Banque Populaire dropping ClaCla
- Thread starter wonderbrom
- Start date
Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
Sponsorship is about improving the public image of your brand.
If Clarisse had qualified and competed, the benefit to BP's brand would be the image of a woman taking on a remarkable challenge.
"If you are a remarkable woman, the right bank for you is Banque Populaire."
Clarisse will likely qualify, but there is a risk that she may not.
Which PR moron weighed up these scenarios:
Option #1 : Support C's endeavor to try and qualify. If she fails you are left with the diminished message:
"If you are a woman who faces the challenge of balancing career and family, let Banque Popular support you and help you with your banking needs"
Option # 2 : Bail on Clarisse. Hire another skipper, enter the race and acheive a mediocre result, leaving the unmistakable message
"If you are a woman.....don't bank with Banque Populaire"
If Clarisse had qualified and competed, the benefit to BP's brand would be the image of a woman taking on a remarkable challenge.
"If you are a remarkable woman, the right bank for you is Banque Populaire."
Clarisse will likely qualify, but there is a risk that she may not.
Which PR moron weighed up these scenarios:
Option #1 : Support C's endeavor to try and qualify. If she fails you are left with the diminished message:
"If you are a woman who faces the challenge of balancing career and family, let Banque Popular support you and help you with your banking needs"
Option # 2 : Bail on Clarisse. Hire another skipper, enter the race and acheive a mediocre result, leaving the unmistakable message
"If you are a woman.....don't bank with Banque Populaire"
mathystuff
Super Anarchist
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- 886
Agreed.
The PR message would have arguably been even stronger in case of missing qualification.
MR.CLEAN
Moderator
- Moderator
- #44
One thing I've learned from paying close attention to sport sponsorships over the years is to never assume I know what a company is looking to get out of it, because I'm usually wrong. French sponsorships are an interesting mix of backroom dealmaking, passionate businesspeople, nepotism, heritage/history and a few really rich fuckers who not only want to win, but want to go and party with the winning team at the finish.
Also, I think BP Group changed CEOs last year, but I'm not 100% sure.
Obviously, bloody stupid decision by BP.
I’m interested though in the degree of “ownership” for want of a better word the sponsor in this case seems to have over the race programme.
Is this normal for French sponsored sailors - the sponsor calls the shots, even to the point, as now, that they can fire & replace the skipper?
My understanding of the typical commercial model is that the skipper “owns” the race programme - obviously they are totally dependent on their main sponsor to pay the bills, and of course there will be commitments they agree to as part of the deal. But ultimately the sponsor is there to fund the programme and benefit from the exposure - not to make decisions about personnel & the sailing.
Seems very different with BP though?
I’m interested though in the degree of “ownership” for want of a better word the sponsor in this case seems to have over the race programme.
Is this normal for French sponsored sailors - the sponsor calls the shots, even to the point, as now, that they can fire & replace the skipper?
My understanding of the typical commercial model is that the skipper “owns” the race programme - obviously they are totally dependent on their main sponsor to pay the bills, and of course there will be commitments they agree to as part of the deal. But ultimately the sponsor is there to fund the programme and benefit from the exposure - not to make decisions about personnel & the sailing.
Seems very different with BP though?
A really poor decision.
Clarisse was the only positive story for BP since Armel winning the Vendée Globe in 2016.
Even then the media impact was mediocre...Armel's charisma was like a stick and not not really laid-back.
Since then 1 expensive boat capsized and later fully destroyed and the new boat loosing out in the last Route du Rhum.
To the contrary, Clarisse had done a pretty good job so far, never dropped out a race, finishing always pretty good and giving some fantastic media work. You have to like her-just a cool person!
However, she might have scratched some egos in the team ...and there are not a few.
Clarisse was the only positive story for BP since Armel winning the Vendée Globe in 2016.
Even then the media impact was mediocre...Armel's charisma was like a stick and not not really laid-back.
Since then 1 expensive boat capsized and later fully destroyed and the new boat loosing out in the last Route du Rhum.
To the contrary, Clarisse had done a pretty good job so far, never dropped out a race, finishing always pretty good and giving some fantastic media work. You have to like her-just a cool person!
However, she might have scratched some egos in the team ...and there are not a few.
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Seems that the fiasco just starting...
There is around two decades ago, in french sailing, emerged other links between skipper/sponsorship/ownership. Some in which the skipper is merely an employee.
Terrible way for the team to treat their skipper, especially given that it did not make an issue of the matter when informed in Feb 2021.
Of course it's a complete PR disaster for BP too. The negative coverage, which is already national, is going to dwarf years of positive coverage from successful campaigns, not least Crémer's own in the 2020 Vendée. Talk about turning wine into water.
Of course it's a complete PR disaster for BP too. The negative coverage, which is already national, is going to dwarf years of positive coverage from successful campaigns, not least Crémer's own in the 2020 Vendée. Talk about turning wine into water.
Not at all, Cremer is a spoiled brat basically, Sainte Geneviève, HEC, ok second in a mini transat, then straight to IMOCA, and now whining, who cares ?
Roleur
Super Anarchist
Who cares? Everyone. Except for you apparently.
