Volvo Ocean Race: Overview, Marketing, History

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44 CASE STUDIES and consequently workforce morale had suffered and staff turnover was high. The business was spread over a wide geographic area and staff were finding it hard to feel part of such a large international organisation. Some of the smaller offices had become isolated and this was jeopardising the company’s efforts to offer a consistent standard of service globally. RECRUITMENT The rapid growth had also created a seemingly insatiable demand for new, skilled employees. However, the company’s profile and brand presence was not sufficiently high to attract the best potential employees. BRANDING EF had not invested in establishing itself as a brand. Despite being the world’s largest language tuition company, it only had 1% of the global market and was not well known. The market in which EF operates is highly competitive with strong local companies. The company felt that, by developing strong brand identity, it would gain a competitive advantage. The enhanced brand identity would also assist in their recruitment. A separate, but important, problem was that the exchange schemes that EF provided were losing their appeal amongst the young people they were aimed at. They were no longer seen as trendy, fun or adventurous. EF’S OBJECTIVES The difficulties EF was experiencing led to the formulation of distinct internal and external objectives. EXTERNAL • To enhance and build the EF brand through increased awareness of the company and its activities. This was to be in two phases. Firstly, awareness and association and, secondly, preference and loyalty; • To attract high calibre recruits in local markets around the world; and • To create an adventurous and exciting image for EF to help drive sales of its exchange programmes. INTERNAL • To unite global employees behind a common cause; • To improve morale amongst all EF employees and create a feeling of pride and loyalty; and • To reduce staff turnover.
WHY THE VOLVO OCEAN RACE? The Volvo Ocean Race (then The Whitbread Round the World Race) was chosen from other properties as the ideal vehicle to meet the various objectives. This was both because of the profile and image of the event as well as the practical opportunities that it offered. IMAGE In terms of image, the Volvo Ocean Race offers several that matched those intended for the brand. They are: • ADVENTURE • EXCITEMENT • DYNAMISM • SPEED Yachting, particularly at international level, is also increasingly seen as fashionable and high-tech (vis sponsorships by fashion houses Prada and Louis Vuitton and technology companies Toshiba, Philips and Sony). EF is regarded as being at the forefront in terms of use of technology and wanted to promote this by association with the Volvo Ocean Race. PROFILE The Volvo Ocean Race delivers very impressive audience figures across the majority of EF’s target markets for a prolonged period (six to nine months of racing), and is in the top ranking of global sports events. PRACTICAL ADVANTAGES On top of the image-based attributes and global media profile, the race offered practical advantages that matched EF’s other objectives exactly. These included: • A primary global sporting event: the event is international, visiting at least eight countries during the 1997-98 circumnavigation including France, UK, USA, South Africa, Brazil. • Longevity: The event lasts for between six and nine months (depending on course) but with the preparation and build phase can be leveraged for three years. • Low risk: Experience demonstrates that well managed and marketed projects delivered between 200 and 300% ROI just in terms of media value irrespective of the result in the race. • Good platform for internal and external relationship marketing: Sponsors increasingly justify their sponsorship solely in terms of returns from the unique relationship marketing opportunities that the Volvo Ocean Race creates. • Unique opportunities for exposure: The race yachts create a blank canvas for creative use of branding with very striking visual imagery and as title STEPHEN MUNDAY/ALLSPORT, TEAM EF/ALLSPORT CASE STUDIES 45
Page 1 and 2: SHARING IN GLOBAL SUCCESS The Volvo
Page 3 and 4: Team SEB was a commercial success.
Page 5 and 6: In terms of media evaluation, the S
Page 7 and 8: The Volvo Ocean Race is a unique sp
Page 9 and 10: CONTENTS 2 INTRODUCTION 8 AUDIENCE
Page 11 and 12: GUIDO CANTINI INTRODUCTION 3
Page 13 and 14: through existing media coverage. Ta
Page 15 and 16: ace, it is estimated that more than
Page 17 and 18: 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 THE VOLVO OCEAN
Page 19 and 20: ‘INTERESTED IN’ OR A ‘SAILING
Page 21 and 22: PATRICK ANDERSON, RICK TOMLINSON ME
Page 23 and 24: even where whole programmes were no
Page 25 and 26: 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 MEDIA RESPONS
Page 27 and 28: programme coverage and news. With t
Page 29 and 30: WWW.VOLVOOCEANRACE.ORG: A TOP 100 W
Page 31 and 32: RICK TOMLINSON MEDIA STATISTICS 23
Page 33 and 34: % of respondents 90 72 54 36 18 0 T
Page 35 and 36: 45 36 27 18 9 0 STRONG INCREASE OF
Page 37 and 38: 45.0 40.5 36.0 31.5 27.0 22.5 18.0
Page 39 and 40: 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 200 TO 300%
Page 41 and 42: 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 FORMULA 1 IS
Page 43 and 44: Direct Brand Exposure (hh:mm) 17:5
Page 45 and 46: PRINT MEDIA The written media remai
Page 47 and 48: % OF RESPONDENTS UK WAVE 1 AWARE NO
Page 49 and 50: CARLO BORLENGHI YACHT SPONSORSHIP 4
Page 51: STEPHEN MUNDAY/ALLSPORT CASE STUDIE
Page 55 and 56: INTERNET/INTRANET An intranet site
Page 57 and 58: CLIVE MASON/ALLSPORT CASE STUDIES 4
Page 59 and 60: RICK TOMLINSON 51 CASE STUDIES 51
Page 61 and 62: those intended for the SEB brand. T
Page 63 and 64: CONCLUSION The companies conclusion
Page 65 and 66: RICHARD MASON/ASSA ABLOY RACING TEA
Page 67 and 68: were found on all of the world’s
Page 69 and 70: advertising, but would instead rely
Page 71 and 72: CONCLUSION 63
Page 73 and 74: INTRODUCTION IT IS UNLIKELY THAT CO
Page 75 and 76: over the side, and in spite of a fo
Page 77 and 78: causing controversy with large crew
Page 79 and 80: Prior to the start it was thought t
Page 81 and 82: Among the fleet was Simon Le Bon’
Page 83 and 84: Despite the dramas, nothing could d
Page 85 and 86: The victorious W60 was Yamaha, skip
Page 87 and 88: It was not until a third of the rac
Page 89 and 90: The Southern Ocean lived up to its
Page 91 and 92: THE OBJECTIVES REDUCE THE COSTS FOR
Page 93 and 94: THE NEW BOAT DESIGN Innovation has
Page 95 and 96: push their boats to the limit and i

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