21 replies to this topic

[MR.CLEAN]

MEDIA ALERT

As the world's economic climate continues to cool, sponsorship money and partnership support for every level of sailing is becoming tougher and tougher to find. Even proven performers like Dee Caffari, Brian Thompson, Franck Cammas, and Roland Jourdain are having serious trouble in the 'brave new world' of professionally sponsored racing, and it seems like very few people have a handle on what it takes - and will take - in the constantly and rapidly evolving world of marketing, branding, and sponsorship.

We grabbed an extremely qualified group of experts to discuss it all with you - live - in our first On-The-Water Anarchy 'Cocktail Hour' in a long time! With the help of our production team of Ronnie Simpson, Emma Creighton, and Christophe Launay, I'll be hosting an hour of in-depth discussion on the subject with this panel of stars.

Live at 1900 CET/1800 GMT/1300 EST/1000 PST (1:00 PM Eastern)

Host:
Alan Block, Senior Editor, Sailing Anarchy

Guests:
Luc Talbourdet, President IMOCA
Xavier David, Team Manager Saveol/Sam Davies
Dee Caffari, Sole Female Triple Circumnavigator
Bruce Schwab, First US Vendee Competitor in History
Stew Hosford, Team Director Alex Thomson Racing/Hugo Boss

Camera:
Christophe Launay

Research:
Emma Creighton

Production:
Ronnie Simpson

Hope you check it out! If not, it will be available online later tonight.


Hard link: http://justin.tv/onthewateranarchy

Embedded screen below.

[MR.CLEAN]

[mr_ryano]

Good job Clean, really looking forward to hearing what they all have to say. Try to pin down Dee on where she may be with the SCA VOR team. Is Jourdain around? it would be cool to get an update on where he is in terms of financing and the future of his team.

[nkb]

Jourdain is there...

[Speng]

OD is sure as fuck not the answer...

[ronnie_simpson]

Good job Clean, really looking forward to hearing what they all have to say. Try to pin down Dee on where she may be with the SCA VOR team. Is Jourdain around? it would be cool to get an update on where he is in terms of financing and the future of his team.

had a chat with her last night. will try to hit her up on some info.

[victor t]

Even proven performers like Dee Caffari, Brian Thompson, Franck Cammas, and Roland Jourdain are having serious trouble in the 'brave new world' of professionally sponsored racing

and michel desjoyeaux!

[Clovis]

Camera:
Christophe Launay

Oh no! don't do that!!! how can that be an SA production if the camera is not shaky, moving around and zooming abruptly, with inaudible dialogues?!!


C.

[LeoV]

Even proven performers like Dee Caffari, Brian Thompson, Franck Cammas, and Roland Jourdain are having serious trouble in the 'brave new world' of professionally sponsored racing

and michel desjoyeaux!

Dee Caff, one off, Brian Thompson, great sailor, not enough desk skills or part of the incrowd to get a sponsor,.
On the other hand, Frank Cammas and MichDes know the skills to get a sponsor, not sure of Jourdain.

Even big names as Yves Parlier calculated it as a two year deskjob to get a sponsor. And that was in the good times.

[MR.CLEAN]

Live now after Justin.TV seems to have shit the bed permanently. New link:

http://www.ustream.t...thewateranarchy

[Calico Jack]

After spending some hours on the PC then reverting to the ipad and paying for the justin tv app (didn't work) I finally found this link http://justin.tv/ont...chy/b/338573420 that streamed the interview.

Fantastic hour of insight, thank you...scariest thing is simply how far behind we are as compared to the mainstream sports but I guess that means there is great opportunity for those trying to get campaigns together for world ocean races.

It pretty clear the partnership starts as a three way with sailor, event and class working together to create a total package and if that strucuture is not in place or available for competitors to plug into then the task is almost impossible.

My interest is the next class40 GOR, us amatuers are going to need assistance from the race organisors and the class40 assoc to put togther a coherent story for sponsors. we have a similar opportunity to the IMOCA guys in that there are mulitple events that can be done with a boat and there is a potential for significant size fleets but we need a structure to plug into

[MR.CLEAN]

[3 Days Left]

Even proven performers like Dee Caffari, Brian Thompson, Franck Cammas, and Roland Jourdain are having serious trouble in the 'brave new world' of professionally sponsored racing

and michel desjoyeaux!

Dee Caff, one off, Brian Thompson, great sailor, not enough desk skills or part of the incrowd to get a sponsor,.
On the other hand, Frank Cammas and MichDes know the skills to get a sponsor, not sure of Jourdain.

Even big names as Yves Parlier calculated it as a two year deskjob to get a sponsor. And that was in the good times.

Could not agree more, put AT in the latter category too? Longest record in IMOCA history

[3 Days Left]

Very useful stuff, Dee comes across very well.
Could everone have seats the same height next time though?
Go SA, great stuff coming through here!

[Presuming Ed]

http://www.yachtingw...ench-revolution

...From next year on, Open Sports Management will take over the marketing and planning of a matrix of events designed to revive the declining class and boost its value to sponsors....

A Brit marketing the IMOCA fleet...

[thetruth]

Who the fuck is Andrew from HB? God that campaign is so much like Artemis. And Clean thinks the prick will win?

[Potter]

Who the fuck is Andrew from HB? God that campaign is so much like Artemis. And Clean thinks the prick will win?

There is nobody at HB called ANdrew, what are you talking about?

