With about 8 weeks to go, the America’s Cup have started to do some marketing. The Cup has a shiny new heavy metal inspired logo and a grainy, grunge video to inspire new audiences to get to Cascais to watch the boats compete.

But while the logo is bold and black and silver, the call to action is less confident.

“Sailing? You may like it now.”

How very… polite. Millions of bucks to create a shiny new sport and the pitch is not the Californian brashness that we are used to from brands like Apple, but more like a whimpering plea to pay attention.

The message is a little – ‘Excuse Mr (this is an ad aimed at men) Soccer fan and Mr F1 fan, would you mind terribly switching the channel over. We know that you have years of preconceptions about sailing, but we’ve made it better and you might like it, but we understand if you don’t. Have a nice day.’

Not one name is mentioned in the video, which features a looped set of soundbites, but the introduction features a set of blokes who want you to know that is not just another catamaran event – this is the America’s Cup.

The PR that goes with the new campaign is a little more confident. It says:

…the America’s Cup World Series is set to become the stage for nothing less than a transformation of sailing. …If you’re fortunate enough to be there in person, the racing will take place just metres from the shoreline. But if you’re not, don’t worry. Major advances in the television and web coverage of the sport, tested during the trials in Auckland, mean watching the America’s Cup has never been more compelling.

You will see and hear all of the action, as it’s unfolding, from multiple angles on board the boats. Revolutionary graphics technology will make the fast-paced action easy to understand. This is sailing from the inside out.

The best sailors on the fastest boats. That’s the promise. Now see it delivered.

Delivery of course will be the key. What do you think of the video?

More America’s Cup News

While the America’s Cup aims to make sailing cool for ‘young people’ by promising a youth America’s Cup sometime after the current guys have moved onto the 72 foot version of the AC catamaran, Jessica Watson, who is arguably the best known sailor in Australia at the moment has launched a campaign to compete in the 2011 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race.

Watson will be joined by Michael Perham, who in 2009 became the youngest person to sail around the world. The average age of the crew for the Sydney Hobart Race is just 19.

The campaign is an interesting juxtaposition against other parts of the sport and shows how personality and human interest can appeal to a wider audience while talking about the technology can leave people behind. While Olympic sailors have their heads down trying to qualify for 2012 and the ‘stars’ of other pro series are mostly reluctant media performers, Watson is in her element sharing her passion for sailing with a wide demographic.

Some in the sailing media criticised Watson’s round the world voyage on technicalities, but there is no way to underestimate or denigrate the sporting challenge that is the Sydney Hobart Race.

Garry Linacre, Commodore of the The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia (CYCA), the host of the iconic race said:

‘We look forward to Jessica’s participation in this year’s Rolex Sydney Hobart Jessica has been able to bring together a talented and committed crew that includes Alex Paton, an active member of the CYCA’s Youth Sailing Academy. It is passionate sailors such as these that are the future of sailing in Australia and we wish them all the best in their training and preparation for Australia’s most iconic yacht race, which commences at 1pm on Boxing Day.’

The full crew is Michael Perham (19),another solo circumnavigator from the UK, Peter Woodward (21), Will Broughton (19), Cameron Dale (20), Leigh Thorne (21), Alexandra Paton (20), Levi Curtin (18), Sean Lindsell (21), Genevieve Warlow (19).

More Australian Sailing News…

This article contains almost no original content by Yachtsponsorship.com writers. While we really do hate the trend of ‘cut and paste’ web content and strive to add some comment and opinion, in some cases it doesn’t add anything. Yet, we think that this story should be of interest to our audience so we offer it almost 100% as it was written by the PR people at US Sailing. In the future, stories about Sailing jobs will be published on the Dark Blue Book.

US Sailing, the National Governing Body of the sport, has officially appointed Jack Gierhart as Executive Director. Gierhart has served as the organization’s acting Executive Director since October of 2010 following the retirement of Charlie Leighton. He had served as the Associate Executive Director since November of 2009.

