Meet the big boss behind the world's top amateur sailing race

Singapore Business Review recently caught up with William Ward, CEO of Clipper Ventures, as he talked about his motivation in running the prestigious Clipper Race.

1. The first solo sailor to navigate the world non-stop was Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who brought you in as his business partner. What advice from his professional sailing days has been the most relevant to you in running the annual Clipper Race?

Robin is still very much involved and we run the company together. Robin’s sailing experience is invaluable in shaping the training programme and the race route. We now have extensive race management, training and crew support teams.

We built the business on Robin’s vision to enable ‘ordinary’ people from all walks of life to experience ocean racing, with the option to either complete a full circumnavigation or to compete in one or more legs, at an affordable price, at a scale that would create a sustainable business.

Robin’s concept was that if we provided the boats, professional skippers, training, support, food and essential clothing; all crew had to do was to pay the fee and turn up with a sense of adventure and a competitive spirit. The response was encouraging; there was clearly a market, but it took a lot of hard work and we started to develop the business from there.

We commissioned a matched fleet of 8x60ft yachts and recruited a small expert team to provide the training, race support and maintenance, together with sales and admin.

Professional skippers were recruited for each race and employed to lead the teams of non-professional ‘fare-paying’ crew following 4 weeks of pre-race training.

The race route and name was inspired by the 19th century small, fast, tea clipper ships. Premium prices were paid for the season's first consignment of tea from China to reach London. In the Great Tea Race of 1866 four clippers held an unofficial race. The eight identical Clipper 60 yachts were named after tea clippers and initially followed the same trade wind routes.

We’ve learned a great deal over the last 17 years which is reflected in the extensively developed and highly refined product we offer today.

2. The Clipper Race is considered the world's top amateur sailing race of its kind. How have you developed it to this status?

We have remained true to Robin’s original vision and continually strive to provide crew with an excellent experience, not only in terms of the quality of training and support but also in providing a challenging and competitive regime of ocean racing. They have the opportunity to become highly accomplished sailors and most continue to sail and some go on to pursue professional careers in sailing and competitive racing.

A combination of good business management and reinvestment has seen the race survive tough economic markets to out-perform and out-live competitors and potential entrants.

Today it is the only global ocean race for amateur participants. New fleets have helped to develop both the experience of crews and the capacity of the race. The development of commercial sponsorship has also enhanced the event through team support and stopover activities.

We’ve also worked hard to build our profile with promotional campaigns through press coverage and strategic advertising, although our strongest crew recruitment tool continues to be word-of-mouth. We have been full to capacity on the last two editions of the race, we’re 90 percent sold out for the next race and already have hundreds signed up through to 2017-18.

3. The race commands phenomenal global media attention. What has been the main attraction and what can followers and spectators except in 2013?

The compelling stories of human adventure on the high seas have engaged with media and their audiences from the outset: ‘Ordinary’ people doing extraordinary things.

They take on the ultimate challenge, many starting out as novices, yet completing a life changing journey to emerge not only as seasoned sailors but also as more competent individuals who can translate their experience and skills to their everyday lives.

Millions of people now follow the progress of crew, teams and sponsored yachts throughout the year-long series or 15 races that comprise the 40,000 mile challenge for the Clipper Race Trophy.

The introduction of a new bigger, faster, state-of-the-art design fleet is already creating great anticipation for the ninth edition of the Clipper Race that will start from the UK around late July 2013. Another nail-biting competition is in prospect as teams push to maximise their points tally at each stage. Even after thousands of miles of ocean racing the winning places can sometimes be split by seconds rather than days.

The new fleet of 12 70-foot yachts, the world’s biggest matched fleet of large ocean racers, will make an impressive sight in host ports, hosting sponsor regattas and a colourful finale, departing in a ceremonial parade of sail before the highly competitive start of the next stage.

The public can come on board, look around the yachts, talk to crew and enjoy the atmosphere and events host ports usually create to complement the stopover.

