BS Factor
Mr. Clean sniffs out some more BS in this sport…
Had a chance to check out Premiere Racing’s sponsor package and video today, and was amazed to find that they’d claimed "3000 sailors" take part in KWRW in their sponsorship package for 2010 Key West Race Week, and included a voiceover in the promo video that claimed they had "growing numbers" in recent years, that numerous classes make Key West a championship regatta, and so on.
There’s one problem with these claims; they are outright lies. There were 156 BOATS at 2009 Key West Race Week this year. According to Key West’s marketing crap, that means there were about 20 sailors on each boat. And Key West hasn’t grown since, I think, 2003. In fact, the regatta has lost numbers every single year since then and is down over 50% from its high number of some 320 boats IIRC. This is across the board; big boats and little boats are both down sharply since the high numbers 6 years ago.
With Acura deserting both Key West and Miami as title sponsor, is Premiere simply so desperate for funds that its marketing department is prepared to simply fabricate numbers in an attempt to attract big money sponsors? Are they so arrogant as to think people won’t check their claims?
If I didn’t know better, I’d think that Premiere Racing was using the same marketing and PR folks that Alinghi and US Sailing use (see US Sailing thread to get the joke). Read the PDF and comment here.