More than 80 individuals were considered for the position and seven candidates with a wide range of experience, expertise and perspective were evaluated by the Search Committee in interviews and through referencing. Gierhart was selected from this thorough process to lead US Sailing.

US Sailing President Gary Jobson said:

Jack has played an integral role with the organization for over six years and brings a wealth of experience to US Sailing. We look forward to working with Jack in the coming years.

Gierhart said

‘I am very excited about this opportunity to work with the board, our volunteers, and staff. We have a great team here at US Sailing, and with our current momentum there is a lot of opportunity. We will continue to focus on improving our core programs, but also look forward to new ideas, initiatives and strengthening support of local sailing organizations that are critical to the future of sailing in the United States.’

Gierhart has garnered over 20 years of sales, marketing, and general management experience in the technology and marine industries. He has spent over six years at US Sailing in two separate stints. Gierhart first joined US Sailing in 2002 as the organization’s 1st Marketing Director. During his four years as marketing director, he managed the marketing, sponsorship, web, and licensing programs. Since re-joining the US Sailing in 2009, Gierhart has been focused on growing the organization’s membership base and improving the overall information technology infrastructure, content management and outgoing communications initiatives.

Prior to his return to US Sailing, Gierhart was the founder and CEO of MessageSherpa, an online communications company, from 2007 to 2009. As Executive Vice President of Nautor’s Swan U SA, Gierhart was responsible for developing strategies and implementing sales, marketing, and customer service plans to reinvigorate U.S. business for the company. During his six years with IBM, Gierhart served as a Global Sales and Business Development Manager where he developed worldwide sales strategies and enablement programs to expand software sales and consulting services.

An avid sailor, Gierhart sails both competitively and recreationally. In addition to circumnavigating Alaska and sailing much of the east and west coasts of the U.S., he has participated in numerous Bermuda races and enjoys sailing Lasers, H12s, Shields, J/105s, and J/80s. He has been a proud member of the Beverly Yacht Club (Mass.) since 2002.

More Sailing Appointments

Who does sponsorship and marketing best?

More information has been published about the new Marine Industry Awards including the categories for which awards will be given. The judging panel is yet to be announced.

There are a total of thirteen awards listed, including prizes for innovation and powerboats, but three awards should be of particular interest to readers of this site. Though the awards are being run in conjunction with the British Marine Federation, there is nothing in the rules that precludes non British entrants.

Marine Sports Event of the Year

According to the official website, this award is for a momentous sporting occasion throughout the last year.

Judges will be looking for:

• Impressive audience or participation figures
• Visitor enjoyment
• Sponsor support
• Quality of performance in the event.

It is expected that entries in this category will come from PR agencies, sponsorship firms, advertising agencies, brands, rights holders, event organizers and charities.

Marine Brand of the Year

There are some interesting criteria here that seems to be weighted in favour of entrenched players rather then innovators, particularly the requirement that the brand be dominant within the sector.

“This award is for a brand which has performed outstandingly over the past 12 months and is representative of the standards of excellence the marine industry aspires to.”

Criteria will include:

• Dominance within the sector
• Activities and performance
• Sponsor support
• Evidence of standards of excellence

Marketing Campaign of the Year

This one is a nice fit for sponsors of sailing, though could be interpreted a lot more widely. Again, there is nothing that says the campaign has to have been undertaken by a British company or that the audience has to be a UK audience. The outline of the award category is:

“This award is for a marketing campaign for a marine initiative or one that leveraged the marine industry for commercial or charitable purposes.”

It will be interesting to see how the various sponsors of sailing stack up against each other and other marine properties. The Marine Industry Award for Marketing Campaign of the Year will be judged using the following criteria.

• Relevance and appropriateness to the marine industry
• How the rights or property were researched and selected
• Clearly defined objectives
• Evidence of how successfully these objectives were met, including details of the campaign evaluation
• Demonstration of new ideas, campaign development and creative thinking
• Integration with other marketing activities
• Well-considered and presented promotional support materials

All entries should be submitted by the 1st of August 2011.

