Volvo Ocean Race Announces Lisbon & One Other European Venue.
The Volvo Ocean Race has announced another stopover in its drip-feed race reveal. In a time when information moves at the speed of light around the globe, race organisers are putting a lot of faith in the media and others to respect embargoes about where the 2011-12 race will visit.
Yesterday’s official news is that Lisbon has been chosen as the first of the European ports for next race. Lisbon, will be the finish of the transatlantic leg which was hosted by Galway in the last edition.
Interest in hosting the race in Europe was received from 34 cities, 15 of which went through to the final phase of the bidding process. Europe was by far the most competitive continent in the selection procedure. The news should be good for Portuguese sailing and may help generate support for the Bigamist TP52 team and the Portugal Ocean Race for Class 40 boats.
Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Knut Frostad said:
“It is great to have such an iconic city included in our list of stopovers and Lisbon, especially, has wonderful sailing conditions, which will make for a very exciting in-port race. Lisbon is a delightful city with much to offer the race. This will be a stopover to look forward to after the rigours of the transatlantic leg.”
Antonio Costa, Mayor of the City of Lisbon, was delighted that the city had joined the Volvo fold:
“Lisbon has a great navigational past and the Volvo Ocean Race helps increase this. It is the capital of the Atlantic and it’s natural for Lisbon to be the transatlantic finish. The Volvo Ocean Race has been an amazing event since 1973 and we are very proud to succeed in gaining this stopover. Victory was obtained through the great efforts of all parties, made possible by Tourism Portugal, Tourism Lisbon and Lagos Sports.”
The official announcement states that the second European port will be announced on Wednesday 3 March, but keeping that secret had proved too much for some.
The usually savvy Volvo Ocean Race media team seem to be counting on old journalistic models to try and keep hold of the stopover announcement agenda, but not all are playing ball. A Tweetphoto with the caption “Chut, n’en parlez pas, il y a embargo 
” has helped leak the news of another European stopover. While it was generally assumed that there would be a stop in France, given the importance of the sailing market to the Volvo Ocean Race and the participation of a Groupama French team, it was not widely known where the French stop would sit in the order.
If the leaked news is right, then Galway may have missed out on a second visit from the Volvo Ocean Race. This would come as a big blow to the Irish team who have invested heavily in trying to woo the race back to the town that put on such a memorable stopover in the last edition.
Another announcement will be made on the 3rd of March, but keep watching Twitter if you can’t wait…
Volvo Ocean Race Media Figures Show Importance of Digital.
Here’s a question. Would you rather know for sure that you have 1,060,973 people watching your event or imagine that you could have 1.327 Billion? The Volvo Ocean Race have released their media figures for the the 2008-2009 race and while they are impressive, they bring into sharp focus the way in which media is valued.
Credit should be given to the organisers of the Volvo Ocean Race for their transparency and commercial approach to the numbers. Unlike other sectors of sailing, where the business model is propped up by wealthty individuals, the Volvo Ocean Race lives or dies on providing return on investment for its stakeholders.
While some may focus on the headline grabbing cumulative figures in the billions, there are some very significant and interesting numbers for sponsors in the details.
Volvo Ocean Race CEO, Knut Frostad chose to highlight a couple:
“As the media world evolves into a more online community, we have had great success with our online properties and new media areas. Our official online properties had over 89 million visitors with over one million fans visiting more than 100 times and the official game was a run-away success with over 221,768 players from over 180 countries.”
The numbers released yesterday include findings of an independent research programme, undertaken by IFM Sports Marketing Surveys with additional data and analysis from Google Analytics (an online reporting tool)
It’s still fashionable to quote TV numbers that assume households with boxes are actually watching, however the Volvo Ocean Race’s decision to take the race route to China and India has added several zeros to the numbers.
China led the way in new territories, by delivering an audience of 600 million, 45 per cent of the race total. This is the same amount as tuned into the biggest day of the recent Olympics!!
While the traditional PR people will focus on clippings, we would weight the digital numbers which measure actual downloads, clicks, views, comments and other interactions more highly.Why? Apart from being real numbers and not approximations, watching a race-start online or seeking out a blog is an active decision on behalf of a viewer. Somebody sitting in front of a computer screen or mobile phone screen is focussed on the content – it’s not on in the background.
From that point of view, the digital numbers are impressive for sailing.
- 89 Million – Cumulative web audience (visits) from all Volvo Ocean Race online properties
- 10Million – Mobile page views delivered to over five million visits. Every second of the Race somebody was hitting the server
- 221,768 – Registered players from more than 180 countries in the Official Game
Online Video
- 1,060,973 – views on the race’s YouTube site from 449 countries
- 10,463 – video clips downloaded by 62 countries (from international online distributor The Newsmarket)
Web
- 4,060,928 – unique visitors, a 15.7% increase on 2005-06
- 63.27% – of the audience visited the site more than nine times
- Over one million users visited the site more than 100 times
Broadband TV
- 1,199,892 – unique visitors throughout the race
- 2,269,008 visits that registered 8,479,593 page views (3.74 pages per visit).
The online game deserves special mention. From a marketing point of view, this is incredibly exciting. The online game provides deep emersion with the hard-core fans of the race. This is not push marketing, this is relationship building, interaction, engagement. As well as proving that sailing is not too complicated for ‘normal’ people to understand, the Volvo Ocean Race online game proves that there are hundreds of thousands of people who want the feeling of participation. This is not a 30 second spot during a TV news bulletin, this is not a photo of your brand half obscured by a dark southern ocean wave – here lies an opportunity to deliver lasting associations and real returns. Our guess is that BWIN’s sponsorship of the extras packages in the final legs of the online race delivered one of the best returns of the entire race.
