Volvo Ocean Race Research

Project
Our client, Volvo Event Management, needed to:

• Determine how best to develop and manage the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, which it had renamed the Volvo Ocean Race (VOR).
• Develop sales tools to enable the VOR to attract sponsors and host ports.
• Provide a thorough return on investment analysis of the VOR 2001/2002 for Volvo and the participating syndicates.

Action
The research programme was global, but focused particularly on Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, UK, Australia, USA, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, and Norway. Research included:

• In-depth personal interviews with all the key personnel and groups involved in the last Whitbread, as well as focus groups with sailing and general sports fans.
• Economic impact study of the event on the Baltimore and Annapolis stopover during the Whitbread, extended to Cape Town and Gothenburg for the VOR.
• Telephone interviews with sailing and non-sailing fans before, during and after the VOR.
• TV Evaluation of dedicated, news and general sport programming, including analysis of coverage, audience, sponsor exposure and value.
• Press evaluation showing levels of coverage, sponsor mentions, picture exposure and value from national, regional and specialist press.
• Internet monitoring of all coverage of the event on-line.
• Detailed research of the sailing audience on-line through the Sporting Insights Panel of sports fans.
• Using our unique valuation methodology to calculate the value of a sponsorship of the VOR or one of its syndicates.

Results
The complete research package enabled Volvo to:

• Identify key strengths and weaknesses in the original event and use this to help develop a race, marketing and media strategy for the next event.
• Gain a deeper understanding of who the sailing audience is, what motivates them, and how the appeal of the event can be extended to a wider audience.
• Integrate independent information into its sales and marketing of the event to port cities, syndicate and race sponsors and broadcasters.
• Determine the impact that the event had on the target audience, both as a sailing event and as a sponsorship vehicle.
• Measure the global media exposure generated for itself and all the associated sponsors.
• Develop a thorough valuation model for a Return on Investment analysis of the event.