit of their sponsors. Sailing needs the top people in the sport to be larger than life, PR savvy, merchandising machines.
No doubt there will be some who find this kind of commercialism a sad sell-out, but in order to survive sailing needs a Tiger Woods or a Venus Williams or a Lewis Hamilton and it can be done.
Perhaps it takes more aggressive PR to punch through to the mass-media. Take this statement that appeared on the web yesterday:
No. 1 sailor Jessica Watson has become a No. 1 author this week, when Hachette Australia announced that the teenage sailor’s memoir of her recent voyage had become the biggest selling book in Australia.
Number 1 sailor? By what measure? In a week when Australian sailors picked up gold medals in four classes at the pre-Olympic Sail for Gold regatta, no-one talking about Nicky Souter, Nina Curtis and Olivia Price in the Women’s Match Racing, the Skud-18, won by Daniel Fitzgibbon and Rachael Cox, Tom Slingsby’s gold in the Laser Men or Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen who took gold the 49er class.
We’re not attributing the statement above to Jessica or her team, but a certain percentage of people who know no better will believe it. In other words, its not the best sailors who win the battle for hearts and minds but the best salespeople.
According to the publishers, Australians purchased more than 10,000 copies of Jessica Watson’s book True Spirit in 10 days. The latest Nielsen BookScan, based on data from 1000 retailers nationwide, shows True Spirit at No.1 for the week ending August 7.
Perhaps the Defender of the America’s Cup is going down the wrong path. Perhaps sailing doesn’t need to be more exciting – it needs to be more interesting. Sailors, not their boats need to be more interesting. There is an opportunity for an athlete in the sport who is willing to be famous to step forwards and become a rock-star. If Jessica Watson can do it, then so can others.
More Jessica Watson News..
Perth 2011 Announces Fairfax Digital as Local Media Partner.
July 23, 2010 by admin
Filed under Australia, Business, Olympic Classes, Olympics, World Championship
Perth 2011 have teamed up with Fairfax Media to promote the Sailing World Championship to an Australian audience. Director of Commercial Operations Darren Beazley has announced that the event will partner with WAtoday.com.au, who will become a silver level sponsor and official online partner to the regatta.
Mr Beazley said:
“Two of our main aims at Perth 2011 are to increase awareness of the Perth 2011 ISAF Sailing World Championships and to raise the profile of the sport of sailing. The partnership with WAtoday.com.au will provide a significant boost to the Sailing World Championships with promotion of the Event and the sport, through local and national coverage via its sister sites – smh.com.au, theage.com.au and brisbanetimes.com.au – and through international readership opportunities.”
WAtoday.com.au Marketing Manager Nicola Brandon agreed that the collaboration was exciting saying:
“WAtoday.com.au is thrilled to come on board as the media partner for Perth 2011. This is a great event for sailing and for Perth. WAtoday.com.au delivers Western Australia with high quality breaking news and we look forward to sharing this Event with our visitors.”
The partnership should assist in driving traffic to the Perth 2011 website, however a quick search of the WAtoday.com.au website shows that the media outlet is a little light on sailing content, despite Perth being the home of some of Australia’s best sailors. While the portal reports on Belcher and Page winning the 470 World Championships last week, a search for Torvar Mirsky – who represents Western Australia in the World Match Racing Tour and is ranked 3rd in the world, returns zero search results.
Rolex and 7 Network Renew Sydney Hobart Race Deals Through 2015.
Rolex SA will extend its naming rights sponsorship of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and its associated regattas, the Rolex Trophy One Design and Rolex Trophy Rating Series, up to and including the 2015 race.
Rolex has been the naming rights sponsor of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Race since 2002.
Outgoing Commodore Matt Allen said:
“As one of my final duties as Commodore of this great club I am pleased to announce that Rolex will continue to sponsor one of the greatest ocean races in the world – the Rolex Sydney Hobart, for a further five years. Their commitment to the sport and to the Rolex Sydney Hobart greatly assists the international reputation of the race. From the time of Rolex’s involvement we have seen an increasing level of international interest combined with a strong Australian fleet from the smallest yachts at just over 30ft to the larger maxis at 100ft.”
“The CYCA has had a close collaboration with Rolex since it first entered into the sponsorship of the blue water classic. Their association with us has greatly enhanced the Rolex Sydney Hobart and lead up Rolex Trophy Series for the competitors and the interested followers of these events. The CYCA is delighted to make this announcement and thanks Rolex for its ongoing involvement and support.”
Seven Network to be exclusive TV broadcaster through 2015.
The CYCA have also granted an extension of the exclusive rights to broadcast the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race from 2011 to 2015 to Seven Network. The new agreement takes effective from the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race and will continue up until the end of the 2015 race.
The Seven Network will produce and broadcast nationally a 90 minute live program of the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht race, with commentary provided by CYCA member Gordon Bray, who has hosted the last three start broadcast programs. The broadcast will be supervised by Saul Shtein, Seven Network’s Head of Sport, and a former competitive sailor. Having managed the live broadcasts for the last five years Shtein knows the intricacies and technical challenges of covering yacht races and has a great idea of what the public wants.
