ECOVER, iShares Cup, Cowes, August 2009. Image copyright Anne Hinton - all rights reserved.
by Lou Newlands
Highlights within Europe include over 8h 35 minutes of evaluated TV news (only) broadcasts, 894 articles or features evaluated in printed media, 770 articles on the internet, 149 broadcast features evaluated on TV and radio and 228 accredited media attending the seven events (the Paris launch and six events). In addition, UK terrestrial station, Channel 4, broadcast a specially produced stand-alone highlights programme for the first time in 2009 and are now interested in broadcasting a full series of programmes in 2010.
Over 535 hours of TV exposure, between news and programming, was evaluated alongside print exposure in publications with an 82 million cumulative circulation.
Havas has conservatively estimated the value of media coverage achieved by the Extreme Sailing Series in 2009 as €5.9million. This is a great result for this ground-breaking sailing circuit, especially considering that coverage was monitored only in six European markets (key markets for 2009 title sponsor iShares) and only for a short period either side of each event. As such this figure only represents a part of the media return that event and team sponsors received.
Alastair Macdonald, Director, Havas Sponsorship Insights, the independent media evaluation agency commented, "Given the nature and value of the benefits delivered for the title partner iShares, our view would be that, relative to the scale of investment involved from the sponsor, the sponsorship represents a highly cost-effective marketing investment, delivering an extremely favourable rate of return."
OC Group uses such absolute figures in absolute terms with caution. In the Extreme Sailing Series return on investment for event and team sponsors comes in many ways plus everyone has a different methodology for measurement of the media value. "We see a lot of figures bandied around the sport which simply don't correspond to reality, so we prefer to use our independent evaluations primarily to measure our own performance and to drive us to increase quantity and quality of coverage for both the event and team sponsors", commented Lou Newlands, Communications Director, of event owners OC Group.
The monitoring service, conducted by Durrants and its partner agencies, was restricted to the six key territories that were the targets for title partner iShares, namely UK, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Spain, over a limited period. For the broadcast media, the monitoring ran from four days prior to four days post each event and for print and online media for two weeks prior and two weeks post. By territory, France delivered the highest media value, followed by the UK, Spain and Germany.
The 2009 media report provides quantifiable media figures but of equal importance is the qualitative side of the success of the Extreme Sailing Series which continues to grab headlines and excite the non-sailing sector of the press: "At last sailing that can be appreciated by the spectator onshore. Very fast, spills and thrills and so close you sometimes get wet from their spray. Around this form of the sport you can set up grandstands, hospitality boxes, beer tents, rig up live commentary and a sound system, attract television coverage and give the sponsors value for money..." Brendan Gallagher: The Daily Telegraph [UK National]
Lou Newlands commented, "We are really pleased with the outcome, particularly in such a tough economic time with the drop in advertising rates (used as basis for evaluation). We appointed Havas at the beginning of 2009 to give us a marketplace evaluation of our coverage. We decided that we wanted to apply harsher and 'realistic' figures on the value of media return for our teams and sponsors. Havas applies these marketplace values to the coverage, evaluating each piece individually, therefore in some areas, particularly the internet, the quantity and quality has increased, but the value is lower than last year. We feel confident in these figures - in particular as a measure on our performance year on year."
"The growing media value demonstrates the enormous draw of the Extreme Sailing Series for the media offering them a variety of angles including feature, sport or business stories, as well as having the chance to race onboard. With the on-water action and top level hospitality it is a unique package that is entertaining both VIP guests and the media alike, attracting attention for all the right reasons."
In detail:
iShares Cup Media Objectives*:
- To secure in excess of €2.415 million of media coverage in the six key territories.
- To secure coverage outside of the traditional sailing and sports media.
- To support the iShares Cup as a premium sporting event at an international level.
- To promote the Series as a lifestyle and entertainment event to sailors and non-sailors alike.
- To increase distribution of the six part series by over 25% on previous years.
* There were, of course, other objectives for OC Events covering team attendance, hospitality etc, but these were the only direct media objectives.
Television
There were two key focuses for the TV team from Sunset&Vine|APP, the host broadcaster: news distribution and programming.
The news distribution team provided Video News Releases and bespoke news content for broadcasters across the six territories resulting in over 8 hours 35 minutes of evaluated news coverage
The programming team had a two-fold responsibility: producing coverage for the six-part Extreme Sailing TV series and providing footage to three key sailing magazine programmes: Gillette World Sport, CNN Mainsail and Seamaster Sailing.
The internationally distributed six-part TV Series was aired 1,463 times across 29 international networks, in 11 languages, across 130 countries with 38hours of original programming each month. In the six key territories, the six programmes were aired on channels including Sky Sports, Yacht&Sail , Canal+ and Sportmania 864 times (432 hours worth) with a spot time evaluation of €1,361,971.