[MR.CLEAN]

alex?

[thetruth]

Sorry Stewart. My attitude does not change. Perhaps I missed it but what was the golden bullet on Vendee and international sponsorship from STEWART

[aquila]

IMO if they go one design it will still be a very cool race but it will be that crazy French race and not as worldwide as it could/should be. the solo racing sphere in Europe already has a one design series (the Figaro) and that is cool for what it is and a controlled cost class (class 40) so why do they feel the need to restrict cost/development of the once open class, and more importantly are they going about it the right way?
I believe that by restricting the rule the way they have and might continue to do might backfire on them in that new boats will have to be even more refined as opposed to someone coming out with a winning concept, restricting sail numbers also does this as you end up spending more on R&D on the 10? that can now be carried to make sure u cover the wind range, as opposed to restricting the number that can be made in a season that could allow older sails that don't get used as often be carried. By limiting righting moment to 32tonne-meters? and mast height since Pindar and Artemis were launched has really put strain on designers to take weight out of the boats, as opposed to letting natural selection take its course and skippers choose a trade-off between a boat that is harder/more punishing to sail against potential top speed in the past they have also banned canting rigs which under the rules (rightly I think) had to be canted by hand also sapping more energy out of the sailor. the fact the changes affecting these issues were implemented before these concepts were really proved or in the case of the canting mast disproved is kind of worrying to me, what if someone comes up with something that hasn't been thought of yet and builds it but is then banned from using it by IMOCA like Sobedo's canting mast was, that would be a worry for a new build would it not?
IMO the are three (should be four) major worldwide sailing events, the America's cup, the Vendee Globe and the Volvo Ocean Race (the potential fourth should be The Race) and these all have appropriate motor racing parallels (the AC=F1, VG=Dakar rally, VOR=WRC and The Race=Le Mans). However unlike motorsport the sponsorship dollars aren’t available on the same level so the events even though they are different disciplines should always be deconflicted with one another rather than fighting against each other. I also think that they should be run on a four year cycle as a three year cycle has proven hard for new teams to get to a competitive level & iron out any kinks in time and in the case of the VOR very expensive to keep a team together without any interim events such as the IMOCA fleet has
Just my two cents

[Presuming Ed]

Thought this was an interesting view: http://www.yachtspon...illing-sailing/

The Volvo Ocean Race recently released a 133 page report into the previous edition. Much of that report was dedicated to the return on investment received by sponsors of the race. One of the findings of the report was that sponsors of sailing can get better returns than other sports because the brand-name is mentioned more than the names of the athletes.

The report says:
“The Volvo Ocean Race occupies an exceptional space in the sporting world as a major property that is universally referred to with a brand name in the title, while offering similar opportunities for sponsors backing individual teams. The fact that sailors on board are not generally household names across the world can actually help sponsors too. There is little option for media covering the race but to refer to several brand names whereas in other sport, news organisations work hard to avoid making such references. With the Volvo Ocean Race, such avoidance is not realistically possible.”

While this sounds good for sponsors, it doesn’t sound like something that is good for the sport in the long term, especially if sailing wants to create long term fans. Fans follow athletes or teams, they don’t follow brands, which makes the situation that the Volvo Ocean Race is currently in a bit strange. Race organisers have announced the first entry for the next race. The entry has a sponsor, but it has no skipper and no team – so where are the fans going to come from? The team is designated as an all female entry. The thought process presumably is that women will follow the team because of that fact only. But what happens when the sponsor doesn’t want to be in sailing anymore? What happens to the team and what happens to the fans of that team?

The Vendee Globe, which has the advantage of featuring just one person per boat, also suffers sometimes as the PR people stuff their releases with the sponsor’s name. But fans of Mike Golding or Sam Davies can continue to follow their favourite even if they are wearing a different company’s logo from the last time. Other teams, that benefit from the patronage of a wealthy private owner or investor can also create long term franchises, though these have the same problem of longevity if that backer decides they don’t want to play anymore.

Ironically, the sport of sailing has the structure to create location based teams that have long histories and traditions. The America’s Cup is based on this structure, being a competition between yacht clubs – though this is often underplayed. The sport of sailing relies on sponsorship because the business model doesn't provide many other forms of revenue, however – the balance of athlete recognition and sponsor brand recognition is needs to swing in favour of the competitors if long term fans are to be created.

[Panoramix]

With all these references to the volvo, formula one and the tour de France, I am a bit worried that the VG might go down the pan like the Tour de France did.

If the financial stakes become too high, it will attract the wrong kind of people. Do we really want to witness a "Lance Amstrong" character appearing? I understand that the skippers need to make a living and that they are worried now but with the current set up, it is a real partnership between a skipper and a company and they agree on a communication plan. If they go down the route of the tour de France, it just becomes sponsors employing sportsmen to "perform" and this is when the temptation to cheat becomes hard to resist and it isn't sport anymore but just "entertainment".

You can't compare the VG with the VO, the volvo entries were going consistently down however the economy was doing, in the 90s the entries in the route du rhum went down with the crisis but then went up again, so although it is a good idea to tweak things for the best, they shouldn't overreact and throw the baby out with the bathwater. The VG exists now because Jeantot initially had a sound vision and knee jerk reactions could kill it. IMHO they should aim to raise their game on the event communication front to 2012 standards - the VG started when everybody was watching the 8oclock news in France, I still remember switching the TV on everyday to get what was going on - and let the rest as it is.