Online Game
- 221,768 – registered players from more than 180 countries
- World’s biggest online sailing community
- 3,397,096 unique visitors came to the site, spending an average of 7:02 minutes
- Average daily players was over 60,000 peaking at 120,000
- Nearly 42 million hours spent on the game.
Traditional Media…
Television
- 11,057 broadcasts, from 46 different countries provided over 3,386 hours of coverage and a cumulative audience of 1.327 billion
- 400 news outlets from 62 different countries downloaded a total of 10,463 video news clips (The Newsmarket)
- Cumulative print circulation of 606.7 million – increase of 104% on the 2005-06 race
- 13,038 print articles
- 28,918 mentions in print
- Total readership over the 10 legs was 1.6 billion
Media Value (TV, print)
- US$54.2 million* – average media value for each team’s main sponsor (source: IFM Sports Marketing Surveys)(*Top seven teams)
Other numbers
- 1.619 Billion – Cumulative readership from 13,038 articles
- 1.327 Billion – Cumulative TV audience from 11,057 broadcasts
- 1.168 Billion – Cumulative radio audience from nearly 1,500 broadcasts
- US$54.2 MILLION – Average media value (TV and print) for each team’s main sponsor (*This figure represents the top seven teams)
Sources: IFM Sports Marketing Surveys End Of Race Report 2009. Google Analytics. VEMU, World Sports Communications, Stopover Organisations.
Volvo Numbers Good For Galway.
June 8, 2009 by admin
Filed under Business, United Kingdom, Volvo 70
The Volvo Ocean Race left Galway in Ireland on Saturday afternoon with a spectacular windy start. The Irish are known for their hospitality and by any measure the Volvo Ocean Race circus in town has brought huge economic benefits with it – at least for Galway.
The crowd numbers for the fortnight of the stopover have been announced. At least one part of the UK is still interested in the race. Up to 8,000 people turned up in the middle of the night as the fleet arrived with a further flotilla of 500 on the water.
The in-port race last weekend drew 62,000 people to the race village alone. Failte Ireland, the national tourism board, predicted that 200,000 people would visit the race village while the race was in town. Figures released today show that an estimated 420,000 people attended.
It’s a similar story on economic impact. A report ahead of the race forecasted that the city would be boosted to the tune of 43 million euros, but Failte Ireland have since estimated the income at 100 million euros.
From the crews, there has been high praise all round for Galway for a job well done.
Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker led the tributes.
“When I saw the welcome we received on arriving in Galway I was speechless but when we left two weeks’ later it was with tears in my eyes. I knew Galway was a great city and a city that loves to party but never in my wildest dreams did I think Galway and Ireland would take so much to the Volvo Ocean Race.”
On behalf of PUMA, Deppe added:
“Galway deserves a great deal from us because for the two weeks since we arrived they’ve put on a brilliant show. To say its been a party would be an understatement – the statistics for foot traffic through Galway and the race village are truly staggering. What a great model for an ideal stopover, and I’m sure that Galway is one that the race organizers will be taking into serious consideration as the race moves forward and re-invents itself.”
Photo Credit – Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race
Puma’s Sponsorship Masterclass Continues.
May 4, 2009 by admin
Filed under Sponsorship Activation, USA
This site has some pretty clear goals and it is fantastic to see a sponsor really use sailing as the natural platform it is, to promote not just their gear, but the sport itself. During the Boston stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race, Puma has dominated the media coverage through smart activation. It goes to show what can be done when it’s done properly.
This weekend, puma backed the ICSA National Semi-Finals. College sport in America is a big deal, and while sailing isn’t as high profile as Basketball or Football, supporting the next generation is a great part of any sponsorship campaign. The striking Puma logo was everywhere.
Ship's Cat. Puma backs ICSA in Boston. Photo Dave Kneale.
The ICSA National Championship Eastern Semifinals and the ICSA National Championship Western Semifinals, hosted, respectively, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University (both Cambridge, Mass.), were integrated into the North American stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR), giving the 36 competing college teams an unforgettable experience. Between run-of-the-mill tourists, locals in-the-know and sailors drawn for the VOR spectacle, those who turned out to support their favorite school had plenty of company along the waterfront with its prime view of the racing on Boston’s Inner Harbor.
The semifinals, sponsored by Marlow Ropes, PUMA and US SAILING, qualified the top nine finishing schools from each semifinal into the grand finale of the year – the ICSA/Gill Coed National Championship which will be hosted in San Francisco, Calif., by Stanford University (Palo Alto) and the St. Francis Yacht Club (San Francisco) from June 1-3, 2009.
ICSA is the governing authority for sailing competition at colleges and universities throughout the United States and in some parts of Canada.
To learn more please visit: www.collegesailing.org
Top Photo thanks to http://sailtrim.blogspot.com/2009/05/kitty-backs-college-sailing.html
PUMA Using Home Stop To Activate On All Channels.
Puma Ocean Racing on TODAY
It’s not surprising that Puma is getting all the attention during the Boston stopover of the Volvo Ocean Race. The sportswear company has its marketing headquarters in the city and the boat has a US skipper, Ken Read.
Yesterday, some of the team went mainstream and appeared on the TODAY show on NBC. For five minutes and in front of an audience of more than five million people – the show has been the most popular morning programme in the USA for 697 consecutive weeks – Read was grilled on subjects as diverse as crew relationships and whether or not the team runs a laundry service onboard.
The team’s twitter feed (@pumaoceanracing) has 461 followers and around Fan Pier, the moths are getting a lot of attention. The striking Puma City made from 24 shipping containers is also being picked up by media around the world.
Meanwhile – there is a new episode of Puma’s ‘Reality TV’ series…
