Inland Lake Yachting Association - 3 Year Championship Regatta Series

The Challenge
America’s #1 inland lake yacht racing competition’s annual event (The Inland Lake Yachting Association Championship), wanted to increase corporate sponsorships, sponsor revenue, in-kind donations, attract more sailors, promote new Buddy Melges Sailing Center, (the newest yachting facility in U.S.), and create awareness of the event to general public. The ILYA was established in 1898 to encourage and promote yachting and interlake racing on U.S. inland lakes. The lLYA’s “Inland” is one of the oldest and most challenging regattas and brings together top World, National, America’s Cup, Olympic and Collegiate Champions, sailing some of the fastest yachts in the country. The Inland Lake Yachting Association, today with 50 member clubs in United States, hired Browne+Browne Marketing to reach these objectives. Each year, the event attracted 550 sailors, 210 racing yachts, 32 U.S. yacht clubs, a spectator fleet of over 125 boats (500 people).

The Strategy/Solution
• With over 20 years of sports event marketing/sponsorships experience, Browne+Browne used its event marketing sponsor database to target, present, negotiate and secure high-opportunity sponsors.
• Developed sponsor level/pricing/benefits and executed sponsor displays, signage, party naming rights, guest hospitality, Meet & Greets with sailing legend Buddy Melges, VIP spectating boats, advertising, publicity, web, and Facebook.
• Used an extensive media news release/press kit campaign, uncovering news worthy event angles for feature stories to help promote the Regatta.

Results/Testimonials
• Over the three-year Regatta series, Browne+Browne developed $110,000 in sponsorship revenue with securing 26 local, regional and national corporate sponsors including Lincoln Motors, Allstate Insurance, BMW, First National Bank, UBS Financial, Gill Sailing Gear, Harken, Fischer Fine Homes, Tito’s Vodka, Mount Gay, Rossiter Boats, North Sails, Keefe Real Estate, Lynch Motors, and Briohn Building Corp.
• Secured 19 in-kind sponsors, providing $93,000 in products and services (lodging, food, beer, spirits, shuttle vehicles, parking, dockage, media).
• Browne+Browne executed event/sponsor exposure via newsletters (to 4,500 ILYA members), websites, Facebook (31,000 impressions) and on-site sponsor activity.
• Developed four media partner contributions of $75,750 in Regatta promotional ad space, press boats (on-water photography) and hospitality
• Brought innovations to the ILYA Regatta with a 45-page “Official Regatta Guide” (3,500 circ., $10,500 value), 14 advertisement series of local lifestyle magazine, a Welcome Skipper Gift Bag ($8,500 value) and vehicle demo rides with $25 Visa® Gift Card.
• Publicity value created by Browne+Browne was $225,000 included national sailing media and local newspapers and magazines, with feature stories, magazine covers, skipper profiles and Regatta news coverage Jan.-Aug. each year.