8 OVERVIEW A HISTORY OF PROGRESS This is a race with a heritage. When the first race was run in 1973-74 there was a mix of amateur and professional sailors, many different types of yacht, and a sense of pioneering adventure. From the start the event was marbled by drama, courage and humour. It was, and will continue to be, a great story. Since then some of the great names of sailing, like Sir Peter Blake and Paul Cayard, have led highly professional teams to famous wins. The yachts have developed from all-purpose boats into dedicated racing machines crewed by multi-national teams bristling with Olympic medal winners and America’s Cup campaigners. The race has also provided a platform for women. Four times allwomen crews have competed alongside men in one of the sporting world’s toughest arenas. Along the way, new records have been set for monohulls sailing the most miles in any 24 hour period, whole aspects of yacht design have been improved and passed on to other areas of the sport. Research into physical endurance and the prevention of sports injuries has been pushed into new fields. The teams are now made up of finely tuned professionals, racing their yachts 24 hours a day through conditions which swing from being frustrating and tactically testing, to being vicious and physically demanding. Every kind of skill is needed to combat not only the conditions but the competition pitted against them. To win the <strong>Volvo</strong> <strong>Ocean</strong> <strong>Race</strong> you need to be an all-round team of specialists and experts, including those who manage and maintain the boats and provide logistics support ashore. Now the <strong>Volvo</strong> <strong>Ocean</strong> <strong>Race</strong> is embarking on a new era. A new class of yacht, longer, faster, but designed to be more economical to campaign, has been chosen for the 2005-06 race. The course has been modified to make it slightly shorter in time terms, and more varied with the inclusion of mid-stage points scoring. It will be brought closer to the public with pit stops and inshore races at every stopover the weekend prior to the fleet being sent off on its next ocean leg. That also means more opportunities of establishing diary dates when teams can invite supporters or commercial guests to watch them do what they do best – race big, powerful yachts in close combat. And, at sea, communications will be further improved as each yacht will have a dedicated area for transmitting video, audio and stills images. It is a compelling and fascinating study in human endeavour, one which is paralleled in the commercial world and the sponsorship initiatives it inspires. The history of the <strong>Volvo</strong> <strong>Ocean</strong> <strong>Race</strong> is still in the making. PPL, OWEN CLARKE DESIGN
CONTENTS 2 INTRODUCTION 8 AUDIENCE PROFILE 12 MEDIA STATISTICS 24 MEDIA IMPACT 30 MEDIA VALUE 36 MEDIA STRATEGY 40 YACHT SPONSORSHIP 42 TEAM EF CASE STUDY 50 TEAM SEB CASE STUDY 56 ASSA ABLOY RACING TEAM CASE STUDY 62 CONCLUSION DANIEL FORSTER, THIERRY MARTINEZ, CARLO BORLENGHI, OSKAR KIHLBORG, AMER SPORTS TOO INTRODUCTION 1
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