Increase in global media exposure for 2011 Extreme Sailing Series

The Extreme Sailing Series Act 9 Skipper Press Conference in Singapore

Increase in global media exposure for 2011 Extreme Sailing Series

By Extreme Sailing Series on 11 FebThe Extreme Sailing Series Act 9 Skipper Press Conference in Singapore © Lloyd Images

Havas Sponsorship Insights released today the full and final independent media evaluation report for Extreme Sailing Series™ 2011 showing a 2.7 times increase in value compared to 2010, to €25,747,203. Leading evaluation agency, Havas Sponsorship Insights, who has evaluated the media value for the Extreme Sailing Series since 2009 using consistent methodology, published the report following their interim statement in August 2010 that estimated an annualised media value of €23m.

In 2011 the Extreme Sailing Series grew from 5 European events in 2010, to a 9-stop global tour and the significant increase in media value was as predicted from the growing international interest and an ever-stronger TV news and programming footprint. Lou Newlands, Media & Communications Director of organisers OC ThirdPole commented: “We are pleased with this continued upward trend and that we exceeded our targets too, even without any Main Partners in place to help activate. Importantly, we can continue to confidently market the Extreme Sailing Series to existing and new stakeholders in the knowledge that this award-winning circuit can deliver significant, and continually growing, media return to investors.”

Due to the cost of monitoring the Extreme Sailing Series media coverage globally, the monitoring process is restricted to limited periods and only in countries where the Acts are staged: TV, which delivers the lion’s share of media value, is only monitored for the week of the event (excluding the 6-part TV series) and print media for one month over the course of the event; only online media is monitored year-round. A great deal of this coverage falls outside of these periods and, as such, Havas Sponsorship Insights apply a conservative 10% unmonitored coverage uplift to account for the inevitable coverage that is missed.

“We have been using the same quite harsh methodology for the last three years and have avoided publishing inflated numbers on audience size – something the sport of sailing often seems to lack consistency on. The important number for us is the progress we are making each year, so its great to see a 2.7 multiple of 2010 coverage, significantly more than just the move from 5 to 9 events,” said Mark Turner, Executive Chairman, OC ThirdPole. “We treat the absolute numbers with healthy scepticism, and we don’t see much value in TV reach numbers even if they are large and sound impressive. The most important thing for us is the continued strong progression of our global result across all forms of media, and the specific returns this generates for our stakeholders – team sponsors, host cities and event partners.”

The 6-part TV series (valuated at (€11,077,354) continues to deliver a strong value via international broadcasters (18 in 2011) including Eurosport, Bloomberg, CNBC, Channel 4 (UK), Sport+ (France), TRT (Turkey), StarHub (Singapore) and Band Sports (Brazil). Live TV coverage of the circuit also stepped up in 2011, with extensive live broadcasts going out on national TV channels Oman TV, TRT (airing live Extreme 40 action around their coverage of the F1 Grand Prix), Rai TV (Italy), Qingdao TV (China) and FOX25 (Boston, USA). These transmissions combined with the TV news, which also increased significantly in part due to the dramatic action from the Qingdao and Istanbul Acts, resulted in TV delivering the highest return.

As online platforms continue to have an ever-increasing presence and usage, the media value of this medium has shot up to €1,465,632, a 296% increase on 2010.

It is expected that the media return for the 2012 global 8-stop Extreme Sailing Series tour, could exceed the 2011 value following the huge increase in interest from international TV broadcasters attending the the Sportel conference. Forty-one channels confirmed their intention to include the 2012 TV series in their scheduling.

2011 Media Value Stats:*