Key West

[Mikko Oikari]

Right way to go, Aidan. Follow the Dakar-trail...

[Cookee]

I still follow Formula One and usually watch the BBC coverage but I recorded the Sky coverage for this weekend in the USA - they really get under the skin of the sport and followed one of Lewis Hamilton's mechanics which I found interesting, they have an entire channel for it so they have to fill it with something so they end up with too much for most people I think but they obviously believe it's the way to go.

Following the characters of the sport is the obvious way to go IMHO - Good luck Aidan!

[Ciao]

Global Formula One TV viewing figures are falling, making the sport less attractive for brands to invest in - Just look how many paying drivers will be racing in F1 for 2014.

It looks like brands have been looking at other ways to advertise their message.
Product placement in music videos is now regularly used, Lily Allen's new single / video gaining 5 million You tube hits in 3 days.

The product? None other than Cookee's sponsor - E-Lites!

http://youtu.be/E0CazRHB0so

[Cookee]

Originally Posted by Ciao

Global Formula One TV viewing figures are falling, making the sport less attractive for brands to invest in - Just look how many paying drivers will be racing in F1 for 2014.

It looks like brands have been looking at other ways to advertise their message.
Product placement in music videos is now regularly used, Lily Allen's new single / video gaining 5 million You tube hits in 3 days.

The product? None other than Cookee's sponsor - E-Lites!

http://youtu.be/E0CazRHB0so

Yes they are doing well - they changed PR agencies and after the dancing baby video they have upped their game a bit!

I take your point about viewing figures, however I was really talking about increased entries in those series, getting the public to watch it is another step up and even harder to achieve - of course every series needs boats in it to make it interesting - the more the better so TV is a start.

So how do you make Marathon interesting to the public and watchable? On board cameras like the rally cars?

[littlenige]

Re: sponsorship/coverage/interest.......I often wonder if the difference in opinion about (for example) short Solent based multi laps and the full blown Cowes to Torquay and back are based on whether you are a fan/follower, or an actual competitor (past or present). I would imagine competitors would relish and prefer the challenge both physically and mentally of such an ordeal, whereas those like myself are more likely to prefer the short multi-lap race where for example, photo opportunities are aplenty.......? Opinions?

[Ratickle]

Hey guys, don't get here very much, been a couple years, but it was nice to see Microlink in the US. Congrats!

There are several ways to make offshore relevant again to the public. There are several big questions though:

Can we get the participants under one control? APBA and P1 and OSS are kind of linked together in the US under UIM. But then there is also OPA and SBI. They all fight with each other for the best venues and boats, so to make themselves seem better they purposefully hurt the others. And when I say purposeful, I mean by having different rules for what should be identical boat classes and mysterious DQ's or penalizations for those who raced other organizations on occasion. Heck, I've had the racers tell me before an event they will win but be penalized because they raced XYZ org, then watched it happen.

Only SBI has live streaming so events can be watched while they are happening. But they have no live in-boat video like all of the main car race circuits have. Live in-boat cameras to link to, combined with live helicopter video is the biggest key when combined with competitive classes. Go watch NASCAR or F1. NNRT and Freezeframe's old videos are better than anything we watch today.

I have the utmost respect for Bob Teague and his announcing is very good. But, they have no one watching the actual livestream broadcast to announce about what we are seeing. Makes it a bit irrelevant to those who are watching and do not race themselves. If you don't believe that, go re-watch the races on SBI's site.

And, with live helo and in-boat, that can be streamed to large screens in the pits and nearby bars, you could combine both long legs and short close to shore legs for fans, in the same event.

There's the start of my soapbox.