The Extreme Sailing Series™ has released an independent interim media valuation report covering the first four Acts (Muscat, Qingdao, Istanbul and Porto) of the 7-Act 2012 global tour including coverage up until the end of July. As published last year, the Interim Report is a combination of facts and projections, taking into account the level of media coverage since the start of the year, coupled with analysis and equivalent advertising figures from 2011. Despite having seven Acts on the calendar compared to nine in 2011 and 20% less race days per event (5 days per Act in 2011 versus 4 days in 2012), the analysis projects nearly 4 million Euros increase in coverage by year end.
There has been continued growth in international media interest in the circuit with a big jump in the number of articles covering the event – including in territories where there are new Acts: Porto, Cardiff and Brazil. TV news and both the quantity and quality of the programming footprint as well as live coverage, have continued to grow compared with 2011. The result is a 37% increase in media value for the first 4 Acts of 2012 compared with the first 4 Acts in 2011 (Muscat, Qingdao and Istanbul were repeated, Porto replaced Boston)
The Extreme Sailing Series™ remains popular in Europe and Asia, and has made an immediate impact in Portugal –where there has been significant media coverage of the event.
Projections for exposure for the full seven-event series, and the value that this media coverage may deliver, have been made. Total media value for the 2012 series is forecast to be in the region €30m. This projection is based on the amount of coverage gained so far this year, and the actual cost of advertising in the territories in which this exposure appears
Actual marketplace advertising buying rates as opposed to standard rate card have been used in all calculations to ensure the media values published comply with OC Sport’s policy of remaining conservative on media values,” he concluded.
Mark Turner, Executive Chairman of organisers OC Sport commented: “We are always totally transparent on the methodology used by Havas Sponsorship Insights to evaluate our property. Ultimately there are a few different ways to do the maths, so the relative year on year performance remains the most important measure for us. We have today more than 5 times the coverage that we had in 2009, and have progressed every single year, using the same measurement methodology – that progression is the key result for us. Extreme Sailing Series offers many great opportunities for businesses and host venues in B2B, consumer and internal spaces, and the media valuation aspect is only one measure of the value of the event, but it remains an important one for our different stakeholders.”
Due to cost of monitoring the Extreme Sailing Series™ media coverage globally, print and TV are only monitored over a limited period and in countries where the events are held: for print media for one month over the course of the event, for television for the week of the event – while online monitoring is conducted internationally throughout the course of the year. A great deal of coverage falls outside of this period. Havas Sponsorship Insights apply a conservative 10% unmonitored coverage uplift to account for the inevitable coverage that is missed outside of these monitoring periods.
Coverage included in this report includes 29 hours of live television coverage across China, Turkey and Portugal. The report also includes estimates on the seven-part Extreme Sailing Series dedicated TV series broadcast internationally on channels including Channel 4 (UK Terrestrial), Eurosport (pan-Europe), Sport + (France), Fox Sports (International) and BSkyB (UK). These estimates have been made based on the supplied broadcast footprint, and the transmissions recorded in previous years of the Extreme Sailing Series adjusted for the number of events and the number of broadcasters in 2012.
