Larry Ellison Talks to ABC about Boats, Budgets and Bases.

The America’s Cup is back in America. Celebrations over the weekend marked the arrival of the Auld Mug via a first class seat and the lobbying for host city began.

BMW ORACLE boss Larry Ellison gave an interview to ABC that touched on some of the issues that will define AC 34 including the venue and what kind of boats might be used.

The interview reveals that if the America’s Cup community agree, then the format of the next event might be skewed towards being more commercial, more spectator friendly and less traditional. Ellison says he will consult with sponsors on some of the decisions, which will include where the racing will take place.

Perhaps BMW ORACLE have media figures that we haven’t seen. Ellison says that young people want to see extreme racing and that a lot of people enjoyed watching the event in Valencia because of the radical nature of the boats. It’s not like fans were ever given a choice of what boats they wanted to watch, and a lot more people watched AC 32 than tuned into the monster trimarans. While most would argue that professional yacht racing needs to provide compelling products, the (non New York Court) jury is still out as to whether the America’s Cup is the right platform to deliver that product.

The interview also talks about budgets, with Ellison throwing out a number of $2-3-4 million for a campaign in AC34.

See the complete interview here….

Sponsors Named for America’s Cup 33 In Valencia.

Nobody would call the road to the 33rd America’s Cup conventional. The on again, off again nature of the process has meant that there have been question marks hanging over dates, venues and other key factors effecting the positioning of sponsorship for the event. However, as many who work in sponsorship know, some of the best deals to be had are those that can be done at the last minute.

The Mayoress of Valencia, Rita Barberá has introduced the official sponsors for this version of the Amercia’s Cup. El Corte Ingles, Estrella Damm, Iberdrola of Spain are joined by the Swiss company Hublot.

Now that it has been announced that the event will be broadcast live via the internet and picked up by broadcasters like Eurosport, the 33rd America’s Cup has more chance of delivering a return on investment via using the traditional measure of media value. Estrella Damm also have the added benefit of being able to sell a consumable product, so any media value is a bonus to the revenue acheived from pouring rights at the event.

Rita Barberá said she considered the deal a great example of the collaboration of Spanish business with Valencia and with the sport:

“Sponsors are a crucial part of the 33rd America’s Cup. I would like to extend our thanks in the name of all Valencians to Hublot, El Corte Inglés, Estrella Damm, Iberdrola and all the other sponsors and supporters of this project.”

Each of the companies have different reasons for supporting the event, but as well as the generic themes that apply to all top level sport like competition, the sponsors talked about some of the positioning benefits that sailing provides.

Pau Pérez Rico, from El Corte Inglés, commented:

“For El Corte Inglés it is very satisfying to share with Valencia, one more time, all the emotion and appeal of the top sailing competition, which represents all the values of effort, control of the elements and respect for the sea and the environment. It makes sense that El Corte Ingles repeats their support of the America’s Cup. I would like to wish both teams and the sailors, bon vent i bona vela –good winds and good sailing.”

Estrella Damm’s Federico Segarra said:

“This sponsorship is a good example of the commitment of Estrella Damm to the city of Valencia and with the sport. The America’s Cup is a very important event for the company, as we hold good memories from our participation at the previous edition.”

Iberdrola’s Juan Bolinches, took the opportunity to comment:

“By participating as sponsors of the event, the Iberdrola Group reasserts our commitment to the Comunidad Valenciana, where we have our Iberdrola Renovables head office and the Iberdrola Team base. I would like to mention that our base at the Port America’s Cup will be open to the visit of school kids and guests, to follow the race and discover this passionate sport.

More America’s Cup News

Bruno Troublé Comments on the Louis Vuitton Trophy, Nice.

The Louis Vuitton Trophy in Nice is a relatively risky undertaking, even with the backing of the long time America’s Cup luxury goods sponsor (sorry – partner) and Bruno Troublé. The event was hastily arranged and the Nice was not the first choice for the November date.

Troublé has spoken about how the new event came to be on the Côte d’Azur and where we might see the Louis Vuitton Trophy next.

“We were supposed to go to Hong Kong in November but because there was only one place to go in Hong Kong, and the pier there was not finished, we had to cancel Hong Kong in June. We were willing to have an event in November, so we managed to convince Nice very very quickly.”