Clarisse is great for the sport. And getting second in the MiniTransat means she is already one the best sailors in the world. What's not to like?
more thoughts,...
1. maybe BP are concerned about being accused of tearing a new/young mother away from it's mother when it needs her most ?
2. what if she is replaced by another female ?
If I were looking for a female replacement, my first choice would be Justine.
second choice would be Isabelle, or maybe there is another new high flyer out there ?
I think (?) Justine already has a boat - but they are not a high profile team like BP
1. maybe BP are concerned about being accused of tearing a new/young mother away from it's mother when it needs her most ?
2. what if she is replaced by another female ?
If I were looking for a female replacement, my first choice would be Justine.
second choice would be Isabelle, or maybe there is another new high flyer out there ?
I think (?) Justine already has a boat - but they are not a high profile team like BP
Roleur
Super Anarchist
It would be great to see Isabelle get a bigger sponsor and better boat. But not this way... Isabelle was crushing the last Vendee Globe all the way past Cape Horn, when her keel ram failed.
wonderbrom
Member
- 76
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- Thread starter
- #57
She could have gone to Hogwarts, still nobody would care.
In publicity terms, BP have no choice other than nominating a woman as a replacement. But as this is a debate about discriminating sailing women, it will be difficult to find a woman who will fill that spot. It will be like sailing the golden boat that smells like shit.
Ah would you stop…
She got to the top because of sailing ability and a talent for publicity & planning, all of which are essential and require massive dedication.
So Clarisse needs a new boat. Sponsor too. On the plus side she has all the spotlight.
histoiredeshalfs.com says one boat is still on the market, Linkedout build 2019. Thomas Ruyant gets a new boat. Or did anyone buy it since the last update of the site?
Chances are that she qualifies. 3 races left, start in all of them, place in at least one of them.
Chances are not so good that she sails enough miles to get a place on the starting line.
The other skippers sailed a lot. Looks like only a few new boats and Clarisse have no miles.
Say she qualifies but is still to short on miles to make it. Now that would be the place and time to use the wildcard.
I can understand the VG. It's really hard to give anyone the wildcard before they even raced their VG boat once... (Dalin raced Apivia until end of 2022.)
What I don't understand is why that discussion between BP/Clarisse and VG (perhaps also IMOCA) did not happen when Clarisse publicly announced her pregnancy. It should have been much easier to find something that keeps her in the game when the qualification races just started, not when the door starts to close for some including her...
histoiredeshalfs.com says one boat is still on the market, Linkedout build 2019. Thomas Ruyant gets a new boat. Or did anyone buy it since the last update of the site?
Chances are that she qualifies. 3 races left, start in all of them, place in at least one of them.
Chances are not so good that she sails enough miles to get a place on the starting line.
The other skippers sailed a lot. Looks like only a few new boats and Clarisse have no miles.
Say she qualifies but is still to short on miles to make it. Now that would be the place and time to use the wildcard.
I can understand the VG. It's really hard to give anyone the wildcard before they even raced their VG boat once... (Dalin raced Apivia until end of 2022.)
What I don't understand is why that discussion between BP/Clarisse and VG (perhaps also IMOCA) did not happen when Clarisse publicly announced her pregnancy. It should have been much easier to find something that keeps her in the game when the qualification races just started, not when the door starts to close for some including her...
Mambo Kings
Super Anarchist
Banque Populaire sponsorship will be complicated even by French standards.
Trust me even people who deal with Banque Populaire are uncertain who calls the shots
First thing to understand is that there is not one "Banque Populaire" . They are affiliated Banks in a network of 14 Banques Populaires and the Caisses d’Epargne. Each of them are co-operatives......Bank of the People and the state savings caisse. They got smacked around in 2008. Caisse d'Epargne was a savings banks a bit like the French Post Office Savings Bank which cannot make loans. It takes deposits from small depositors and invests the savings in the safest high quality French government bonds , except that the good sales people from Goldman and Lehman persuaded them that CDO's and MBS were almost as safe. They lost 750 million Euro in one spectacular day in 2008. Some of the regional BPs did even worse. So in 2009 or there about they were merged into something called BPCE, known affectionately in investment circles as Big Pile of Crap and Excrement (dont tell that joke in Paris, they are still sensitive about it) .
But BPCE is not a group holding company.That would be too straightforward for the French. BPCE is an organe central. It carries out all the central functions, of a typical Bank Hold co., but instead of owning its subsidiaries , BPCE is owned by the 14 co-operatives. Dont even get me started about the complex risk issues involved in bonds issued by BPCE with triple A ratings from the rating agencies .
Instead when Banque Populaire is offering sponsorship to your campaign 2 sensible questions might include:
Which one?
If it is BPCE , who actually runs BPCE?
Because it is not Nicolas Namias who followed the usual French elite path of Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris to France’s Ministry for the Economy and Finance to personal adviser to the French prime minister to a board position in a French Bank/Oil company/insurance company (take your pick..of course they are not influenced by the French government....and of course the French Government doesnt influence the rating agencies). But Nicolas is exactly the right man for the job to get influenced by any bad PR fallout. He wont want his brilliant career prospects tarnished by accusations of misogyny.