More information about the Marine Industry Awards can be found here…

ISAF are to be congratulated on their latest appointment of former Sponsorship Manager for Skandia, Tim Sewell, as Head of Marketing and Events.

If the world governing body is going to influence and grow the professional side of the sport, it needs to attract experienced commercial operators that understand the realities of the industry. Sewell has delivered programmes that include some of Cowes Week’s most successful years with Skandia as title sponsor. Sewell has also been involved with the Olympic classes through Skandia Team GBR.

It sounds like he will be busy though. In a statement released by ISAF, Tim’s role at the Secretariat is to oversee the work of Marketing and Media, Events and Training and Development. As if marketing, media and events was not a large enough portfolio on it’s own!

Tim said:

“This is a great opportunity for me. I am really looking forward to my new role, being able to help the sport grow and ultimately put something back into the sport I enjoy so much.”

We look forward to talking to Tim in coming weeks. . .

More appointments…

The vast majority of sailing sponsorship is B2B – that is, businesses that are selling to other businesses, not to an end user or consumer. It’s perhaps not fair then to look at a list of the 100 most influential marketing people in the UK as chosen by MARKETING, and expect any of the companies they represent to be involved with the sport of yacht racing. After all, consumer brands are looking to promote themselves to a mass-marketing and sailing just doesn’t have the reach.

Nevertheless, we thought we would have a quick look down the list to see if anything caught our eye. Of the companies listed (there are less than 100 because companies like Unilever have a number of people in the list), there are only 4 that have been recently been involved with sailing or have a connection through overseas support.

At number 10 is Amanda Mackenzie from Aviva. Though the company has changed its marketing direction and reduced it’s involvement with UK offshore record holder Dee Caffari, Aviva continue to support Dee and the distinctive yellow livery will be remembered for a while yet.

At number 53 is Spencer McHugh from Orange. While not currently active in the UK, the brand does support sailing, particularly grass roots programmes in France.

Euan Sutherland from Kingfisher is listed at number 58. The company is still reaping the rewards of sponsoring Ellen McArthur, with a photo from 2005 adorning the landing page of the British sailor’s website.

Finally at number 60 is Peter Duffy of Audi. The automotive brand is investing heavily in sailing all around the world, and is perhaps the most visible brand in the sport at the moment.

In case you have a great proposal and want to reach the top consumer marketing people in the UK, here is the top 20. The full list can be found here.

1. Phil Thomas, Reckitt Benckiser
2. Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury’s
3. Mark Lund, COI
4. Roisin Donnelly, Procter & Gamble
5. Jill McDonald, McDonald’s
6. Richard Hodgson, Waitrose
7. Elizabeth Fagan, Boots
8. Keith Weed, Unilever
9. Dianne Thompson, Camelot
10. Amanda Mackenzie, Aviva
11. Richard Brasher, Tesco
12. Kerris Bright, British Airways
13. Sally Cowdry, O2
14. Troy Warfield, Kimberly-Clark
15. Jonathan Mildenhall, Coca-Cola
16. Gavin Patterson, BT
17. Kevin Brennan, Kellogg
18. Chris Jansen, British Gas
19. Jennelle Tilling, KFC
20. Rick Bendel, Wal-Mart

The following article has been adapted for one I wrote on my blog.

Some sponsorship just makes sense. Regular readers of this site will know that two of the sports I am involved with are sailing and motorsport. While there are a lot of similarities, there are also some big differences.

Probably the biggest difference between the sport of sailing and motorsport is the fundamental reason for doing it in the first place. While yacht racing exists primarily for its competitors to go sailing, motorsport exists to sell more cars. The phrase “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” comes from a belief that consumers are influenced by a brand’s involvement in the sport and it will influence the purchase decision.

Car manufacturers believe this mantra, even in series like F1, where the car being raced bears no resemblance to the vehicles in the dealer forecourt. On the other hand, it is extremely rare to see manufacturers of sail-boats involved at all in the sport of sailing. When I say manufacturers, I am talking about companies that make the boat itself. Those who make and sell clothes, sails, instruments and other bits and pieces do buy into the concept of racing being a worthwhile platform to promote their wares.

