Project Description
The America’s Cup is the oldest continuous sporting event dating back to 1851. Over the years it has not changed that much and the winner of the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain decided to change all that. Larry Ellison, Oracle Corporation founder brought us on-board to create a new, modern event while retaining the tradition and prestige of the America’s Cup. We introduced fast, dangerous catamarans, brought all TV production in-house, held races close to shore so fans could be part of the action, created a new World Series to make the America’s Cup a regular part of the sports calendar, linked with Ocean NGO’s in a legacy program to “Save the World’s Oceans”, and created the new brand statement that is attracting so much attention — “The Best Sailors on the Fastest Boats”. It is a new America’s Cup indeed.
Case Study:
In early 2010, Oracle Corporation Founder Larry Ellison won the 33rd America’s Cup in Valencia, Spain. Mr. Ellison decided to stage the 34th Cup in San Francisco and asked Craig Thompson to become the CEO of the America’s Cup Event Authority, its commercial/operational arm.
In order to plan the concept for the 34th Cup, Craig and Russell Coutts — four-time America’s Cup winner and CEO of Oracle Racing — met to determine the strategy. The brief was to make the Cup more exciting for a younger audience, make it better for a TV audience, and allow race syndicates to realize a return on their investment. The 34th America’s Cup concept was born from this background. Craig had a long history of creating new sporting competitions with effective branding, and Russell was the top professional sailor who knew the sailing world as well as anyone. This was the new concept for the 34th America’s Cup:
- “The Best Sailors on the Fastest Boats” This new slogan was created for positioning/marketing.
- Racing in Catamarans Not the traditional mono-hulls, catamarans are very fast, add an element of danger, are more affordable for the syndicates, and require younger, fitter sailors.
- Race Courses Close to Shore America’s Cup races had always been held “out at sea,” available only on TV. AC34 courses are all close to shore where huge crowds can see and be seen in the TV coverage.
- The Youth America’s Cup In order to get young sailors involved, we created this new international racing series on smaller replicas of America’s Cup cats.
- The World Series A new series of races held 6-8 times per year around the world at prestigious venues. This made the America’s Cup a regular occurring event for the first time.
- America’s Cup TV Production Where this had always been done previously by broadcasters, we set up a world-class production unit with top directors and technical staff to present the America’s Cup better than ever before. “Sailing from the Inside Out,” cameras were mounted on all the boats and the sailors mic’d up.
- The Healthy Ocean Legacy Campaign As sailing is on the oceans and sailors love the sea, a campaign was developed to help “Save the World’s Oceans” with leading ocean NGO’s.
This new concept and brand are now successfully being implemented for the 34th America’s Cup – the oldest organized sport in the world, with a whole new modernized approach.