“At the end of the season there are not many places in Europe where you can sail: Marseilles, for example, is a great venue, but the wind is blowing 40 knots every day. Nice is also a very dynamic city. The Mayor is also the Minister of Industry, so he has a lot of power and he managed to make a decision in a week, whereas normally with public support like that takes months. So he is so powerful he has no problem to make a decision and then make it happen.”

The Louis Vuitton Trophy has improved upon the mecahnisms available to teams to promote their sponsors. One of the reasons for the event was to try and salvage some media value for partners who have been denied an America’s Cup appearance thanks to the squabbling between Alinghi and BMW ORACLE.

Troublé is proud of the technique they have introduced allowing teams to show their own branding on board. Each team purchases their own genniker from the organisers, while at the beginning of each day team a large patch with the team branding and logo is velcroed on to the mainsail in reverse order that the teams will be sailing a particular boat. When teams swap boats the outgoing team simply peels off their mainsail branding cleverly revealing the branding of the incoming team.

Louis Vuitton Trophy regattas in 2010 are planned for – Auckland in March, La Maddelena, Sardinia in May-June, Newport, RI in August and Hong Kong in November.

BMW ORACLE Official Event Keeps Sponsors Happy.

With the legal proceedings coming to an end, BMW ORACLE have held an event for sponsors which the press release describes as the “first official presentation of the team.” For readers of this site, there was no real news – the biggest story of the day was that BMW ORACLE have confirmed that Australian James Spithill will helm the trimaran USA for the Deed of Grudge Match in February.

From an outsider’s point of view, it was a typically corporate kind of show. Although the public had been invited, they were excluded from the event itself but according to the PR people – “The public enjoyed the show from the adjacent public area behind the Convention Center.” Sentiment monitoring of Twitter shows some dissent from that view, so perhaps there was a miscommunication about what the event was all about and who it was for.

Several of the VIP Guests sent a Twitpic or two and one uploaded a video to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ub2fDmHaws – otherwise, the press swallowed the headline about the helmsman.

Journalists had the opportunity to ask questions during part of the event – the video of that is below…

There’s also a catchy little happy smiley vid on the BMW ORACLE Racing website. - kids jumping on the trampoline etc, (we’d share it here, but there is no embed code available).

So as we said yesterday – the battle for hearts and minds is on. Arguably it is more important for BMW ORACLE as the perception of their sponsors’ brands are at stake, but both sides will be trying to use whatever communications tricks they have to build up to February.

ORACLE Joins ‘Green’ RC44 Circuit as a Partner.

Russell Coutts and the RC 44 Class Association are keeping it in the family with the announcement of Oracle as partner alongside DHL, BMW and SLAM. As the America’s Cup remains stalled in the New York court’s, the sponsors of the American syndicate are attaching themselves to other series where the team competes.

Class Manager Bertrand Favre said:

‘We are very pleased to welcome Oracle as a partner of the Class alongside our logistics supplier DHL, BMW and SLAM’. The support of these prestigious brands is a fantastic boost and a testimony to the quality of our work over the past years.’

RC44’s other major sponsor, DHL, is going for a green message.

Wolfgang Giehl, Senior Vice President Corporate Branding & Advertising for Deutsche Post DHL said:

‘Now we are particularly delighted to announce that commencing in 2009, DHL will ensure that the transportation is carbon-efficient, in line with the sport of sailing itself, by reducing the footprint of the tour and offsetting unavoidable carbon dioxide emission for transportation. It’s a positive and tangible demonstration of Deutsche Post DHL’s commitment to lean-carbon logistics and minimizing our impact on the environment.’

While the sport of sailing itself is powered by the wind and therefore more environmentally friendly than motorsport or P1 powerboats, the sport in general has a long way to go to being green. While the boats might be transported as efficiently as possible (excluding sailing them from venue to venue, which would be greener, but impractical), the teams still fly hundreds of thousands of airmiles during a campaign.

Russell Coutts:

‘The concept of the circuit, which mixes amateurs and owner drivers with professional sailors, works well. The professional race management is also a huge asset of this Class. Finally, the strict one-design characteristics of the RC 44’s and the ability to transport the boats on containers reduce the costs significantly for all the teams.’

Thanks to its unique transportation system, and to the logistical support of DHL, the RC 44 Class claims to be one of the most cost effective top level international sailing Classes.

We’ll be comparing costs of top classes in a coming feature. The results might surprise you. Stay tuned.

Next Page »