A contrary example was the use of Bavaria yachts in last week’s Match Race Germany. The company has been the official ‘Boat Sponsor’ since 2004 and has signed up for further activity next year.While the competitors were not thrilled with the boats, Bavaria’s customers were able to relate to the high-performance attributes of the product.

Jasmin Müller, Marketing Manager of Bavaria said:

“Match Race Germany is key for our involvement with an international racing series. We are really pleased today that the WMRT enabled one of our guests to actually race on board a Bavaria 35 match with the elite crews”.

One of the excuses given by yacht manufacturers for not backing racing is that their customer base is interested in cruising not racing, but also that they are small companies and “it’s just not the same as F1″. I’ve never really bought into that argument, but couldn’t think of an example that made sense. Now I can.

Abarth is a small car manufacturer. Admittedly part of the much larger Fiat Group, the brand exists for sales and marketing purposes in its own right. The company doesn’t produce many units – far less than some of the production yacht builders, and the sales price of the Abarth products are also less than the price of production boat builders. Nevertheless, Abarth has created a one-make racing series that is now running in Europe and the UK.

The race version of this car is almost identical to the one you can buy from your local Abarth dealer, however the usage of the vehicles is obviously vastly different. The belief by yacht manufacturers that customers are not interested in racing because they are buying their boats for cruising is like saying that Abarth owners are not interested in racing because they are going to use the car to pick up groceries.

While the idea that winning converts to sales is well accepted, it is extremely difficult to measure. Digital technology has made it easier to track conversion for products bought online, but for products like a car, bought at a dealership, the only way to really know what influenced the transaction is to ask the customer. This week, I heard such a story…

As part of the marketing for the Trofeo series we reach out to fans and invite them to be VIP guests for the weekend. All they have to do in return is record their experience on a Flip video camera that we supply. We call it ‘Fan with a Cam‘. After the 2nd round of the championship at Silverstone, I was approached by a fan who had attended the event asking to buy hospitality tickets for his girlfriend. Instead, I offered him the chance to become our ‘Fan with a Cam’ for the latest round at Cadwell Park.

It turns out that the real Abarth fan was his girlfriend. Speaking to her over the weekend she revealed that she had wanted to buy an Abarth 500 for nearly a year, but upon watching them race at Silverstone, the home of the British Grand Prix, she left the racetrack with a single purpose – to buy one. And she did. Back at a different racetrack 4 weeks later she was the very proud owner of an Abarth 500. Not just a customer, but a fan.

The story is a nice reminder that marketing does not exist for its own sake. Interactions are not the same as transactions. For all the talk of household TV reach and media value, it’s useless unless someone goes out and makes a buying decision as a result. The sport of sailing needs to remember that.

Despite the glamour and perceptions of wealth, many organisations involved with yacht racing cry poor when it comes to spending money on things like marketing and PR. It’s not a behaviour confined to sailing though, with large football teams and F1 teams using their brand and popularity as leverage when buying services. In some cases, professional services will be bartered for sponsorship, it’s also not unhead of for such organisations to play on the passions of people involved with the sport to reduce costs – the line goes something like; “well there are plenty of people who would love to work in this industry who will do it for less, even free…”

This attitude has to be weighted against the maxim; “you get what you pay for” and over recent years, as yacht racing gradually moves from being a sport to being a business, organisations who are trying to benchmark themselves against other sports businesses like football and F1 are starting to realise that generating awareness outside of the sailing market requires spending money.

The VELUX 5 OCEANS, has appointed leading strategic communications agency Hill & Knowlton to handle a global media relations brief utilising their network of offices around the world.

Through their network, centrally co-ordinated from London, Hill & Knowlton’s Sports team will assist the race communications team with the PR and activation of the race via offices in France, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, the United States, Germany and Poland. These key territories reflect both the route of the race, the nationalities of the participating skippers and a number of key markets of title sponsor VELUX Group.