We also produce a programme of events with our sponsors on and alongside the boats and at key locations in the host port. The most active race hosts can attract hundreds of thousands of visitors throughout a race visit, creating a real festival feel.

Media follow every twist and turn of the race, especially in reporting on the progress of national or regional entries and their crew. We facilitate media access so that journalists can join the race, provide a rich flow of photography and video from the yachts and also support the production and distribution of television coverage, including a six part series of one-hour shows which was carried by Discovery Networks and other major broadcasters in over 125 countries on the last two races.

Thousands of separate news items are seen around the world and a growing army of social media fans now interact with the event. Plans for the next race are even more extensive.

4. Sponsorship of the race and yachts commenced in 2000. What are the developments you've seen over the last 12 years?

Sponsorship has gone from strength to strength. In 2000 when the Clipper Race was sponsored by The Times of London, the yachts represented UK cities, but we quickly attracted attention from overseas stopovers that not only wanted to benefit from the economic impact of hosting the event, but also to harness both the international branding exposure and activation opportunities to promote tourism and trade at the various ports of call.

The growth to ten boats with a new fleet from 2005 helped to grow this further, with a wider range of sponsorship opportunities created across the fleet offering product partnerships and opening up the opportunity for destination sponsors to introduce a wider range of partners. This diversification has continued with commercial brands now sponsoring their own yachts in addition to countries, regions and cities.

The creation of an international marketing and networking platform for sponsors alongside the race has been a key focus to ensure we build effective and unique opportunities for global business and place promotion.

The latest fleet of 12 yachts, with an option to introduce more over the next few years continues to increase our capacity to meet the growing demand from sponsors who recognise the power of this model to deliver tangible benefits.

Sponsors also value being associated with the concept of the race to take ambitious people from all walks of life to accomplish a formidable challenge. The aspirational nature of the event fits with brand values and sponsors will often seek to create crew places for staff or worthy individuals; some also develop ‘brand ambassador’ relationships with crew or run customer competitions for training or crew places.

5. What advice would you give to sponsoring companies, and how they can gain the most return on investment (ROI)?

Like most things, what you get out is proportional to what you put in. The Clipper Race can deliver a huge amount of branding value, but we encourage sponsors to engage with the event and activate as much as possible.

A lot of opportunities are already available in the rights to take guests sailing or entertain them aboard the yacht in harbour. This can range from hosting existing or prospective customers and agents to media, competition winners, staff and suppliers.

Sponsors also have the rights to heavily promote their involvement as an official sponsor, using race imagery and video, creating web sites that link to their involvement and involving their customer base through social media.

Some sponsors invest in creating additional customer, consumer and staff events, from business conferences and receptions, to public events and promotions. Dollar for dollar our evaluations indicate a return on investment much higher than other major sailing events, ranging from 5:1 to well in excess of 20:1 in many instances.

The best results are achieved through a creative and flexible collaboration where our team can help sponsors develop concepts to fully leverage the many opportunities the Clipper Race can create for partner activation and promotion.

6. What kind of organisations have participated in sponsorship, and what beyond the exposure they get are the key drivers for involvement?

This is partially covered in the previous answer. We now have a diverse range of sponsors from destinations, ranging from countries to major regions or cities that seek to promote tourism and trade, inward investment and economic impact from hosting the event; to a wide range of commercial partners, either alongside a destination or independently.

There are also fleet partners such as Xerox, Henri Lloyd, Garmin, Rotary Watches and Rockport  (part of Adidas) and official suppliers, from the marine sector to a comprehensive range of products and services. The new fleet has also triggered the development of a new title sponsorship category which we are just in the early stages of exploring with potential partners.

In addition to the extensive branding exposure, sponsors have specific and tangible objectives from their involvement. For destinations it may be economic impact and growing longer term tourism numbers, or helping local businesses develop international trade or attracting inward investment.

The Clipper Race can also help to build community pride and involvement, grow skills and capacity for hosting major events, and build a legacy of marine facilities and programmes.

Commercial sponsors are very clear in their aims to develop new or build on existing customer relationships. It is also vital in many international markets to also have strong government links which the race facilitates through its relationships with destination hosts and the official events and receptions that take place.