In addition, UK terrestrial broadcaster, Channel 4, broadcast a specially produced stand-alone highlights programme for the first time.
Outside of these areas, another 599 hours of programming was aired (over 299 hours) around the World including the USA, New Zealand, the Middle East, Australia, South Africa and Brazil.
Richard Simmonds, Joint Managing Director of host broadcaster Sunset&Vine|APP commented, "The combination of the line-up of top international skippers and a format of events that really are new for the sport of sailing has provided a unique television product that has been extremely well received internationally. A major factor in the success of the event from a television perspective has been the ability to offer television reporters the chance to sail with the teams whilst our TV production team provides the filming and edit package for the broadcaster to show both on news and magazine programmes."
Oman Renaissance starting a race at the iShares Cup, Cowes, August 2009. Image copyright Anne Hinton - all rights reserved.
There were over 890 print articles and features in newspapers and magazines, featuring 752 photos with a cumulative circulation figure of 82,427,893 and over 3,000 text mentions for Title Partner iShares.
Coverage about the Series was published in a broad spectrum of the media including lifestyle (e.g. FHM UK, Men's Fitness UK, Panorama NED), national (Daily Telegraph UK, Die Welt Am Sonntag GER, Marca ESP, L'Equipe FRA) and business (Financial Times UK) as well as sailing magazines (Voiles et Voiliers FRA, Yachting World UK, Yacht Capital ITA) etc.
The Internet (www.iSharesCup.com)
The internet continues to grow with over 1.5 million page views to the iShares Cup online properties, an average growth of 83% in online visits, alongside significant syndicated content on websites all over the world. Over 220,000 videos of the iShares Cup have been played both on internet platforms including YouTube, with an average of 31,600 unique visitors per event.
Overview in numbers:
€5,910,989 overall media value
1.5 million page views to iShares Cup online properties.
220,000 videos of the iShares Cup viewed online.
31,600 - average number of visitors per event.
19,500 images, videos and documents viewed/downloaded by the...
...893 registered media
38 hours international programming each month for 6 months
894 articles or features in evaluated print
Looking forward...the iShares Cup reverts to its core name Extreme Sailing Series (Europe)...
The 2010 Series will be launched in May with five, possibly six events for the year visiting iconic venues and cities throughout Europe. Between 8 and 10 international teams are expected to step up to the grid closing dates for entries is 31st March 2010.
Event 1: 27-30 May location tbc
Exhibition Event: 19 June: J.P. Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race
Event 2: 14-18 July or 31 July-5 August, UK
Event 3: 26-29 August, Germany
Event 4: 9-12 September, location tbc
Event 5: 23-26 September, location tbc
Event 6: 9-12 October, Almería, Spain
The PR Strategy will be sent to all teams on 15 March, with an increasing inclusion of social media - empowering tools such as Facebook and Twitter, the latter of which has been particularly successful with the current Extreme Sailing Series Asia.
Journalist quotes
"At last sailing that can be appreciated by the spectator onshore. Very fast, spills and thrills and so close you sometimes get wet from their spray. Around this form of the sport you can set up grandstands, hospitality boxes, beer tents, rig up live commentary and a sound system, attract television coverage and give the sponsors value for money. At last Cowes week has a gathering point and focus around which the rest of the spectacle can unfold. It's been the missing piece of the jigsaw for a while."
Brendan Gallagher: The Daily Telegraph Monday August 3 2009
"The iShares Cup is like no other regatta and having the opportunity to watch the boats racing for the last three days has been fantastic. OC Events really do appear to have found the magic formula and are turning sailboat racing into a spectator sport. Actually racing aboard an Extreme 40, even as a mere observer, is a truly amazing experience and ten times more exciting even than watching the fleet race. If you get the chance to sail as fifth man, I recommend you don't hesitate for a second. Me? I can't wait for the next time."
www.offshorerules.com
"The Extreme 40s are fast and furious catamarans, so reactive to breeze they almost speed up if you sneeze. They're like dinghies on steroids. The Extreme 40s have made sailing a spectator sport.
"The iShares Cup stages are held all over the world, including the canals of Amsterdam and waterways of Venice, and draw massive crowds because the close combat action happens right by the shoreline. The pebble beach in Cowes today was littered with deck chairs and binoculars."
Sue Turton Channel 4 News
"L'hystérie des pontons a un nouveau nom: l'iShares Cup."
[The excitement on the pontoons has a new name : the iShares Cup.]
Manon Borsi - Voiles et Voiliers
Extreme Sailing Series Europe
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