Tim Kelly, VELUX 5 OCEANS Race Director of Communications, said

“Following a competitive tender process around the world, Hill & Knowlton presented a very creative pitch, offering a unique solution of a global network which ideally suits the international nature of the VELUX 5 OCEANS. This network offers us flexibility, synergies and a base of knowledge sharing which adds significant value to the race media team. Given their energy, enthusiasm and experience, I have no doubt that this will be a highly successful partnership.”

Andy Sutherden, Head of Sports, Hill & Knowlton said:

“This is a great win for H&K. We were able to demonstrate the breadth and depth of our experience across our network. This combined scale and expertise will help the VELUX 5 OCEANS team deliver international fame and excitement for this global sporting event, and we are delighted to add them to our list of blue chip clients such as Gillette, Aviva, adidas and Castrol”.

More Velux 5 Oceans Race News…

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.

A while back, we interviewed Simon Kearsley; CEO at Accounting Software Vendor bluQube. Simon has written a piece for business website Fresh Business Thinking outlining again why he uses sailing as a platform for achieveing his marketing goals.

Here are some excerpts from the article…

In the beginning, we looked at a range of different sports sponsorship but finally eliminated these in favour of sailing. We felt that this sport uniquely had the right attributes to complement our own company identity and product branding and were convinced that many of our target audience such as CFOs, Finance Directors and other senior managers would share an affinity with sailing.

Many often feel that sponsorship is a bit of a luxury and is one of the first things to go when marketing budgets are squeezed. For bluQube though it has been a completely different story, one that many other organisations could learn from.

Like many companies we operate in a highly competitive marketplace often against rivals that sell similar solutions but may have far larger marketing budgets. Like other forms of PR, sponsorship can help level the playing field as well as promote you as different from the rest of the pack.

As a result of sponsorship bluQube has gone from an unknown brand to becoming a key player in the accounting software world. But how has this happened? The mistake that many organisations make regarding sponsorship is that they sign a deal, part with the funding, then sit back and wait for something to happen. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that and the size of the return will be proportional to the effort and conviction you put into the project.

What Dreams are made of

The advantage of sailing sponsorship is that it gives you the opportunity to present an on-going human interest commentary often tied into events within the sailing calendar. Amongst other races such as the FastNet, the OSTAR was Katie’s biggest challenge and attracted the most interest, not only from the media but also amongst our existing customers and prospects. What was even better though was that Katie, aged 22, also managed to set a record for being the youngest ever female competitor to finish the race. This is the kind of press you can only dream of and translated into pages of coverage in national (The Sunday Times), business (Management Today) and lifestyle (Womens Fitness) press. In parallel we ran a series of communications with existing and potential customers which kept them updated with Katie’s progress. We even created our own bluQube blog which was hugely popular.

Get the balance right

My advice to others contemplating sponsorship is that you need to consider how it fits into your overall plan.
If it’s just stuck out on a limb and has no part in all your other marketing messages and campaigns then you could waste a big part of your investment because not enough people know about your sponsorship and it may jar with the rest of your branding.

500% return

From our own experience I can confidently say that the return so far from our investment has been as much as 500%, which is staggering when you look at typical ROI from other types of marketing expenditure such as advertising.

What can sailing sponsorship deliver

• Unique hospitality and networking events for existing and prospective customers (e.g. Sailing days etc.)
• Beating the gatekeeper – information on sailing can break down the usual barriers of getting in front of decision makers
• Differentiation, credibility and the ability to compete against larger competitors in the marketplace
• Motivation for own staff and understanding/reinforcement of key brand values
• On-going market research
• Lead generation through PR linked to sponsorship
• Visibility of your brand on a national & global stage e.g. bluQube has had branding within the last 12 months in Vendee Globe, Cowes Week, London & Southampton boat shows, FastNet race & The Silicon Cup
• Empathy with target audience due to own interest in sailing giving opportunity to reach prospects in a ‘soft’ way
• Full boat branding & opportunity for merchandising e.g. clothing, mugs etc.

www.bluQube.co.uk