For brands it can also be about consumer engagement and experience. But for others it is actually about internal engagement, building a strong company culture and developing staff to their full potential.

There is also environmental and social responsibility which is becoming increasingly important for many corporations: environmentally yachts use mainly the wind and the tides to get around and additional charitable endeavours can support green projects.

On the social agenda companies may want to help deserving individuals to benefit from the crew experience or link with international charities that provide complementary benefits.

The Clipper Race provides both an effective and proven platform to help achieve these objectives in combination with a powerful differentiator alongside the race and the hundreds of ‘real’ people from 40 different nationalities who participate in a remarkable adventure on every race.

This event provides effective cut-through in a cluttered marketing environment where brands need to influence customers in more engaging and creative ways than the traditional promotional channels offer.

A long term destination partner and race host has been Qingdao in China, the official sailing venue of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. The city used its sponsorship to raise its profile and prepare for hosting international sailing during the Olympics.

Subsequently it has become an important part of building Qingdao’s Olympic legacy to establish its position as China’s sailing city. After four consecutive races, it has extended its sponsorship for a further two races through to 2016 because of the continuing success of its partnership with the Clipper Race.

On the other hand, a commercial business like De Lage Landen, a global asset financing business which is part of the Dutch Rabobank, had an extremely successful debut with the Clipper Race in 2011-12, engaging with staff and customers around the world.

Benefits in generating business deals and developing a coherent global company culture alongside extensive media exposure have all been highly valued by the company.

7. The last 8 years saw the acquisition of the business by the owners and the company delisting. How has this affected the future growth of the business?

We’ve been able to focus on a long term development strategy, reinvesting in crew and sponsorship programmes, building capacity and commissioning the new fleet of yachts out of surpluses without the need for raising capital through bank debt.

The additional crew capacity created by the ten 68ft yachts introduced in 2005 has been filled to capacity since 2009 together with a full complement of sponsors. The addition of an extra leg of the race to New Zealand and the Australian east coast in the last edition of the race increased capacity further, which was soon filled.

Sponsorship values have risen to reflect the growing value of media exposure and the popularity of the event.

We took the decision to build an even larger design yacht with an order for 12 boats and an option for a further four to meet the growing demand from crew and sponsors. This has expanded capacity by around 40% in terms of number of crew participating which looks like being fully allocated in the next race.

So there’s an opportunity for a further two boats to be added in 2015-16 and two more the following edition, making 16 in total. Increasing values and capacity will see sponsorship revenues continue to grow alongside crew income.

8. Are there any plans for business in Singapore to participate in 2013? And how is the future of Asia playing in your forecasts?

Singapore has sponsored an entry and hosted the race over the last four editions of the Clipper Race. Initially Singapore Tourism was the primary sponsor with Keppel Corporation as a supporting partner.

Ultimately Keppel became the lead sponsor of the entry and hosted the race at Marina at Keppel Bay to showcase the new Reflections residential development which has now been completed. Following the completion of these contracts, discussions are taking place with a number of interested partners in the region who would like to benefit from the global promotional platform offered by the Clipper Race and to secure the new fleet for future visits to Singapore.

We’re also looking to develop our partnership base in Singapore to both sustain our business relationships here and to grow our operations throughout Asia-Pacific, from China in the north to Australia in the south.

I have just been in China to inspect the new fleet under construction and to brief potential commercial partners about the new opportunities being created. Asia-Pacific is a key focus for future growth and Singapore offers a logical base for building our operations in the region. We have good business relationships here.

The company is planning to expand its operations across Asia-Pacific and with record numbers of Australians signing up for future races, we’re already planning to establish a training hub and corporate sailing operation there, initially featuring two of our 68-foot ocean racing yachts.

For the Clipper Race turnover and profits have demonstrated strong growth race-on-race consistently over the last five years with the new fleet, and plans to develop our presence in Asia-Pacific, revenues are expected to double within the next five years, creating even higher growth in profits through economies of scale.