The top Stratégies-Sportfive award goes to the Vendée Globe

[Rochej]

The Vendée Council has won top prize in the 2009 marketing awards organised by the French magazine Stratégies and Sportfive for its communications for the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe. The jury, made up of twelve professionals from the world of sports studied almost 50 communications plans and awarded six prizes, 7 special awards and one top prize. As well as this honour, the Vendée Council was also rewarded in the category “overall communications strategy” for all its work around the event with the public relations operations and the educational package.

Communications around the Vendée Globe can be divided up into several sections. The first was the start village in the harbour in Les Sables-d’Olonne three weeks before the sailors set off, which attracted 1.7 million people. The second feature was the school’s pack, which was distributed to around a thousand children in the department. Finally, the most spectacular element of the communications plan was the installation on the Montparnasse Tower of a giant display promoting the Vendée Globe on a surface of 3300 m².

Organised by the SEM Vendée with as its main commercial partner, the company, Sodéb’O, the Vendée Globe is considered today as one of the three major sailing events in the world with the America’s Cup and the Volvo Ocean Race. The non-stop single-handed round the world race offers a lot of media coverage and the economic impact is huge, as the President of the Vendée Council, Philippe de Villiers explains: “Today we are at a ratio, where for each euro invested the result is worth ten times that in terms of media coverage and the economic impact. But the race goes beyond a simple competition, as it involves sporting achievements, incredible physical feats and a human adventure on the world’s largest stadium – the sea.”

www.vendeeglobe.org