How do you make your sailing event touch the widest group of people possible?

One way is to make as many spectators as possible engage through social media like Twitter or Facebook. The other way is to engage as many participants as you can. Of course, the more participants you have, the more engagement on social media you have…

The entry list for the 2011 J P Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race featured 1908 boats. Assuming an average of 6 people per boat, that’s about 11,000 stories.

Some of those stories feature the current and past rock-stars of the sport, and as if that wasn’t enough to get the masses interested, other stories featured celebrities, brought in to create a story that might be interesting to someone editing the entertainment pages rather than the sports section.

Either way, the Round the Island Race exposes the sport of sailing to a huge audience, and for many of the participants, the experience of getting up early, being on the start line with thousands of other boats is unforgettable. Many of those participants are journalists – and many of those are journalists that usually write about ‘other things’.

The result, scanning Google a couple of days later is an incredible level of coverage for a sailing event. News outlets like the Financial Times, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph and Eurosport have all given time and space to the 2011 Round the Island Race and many more stories will follow in journals that run to a weekly or monthly deadline.

One journalist I spoke to had only bee given 250 words to play with and given his story on the day, he could have written 5000. Another features editor had been given a bit more leeway –  5 pages of a glossy magazine to fill, and 5 pages in a magazine that never covers sailing is a big deal.

For a sponsor of the race, having 11,000 stories might seem like a very noisy media landscape to generate awareness in, however the J P Morgan Round the Island Race is actually a great exercise in micro-segmentation. Rather than treating the audience of the event as a big monolithic block of ‘sailing fans’, each brand has a constituency who are looking for something different.

Given the conditions for this year’s race, there are some guests who may never set foot on a boat again. But while they might not become participants, those people will have a much greater appreciation of the skill and character of the people who sail at the top level of the sport. There are others who reveled in the fact that this was “real sailing” – not just a cruise in the sun. These people will become (social) brand ambassadors for the sport.

It’s events like the Round the Island Race that give you confidence about the future of sailing. Unlike the cynicism, politics and posturing that sours some parts of the sport, the Round the Island Race seems to combine racing with charity, competitiveness with participation and commercialism with Corinthian ideals. Legends of the sport mingle with ‘newbies’ in the  beer tent and share stories in a manner that just doesn’t happen in many other sports.

The Round the Island Race has had 80 years to get it right. Organisers have stuck to a formula that gets better with every edition. Rather than change the ‘product’, the Island Sailing Club, its sponsors and partners, manage to educate and promote the benefits of the offer to a wider and wider group of ‘customers’. It’s a strategy that seems to work, and sailing is better for it.

Video from the media day…

Three very different female round the world sailors talk about the Round the Island Race

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

In December, the Extreme Sailing Series announced a new deal with sailing clothing brand Marinepool. The 3 year deal means that Marinepool is the official clothing partner of the, now global, series and also includes merchandising rights.

At the latest round of the Extreme Sailing Series in Istanbul, the new clothing line went on sale to the public for the first time and interest from fans seemed to be high.

The sailing clothing market is changing and brands that have enjoyed strong support in their home markets are looking to generate awareness around the world and open new markets.

Christoph Stadler, Marinepool’s Marketing Director says about the deal with the Extreme Sailing Series:

It’s an important co-operation to broaden the reach of our brand worldwide. It’s a global circuit and it’s just the right partner for us.

We’ve started selling the product in Turkey. We have developed a merchandising collection for the Extreme Sailing Series, particularly branded, trying to put the action and the close quarters sailing on the garments. The range will go on sale online very soon.

OC Thirdpole boss, Mark Turner is also happy with the Marinepool deal. He said that finding the right clothing partner, who has the same goals and wants to invest for the long term can be difficult. The OC Group has worked with many recognised sailing apparel brands and high-street fashion labels, but often they can be too big, or too small to devote time and resource to developing the partnership.

We caught up with Christoph Stadler in Istanbul outside the merchandising tent. Here’s what he had to say about the partnership with the Extreme Sailing Series and the city. (Or watch the video on YouTube)

More Extreme Sailing Series News..

The first of the America’s Cup 45 boats, has been launched in New Zealand. The 45 foot version of the wing sail powered catamaran is destined to become the mandated boat for the planned Youth America’s Cup, but in 2011, the America’s Cup Event Authority are still trying to put on a World Series, with signed up challengers using these boats for some practise.

Oracle Racing (the BMW era is now over), get the first one and then the Challenger of Record get the next one and then the other teams in order get theirs.

The mono-vs-multi hull debate continues. Comments on the Official 34th America’s Cup YouTube Channel and Facebook page show that the Event Authority still has some way to go to convince people that this is the way of the future, but the entertainment value and the commercial imperatives sometimes don’t match up with the nostalgia for the past. Its the same reason why people complain about the lack of aesthetic beauty of a modern day F1 car and more people attend the Silverstone Classic than the British Grand Prix.

But the America’s Cup Event Authority can’t turn back now. They are committed to the 2 hulled boats with wing sails for the next edition of the event and by the looks of the boat sailing on it’s maiden outing, it’s fast. AC 45 #1 isn’t yet rigged with the next generation of cameras and media capture devices that we are expecting from the organisers.

