Windreport’ behind the scenes of the François Gabart’s victory
A star is born! The triumphant finish of François Gabart, the youngest winner of the Vendée Globe, was followed by hundreds and thousands of people, as much in Les Sables d’Olonne as on the many television channels that dedicated their broadcasting to this great moment of emotion. The sailor’s success is also that of his partner, Macif, whose reputation, image and unity of the teams within the group have benefitted from an unprecedented acceleration. The Nantes communication agency, Windreport’, assisted the Macif group for the last two years in all fields of expression related to their sponsoring campaign. For Windreport’, this is a ‘second world champion star’, after the victory of Michel Desjoyeaux and FONCIA in previous Vendée Globe in 2008-2009.
Advice, project management, media relations, production of photos and videos, internal communication, digital strategy and social networks; a team of specialists, for the most part located in the Halle de la Madeleine at the heart of Nantes, has worked behind the scenes to share this sporting and human adventure with the general public.
Parallel to these ‘basics’, the Windreport’ team also devised a unique arrangement for the arrival of the winner. A gigantic human formation campaign on the Les Sables d’Olonne beach with 250 Macif Group employees was filmed from a helicopter and broadcast around the world. In the channel, a floating Orchestra got the crowd going before leaving way for tears during a very moving Ave Maria sung to accompany the skipper’s entrance. An Airstream caravan in the colours of Macif, two fan zones, hostesses on Segways, distribution of goodies and organization of the evening of celebration, the Windreport’ teams and their network mobilized for the occasion contributed to making this day the most special possible.
A motto, ‘enjoy, we take care of the problems’.
Since 1999, the sharing of powerful emotions is what makes up Windreport’s DNA. Whether in sport, sustainable development, institutional or event-related communication, the agency’s professions converge with creativity, commitment and pragmatism, in order to assist a brand or an entity as best as possible in the realization of its ambitions.
Yannick Perrigot, Managing Director of Windreport’: “François’ finish was a wonderful moment in our company history. This all works because of trust and perfect complicity with a company that has a real vision and is able to take part in original ideas. This alchemy between a skipper, a company and an agency enables the development of strong content for the brand. Our business goes beyond the initiation of a sponsorship campaign: it is brand content. The challenge is to offer brands a new more sincere, respectful and human way to communicate, without losing impact. Finally, we must not forget that the whole of this story could not have be written without the huge mobilization of the Macif teams and our own project team, matching the levels of requirement, performance and responsiveness of the sailor’s teams we follow! »
The strength of the Vendée Globe:
2 million people visited the Les Sables d’Olonne village before the start on 10 November 2012.
More than 20 million videos were viewed on the Internet during the race.
Nearly 500,000 virtual skippers are racing in Virtual Regatta.
François Gabart’s finish on 27 January: 1 million visits to the race website and nearly 50 hours of television on 17 channels worldwide.
According to Kantar Media, the Media Impact Score rose to 1,241, which means that every French person was reached 12 times by a subject related to the Vendée Globe.
The MACIF project at Windreport’:
Ten or so professions mobilized at the agency (project management, graphic design, media relations, community management, audio-visual production and editing, web development, SEO, event-related activities).
14 years of experience, 15 round-the-world sailing races followed and thirty transatlantics.
60 people mobilized for the various campaigns related to the finish.
Media impact: Cover of l’Equipe, Libération, Ouest-France, 20 minutes, Le Télégramme, Sud-Ouest, Paris Match. On TV, outside the radio lives, and TNT (freeview) on 27 January 27, a Grand Journal and Petit Journal program dedicated to François on Friday 1st February.
Social media: 8,000 fans on Facebook and 2,700 followers on Twitter of Macif Solidarité Mer.
According to TrendyBuzz, Macif topped as the Vendée Globe sponsors the most viewed on the web with 29,901 IVUs (Internet Visibility Unit).