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SAIL
+LEISURE TOUR THE REGATTAS
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THE
DIGITAL
RACE
Ingrid Hale, PR and
Communications Manager for
Lion of Africa Vulcan, explains
the world of digital tracking and
maximising a campaign using
social media that allows sailing
fans to follow their teams.
Gone are the days when one relied on
newspapers and the odd TV broadcast to
keep you up to date on the progress of
yachts crossing an ocean. Ocean crossings
have become great spectator sports, you can
follow from your couch or from behind your
desk via livestreaming, or follow a race
tracker, team blogs and social media
platforms.
With this in mind, every offshore race
needs to make sure it provides up to the
minute progress and updates. We are used
to instant gratification, and instant
information downloads. It can become very
frustrating when a fan can’t track or follow
their team. True sailing fans who
understand sailing, VMG, DTF etc. want
that info to be updated every second and
they want to be able to compare the data of
one boat to another. They become virtual
racers. With offshore races like the VOR,
Jules Verne and others providing us with
instant information, live video feeds and
incredible photography, we expect the same
from our offshore races.
Track it:
For the Cape to Rio 2017, each boat was
fitted with a tracker provided by Xtra-link
for regular updates. Unfortunately, this
year’s race fell short on the tracking front.
This exact system was used in the 2014 race
and it was suitable at that stage as the
system available was pretty much what was
available from other service providers. But
with our demand for instant gratification
and information, perhaps another supplier
would have been better suited?
There seems to be a dead spot in the
mid-Atlantic where communications
coming in from the boat were broken and
sporadic. They were sending me
information but I was receiving it a day or
two later and the same goes for them
receiving my replies. This can be very
frustrating and one needs to keep the Sat
phone for emergencies only, so you just need
to work with what you get. When running a
campaign, the PR machine relies on updated
information in order to provide the press
with interesting stories and to provide
updates for social media.
From a digital PR point of view, however,
a few teams were very active on their
Facebook pages, offering followers and fans
from SA and abroad the opportunity to be a
part of the team’s experience during the
race. For example, Lion of Africa Vulcan had
tremendous success with their Facebook
campaign. In fact, the post on their arrival
into Rio, and crossing the finish line as the
first South African boat, received the most
number of people reached out of all posts
during the entire Cape to Rio race period (1
Jan to 28 Jan) and out of all the Cape to Rio
official pages and other boat pages. A
staggering 22 360 people were reached!
Team blogs and posts were shared on
www.cape2rio2017.com or on www.rcyc.
co.za - cape2rio link
Follow it:
The following social media sites were set up:
Cape 2 Rio
Yacht race
@cape2rio2017 @cape2rio cape2rio2017
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