SailGP

Sydney SailGP brought together cutting-edge technology and awe-inspiring athleticism of sailing’s elite from six nations, for high speed, high adrenaline racing over two days on Sydney Harbour.

Milestone was appointed as National Marketing Partner for 2019 and was engaged again to create and deliver the National event marketing strategy and fully integrated marketing services including media buying and digital marketing for Season 2 in 2020.

Sydney SailGP product included Behind the Scenes Team Tours on Cockatoo Island, official spectator boats on Sydney Harbour, on-water experiences including superyachts, charter boats and bring your own boat plus a VIP Shark Island experience.

Season 2:

Milestone was responsible for the season 2 event strategy and marketing. 

The strategy included acquisition of new non-traditional sailing audiences including a 25-35yo male and female “Insta” crowd. It included a significant brand campaign to bolster the profile of this emerging sport in Australia plus a destination marketing campaign to promote Sydney and Australia as the event location which was supported by Tourism Australia plus and an event marketing campaign to sell tickets to fans.

Despite the impacts of significant bushfires and the travel impacts from the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign proved successful in terms of ticket sales, increased visitation from key and new markets and broadcast. All indicators were exceeded including (Source: Deloitte Economic Impact report) which have been provided in this submission.

Due to the campaign’s outstanding success, Milestone’s strategy and approach will be used as a blueprint by SailGP global and host city marketing teams including France, New York, San Francisco, UK, Denmark (others to be announced), when the season returns in 2021 post-COVID.

Marketing:
Milestone researched and executed marketing strategies such as alliance marketing to yacht clubs and marinas throughout NSW, FB group posting and populating listings for the Australian event.

Event Marketing:
Milestone was the Australia Sail Grand Prix ‘Event Marketing Partner’, researching, developing and executing the event marketing for 2022.

Media Planning:
Milestone researched, negotiated, placed and briefed all media buy for the campaign across multiple channels including Direct Digital Buy, Out Of Home, Distribution, Print and Radio.

Digital Advertising: 
Milestone developed the owned digital strategy, built content and deployed advertising through the Australia SailGP Team account, resulting in 12.5M Impressions across the entire campaign.

Content + Copywriting:
Milestone wrote copy and developed content including owned digital advertising, event marketing social media posts, input into eDM copy and wrote media buy briefs/articles.

Social Media:
Milestone wrote copy and created artwork for any direct event-related content including ticket phases, ‘home town hero’s’ campaign and ‘sold/selling’ moments.

Brand + Design:
Milestone’s Brand & Design team developed a look and feel for each ticketing phase based on previous research. This was used throughout social media, digital advertising and all media buy placements. Milestone also designed a 16-page Event Guide which had 170K copies distributed throughout NSW.