Leslie Ryan talks to madforsailing

Andy Rice quizzes GBR Challenge's marketing and branding manager about her plans for the America's Cup campaign

Leslie Ryan has a mountain to climb, but it's a challenge that she relishes the prospect of achieving. Peter Harrison has tasked her with coming up with £11 million to add to the £6.5 million of his own money that he has put up for the British America's Cup Challenge.
Ryan, a keen sailor on the dinghy circuit, has been involved in the marketing of other America's Cup campaigns - the Il Moro di Venezia challenge in 1992, and the Spanish America's Cup challenge last time around.

But it has always been while working from inside the marketing industry. This time round, Ryan has taken a two-year secondment from Enterprise IG, the world's biggest brand and identity consultancy, to work directly for GBR Challenge.

"I was working for the project within Enterprise IG, but I felt it needed someone working full time on GBR Challenge to do it real justice," says Ryan. When she was approached by Harrison to join the Challenge full-time, she jumped at the chance.

Despite the low profile and lack of awareness of the America's Cup among the British public, she believes the Challenge holds many attractions for potential sponsors. "GBR Challenge has strong ambitions for now and in the future. What we have is a platform for success, with a clear process about how to achieve that success. That began with buying the Japanese boats, and continues with the type of people being recruited and the decisions being made now. There is a clear process of intelligent planning."

It is these types of qualities that should prove attractive for sponsors wanting to associate themselves with a vibrant and ambitious project. The fact that it is a young team, lacking in experience maybe but prepared to get stuck in and get on with the job, is also appealing from a sponsor's point of view, says Ryan.

She has laid out a plan for attracting a 'family' of sponsors, modelled along the lines of Team New Zealand's 'Family of Five' concept. These would most likely include an airline, a vehicle manufacturer, a clothing manufacturer and so on. In fact, the clothing sponsor is already in place, in the form of Musto.

This approach is radically different to her first foray into the America's Cup, Raul Gardini's lavish Il Moro campaign in 1992. "We did the whole branding exercise for them, including the launch in Venice and all their merchandising," explains Ryan. "But the approach was very different because we were dealing with a single brand in Montedison, similar to the Prada campaign that exists now."

With the Spanish campaign, the sailing-mad King of Spain agreed to write to the top 50 companies in the country, encouraging them to back the America's Cup challenge for 1999-2000. That resulted in three key sponsors, according to Ryan. "It was an exciting campaign to be involved with, there was a real sense of passion surrounding the challenge."

Now she can't wait to get stuck into a home-grown attempt on the Cup. "Our clients in the city know a lot more about sailing now than they did a year ago, thanks to Ellen and our Olympic heroes. And the America's Cup arena holds a lot of appeal for them. It is a great platform for corporate entertainment of course, but it is also a team sport, it's environmentally very strong, it's international, and there is a strong sense of history with the event."

If there's not much known about the Challenge in this country, that's certainly not the case in New Zealand, she says. "The fact that we've managed to secure such a good base in Auckland, thanks to David Barnes, has already caused a real stir over there.

"Now it's my job to manage our profile wherever we go, and build a sense of how we look and behave professionally."