Further, the CYCA has granted the Seven Network, through its online affiliate Yahoo!7, the exclusive worldwide internet/online rights to webstream the live 90 minute broadcast of the start of the Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race 2010 and the regular in race updates.
More Rolex Sailing News…
The Aussies Love Audi
June 10, 2010 by admin
Filed under Australia, Business, ISAF World Cup, Olympic Classes, Olympics
Australia’s Golden Boys, Mat Belcher and Malcolm Page, are a traveling billboard for Audi. By the time this year’s ISAF World Cup circuit comes to a close in Weymouth at the 2012 Olympic sailing venue, they will have hoisted their spinnaker, which is emblazoned with the Audi rings in Australia, USA, France, Spain, Holland, Germany and the UK. Last week they were in Holland, not far from the frigid North Sea and next week they will be in Germany, the home of Audi.
While the Audi rings bear some resemblance to the Olympic rings, Olympian Malcolm Page says, with a straight face, that seeing them billow out in front of him every time the spinnaker is launched “makes me think about the amazing drive I have experienced in the Audi. It also makes me want to get to the finish line quicker so that I can get into the car and warm up. In Holland the seat warmers are a necessity and bring us back to life after a cold day on the water.”
Page has the privilege of driving an A4 in Australia and the Belcher & Page London Challenge 2012 Men’s 470 Olympic sailing campaign has been traveling throughout Europe this season in an Audi Q7. Says Page of the Q7; “It’s a life saver for the four months that we are in Europe this year. The larger car allows us to cart our ‘lives’ from country to country, and the single best thing about the Q7 is its ability to tow the coach boat and our two 470′s around Europe. The ride is so smooth that we don’t realize that all of our equipment is attached to or on top of the car.”
Belcher and Page estimate that they will only drive about 8,000 kilometers throughout Europe in 2010 because their regattas are relatively close together this year. During the remainder of the year, when they are home in Australia, both sailors will put nearly 25,000 kilometers on their A4′s. “They are a work of art, not just a motor vehicle,” says Page. “They seem to have the best balance between style and performance.”
Speaking for his teammates, Page continues, “We feel very privileged to have the support of Audi. We are trying to achieve the same standards of excellence in our campaign that Audi has attained with its cars. They have developed reliable, industry-leading equipment that is attractive… although looking good is a little bit beyond our control.”
Arriving in Marseille, France in our lovely Q7 3.0TDI. Photo taken by Victor Kovalenko
The Belcher & Page London Challenge 2012 campaign is sponsored in part by AUDI, Acuity, Estate Master Sailing, Sands Resorts, Australian Sailing Team, Australian Institute of Sport, Austin Brothers, Professional Investment Services, Ronstan and generous employers, family and friends. Join the Challenge contact them at http://www.belcherpage2012.com/
More Audi Sailing News…
Queensland Promotes Yacht Racing Travel Packages.
A large percentage of sailing sponsorship, especially for major events, comes from tourism authorities. In most cases, the campaigns are pretty unsophisticated – a bit of branding on the spinnaker to increase awareness, but not a lot of activation. Events like the Volvo Ocean Race stopover in Galway have shown that people will travel to see yacht racing and buy hotel room nights and spend money to boost the local economy, however these marine tourists usually have to make their own arrangements.
It’s interesting then to see the new campaign from Queensland, Australia. The state of Queensland does tourism promotion as well as anyone else in the world. It helps that they have some great attractions, like the Great Barrier Reef, world heritage rainforest and stunning beaches, but we like the way the new ‘Season of Sailing’ joins the dots between sailing, specifically yacht racing and productised packages for tourists.
There is a microsite (www.queenslandholidays.com.au/sailing) which understands that not all tourists to Queensland are looking for theme parks and the skyscrapers of Surfers Paradise and actually supports event organisers by making it easier for visitors to attend sailing events.
The site of course positions the charter, cruising travel products that are usually the focus of sailing travel promotions, but it also highlights racing as a key part of sailing. The promotional material includes:
Choose from a range of charter boat experiences from catamarans to racing yachts; day sail options including reef and sunset cruises; or sail and stay packages that include accommodation at some of Queensland’s best tropical island resorts and beachfront apartments.
The Hamilton Island Race Week Package, for example, allows people to book with Prosail onboard one of their famous maxi yachts, live onboard the yacht berthed in Hamilton Island, enjoy the festival atmosphere by night and join in the race event by day.
This isn’t some local promoter or travel agent, capitalising on this valuable market, it is the central tourism authority.
Individual race events for Queensland’s Season of Sailing include:
- Brisbane to Keppel – August 6-10
- Airlie Race Week August 12-19
- Hamilton Island Race Week – August 20-28
- Magnetic Island Race Week – September 3-7
More Tourism News….
