Ericsson Use Volvo Race to Develop African Markets

Swedish telecommunications giant Ericsson has two boats in the current Volvo Ocean Race. It’s a large investment, and as with many sponsorships, not immediately obvious how sailing around the world relates to business goals.

For Ericsson, the choice of ocean racing was based on the level of technology and team work involved. The race is also a showcase for a robust multimedia platform and how it can help transform economies, particularly the emerging markets of Africa.

Henry Stenson, Vice President, Multimedia Solutions, said “we looked at activities we can get involved in to carry customers along, without them loosing focus on the services we provide.”

Ericsson has developed technologies that make it possible for fans and media to monitor the race even using their mobile phones by placing computers, cameras and internet facilities to transmit in real time. Stenson said: “With this technology you can see that it’s not just about sponsorship but about a comprehensive sales platform for our products”.

At the recent stopover in Capetown, Ericsson too the chance to use the Volvo Ocean race to target the emerging markets of Africa where technologies are making tremendous difference and transforming lives.

Initiatives include multimedia services and mobile innovation centres, energy saving solutions and the Millennium village initiatives. According to the company the initiatives are necessary because more than 90 percent of new mobile subscriber growth will be in emerging markets.

Ericsson is matching the sport and sales pitch with programs to help the market develop. Ericsson’s Head of Corporate Responsibility, Elaine Weidman said that the two millennium villages in Nigeria have shown that the rural dwellers are eager to join their counterparts in the developed worlds in the global village, adding that the political and economic environment of the country have also played major positive roles in keeping the dreams alive.

Coville and Sodeb’O wait 24 Hours

Thomas Coville has postponed his planned departure in search of the solo round the world record by 24 hours.

For the past few days Coville, the skipper of the Maxi Trimaran Sodeb’O, has been observing the evolution of a highly favourable weather window.

The weather conditions enabling a descent from Brest to the equator in less than 7 days looks possible, but there is still some doubt as regards the strength of the wind between the Canaries and Cape Verde. The team is still allowing itself the day to refine the precise hour of departure, which could take place from Tuesday morning at dawn. The decision will be made this evening, at around 2200 hours, after analysing the final grib files.

The situation at the start of the course is proving to be ideal. After setting out from Brest in a NW’ly air flow, Sodeb’O will go in search of a point to gybe in the Azores High, which is positioned a long way north and will then generate a steady E’ly tradewind enabling Thomas to adopt a direct course towards Cape Verde and the Doldrums.

A first team is currently heading towards Brest where the boat has been on standby since 29th October. Their missions? A final careening session, sail preparation and victualling with fresh products…

In order to beat the solo round the world record held since 20th January 2008 by Francis Joyon, Thomas Coville will have to return to Brest in less than 57 days, 13 hours, 34 minutes and 6 seconds.

Whenever Thomas sets off, he has all the latest multimedia toys to help you follow him at http://www.sodebo-voile.com/actu/news-eng.html

The site has widgets, podcasts, audio and video, photos all allowing a global fan-base to keep in touch while at sea. It’s a growing trend and one that delivers return on investment for sponsors as well as fans.

Let the Race (for coverage) Begin

With the start of the Vendee Globe today, the media releases have kicked up a gear, with PR agencies trying to get the most for their teams in the increasing noise. Today we have a quick look at the online offer of the UK entrants. 

Dee Caffari Aviva – www.avivaoceanracing.com

We’ve praised the brand activation skills of this team in the lead up to the Vendee Globe. The team website has all the latest toys – blog, video, wallpaper downloads and even a mobile site. Getting to aviva from the site is a little tricky though.

www.aviva.com has a link from the home page (below the fold) to a dedicated microsite www.avivaoceanracing.com/avivachallenge/

Mike Golding – Ecover – www.mikegolding.com

All the things that should be there including a link to main sponsor ecover from the top of the page. Also a competition.

www.ecover.com/gb/en/ homepage has no mention of the Vendee Globe or sponsorship of Mike Golding. With a couple of clicks you can get to a microsite: www.ecover-vendeeglobe.com/

Sam Davies – Roxy – www.roxysailing.com

We love the look and feel of this website. It’s young and cool – everything you would expect from an action sports fashion brand for girls. It is lacking some of the interactivity of other sites though.

http://www.roxy-europe.com/en/Home.html has a link to the site from the homepage. Though ‘below the fold’ it is easy to find.