Early footage is pretty standard stuff, with the classical soundtrack swapped out for something a bit more modern, but the purpose of this launch wasn’t to excite people about the boats, or prove the capabilities of the communications team, it was to see if it hit the numbers that the CFD boffins said it would.

It will be interesting to see how the photographers get more than 2 into a single shot.

First Video of the AC 45 America’s Cup Boat

More America’s Cup News.

8 Business Of Yacht Raching Questions. Part 3.3 – Knut Frostad

The next in our series, questioning the leaders of the sport of sailing about how the business of yacht racing works and how it could change to compete against other professional games. CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race, Knut Frostad has some long term goals for the race and he also talks about who he sees as competition and what innovations have changed the game.

This interview was conducted at the 2010 World Yacht Racing Forum. Coming soon – Richard Worth from the America’s Cup Event Authority answers the 8 business of yacht racing questions. The responses are a real eye-opener!

Next in our series of interviews with leaders of the professional yacht racing industry is CEO of the Volvo Ocean Race – Knut Frostad. We posed the same 8 questions about business models and targeting that we asked Mark Turner and Jim O’Toole.

This is part 1 of 3 videos. The other two will be published later this week. Then next week we will publish Richard Worth’s answers to the same questions around the business of the America’s Cup.

These interviews were conducted at the World Yacht Racing Forum in Estoril, Portugal. We’re currently transcribing our notes from the various sessions and will bring the insights over the next few weeks – some reading for the days between Christmas and New Year perhaps.

Yesterday we featured the views of Mark Turner from the Extreme Sailing Series. Today, we get the responses to 8 key sailing business questions from the CEO of the World Match Racing Tour – Jim O’Toole.

Jim is a relative newcomer to the sport of sailing. He’s worked as a sports marketing professional for many years, so how does he sell the World Match Racing Tour?

Jim was interviewed at the 2010 World Yacht Racing forum in Estoril Portugal.

Next in this series – Knut Frostad of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The Extreme Sailing Series is consistently one of the top professional sailing events in the world. Over the past couple of years, OC Events (now part of OC Thirdpole), has built the series for Extreme 40 catamarans into a sports entertainment product that delivers results for sponsors, sailors and spectators.

If imitation is the best form of flattery, then BMW ORACLE’s decision to host the next America’s Cup in scaled up catamarans must be in part to do with the success of the Extreme Sailing Series.

On the eve of the 2010 World Yacht Racing Forum in Estoril, the Extreme Sailing Series will announce it’s plans for the coming year including the 2011 calendar. Expect new venues (not just in Europe) and some big names looking to develop skills in sailing fast and exciting multihulls.

For those not in Estoril, the press conference will be streamed live. You can watch the event on our dedicated Extreme Sailing Series News page.

‘bluQube v. bluQube’

Sometimes the association between sport and sponsorship is not obvious, but with a bit of lateral thinking and good activation, sponsorship can provide some great content for promotion that really differentiates you from the competition.

Take bluQube, the accounting software package that has been a long time supporter of UK sailor Katie Miller. Of course the boat gets coverage while racing, but between races, it is also a great asset to utilise. The company is activating the sponsorship in a new series of videos that challenge the sportswoman to beat the accounting software in 3 challenges.

The videos were filmed in the Solent and show that you don’t need expensive production budgets to get across your message. The objective of the challenges was to demonstrate whether Katie can finish a number of sailing tasks faster than it takes the bluQube user to complete a range of key accounting procedures such as sending out invoices, creating monthly payment runs or distributing financial reports.

bluQube’s Marketing Manager, Mat Kirby, explains the thinking behind the campaign:

“We wanted potential customers to understand both the simplicity and powerful capabilities of bluQube accounting software and felt that this would be a novel yet exciting approach to promote the benefits to our target audience. We have a long tradition of sailing sponsorship, a sport particularly popular amongst financial directors, so the concept of using some fun challenges that showcase both our bluQube sailing boat and our software at the same time was a perfect fit. The fact that the bluQube user was able to complete the accounting tasks via a laptop whilst aboard a moving boat, was also crucial in showing how flexible the browser-based software is.”

The three challenges include:-

Challenge # 1: Katie has to remove sail cover, attached head of sail to mast and hoist mainsail weighing 40kgs while bluQube user, Rob has to create 62 invoices and email same invoices to recipients

Challenge # 2: Katie has to Sail 3.5 nautical mile trip in the Solent while bluQube user, Rob has to enter Month end journals, Generate debt letters, Create Monthly payment Run

Challenge # 3: Katie has to Sail 5 nautical mile trip in the Solent while bluQube user, Rob has to produce monthly, quarterly and YTD performance, Cash & Debtors Position, Income Breakdown, Plan v. Actual and email to the board.

More Sailing Sponsorship activation News..

Ian Walker, Skipper of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing talks about the progress of Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing’s campaign for the next Volvo Ocean Race.

A training base has been established at Abu Dhabi Marine Sports Club and construction of the boat is under way.

The Emirati crew selection process is drawing to a close. Over 50 application have been received so far. 12 potential crew will be selected for further sailing and physical tests to find the person who will contribute most to the team.

Business News updates for the Volvo Ocean Race