PUMA Ocean Racing wins European Sponsorship Award

The Sportlifestyle company PUMA is proud to announce they have received the European Sponsorship Award for the best International Sponsor campaign for their effort during the Volvo Ocean Race. PUMA was short-listed for two categories; business to consumer and international.

PUMA, with their PUMA Ocean Racing team, was the only business to consumer company to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009. PUMA brought their mobile pop-up stores to all eleven ports, and PUMA City to Alicante, Spain and Boston, Massachusetts. PUMA City is A tour de force of architecture and design, the massive 11,000 square-foot structure is made from twenty-four, forty-foot long steel shipping containers, each weighing in at eleven tons. Built in China and designed to be a mobile unit In addition to retail efforts, PUMA also engaged consumers through social networking channels such as a blog, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and an iPhone application.

PUMA’s Volvo Ocean Race campaign was the most innovative marketing campaign ever taken on by the company. With their eye-catching boat il mostro, PUMA was able to secure the greatest media exposure of all the individual boats, a great accomplishment for a single boat team. PUMA Ocean Racing received the most television coverage and the second most print coverage.

“It’s a real honor to be nominated for this award,” said Antonio Bertone, Chief Marketing Officer. “We entered into the sailing category with the overall goal of making sailing inclusive and inviting new people into the sport. Our PUMA Ocean Racing team brought sailing to places in the world that have never seen sailing as an extreme, competitive sport. Our entry into the Volvo Ocean Race helped us show the world we’re serious about sailing and are committed to this new category.”

PUMA has entered a new premium category for sailing and was the only Sportlifestyle company to participate in the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009, where PUMA’s il mostro boat won an impressive 2nd place finish. Alongside PUMA’s entry in the Volvo Ocean Race, PUMA launched a full range of marine clothing and apparel, from offshore sailing gear to onshore lifestyle fashion. The PUMA Sailing Performance collection was developed and tested by the PUMA Ocean Racing team itself, and was worn by the team throughout the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-2009. The PUMA Sailing Lifestyle collection takes inspiration from the sport.