Jonny Malbon – Artemis – www.artemisoceanracing.com

Clean, simple to navigate. Video and subscription to news updates. Link to sponsor in main navigation.

www.artemisonline.co.uk/ has a small tout on the homepage linking to the sponsorship.

Brian Thompson – Pindar – www.teampindar.com

All the goodies. The main feature of the homepage features a race tracker which doesn’t work in all browsers, but solidly professional. Links to the main sponsor Kingdom of Bahrain visible.

www.pindar.com/ has a tiny link at the bottom of the homepage about teampindar, but no mention of sailing.
2 or 3 clicks from the main menu gets to a page about the involvement, which is strange considering how large a part of the marketing mix sailing plays for the company.

Outside of sailing news sites, we found it extremely difficult to find anything linking back from the kingdom of Bahrain to the Vendee Globe.

Alex Thomson – Hugo Boss – www.alexthomsonracing.com

Cool carbon fibre effect website with all the latest multimedia bits and pieces. Link to Hugo Boss in main navigation (though nav is a little tricky). The brand values ooze throughout this website.

We did manage to kind the microsite, www.hugoboss-sailing.com/ from the main Hugo Boss website. Although it has some great stuff like beautiful wallpaper downloads of the boat, all navigation is removed which is a pain.

Steve White – Toe in the Water – www.toeinthewater.org/vendee/

Considering the battle that Steve had to get to the start line, his website is everything to be expected. Busy with preparations to the boat his personal site, www.whiteoceanracing.com, needs a few tweaks to promote the cause that he will be championing, ‘toe in the water.’

The charity on the other hand is up to speed with the campaign. www.toeinthewater.org/ has a link to a page with up to date livery and news.

Sebastien Josse – BT Team Ellen - www.btsebjosse.com

Part of the massively capable OC Group, which includes a dedicated multimedia agency, you would expect the online offer to be state of the art. It will be interesting to see how the combination of a French Skipper sailing for an English team will be picked up. Though Ellen Macarthur will be able to put an English spin on things, the UK media to date has been talking about the seven british sailors in the event and have dropped BT Team Ellen from much of their coverage. The website if anything is too busy – so much information packed onto the screen. Big clickable links to a BT microsite with it’s own URL www.biggerthinking.com/en/bt_team_ellen.aspx (though how anyone would find that link is a mystery for the b2b marketing boffins at BT). 

www.bt.co.uk has no mention of the sailing tie up, but does list the BT sponsorship of 2012 on the front page.

Got a Spare 9 Months? Race Around the World Online

You have to hand it to the guys at the Volvo Ocean Race. They really are embracing the advancements in technology and offering fans the chance to not only follow the race but participate – at least in the decision making process.

Armchair tacticians will be able test their strategy skills against the best offshore sailors in the world with the launch of Virtual Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 – the race’s official game.

The virtual race will mirror the 37,000 nautical miles of the world’s premier ocean race and there’s a Volvo C30 up for grabs for the winner along with a number of other prizes.

Andrew Ferguson, head of Technology and New Media, added: ”To enhance the package further we are now giving race fans the opportunity to take part in their race, with our virtual game – the competitors can create their own nine-month, 37,000 mile ocean marathon, without the salt spray and freeze-dried food.”

Now we here at yachtsponsorship.com are big fans of multimedia and participating in the event in real time is something that no other sports have attempted. You can even find our mocked up TP52, Extreme 40 Catamaran and Americas Cup boats in online competitions using the Virtual Skipper game, but 9 months?

Set a reminder. Let’s see how many sailing nuts are left at the end.